Ralph's ersatz steel mill

[Ralph]

Val (Spitfire) is about to embark on constructing a steel mill from the Walther's collection and I know its going to be great! Some discussion of modeled mills prompts me to post these so I can link them to her thread without taking too much away from its original theme.

I built this mill a few years ago using cheap materials such as shampoo bottles, cardboard boxes, and corrugated craft paper. Had I known a little (or a lot!) more about steel mill operations I'd have constructed it differently with more realistic operations in mind. As it is I have a small yard in the complex that I call the "holding yard" where anything steel related such as coal hoppers, gondolas loaded with scrap metal, and coil cars can be set out or picked up. I pretend that the real switching of bottle cars, slag cars, hoppers and ore cars for the furnace, etc is done "off layout".

Here's what I've come to call my impression of a steel mill, an ersatz collection of structures that some day I'll probably re-do.

This area is just a backdrop scene..


Closer now to the holding yard...


The furnace is visible in the background...


The holding yard that can also include boxcars for Kings Port Steel Supply...a vague facility that accepts deliveries for any materials that may support the industry via boxcar. I added this building because I had more boxcars than destinations for them. The brick building to the right is Canton Box Company.


Ralph