Modeling a Paper Mill - Part 4.2 Construction Progress

Between travels for work and time spent this fall preparing the yard and house for the winter months, I have not had as much time to spend on the layout.  However, I have been able to do a little painting and install some scenery materials so that the paper mill doesn't look as bleak and empty as before.  And of course I've had some re-do's, as I wasn't satisfied with the way some of the roadways turned out.  Apparently trying to model a very fine, crushed stone roadway with fine ballast was harder than I previously remembered it to be when just trying to do small roadways.  Large areas that could be a roadway or just an open area just seem to show even the finest of gravels rather than a well worn gravel and dirt roadway that I was trying to achieve.  So between roadways and some ground scenery, some color is appearing and the modules are beginning to take the form that I wanted.

When I had some free evenings and paint was drying in various portions of the two modules, I also dug out some tank kits that I had accumulated for the mill and began to build them.  And of course, all tanks should be set inside some sort of spill containment structure, so I have also been rummaging through the scrap styrene box to fine appropriately sized pieces to build containment structures.  My recent work has been to start adding some pumps and piping; I found some great HO sized pumps on the Shapeways website and will be adding pumps and piping shortly.

Initial construction; still need to add piping to each of the three tanks as well as the 3 tanks in the background

The biggest project undertaken was scratch building a new building within the cellulose portion of the mill.  Based on a general visitor guide I obtained in 2001, I believe that this building is actually part of the bark boiler complex on the Temiscaming mill  I liked it due to some unique angles that are present, as well as the ability to accommodate the placement of several stacks I built using the Walthers refinery kit.  So it has now become part of a background building for the specialty cellulose mill.  For my building, I added a rail unloading shed at ground level, which I'm fairly sure is not present in the prototype, but allows some more spots for tank car off-loading.  It also allowed me to spot some storage tanks in between some of the tracks which will be used as part of the chemical products group alcohol plant.

Start of the specialty cellulose mill. Still need to cut the angled middle and bottom panels. Hardest part was cutting the windows to the correct size. Several catwalks and stairwells will be added to the left side of the Bldg (not shown in picture)

Bldg is now partially done; major components are in place, however, work still needed for the piping and exits along the left side of the Bldg

Windows still need to be worked on and some sort of backing put into place so that the windows and styrene don't deflect and bow; many of the pieces used are leftovers from other projects

Working through some of the details

Additionally, I have been able to ballast most of the track in the paper mill, as well as setting the switches permanently.