Steel mill building needed

[Anonymous]

My son and I are building a steel mill on our HO layout. We are looking for the Walthers Electric Furnace building #933-3056 that was discountinued several years ago. Does anyone have one that they would like to sell or know of a hobby shop that has one? We are trying to build a BOF (Basic Oxygen Furnace). Any other suggestions if we can't find the 3056??

Peter Arnold

[ndbprr]

I have spent my career in the steel industry and find most of the buildings to be far smaller than anything currently in use. a modern rolling mill is over 3/4 of a mile long and a BOF is generally 300' high by about 1/4 mile long. That being said one can be modeled very easily if rather than the long side is modeled model the ends of the building. That way you can give the impression of massiveness without the real estate issues being involved. All BOF's are modern buidlings dating from the late 1960's and forward through about the 1980's. None have been built since that time so you will want to make a rectangular end using steel or corrugated siding. It should be a straight sided buidling with a couple of doors in the end for either hot metal and scrap entry or ingot and/or slab removal if modeling the pouring side. the roof should have huge fresh air monitors that are basically a comma with a flat side on it and a mirror image on the other side. The old Inland Steel company in East Chicago Indiana (now ISPAT and soon to be another name) is a perfect steel mill to model. It is tangential to the old NYC mainline with four tracks and several of the finishing mill ends face the tracks. Everyone has a curving entry track into the each mill and every end wall say's somthing like 28" mill, tubing mill, slab mill, etc. Take a look at the steel mill building that Plastruct offers. In my opinion a much better representation and much more believebale than anything Walthers offers in that line. The other advantage is they make an excellent backdrop leaving more space for trains. The Walthers blast furnace is at best a 1920's vintage size and on a modern railroad would make an excellent kitbash for a foundry furnace used to melt cast iron. Numerous castings could be lying about and flats and box cars could be astted for product shipment.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your input! I was considering the Plastruct "Steel Mill Fakefront " #1030; if that is what you are referring to. I thought about combining it with one of the larger Walthers building like #3055 Tri-State Power Authority to make a BOF larger. And using it against the wall is a good idea.

Peter