Products Delivered To A Pulp Mill By Tank Car

[BCR751]

What products would be delivered to a pulp mill by tank car?  And, where would I find photos of these cars in the various color schemes that denote the type of product being carried?

Doug

[wazzou]

I don't know all of them, but chlorine would be at the top of the list.

[John]

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,463049

[mu26aeh]

Slightly off topic, in the link posted by John. They mention sodium chlorate cars.  Rapido announced these in HO recently.   Be sure to let them know we need them in N scale!!!

[sd45elect2000]

Acid cars for the digesters.

Randy

[nkalanaga]

Sulfuric Acid.  That's where the "rotten eggs" smell came from.  They don't receive nearly as much today as they did 50 years ago.  After people started complaining, and they installed pollution control equipment, they realized the control equipment converted the hydrogen sulfide gas to - sulfuric acid!  Now all they need to buy is enough to make up the inevitable losses.

[mu26aeh]

Kaolin Clay slurry, usually where glossy paper products would be produced

[wazzou]

Kaolin Clay slurry, usually where glossy paper products would be produced

Not delivered in tank cars though, right?  I’ve always thought Kaolin was delivered in Covered Hoppers.

[sd45elect2000]

Are we talking about a pulp mill or a paper mill? A pulp mill will make wetlap for a paper mill but doesn’t always make paper. Wetlap usually ships out in boxcars. Inbound tank cars should be either acids for the digesters or carloads of heating oil. The reason pulp mills exist is to provide a processed product to the paper mills, maybe using a different type of wood for specialty papers.
Chlorine and titanium dioxide are whiteners for the paper making machines. Paper mills also have digesters and use the same acids. The digesters do smell bad and many older mills that are near cities use wetlap to prevent the paper mill smell from causing issues as the wetlap is made offsite.
I worked for a couple of railroads that served both pulp mills and paper mills. In many cases the pulp mill is a repurposed paper mill, one that no longer makes paper. The freight cars serving the mills would be different.

Randy

[mu26aeh]

Not delivered in tank cars though, right?  I’ve always thought Kaolin was delivered in Covered Hoppers.

Key word "slurry"

http://vanderheide.ca/blog/2015/07/17/freight-car-friday-43/

[wazzou]

Key word "slurry"

http://vanderheide.ca/blog/2015/07/17/freight-car-friday-43/

Yeah, I thought that was potentially a "key word", lol. 
It's all outside my era/interest.

Thank you.

[Angus Shops]

I see a lot of tank cars with caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) in these parts, as well as chlorine and hydrogen peroxide. All of these, and many more, can be used in making chemical pulp in the delignification and bleaching processes. A little research reveals that there are a number of different chemical processes used in the manufacture of pulp and paper, so presumably you would need to know what process is used by the plant you want to model.

I miss Mike McGratton - he was in the paper business and would have filled in all the blanks.

[Albert in N]

Not delivered in tank cars though, right?  I’ve always thought Kaolin was delivered in Covered Hoppers.

    For what it is worth, I bought this N scale tank car over 15 years ago and wondered what it hauled if not a foob.  The original box shows Atlas 34891 - Kaolin Tank Car.  Anyway, I continue to enjoy it even if I did not know what Kaolin was when I bought it.  I added MTL trucks and am presently running a Woodlands Scenic dust monkey under it.