I am ready to make the ore piles in my steel mill and would appreciate any methods that my forum friends have used.
I used lumps of expanded foam that I carved into a 'pile' shape and hit with a little red oxide primer then sprinkled some ore-colored scenery stone onto the wet paint.
Hulett_yard by Edmund, on Flickr
PRR_Ore-dock3 by Edmund, on Flickr
They basicallt serve as a 'view break' so I didn't get too concerned about super detailing them. I had access to large chunks of foam used in a machining process but you could stack layers of the insulating foam board or, perhaps, use some of that canned 'Great Stuff' and build a mound out of that then use a Surform rasp to work it into a pile-shape. Shoot the canned foam onto a stiff paper backing or something flat that you can later remove from the layout rather than permanently adhering it to the sub roadbed.
Good Luck, Ed
I made similar but smaller piles for coal. I carved a "volcano" out of foam, painted it black and covered it with artificial coal. In my case, I placed it under a trestle and am able to dump coal from a hopper above, through the hole in the mound and into a box below the layout.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
No experience, but an observation. (or opinion, if you will)
However you make the piles of ore, keep in mind the "angle of repose" issue.
Different materials can only be piled up to a certain level of "steepness".
Piles that are unnaturally steep take away from the illusion our models try to create.
HillyardHowever you make the piles of ore, keep in mind the "angle of repose" issue. Different materials can only be piled up to a certain level of "steepness".
I agree.
The steel plant where I worked was originally using raw iron ore brought-in on lakeboats, but in later years, the ore was delivered in pellet-form, both in boats and in enclosed ore hoppers.Since I was in a rolling mill, I didn't see much of the ore delivery process or of the storage process, either, but here's an aerial photo, with two travelling bridge cranes, which allowed two lakers to be unloaded at the same time.
I won't even attempt to mention which material could be piled higher, but as long as Hamilton Harbour wasn't covered in ice, the ore continued to come.
Wayne
While not ore, I've also made coal with foam cut into slightly different elevations.
Unless you have a lot of cars to fill, perhaps purchase some ballast iron ore?
I once, long ago, did some field work at a steel mill. As I recall the angle of repose for iron ore pellets was about 1 in 4 or 25%. Other materials were slightly steeper.