Hamilton & Great Lakes Railroad

[Tyson Rayles]

Good to see you back on this T !

[teejay]

...an overhead shot of the 10' x 21/2' layout ...the addition will be added to the left side , about 10' x 4' or so .

T

[Tyson Rayles]

Looks good T. I was skimming thru MRP 08 and they had a complete HO steel mill on a 4x8. Have you seen that article?

[teejay]

I haven't seen that Mike ....problem with trying to install a real steel mill is space . Whomever invented the term " selective compression " must have been modeling the steel industry . It is ( to me ) a fascinating subject for many reasons and I did my best to capture a '50's era mill with my old layout . I had 70 running feet and it was too small for what I wanted to do ! Probably would have needed 100' for starters . For example , my dock scene in the old layout , just to get the iron ore to the mill , would have required 20 feet . I built a 6 foot ore freighter that should have been 8 1/2 feet .
When iron ore is sent to the blast furnace ( Walthers Kit that was really N scale in dimentions ) it produces " pig iron " which , in the 50's , was sent to an open hearth furnace to process the material into more usable steel . My scratch built open hearth ( complete with interior ) was 2 feet long with 16 furnaces ....it needed to be 4 times the size !!

On my new , current , layout I'll be giving just a hint of steel mill so as to use some of the models I built . It will look OK for the average onlooker but will in no way be even close to proto . But I'll have fun in the process .

T

[Tyson Rayles]

"But I'll have fun in the process "

That's what it's all about!

[BR60103]

Do we have Spitfire's steel mill modelling on here? She was doing it when we were on the old Gauge.

[doctorwayne]

.... Whomever invented the term " selective compression " must have been modeling the steel industry ......

You're certainly right about that. I started scratchbuilding a blast furnace in the early '70s, and was fortunate to have blueprints from which to work, but the cast house alone covered almost 16sq. ft. Stoves would have been another 1'x3', the stockhouse probably 8"-10"x5', gas scrubbers, precipitators, baghouses and all the ancillary details another 3'x3'. The furnace itself was almost 2' tall, and that was without the bell housing, uptakes, or the downcomer. The two track skip bridge was about 3' long. I eventually ran out of space (one bedroom apartment) and money.
Here's a view of the prototype, with a torpedo car sticking out of one of the bays. Behind the wall with the railings on top is the slag pit. The cast house was laid out like a shallow "V", with two or three teeming tracks on each leg of the "V", and the furnace in the centre.




...and my version of it. The foundation for the furnace shell and the wall at the slag pit were cast in dental plaster. The furnace shell is made from sheet styrene, while all of the structural steelwork is milled basswood, as it the corrugated siding. The brickwork is sheets from Holgate and Reynolds, cemented to 1/4" balsa sheets.



The base of the skip bridge and at right, if I recall correctly, the electrical substation:



Over the years, I dismantled most of it, trashing some and giving some away. I still have those roof trusses seen in the second photo, and the one cast house crane which got partially built (there were supposed to be two cast house cranes). I re-worked it somewhat to resemble a couple of the outdoor cranes at the mill in which I worked. It languished in a shoe box for many years, but now serves the locomotive shop at Lowbanks:





The mill in which I worked would be over 25' long in HO scale.


Wayne

[Tyson Rayles]

Awesome work Wayne!

[sailormatlac]

Impressive structure!

Matt

[teejay]

I take it you slept on the couch in that one bedroom . I've seen your Alliance crane before and always admired it .

T

[teejay]

Looking For Some Advice !!

I'll give you the preamble .....my layout is in ( will be in ) 2 sections , both about 10x3 or so .

The one section is constructed of 1x4's ( uprights ) and 1x3 horizontal pieces with 1x2's criss-crossing on angles for stability .

The second stage will be of similar materials but I have to have it moveable ( for reasons I won't bore you with ) so it will be on casters .The casters don't lock .

My concern is joining the two sections . They will have to be un-joined fairly quickly ,if need be , but I don't want to have just the trackwork being the " connection " incase I lean on things and cause the section on casters to shift !

Anyone done this ?

Thanks , T

[doctorwayne]

I'm not sure that I fully understand the construction method, but a couple of mating shapes where the two portions meet should take care of alignment - it can be as simple as two 1"x2"s screwed to one with a space between them, and, on the other surface, a 1"x2" which fits into that space. A couple of "C" clamps or quick-release clamps should hold things together until the rolling section needs to be moved.

Wayne

[teejay]

Well , I've said it before , I know , but I'll be getting back to the layout soon ......the only change being that I'll put off the idea of the second stage for now and concentrate on finishing the first stage . Why ? Good question ........wife has been in the hospital for many months now and it appears we may be selling the house next year to concentrate on important husband/wife things as we climb in ( kicking and screaming ) to old age and retirement , assuming wife's health is manageable . Thinking of getting an apartment and doing some travelling to warmer climates ( Florida ? ) in the future . The single stage layout will do me just fine in the interim and be workable in an apartment .
Life goes on . I still lurk here every day and admire everyone's work .

T

[teejay]

I see it's been a year since I was last talking about the layout ....started back " doing " . When my wife was hospitalized for 6months last September I thought I would pass the time working on the layout . Couldn't bring myself to do it , not sure why . But Bonnie has stabilized the last 7 months . I built a bathroom in the basement incase we do sell the house ( everyone MUST have 2 it seems ) and while I was slowly doing that I kept walking by the train area ...and feeling some guilt I suppose .

A week ago I started a major cleanup / straightening / organizing campaign to get me back in the mood .

[teejay]

So , as you can see I'm really back at it . The second stage won't be started until I'm a lot further along on the first stage . There will be a "scenery break " between the 2 stages because of the differences in theme , the second stage being more of a dockside .

T