I too have the Walthers Steel Mill series on preorder. Really excited too.
My plan is to build the steel mill in a room next to my main layout room (hole through wall). This room is 9x12 and its barely big enough for what I want.
For the Basic Oxygen Furnace I will use the rolling mill building, and add some exhaust stacks on the roof.
Here is my plan, maybe it will give you some ideas.
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
Mike Rabbit's plans are currently not available. Mike is dealing with some old age serious health issues and his plans will eventually be available from another source. The Walthers Steel book is a great start to getting some ideas on building a mill. One thing to consider is modeling just one part or process of a mill. What kind of rr traffic are you looking for or enjoy ? --- Ken
Hi,
I bought plans from and followed a fellow by the name of Mike Rabbitt.
http://www.phillynmra.org/archives/layout/mike-rabbitt-lake-erie-mad-river
There were some steel mill modeler special interest groups for a while but I do not know if they are still active. Some sites and links are old and orphaned.
http://daveayers.com/Modeling/SteelModelSupplies.htm
I got on the Walther's steel mill train during the first go-around.
E_furnace2 by Edmund, on Flickr
As in any model scene quite a bit has to be compressed but you can get the feel for the steel industry by using background structures and a slight scaling-down of the prototype scale of things.
IMG_6723_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
IMG_6720 by Edmund, on Flickr
Good Luck, Ed
Evening
I have the Steel Series on preorder and I am pretty excited. Looking for some trackplan ideas. I have the MR Steel book and D Freytags book and some decent ideas in there but looking to see if anyone knows of some other decent layouts to study.
My space is tbd as we are moving in May...probably looking at a shelf type layout in the range of 16' long.
I appreciate any insights
Thanks Dave