ironworks

[smart]

THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP.

[concretelackey]

Cornwall Iron Furnance on Google will be the best place to start. It is a foundry. There are pictures galore on this site and others.

There are those industries that generate raw metals.

There are those that process this raw metal into semi finished form.

And those that take this semi finished metals and make something for people to use.

A foundry such as Cornwall takes the following recipie:

 

15 bushel Charcoal

400-500 pounds of ore

30-40 pounds of limestone

Every half hour.

24/7.

 

And the furnance is tapped about twice a day I believe and the molten iron pours into the sand molds below.

 

My figures are to be taken with a grain of salt, shaking the dark corners of the internet until the little pearls of wisdom fell out with this information took some research.

Cornwall is a site to behold, or at least it was about 20 years ago when I was there.......

Just thought of something odd, I live less than 15 minutes from there but yet 20 years since my visit......

[dehusman]

What era are you interested in and waht type of ironworks?

A furnace or a foundry?

SE of Alburtis PA is the Lock Ridge Furnace, a historical site of a furnace that operated through WW1.

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=18&X=2248&Y=22421&W=1&qs=%7cAlburtis%7cPA%7c

The "dots" are pilings that supported tracks that dumped the raw materials into storage areas.  The furnance is the C shaped building.  The corners are were the two furnaces were, the center is where the boiler/powerhouse/blowers were and the horizontal portions were the cast houses where pig iron and castings were made.  the former P&R railroad runs diagonally across the picture.  The areas to the south and east are slag piles.

Dave H.

[tomikawaTT]

Some companies with Iron Works in their names are somewhat deceptive.  For one example, the best-known products of the Bath Iron Works are ships - specifically, U.S. Navy destroyers.

OTOH, I bet they receive plenty of their raw materials by rail.

They actually deliver partially by rail.  The completed ship is moved from the assembly shed onto the floating drydock (that actually launches it) on a cradle supported by a hundred or so standard freight trucks rolling on standard gauge rails.  The connections between the drydock and the mainland are more than a little reminiscent of the connections between N-track modules.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[ndbprr]

there are a couple of ways to do this.  Traditional would use a cupola furnace (the Walthers blast furnace is an ideal size) that would cast iron on a timed basis into a ladle that would then pour into the various molds.  It shouldn't be too hard to cobble one up to fit your scene. A modern plant would probably use electric or induction melting in smaller quantities and pour from a crucible which is a smaller ladle.  In either event you would need a source of iron scrap or pigs from an iron source.  often steel mills have a pig machine that makes the iron pigs when they can't use all the capacity off their blast furnace.  these are shipped in gondolas and are unloaded with a magnet.  You will need covered hoppers with casting sand (today styrofaom molds are prevalent and the sand is slung around them).  indoor and outdoor storage for castings and a loading dock to load them in box cars for shipment.  some will be in crates and some will be big enough to be skid mounted.  Woodland Scenics used to  have castings as one of their packages that are ideal.  Don;t knowif they are still available.  I've had mine for years.  so you will need a scrap or pig track and a crane for unloading.  A sand track to  sand storage and drying and a shipping track.  they could be linear though.  if so I would put the scrap at the back followed by the sand station and the building in the front.  getting product shipped takes priority unless the space dictates another arrangment.

[dehusman]

Look in the Historic American Engineering Record in the Library of Congress site.  They have photos, maps, building plans, etc, etc.  WONDERFUL resource.  Searchable.  Try several variations of ironworks (iron works, iron mill, iron foundry, etc).

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/habs_haer/

Dave H.

[Anonymous]

Cornwall Iron Furnance on Google will be the best place to start. It is a foundry. There are pictures galore on this site and others.

There are those industries that generate raw metals.

There are those that process this raw metal into semi finished form.

And those that take this semi finished metals and make something for people to use.

A foundry such as Cornwall takes the following recipie:

 

15 bushel Charcoal

400-500 pounds of ore

30-40 pounds of limestone

Every half hour.

24/7.

 

And the furnance is tapped about twice a day I believe and the molten iron pours into the sand molds below.

 

My figures are to be taken with a grain of salt, shaking the dark corners of the internet until the little pearls of wisdom fell out with this information took some research.

[smart]

casting company

[MisterBeasley]

Take a look at the latest Model Railroader magazine.  There's a nice layout based around an early 20th century foundry.  If you're looking for something more modern, you probably should be looking for steelworks instead of ironworks.

[ndbprr]

What kind of ironworks? A foundry, casting company, machine shop, wrought iron ornamental company.  there are lots of options.

[smart]

I want to build a  ironworks . I started looking for pictures ,could not find any. Does any one know were to look?thanks.