Rewind: Model an Industry that Isn’t There

Peace River Northern #6 switches the "paper" mill .

If you do a blog long enough (this blog started in 2009), and post enough entries (over 750 to date), many posts slip way out of sight. Some of them might be worth viewing again, if they weren't so hard to find. Like this one from 2009, and others I will re-post in my new Rewind collection.

Over the past number of years there have been a number of articles in the model railroad press about modeling invisible industries.

These include tracks that run off the edge of the layout to a factory that is “located” in the aisle, or that run behind the scenery to another hidden plant of some kind.

The CP Rail Manitoba & Minnesota Subdivision utilizes the latter approach. In my case, it is a paper mill that is located off the layout.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t visible, though—it is, just above a ridge in the distance behind the upper level town of Nance.

And when I say paper mill, I mean “paper” mill, as in it is made of paper. It’s a photo of the Walthers’ paper mill, taken from an ad in Model Railroader.

I simply cut it out and glued it to the wall. A photo of a hill was cut out of calendar or magazine (I can't remember which) to complete the scene.

Operationally, locals that ply the line drop off cars in Nance at the interchange with the Peace River Northern, a shortline that serves the mill and other industries off the layout. (The PNR line, which is served by ex-CP Rail GP9 #6, sneaks off the layout, behind a small ridge.)

In reality, nothing happens; cars dropped off in one session or operating sequence become cars ready for pick-up in the next.

This industry that isn’t really there gives me another operational opportunity without actually requiring me to build another mill, or devote space to it.