# Custom N scale Steel mill



## ELRR

Hi,
I have been working on an n-scale steel mill model for a while now and now I have decided to start my own blog about the building process. 
First, I would like to show the progress made so far.
I have 2 Bethlehem-Steel-inspired Blast Furnaces in progress.
An unfinished open hearth furnace.
And the coke works, inspired by the Thomas by-products plant - also unfinished, detailing to be done and the by-products section is also in progress....

Some pictures of the progress made so far


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## Big Ed

Welcome to the site.
Great work,:thumbsup: what inspired you to do Bethlehem Steel?
Are you going to label it Bethlehem Steel?


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## IlliniViking

Looks awesome. :appl: Can't wait to see it finished and in place on a layout.


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## Shifty1

Wow!!! What are you using for the corrugated steel exterior?


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## Magic

That's some mighty fine work :appl: :appl: hard to believe it's N scale. 
Keep us posted. 

Magic


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## ELRR

*Thanks!*

Hi,
thank you all for the nice words, it is really encouraging 

I am finishing my new shed, it should allow me to start a layout of ~4x2.5m L shape, where I plan to place all the stuff I have built so far.
I have chosen Bethlehem because it is one of the most popular steel mills. I already bought some books on amazon, looking for more details.
I have to make a lot of sacrifices (budget, space,etc. probably we all know it  ), so I am not absolutely sure I am gonna name it Bethlehem, depends on how close it will come to the original.

As for the corrugated sheets, they are actually TT scale (1:120), as there is nothing in N (at least not in Slovakia, where I live), they are made by a manufacturer called Sikulove.

Since it is Easter now and I have some extra time I will soon post some updates 

Thanks!


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## Big Ed

ELRR said:


> Hi,
> thank you all for the nice words, it is really encouraging
> 
> I am finishing my new shed, it should allow me to start a layout of ~4x2.5m L shape, where I plan to place all the stuff I have built so far.
> I have chosen Bethlehem because it is one of the most popular steel mills. I already bought some books on amazon, looking for more details.
> I have to make a lot of sacrifices (budget, space,etc. probably we all know it  ), so I am not absolutely sure I am gonna name it Bethlehem, depends on how close it will come to the original.
> 
> As for the corrugated sheets, they are actually TT scale (1:120), as there is nothing in N (at least not in Slovakia, where I live), they are made by a manufacturer called Sikulove.
> 
> Since it is Easter now and I have some extra time I will soon post some updates
> 
> Thanks!


Bethlehem Steel was an American giant. A lot of things around the states were built with their steel.

By all means put a Bethlehem Steel name on it. Looks good to me. :smilie_daumenpos:

I have some links I will add, has history and pictures, I don't know if you have them.

http://opacity.us/site87_bethlehem_steel_mill.htm

http://www.sitesofnj.com/Bethlehemsteel/BethlehemSteelHistory.html

I guess you saw the wiki?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem_Steel

A few pictures from a guy in my area,
Does great work,
http://www.ronsaari.com/

He took these.


































There are more, like I said I don't know how much info you dug up on them.


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## tjcruiser

EL,

Your mill is spectacular. Excellent piping / gantry work!

TJ


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## broox

tjcruiser said:


> EL,
> 
> Your mill is spectacular. Excellent piping / gantry work!
> 
> TJ


My thoughts exactly!
Great work


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## ELRR

*Blast Furnace update*

Easter is over, and since it has been mostly bad weather with several days having amber warning because of strong winds, I had plenty of time to build, paint, weather. As a result I added 2 electrostatic precipitators, some piping, some gantry, and did some weathering. I ran out of almost all my evergreen stuff, so a short break now 
The pictures:


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## Fire21

That is purely amazing!! All I can say is WOW!! :appl:


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## N-gager

You've do incredable work. Kudos!
Takes me back in time when I used to work at Wheeling-Pitt Steel.


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## ELRR

*Blast Furnace D*

Thanks for the replies, I am glad you like the models 
I am currently working on Blast Furnace D (I think). 
I have spent a lot of time gathering pictures on the net, but I am still missing details of the cast house sides (will have to use my imagination I guess  )
It will be larger than the previous 2, which were mostly based on Furnace A.

Pictures will follow shortly as it takes shape


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## silver69

Excellent work!
You're very talented.


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## ELRR

*Furnace "D" (or C, or E?) completed to a presentable form*

Hi,

been a while, I have been busy with the building of the largest of the furnaces I plan to put on my future layout. I am not sure about the letter, should be "D"....anyway I got the cast house, the furnace, skip hoist, downcomer and dust catcher ready, so here are some pictures...
Still a long way till finished, if the weather keeps staying like this (raining all day) I will manage a lot 





































Also a few pictures "all together"


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## SteveScan

Fantastic work, this looks superb.


