A steel Mill Complex

[switchman]

I have an area on my DCC N Scale layout that is 18 inches wide and 3.75 feet long. 

I was planning on useing it for a steel mill complex. But I'm not sure of how to design it for the most effectiveness.  

I've thought of a combination of several Walthers kits, the Rolling Mill, Blast Furnace, Electric Furnace, and the Coke Oven.  

Will they fit in the area I have available and if so how?  

If this Is this two much for that space,  what ones would you use?  or what ones would you leave out   

Any and all advice/suggestions are welcomed.

Thanks

Ron 

[chadw]

A steel mill would take up a huge space to even look plausible so if you want one in that small of a space the way I would do it is to give the mill its own private railroad and model the interchange yard.  Then extend a track under some pipes or behind a building and into a staging yard inside a larger structure like a rolling mill or blowerhouse.  If you had enough space you could model a few of the buildings as well and use background flats and photo backdrops to suggest a larger mill.

[Anonymous]

Yer going to have a holding yard that serves the plant. The plant itself will probably be on a photo realistic back drop print.

You probably can put half a structure here and there for coil cars to go under to be loaded.

I once planned a steel complex based on my experiences in trucking and it bloated to 20x40 feet and still wasnt enough to get it all in.

[SpaceMouse]

Here's Ken Larson's rendition. I hope he doesn't mind. It is HO scale and the slides are from his NMRA presentation.  Keep in mind it's only a small portion of a steel complex. One near my house is about 3 miles long had has about 20 tracks side by side. So an N-scale layout modeling that steel mill would be 99 feet long. 

[switchman]

Thanks all for the information. It is a help to me.

SpaceMouse The pictures are great as well as your sites. I enjoyed the visit.

See ya

Ron 

[spearo]

Ron,

A steel mill in your available space is do-able, tight but, do-able.  You might want to think mini-mill.  You could get a way with an arc furnace w/ associated scrap yard, rolling mill w/ ingot storage yard and a loading/unloading area.  I wouldn't think integrated mill as there are a lot more buildings that go int one of those.

My layout is an integrated mill and is 5' x 24' and still not big enough to fit all that I wanted.  There is enough info on the net to keep you at your computer for years just pouring over all of it. Google "mini mill, steel" and you'll see what I'm talking about.  I could read this stuff all day.

[steinjr]

 

chadw

A steel mill would take up a huge space to even look plausible so if you want one in that small of a space the way I would do it is to give the mill its own private railroad and model the interchange yard.  Then extend a track under some pipes or behind a building and into a staging yard inside a larger structure like a rolling mill or blowerhouse.  If you had enough space you could model a few of the buildings as well and use background flats and photo backdrops to suggest a larger mill.

 Saw a cool mill built on that principle, and using various cool things (like shampoo bottles) to create the background structures on this forum: http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=551&p=14893

 Smile,
 Stein

 

[rclanger]

Ron,

I would use the building dimensions for the structures you would like to use to create a mockup.  Place the mockups around the available space.  Pin some track down too.

Live with it for a while, then move it around until you get an arrangement that you think will work.

[MStLfan]

Ron,

A couple of years ago Jim Hediger, MR's senior editor, did an article about how he modeled the steel industry on his Ohio southern layout. Check it out in the magazine database. If I remember correctly he modeled it as flats against one of the short wall of his basement.

I think you do not need both an arc furnace and a blast furnace.

Also, the rolling mills are particularly long. Instead of modeling the lenght of the building, why not model the width? Saves on space.

Bernard Kempinski modeled a steel mill against the backdrop on his previous layout. There were pictures  published about it but I have to look it up in which Kalmbach publication it was published, probably Model Railroad Planning or Great Modelrailroads.

And lastly, check out this webpage: 

http://www.peachcreekshops.com/page.php?id=steel&UID=2009040410133180.101.94.221

edit: found this too:

http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=566

http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=719

http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=720

The size of the buildings relative to some other objects in the pictures may come as a shock.