South River Modelworks Blackstone Paper Mill KIT

Blackstone Paper Mill was a gigantic effort. It represents more tooling and research than we have ever done for a kit. 

It can be said that South River Modelworks was started and sustained by a deep and ongoing interest in industrial archaeology. Our main interest has been the growth of industry and transportation from the mid nineteenth century to the period just prior to WWII. Seeking out relics of this era is also a sure way to conjure up images of the past. One can easily imagine a time when the daily pace was not so hectic. Though the workday was long, there was a pride in one's craft and the workplace were often a place where the tradesman spent his entire life.

The movers and shakers of the industrial revolution were the mill owners, industrialists and transportation barons. Their raw canvas was an expanding nation making a rapid transition from an agrarian society to an industrial giant. A growing population on the move created a pressing need for goods of all sorts and faster ways to produce them. As more industries sprang up, eager to grab new and larger markets, transportation systems evolved alongside the industries as manufacturers found the need to distribute products outside of their local domain.

The Blackstone Mill depicted in this kit is a synthesis of many of the mill forms common during our period of study. It has the classic tall, rectangular form and the ever-present stair / loading tower. The brickwork is suggestive of the more elaborate styles that began around the 1880s. The stone addition and the first floor suggest an earlier start before the mill was completed in brick. In our research we have often found mills which may have been destroyed in a fire. Years later a new mill would be built over the original masonry. The Blackstone clerestory is of popular proportions and was used as an element in mills mostly up until the Civil War but sometimes as late as 1870s.

Though the Blackstone Mill is a fictional building, most of its parts and all of its details are based on mills that still exist or did exist. The building and architectural details we used were gleaned from travels in New England, the Mid-Atlantic region, the Midwest and the South.

• Pro Built South River Model Works Blackstone Paper Mills
• One of the best SRMW kits ever produced.
• The build quality is excellent, superb detail.

Scale: H0

THIS KIT IS FOR EXPERIENCED BUILDERS ONLY!