Weekend Update 10/16/11

[lock4244]

Insulat ED

Lee

Lee, one of the funniest things I've seen here, and theres been some funny stuff over the years 

Especially lovin' the stylized bacanopener... priceless!

[jmlaboda]

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kFjaKK-FTp4/ToEfLmaFMaI/AAAAAAAAgCY/x3DK-KLaAgM/s800/_DSC0824.jpg

The H&S Railroad, formerly the Hartford and Slocomb RR, benefits greatly from the various boxcars that have been returned to leasers or which have been deemed surplus by other lines.  Having large paper mills on the line that makes the paper for corrugated boxes helps to provide the line with decent revenue, money that keeps the remnants of the line going.

If a modeler is modeling anything modern in the southeast these cars should be tossed into the mix.  They run in groups as well as single cars and the multitude of paint schemes that have been patched makes for unusual shipments.

If any are interested in more inspiration here is the link for the freight car album at RR Picture Archives...
http://rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?id=HS&cid=2

[GaryHinshaw]

Interesting info Jerry.  I love these HS cars and am always looking for subjects to convert. I salute Tom for pulling it off so well in this case.

-gfh

[wm3798]

Lock,
I can't claim any of the credit.  DKS whipped up the decals after a lengthy discussion of Ed's carnal cravings over in the crew lounge.  I just happened to get mine posted first.  I suspect you'll be seeing these showing up in the backgrounds of a lot of other shots in the coming days and weeks.

Wait till you see the alternate version...

Lee

[chuck geiger]

MC great work, Lee, are the reporting marks being done
in sodium, salt, carbs, etc?

[Puddington]

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kFjaKK-FTp4/ToEfLmaFMaI/AAAAAAAAgCY/x3DK-KLaAgM/s800/_DSC0824.jpg

The H&S Railroad, formerly the Hartford and Slocomb RR, benefits greatly from the various boxcars that have been returned to leasers or which have been deemed surplus by other lines.  Having large paper mills on the line that makes the paper for corrugated boxes helps to provide the line with decent revenue, money that keeps the remnants of the line going.

If a modeler is modeling anything modern in the southeast these cars should be tossed into the mix.  They run in groups as well as single cars and the multitude of paint schemes that have been patched makes for unusual shipments.

If any are interested in more inspiration here is the link for the freight car album at RR Picture Archives...
http://rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?id=HS&cid=2

Paper mills of all ilk are outstanding rail clients. Having worked in the industry for over 25 years I can not count the number of boxcars I have seen shunted in and out, the number I have been in to inspect potential damage to rollstock and the number of demurrage charges I have fought against railways....

The statistics for just how much paper comes out of a mill is staggering from a traffic point of view. Let's use a "average" containerboard mill; two paper machines running a wide range of grades and sizes.

Machine 1 - 240" wide - average daily production (taking into consideration all grades, basis weights and size needs, plus core changes and specials...)  1500 tonnes/day

Machine 2 - 220" wide - average daily production (taking into consideration all grades, basis weights and size needs, plus core changes and specials...)  1100 tonnes/day

Total tonnes = 2600 tonnes. Variation (+/- 400 tonnes/day)

One roll equals an average of 78" wide ( range = 40" wide to about 110" wide...) by 58" diameter, current corrugated average diameter used. Depending on basis weight of paper ( ie: 26lb of fibre/1000 sq ft vs 69lbs of fibre/ 1000 sq ft) 2.0 tonnes. ( the lower the basis weight - therefore the thinner the paper, the higher the weight per standard 58" roll diameter due to the amount of fibre at a constant moisture content of about 8%)

There are a number of ways to ship roll stock, truck (7-12 rolls average) "Can" - depending on size (between 20 -35 rolls) and rail car - usually 50' cars (larger cars may carry lighter weight fibre products like tissue and hygenic paper) are used - (35 - 48 roll average)

The loading is dependant on width of rolls, smaller rolls can be double stacked and if the receiving corrugated plant or warehouse will accept "bilge loads" (rolls on their side... yesh !)

Therefore, our average 2600 tonnes a day equals an average of 1300 rolls, or, if all shipped by rail, means a minimum of thirty two cars a day and most likely thirty six to forty outbound cars... and they move every day because mills don't have huge warehouses; they can't invoice until the bill of lading is cut and that means shipped.... Now, mills never ship only by rail but a good portion of their production would be by rail... cheaper, easier.... and we like it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mills run darn near 24 - 7 - 365 with only a few days a year for planned shuts for maintenance so you have a heck of a lot of traffic coming out of a mill... never mind inbounds, depending on the type of mill. A kraft mill with woodland op's will have pulp wood, baled pulp, waste paper (they almost all use some recycled fibre today) chemicals like liquour, additives, starches, TiO2 (if a bleached paper plant) and machinery. Even a 100% recycled mill could receive waste paper by rail; cars loads every day.

Mills are a operations oriented modeler's dream; cars are constantly shifted in and out of loading dock; marshalling tracks are tended to, making consist for shunting out and moving empties in and out. Receiving chemical cars need to be scheduled so that the right people are on shift to unload..... the complexities are endless....