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## ELRR

Hi N-gager, 

I am glad you like the buildings, I need some advice, hope you can help me...

I am also planning to build what was I think the blowing engine house (on the right), but I only got some "after closure" picture and I do not know if the large opening in the front was like this always or was there a gate of sorts, that was torn down?










Thanks!


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## tjcruiser

Absolutely superb!!!


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## Fire21

ELRR, your work is outstanding!

I wish I could answer your question about the engine house, but I can't. Good luck!


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## Big Ed

That is the blowing engine house that is pictured.
I would think a lot of heat built up in there that is why it is open?
Maybe it once had sliding doors?

Your plant is looking good.:smilie_daumenpos:

I found this, ( I guess you found this site?)









A copy and paste,

The building next to the furnaces is the blowing engine house. Combustible gases extracted from 
the blast furnaces supplied multi-cylinder combustion engines to supply pressurized air for the 
blast process. The air was preheated in "stoves" which extracted heat from the blast furnace 
exhaust to preheat the air. The hot air was injected low in the furnace via water cooled nozzles. 
Prior to about 1911, steam driven blowing engines were in use. This structure was then built to 
house 17 blowing engines, each about eighty feet in length, to supply over 400,000 cubic feet of air 
per minute. The engine/compressor units had 100 ton flywheels. As of a few years back, twelve of the 
engines are said to remain, and in relatively good condition. We can hope they appear as museum pieces.


Have you seen this site in your searches?
http://www.pbase.com/dw_thomas/beth_steel
I guess this is from the Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, Pa?

Have you kept a price total on the parts your buying to build this?


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## ELRR

*Big thanks to big Ed *

Hi Big Ed, thanks for taking the time and posting all this information, I think it will be really helpful...I am thinking 2 possibilities....I'll put a large sliding door, just as you've mentioned, or keep it open and do the interior as well...might be a nice challenge 

As for the price...I have looked up all my orders on the two e-shops I use, for Evergreen I have spent about 130 Euros, for railings , brick sheets and the corrugated sheets another 120....so the total is about 250 for the 3 furnaces...the body of the cast houses is made of paper my wife brought me from work, it is 2mm thick and very good to work with (you can see it as the base of all buildings)...the furnace body itself is made of plastic yogurt box  

Almost forgot..super glue, paint, weathering powder....make it another 50...not sure as I buy those in hobby shops.


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## rhikdavis

I quit.....wow.


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## ELRR

*Summer time*

Hi,

been a while again since I have posted some pictures, well, summer is here and I spend most of my time on the water...sometimes even my wife joins me 









At least I will post a picture of what I have been doing a few years back...modelling stuff in 3D and I did a nice SD...










Anyway that is all for now, I will be back probably in autumn, hopefully presenting the start of the layout building


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## ELRR

*El gp35*

I know this might not be historically correct but right now this is the only rolling stock I have 
and half a dozen Peco code55 flex track ..all for show only


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## Fire21

My word! That looks so real with that mill sitting in the background. Amazing! :appl:


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## DonR

6612 and his buddy are awesome.

I'll reserve comment on your lady. Anything
I could say would be used against me.

Don


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## ELRR

*Repair shop*

HI,

thanks for the kind words 

I remembered that I did not post pictures of the repair shop I have made earlier (also unfinished - detailing and weathering required).

It is based on the "CRI&P-Rock Island Rail Diesel Repair Shop"


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## Big Ed

Just get the airbrush out and paint them up.


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## ELRR

*Cowper stoves*

Hi all,

been a while, spring is coming and I finally found some time to do some work.
My shed is finished (right now full of rubbish), planning to build the layout base soon.

In the meantime I have done some cowper stoves for my furnaces.

Here is how:

1. Take a few empty bottles of (yes!)Durex massage gel 
2. cut plastic sheets to size to wrap around them.
3. cut a lot of paper to represent the steel plating.


















4. Glue the plating to the plastic sheets and wrap them around the tubes










5. paint and weather them










Here are 4 pcs I have done so far (2 more to go, or 4 - if I go for the A-furnace stoves with the tall pipe-like chimneys)










Hope you like them, once I am done with all, I will start to connect them, do all the piping and stuff....


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## ELRR

*Cowper update*

Hi,

I have done some work on the cowpers from a previous batch for furnace C


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## HO LOVER

Simply amazing work! Love it!


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## ELRR

*1st layout plan*

well....maybe I overshot...quite ambitious...or just call it a mess
I want to make it a switching layout...action is promised that's sure....will take 2 years to buy all that Peco stuff and the accessories 
Eventually I might get rid of the smaller yards and make 1 big one in the middle to server all industries rather than have 1 yard/industry.

