Big Steel! Update Feb 15/09

[Bigsteel]

val,the shots you have of teeming ingots and pouring BOFs into ladles is pretty imppressive.the library of congress HABS website has plans of the pittsburgh steel mill open hearth shop if your era is in the 40's and 50's along with hundreds of other steel mill drawings.but remember that a large OH or BOF shop is about 1000 feet long,so you'll only be able to model a small part but the "some other mill" could be part of the shop.but your favorite part of the shop seems to be the teeming side,so you could model it in that skinny of a building.i've always wanted to build a full interior of an OH or BOF shop,it'll be great to see someone elses take on the same thing.--josh

[doctorwayne]

Great photos, Jim, and much better than any I could find.
Val, the building with all the piping is the BOF, with each stack representing one vessel. This end is, I believe, where the ladles are rebuilt. The item in the foreground, along with the other two near the doors, are slag pots, which are carried by a rubber-tired vehicle to the slag dump on the bayfront - the pot is tipped, allowing the molten slag to run into a pit, often with explosive results.
The following photo is one of the coke oven batteries (I couldn't say which one, though, as I never worked on this side of the plant.) I don't know if this is the side from which the coke is pushed or the side to which it's pushed, but there's a track hidden by the retaining wall with the railing on top. On the pushing side, the door remover and pusher would run on it, while on the receiving side, there'd be a door remover and the coke larry car.
The last two photos are, I think, "D" Furnace, which I believe has been torn down.

Wayne

[Trucklover]

Val i like the trackplan!!

I cant wait to see some details inside the mill!! That is going to be sweet!!

[Bigsteel]

wayne, i think the pic is of the pushing side as there is a railing.the quench car side is flush with the side of the coke oven,to allow a guide car for the coke to slide along rails to direct coke into the car. heres a very good close up pic of the car im talking about http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http...image&cd=1--josh

by the way,how do you have a link but change the name to shorten it?,this one is a bit long

[Spitfire]

val,the shots you have of teeming ingots and pouring BOFs into ladles is pretty imppressive.the library of congress HABS website has plans of the pittsburgh steel mill open hearth shop if your era is in the 40's and 50's along with hundreds of other steel mill drawings.but remember that a large OH or BOF shop is about 1000 feet long,so you'll only be able to model a small part but the "some other mill" could be part of the shop.but your favorite part of the shop seems to be the teeming side,so you could model it in that skinny of a building.i've always wanted to build a full interior of an OH or BOF shop,it'll be great to see someone elses take on the same thing.--josh

Thanks for the tip Josh. That HABS site is totally amazing. I will have to check it out again soon. 1000 ft long hmmm? That's only 11-1/2 ft in HO. The scary thing is, I actually have that much space, but I would have to forego ALL the other buildings that aren't on the peninsula!!

Val i like the trackplan!!

I cant wait to see some details inside the mill!! That is going to be sweet!!

Hey thnks TL!!! It's not nearly as complex as your trackplan, but I'm getting there. I should say that this is by no means the final track plan. I am going to wait until I have all the kits in hand, if not built, so that I can get a better idea of placement, with a certain "doctor's" help.

I was part-way through building the interior of a foundry awhile ago, and I still have the big ladle I built for that. It's a start anyway! LOL!

Great photos, Jim, and much better than any I could find.
Val, the building with all the piping is the BOF, with each stack representing one vessel. This end is, I believe, where the ladles are rebuilt. The item in the foreground, along with the other two near the doors, are slag pots, which are carried by a rubber-tired vehicle to the slag dump on the bayfront - the pot is tipped, allowing the molten slag to run into a pit, often with explosive results.
The following photo is one of the coke oven batteries (I couldn't say which one, though, as I never worked on this side of the plant.) I don't know if this is the side from which the coke is pushed or the side to which it's pushed, but there's a track hidden by the retaining wall with the railing on top. On the pushing side, the door remover and pusher would run on it, while on the receiving side, there'd be a door remover and the coke larry car.
The last two photos are, I think, "D" Furnace, which I believe has been torn down.

Wayne

Thanks for that great explanation Wayne! I have some photo's I saved from a few years ago of a BOF. I will have to pull them out. Don't want to overload you with questions right now, so I am going to leave "some other plant" nameless for now.

cheers
Val

[Bigsteel]

Thanks for the tip Josh. That HABS site is totally amazing. I will have to check it out again soon. 1000 ft long hmmm? That's only 11-1/2 ft in HO. The scary thing is, I actually have that much space, but I would have to forego ALL the other buildings that aren't on the peninsula!!