I offer this explaination to encourage those who want to have a high traffic client on their pike to consider a mill; they are located almost everywhere and can really add some fun to your operations.

[tom mann]

I'm happy with how Gary's HS boxcar turned out.  The graffiti is redrawn based on photos of the original, but I only redrew the outlines.  Colorization is hand painted oils.  The CORNTH lettering has a rust colored decal overlay to resemble rusted out lettering.  If the original font was thicker, I would have used paint.

Thanks to Gary for his patience!  The car took far too long for me to complete.

Gary took care of the lowering, AZL coupler mounting, and air hoses.

[Scottl]

Puddington, thanks for the great run down about paper mills.  I'm working on the layout of buildings and track for my own paper mill, to be modeled after one of the smallish mills in northern Ontario or the Ottawa valley.  I had lots of new inspiration driving north to Timmins yesterday, but I am still struggling to find good reference photos for mills and the external details.  Any suggestions for resources?

[rochsub]

Added a photo backdrop of the Highway 30 Bridge.  First image is the prototype, of course.  I also included a link to a video.

[Puddington]

"gulp"..........that's all I got man.........that's art....pure and simple.......that's just art........

A serious tip of the engineers cap to you for your efforts !

[Blazeman]

encourage those who want to have a high traffic client on their pike to consider a mill; they are located almost everywhere

Unfortunately, seems like one closes every month. But the ones still operating do generate traffic. I do the rail pricing at my employer and we move a lot of hydrogen peroxide to mills for bleaching pulp and recycles.

[Puddington]

Puddington, thanks for the great run down about paper mills.  I'm working on the layout of buildings and track for my own paper mill, to be modeled after one of the smallish mills in northern Ontario or the Ottawa valley.  I had lots of new inspiration driving north to Timmins yesterday, but I am still struggling to find good reference photos for mills and the external details.  Any suggestions for resources?

I've not found many good references, maybe others have; but then again, having grown up, lived at and worked at the #@#!#@ things since I was knee high to a dwarf signal I've pretty much gone from "memory" and haven't really looked too hard.... If I find something I'll let you know but my advice to anyone thinking about modeling a mill is before even putting pen to paper or hand to mouse, decide what kind of mill you want (fibre source, - kraft or recycled) (product type - containerboard, boxboard, fine paper, tissue, industrial papers, pulp....) (the size - mini mill - one machine, recycled vs huge kraft mill with multiple machines, pulping, woodlands etc...) Then, and only then can you begin to design the mill; figure out the needs, "givens and druthers" and the overall footprint.... makes no sense to model a kraft mill in 3 sq fet, makes less sense to wast 20 sq ft on an urban recycled mill....

If I can help let me know.

[SAH]

Added a photo backdrop of the Highway 30 Bridge.  First image is the prototype, of course.  I also included a link to a video.

VERY well done!!!  The bridge, scenery and intergration of the backdrop into the scene.  All excellent execution.

Steve

[Puddington]

Unfortunately, seems like one closes every month. But the ones still operating do generate traffic. I do the rail pricing at my employer and we move a lot of hydrogen peroxide to mills for bleaching pulp and recycles.

The entire paper industry in North America is under siege from the Orient. Time was, not too long ago I was living in Vancouver and my plant was making a good buck running sheet stock in Vancouver, shipping it to a converter in Bremerton who ran two colour shoe boxes for Nike. The ships that brought the full boxes of shoes over would go back with knocked down flat boxes... why ? Because the 13 SE Asian nations with plants couldn't produce boxes equal to NA or Euro quality.... Well; enter China.....North American and European equipment companies have sold a @#@# load of high end paper machines, pre print machines, flexo folder gluers and other equipment to China....

The price of OCC and DLK (Old Corrugated Containers - grocery and curb waste and Double Lined Klippings - boxplant waste) has skyrocketed, especially in the west. What was $ 55.00/ tonne is now $ 155.00/tonne and is almost all going off shore in containers to China so they can feed their new mills. They also have very few protection laws for virgin fibre so they are deforesting their land at a huge rate....

The result; North American mills not only have to contend with shrinking domestic mfg markets, high recycled fibre costs, NA union labour contracts, NA environmental laws and costs but the fact that equal or better quality is coming across the Pacific at a fraction of the cost....

There are too many mills in North America for the demand.......there are too many paper companies in North America for the economy... there are too many old mills, too many inefficent mills, too many "untouchable properties and products" and too much overhead and cost in the North American market. In the last five years Stone, Willamette, Domtar, MBI Smurfit, Smurfit USA and many, many others have been merged, downsized, rightsized or "killed"...........It's not good and it won't get any better.

That said, there will always be mills; lots of them and the railways will always serve them....... paper is bulky, heavy, doesn't cube out well; its delivery is always time sensitive and it's worth a bunch.........railway's love it.

[Zox]

I set up my Kankakee bridge and station modules to "box" together for transport, and got the majority of the wiring done on the station module:



The control panel will flip out for operation; it's shown in its transport position. I'll be adding another flip-out to serve as a table to hold a power pack, which is where the last bit of wiring will need to be added.