O-gauge steel mill plant kit

[NYC Train Nut]

Does anybody know if there is an O-gauge kit for a steel mill?  I'd like to add one to honor the Lackawanna, NY steel mills but am having trouble finding one.

The closest I can find is an HO kit called the "Ashland Blast Furnace" by Walthers (Model # 933-2973).  I'm considering raising the base as an optical illusion (make it look taller than the accessories in front of it) and modifying the overhang/pillars to enable trains to pull up next to the plant.

Thanks!

[Train-O]

NYC Train Nut,

Have you thought of using the HO kit in a distant, background valley scene?

Ralph

[NYC Train Nut]

Ralph,

That's kind of the plan.  It will be behind a few other accessories, specifically the Lionel culvert loader, Lionel oil derrick, Lionel 153 crane, and American Flyer oil drum loader.

It's also pretty tight, as I've tried to maintain the layout depth no more than ~40" deep to enable easy access along the entire span (~24').  In order to maintain the spacing, I will probably have to remove some of the back of the model to make it fit.  In that sense, maybe I'm lucky there is no O-gauge alternative.

Thanks!

[kpolak]

You may have better luck and save some $$$ by scratch building a structure.  Evergreen, in addition to other styrene manufacturers manufacture a variety of steel 'I' and 'H' shapes.

The structure isn't very complicated, and if you look for a recent thread reguarding an Engine Shed, creating corrugated metal siding isn't all that difficult.  OTOH, if you are planning to model an earlier Scranton Iron Furnace, (photo below) it can be accomplished by scoring, and cutting extruded (blue) insulation board.

So you can build what you want, and get it to the size you need, especially when pairing between a very large culvert loader, and a smaller scale crane.

Please ask if you have questions about fabricating piping, parts, or whatever, as there are quite a few skilled modellers here.  Love to see how your build progresses!

Kurt