Planning Mills

[NW Modeling List]

Planing mills were a common feature of early railroad yards that built or
repaired railroad cars that were made of wood. Another common feature were
lumber storage sheds. If you search “planing mill” online at NWHS “search
our archives” tab you find 128 documents listed. If you search on major
yard locations such as Portsmouth Ohio you may find pictures of planing
mills. Attached is a photo for East Portsmouth yard planing mill.



Alex Schust


Moderator:

  http://nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=20653


*From:* NW-Modeling-List [mailto:nw-modeling-list-bounces at nwhs.org] *On
Behalf Of *NW Modeling List
*Sent:* Thursday, October 01, 2015 10:12 AM
*To:* NW Modeling List
*Subject:* Re: Planning Mills



David



The purpose of a planning mill is to take rough cut lumber and mill or
plane the surface to a finished size and smoothness.  This for the use in
making furniture, flooring, etc. that requires a smooth surface.  The mill
was usually in close proximity to a sawmill or mills on the raw material
side or furniture factories and other wood users on the output side.  You
might find more of them on the N&W located either in Virginia or North
Carolina.



Rail traffic at a planning mill would be small, boxcars for finished wood
shipping or incoming wood, kiln cured, or flat cars with open air cured
wood.  hopper cars for the wood chip and sawdust residue.  Most all other
requirements would be procured locally and not brought in by rail.



There are two very good kits for planning mills.  BTS makes one as part of
their McCabe sawmill series and Campbell makes a two part kit to make a
planning mill.  The Campbell kit(s) were based on a mill in North Carolina.



Hope this helps.



Larry Smith





On Thursday, October 1, 2015 5:39 AM, NW Modeling List <
nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org> wrote:



HI all,



I am working on an N&W town, but i am striking out on any prototype photos
of a planing mill that was served by the N&W.  In addition, I have never
seen a planning mill in real life and do not know the complete purpose and
what would be rail served (what cars are provided to the mill from the N&W).



Does anyone know of some photos and info to help with this?


David
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