,only 11'1/2 feet! thats freakin huge! look at a large steel mill like bethlehem,they had 2 of them and about a miles worth of just the main rolling mills! id love to build a true to scale OH shop.would make a great diorama.....hmmm.....oh god,not more ideas!--josh

[doctorwayne]

wayne, i think the pic is of the pushing side as there is a railing.the quench car side is flush with the side of the coke oven,to allow a guide car for the coke to slide along rails to direct coke into the car. heres a very good close up pic of the car im talking about http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http...image&cd=1--josh

by the way,how do you have a link but change the name to shorten it?,this one is a bit long

You may be right, but that railing in the picture is, I would guess, a good 20' from the ovens. The car that guides the coke into the larry is also the machine that removes the door so that the oven can be pushed. On the opposite side, the pusher car also has a door remover.

To change the name in the link, type, in your post, then paste in your copied link, followed by [color=#FF4000]] then type in the new name, for example LINK, then follow this with . When you post your reply, all that will appear is the word LINK, which, when clicked on, will take you to the site.

Wayne

[Trucklover]

,only 11'1/2 feet! thats freakin huge!

My ore dock will be 12' long, is that any better? hehehe

[Spitfire]

Well, I'm more or less finished with the ore bridge crane. One thing I still have to do is pick up some very thin gauge brass or copper wire to replace the thread holding the clamshell bucket. Despite having waxed the thread to get rid of the "fuzzies", they are still visible, and the kinks in the thread destroy all illusion that they are cables carrying a heavy load.



I placed a figure in the cab and painted the interior walls a cheesy "industrial" pale green. I actually had to bash this figure together from 2 others. You can really see in this photo what I mean about the kinks and fuzz in the thread.



Here's a shot that better represents the actual colour of the model. With the exception of locos, I never paint anything on my layout black. It's always brown, which seems to represent a light patina of rust and exposure.



And finally here is a long view. The kit gives you the option of different lengths. There is a front section, a rear section, and 2 different middle sections, so you can combine these in 4 different configurations. I chose to leave out the short middle section.



One note to anyone planning to build one of these: paint the interior supports first! I had a heck of a time painting them once the bridge was assembled. I also had a lot of trouble fitting the expletive-deleted legs. When I came to assemble this part, I found the tabs didn't fit the slots. I built this over a couple of days, and the glue was well set on the legs and the box they are supposed to fit into - so there was no give. It's odd, becuase everything else fit together perfectly.

[eightyeightfan1]

I had to go back and read the thread Val.
Who makes the bridge crane?

[doctorwayne]

Looks good, Val. Does the trolley move within the bridge? You need some iron ore in that bucket - that'll straighten out those threads!

Wayne

[Trucklover]

Val awesome job on the build, it looks great!! Ill be curious to see if and how you replace the threads, i know of a couple models of my own that i would like to replace the threads....

I had to go back and read the thread Val.
Who makes the bridge crane?

Ed Walthers makes that Ore Bridge Crane

[Ralph]

That's a fantastic kit Val! Nice, nice work!!!

"With the exception of locos, I never paint anything on my layout black. It's always brown, which seems to represent a light patina of rust and exposure."

That's a handy tip Val. Thanks!

Ralph

[Spitfire]

I had to go back and read the thread Val.
Who makes the bridge crane?

Walthers. And it's on sale for $40 - regular price $65. Not bad.

Looks good, Val. Does the trolley move within the bridge? You need some iron ore in that bucket - that'll straighten out those threads!

Wayne

Thanks Wayne! Yes, the trolley does move - at least you can position it where you want it.

That's a great idea to fill the bucket with ore. Too bad Great Northern Sand & Gravel has disappeared. They sell all that stuff, or used to. I've got crushed coal slag but alas, no iron ore.

Val awesome job on the build, it looks great!! Ill be curious to see if and how you replace the threads, i know of a couple models of my own that i would like to replace the threads....

Thanks Josh! I plan to replace them with very thin gauge brass or copper wire. The trick is to get them exactly the same length. I will remove the trolley assembly so I can drill holes in the hoisting drums. That should do it.

That's a fantastic kit Val! Nice, nice work!!!

"With the exception of locos, I never paint anything on my layout black. It's always brown, which seems to represent a light patina of rust and exposure."

That's a handy tip Val. Thanks!

Ralph

Many thanks Ralph! I'm so glad the CEO of Kingsport Steel doesn't mind having a new competitor.

I'm really glad you guys are so interested in this project. I am going to keep adding and updating this thread as I go, and that way, whenever anyone else wants to add a steel mill, they will be able to refer to this thread, if only to see what not to do!

cheers
Val

[DrGeologist]

...whenever anyone else wants to add a steel mill, they will be able to refer to this thread, if only to see what not to do!

cheers
Val

Umm... I'll take that role, thanks very much. I should rename my thread: "How to destroy two Walthers Blast Furnace Kits." You're an excellent modeller and your layout is coming along amazingly.

-DrJ