Modelling a Paper Mill – Part 1 Origin of the Spruce Creek Pulp & Paper Mill

One of the key features on the layout is the Spruce Creek Pulp and Paper Mill, located on two 2’ by 6’ modules in the center of the room.  The mill was modeled after several mills located in northern Ontario, including the mills at Kapuskasing, Smooth Rock Falls, Iroquois Falls and the Tembec mill at Temiscaming, Quebec.  While each of these mills offers unique aspects to model, they also have several common themes, including rail access, locations along a major water source, multiple ages of buildings and general building architecture.  Several of them have operated with their own switcher engine, which shuttled empty and full loads between the mill and nearby storage tracks.  It was this particular aspect that was of primary importance and I wanted to include in my paper mill complex.  Therefore, observers will quickly find that switching power for the Spruce Creek plant consists of both an Alco S13, patterned after the Spruce Falls 108 and the newer GMD GP7 Mattagami 168 (ex ACR 168).  Both units may still be found in Kapuskasing, although as of 2017, neither unit is active and sits on the mill property in pieces or in the weeds.

What’s in a Name 

One of the first and toughest decisions was what to name the paper mill, since it would be a major feature of the railway.  I had no intent of modelling a town to go along with it, but I wanted to recognize local features of the area, yet at the same time create a fictional area that was in keeping with other local town names.  I ultimately chose Spruce Creek Pulp & Paper as my fictional paper mill and town.  Spruce was chosen based on the varieties of spruce found as predominant trees in northern Ontario.  While I wanted to add a waterway feature to the name, "Falls" was already done and it basically came down to whether the second part of the name would be river or creek. For no real reason, creek won.

Like many layouts and modelers, I borrowed certain aspects of each of the mills to form my own.  I wanted a fairly heavy and diverse amount of traffic, so the choice to model both a paper and pulp mill became obvious.  I was also lucky enough to have toured several of the mills, so I was able to incorporate some of the aspects I had seen on these tours into my layout.  And lastly, I had to compress as much of the mills that I had seen into a small, finite space on the layout. I knew that certain buildings would have to be scratch built, while others could come from kitbashing or using straight builds from existing kit structures.  I also wanted to use photo backdrops of the mills into my scenery.  Certain large areas such as chip unloading would not be possible, due to size restrictions, while at the same time maximizing the amount of trackage was key.

So let's take a quick look at some history for the area.

 

History of Local Mills

Kapuskasing (Spruce Falls Company) - the timber limits around Kapuskasing were sold to Kimberly-Clark in 1920. The new Spruce Falls Company Ltd. began the development of the first pulp mill in Kapuskasing under the direction of F.J. Sensenbrenner, a Vice President of Kimberly Clark Corporation for the next 20 years. The small sulphite mill started up in late 1922 with four 12-ton digesters and a daily output of 75 tons of pulp. Spent liquor was discharged untreated into the Kapuskasing River.  In 1923, a water storage and hydro electric dam was built by Morrow and Beatty Ltd. of Peterborough at Spruce Falls. In 1925, the Spruce Falls Company Limited was awarded additional timber limits to the north and south, bringing their total limits up to 11,830 square kilometers (4,570 sq mi).  In 1926, the Spruce Falls Power and Paper Company was incorporated under joint ownership of Kimberly-Clark and The New York Times. The new company negotiated two additional hydro power leases to the north on the Mattagami River at Smoky Falls and Devils Rapids. Work to build a 550 ton/day paper mill at Kapuskasing, a 75,000 HP hydro generating station at Smoky Falls and a 80 kilometers (50 mi) railway and power line connecting the two got underway in the spring of 1926. The contractor for the entire project was Morrow and Beatty Ltd. of Peterborough.  Since July 13, 1928, The New York Times has been printed entirely on Spruce Falls paper. The mill has run continuously ever since.

Tembec's mill at Kapuskasing (2017)

Smooth Rock Falls (Tembec) - the town of Smooth Rock Falls lies on the Mattagami River and on Highway 11, between Cochrane and Kapuskasing.  The Smooth Rock Falls economy was dominated by the Tembec Malette pulp mill, which unfortunately was closed on December 5, 2006.  The pulp mill was subsequently dismantled and demolished, leaving nothing but an empty field and some vague hopes for redevelopment.   

Smooth Rock Falls - photo courtesy Mike Robin and onrgallery.com

Iroquois Falls (Abitibi) – Iroquois Falls lies on the banks of the Abitibi River, west of Lake Abitibi and approximately 40 miles northeast of Timmins.  Iroquois Falls' primary industry was a large mill producing newsprint and commercial printing papers.  The paper mill, then called Abitibi-Price, merged with Stone-Consolidated, and then with Donohue Forest Products, and finally with Bowater to create Abitbi-Bowater. On 17 April 2009, Abitibi-Bowater sought bankruptcy protection, emerging from it as Resolute Forest Products. Five years later, Resolute announced its permanent closure.  As of 2017, the buildings housing the paper machine and other structures are in the stages of demolition, although the engine house still stands.

Iroquois Falls - photo courtesy Mike Robin and onrgallery.com

Temiscaming (Tembec) – the southernmost of the mills actually resides in Quebec, located at the south end of Lac Témiscamingue on the upper Ottawa River.  The area experienced major growth when the Riordon Pulp and Paper Company built the Kipawa Mills pulp and paper mill there in 1918.  The Canadian International Paper Company, bought out the Riordon Company in 1925.  In 1972, when the company decided to close the mill, the employees formed Tembec to take over the operation of the mill. The mill produces chemical products, specialty cellulose, boardmill and high yield pulp. Unfortunately, the Temiscaming mill is located across the river and rail operations are difficult to photograph with all of the trees along the rivers edge.

Temiscaming mill