Here is the plan...I am ready for the battery


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## Tony35

Just fantastic looking buildings
Job very well done!


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## ELRR

*Furnace C update*

Hi all,

I have decided to go for 'C' for lettering...and done some work by adding cowpers, connecting them via walkways, stairs, ladders.
Also added dust cleaners (or precipitators) to the dust catcher.

More to follow soon...only 2 pictures for now


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## Magic

That is just an amazing piece of work. 
All those ladders and walkways just makes the whole thing super.

Magic


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## silver69

Beautiful work
Thanks for posting

Steve


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## Gramps

WOW!!


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## ELRR

*Furnace C at the finish line*

Hi all,

thanks for the kind words, I am glad you like the buildings.
I have managed to do some work on the largest of the furnaces and she is closing in on the finish line.

Weathering done, cold blast main done, also some ground work.

I will need to add the tracks soon so I can do the ground cover around them as well. I am using brown gravel, simply because I had a bottle opened and did not want to waste it - it is Noch's gravel/ballast and glue in one...does last some 3 months.
I do not really like the colour, want to make it darker...grey would look better...once it hardens I will use weathering powder to make it grey.

Some pictures of the progress





































Here are all the buildings, most of them waiting for the finishing touch 










I have moved everything out into the shed, that's why you see winter tyres and other stuff there as well


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## jargonlet

ELRR said:


> I have moved everything out into the shed, that's why you see winter tyres and other stuff there as well


Looks great. I didn't even notice the tires and had to go back because I didn't remember seeing tires. I was too busy taking in your great work.


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## ELRR

*Furnace A cowper update*

I have updated the cowpers for furnace A with the "chimneys" to make it more prototypical. There is still a lot to do, paint, add walkways, railings, stairs, weather, but I think the base is good.


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## DonR

Truly amazing craftsmanship. It must have been
a labor of love to put in the time for that work.
Building a facility like that is so much of the
enjoyment of our hobby.

You also have a very ambitious yard design. You can't
have too many yard tracks. They fill up all too
quickly with cars, especially if you go to many
train shows.

I note you intend switching sessions. You, of course,
need the yards as you have them. But you also will
need s diverse collection of small businesses that will
need freight service. These spurs, some with more
than one business, are what makes switching challenging
and enjoyable.

Don


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## ELRR

*Thank you DonR*

Thanks for the kind words, you are right I do enjoy the model building very much (except for the piping-that is a real pain  ).

I am not worried about filling up the yards too quickly, I will be happy if I can afford to buy all the tracks within the next 2 years or so + the DCC set + accessories like cabling ground throws, etc...the list goes on and on and on....

We also do not have many train shows and those are local (Central European), not US. I like US trains, because they are massive, impressive diesel electric locomotives with great sound.
We do have some here too..like this russian monster in Bratislava freight yard:






Once I finish the Furnace A cowpers, the plan is to finally prepare the layout table which should be 4x1.1m (appr.13x4ft)
I will try to post some updates this week.


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## ELRR

*Coke works by-products plant update*

I have spent some time on adding some detail to the by-products plant buildings of my coke works based on the Thomas plant.
Not much, but here are some pictures


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## Fire21

Without the blue pad underneath, one could think those are real buildings! :appl:


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## ELRR

*By-products update Pt.2*

Added some more structures and piping...


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## ELRR

*Another furnace C update*

I have done an additl. part to the furnace C cast house..air intake, but no idea what purpose it serves...hints are welcome


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## spookshow

Wow, the amount of detailing is breathtaking. What a masterpiece! 

Cheers,
-Mark


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## Ike8120

Fantastic work


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## DJsTrains

phenomenal work


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## ELRR

*Coke works update*

Done some weathering on the coke works, and added the first few pipes that will connect it to the by-products plant


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## Kloudbuster

ELRR said:


> Done some weathering on the coke works, and added the first few pipes that will connect it to the by-products plant


Wow beautiful work

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk


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## Ike8120

Beautiful work.


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## ELRR

*Power/Gas blowing engine house progress*


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## ELRR

*High line construction progress*


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## ELRR

*Finally!!! Layout table ready, work in progress*

...broken link


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## 89Suburban

Looks great.


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## DJsTrains

phenomenal


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## Shadow001

that is awesome.


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## Nikola

Dayum.


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## Magic

There aren't words to describe just how great this is.
Going to look so fantastic when you get it all put together.
Simply great work.

Magic


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## ELRR

Did not do much work recently, bought some track and some engines, will need a lot of time to collect enough track to be able to do some actual trackwork....


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## Fire21

I bought one of those Rio Grande Alcos, sweet running engine!


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## Magic

Going to put that beautiful steel mill to work. 
Should look fabulous.

Magic


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