# Steel Mill Modeling



## sliderule01 (Dec 3, 2016)

I happen to like steel mills - I worked on the melt shop floor of a blast furnace and on an open hearth as a late teen while working through college for my degree in metallurgy. That said, I would love to model a steel mill - 1910-1930 era. The mixture of steam and steel is calling me. I would like to do it in S. Doing research, I found the following site that shows a lot of steel mills, blast furnaces and associated railcars and track used for steel mills. The website is:

http://digital.hagley.org/islandora/object/islandora:2196803

Just thought I would share it...


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## Nikola (Jun 11, 2012)

I think that modeling that would be awesome with a great opportunity for mechanical detail, weathering and so on. Definitely do it!


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## sliderule01 (Dec 3, 2016)

I keep going back to the steel mill and blast furnace. I have found lots of layouts showing the open hearth, blast furnace and associated rails to feed the beast. There are lots of rolling stock to feed the mill, but no rolling stock in S that is particular to steel mill operation - like torpedo cars, ladle cars, ingot cars, and associated other specialized rolling stock. 

I am also concerned about size - a typical modern blast furnace is 128' tall, or 24+" tall, or an area of 400 feet or 75" - and that is just for a single blast furnace. Looking at some open hearth furnaces and it keeps getting larger and larger....However there is a huge amount of switching opportunities. Trying a reasonable way to cut the size down. The Walthers HO kit is 60% of true HO - I am wondering if 60% would look reasonable in S. Unfortunately there are no S kits. 

My son has a 3D printer. I have found lots of drawings of associated equipment on the blast furnace and open hearth as well as ancillary equipment....It looks like I will be spending a lot of time drafting.

I have even found typical mill layouts with track for even a modest layout...I might try putting something together as a computer trial...


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## NH Bill (Apr 14, 2017)

*Thanks for the link!*

Thanks for the pointer. This looks like a very valuable resource for steel mill and shipyard research.


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