I've seen a few videos of private rail company's running a steel mill and was curious to know, what tasks the railroad do for the steel mill? By that I mean, how does the railroad operate the steel mill and what freight is being imported and what is being exported from the mill? Overall, a railroad steel mill seems like a pretty cool sight to see.
Kalmbach has a book on steel mills. https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/book/12435
Think about how they make steel, they need coke and iron ore, they melt down scrap steel, they make steel in big coils and slabs that has to be moved out of the mill to a holding track somewhere. There are specialized cars that move molten steel around. They probably use liquid oxygen too.
There have been other threads on steel mills so you might take a look at the pictures in those to get ideas. They take up a lot of MR real estate, so you may want to consider that before you dive in.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Railroads bring the raw materials to the steel mill, they take away the products to the steel mill's customers. Inside the plant they move the raw materials to the places they are needed, then move the intermediate products of the various steps betwen the parts of the mill. Iron ore, scrap, pig iron, limestone, coal, coke all go in, molten iron, pig iron, ingot molds, steel ingots, flux steel billets get moved around inside the mill, steel plate, pipe, rolled shapes, ingot, billets, bars, coil steel, scrap, slag get shipped out.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Basic oxygen furnaces blow oxygen at supersonic speeds into the molton metal to burn off the excess carbon and burn out the impurites into slag. They would have an oxygen plant, either of their own or woned y a company the makes it for them. They also have to move raw steel ingots and slabs to the mills for finishing. I model a steel mill and it is a job for one person just to run the mill trains.
Thank you for your very detailed description.
There are some photos HERE of some of the locomotives used at the steel plant were I worked for almost 40 years, and more information and pictures of some of the operations and specialised rolling stock used can be found HERE.
Here's a photo I took looking in the south door of the soaking pit area of the USM (Universal Slabbing Mill) - that mill was the main user of the high-riser cars shown in my second link...
There's also a roster of the plant's locomotives at the bottom of that second link.
Wayne
I have collected lots of reference books on steel mills. One that I highly recommend is called the Making, Shaping and Treating of Steel published by the U.S. Steel Co. Over a thousand pages, many drawings and some photos.
Copies can be found on the used book circuit or ebay for a very reasonable cost.
For instance:
https://tinyurl.com/y9h74b8j
or this,
https://tinyurl.com/y8w7zm2z
It is an excellent resource for an "inside look" at steel production.
Regards, Ed
gmpullman...One that I highly recommend is called the Making, Shaping and Treating of Steel published by the U.S. Steel Co. Over a thousand pages, many drawings and some photos....
When I bought my copy, it was over $100.00, which, at the time, was more than a week's wages. Lots of good b&w photos, though, and good info on many of the processes in use up to that time.Working in the steel industry, especially in a large facility, you don't always know all that much about what goes on before it gets to your particular area, and what goes on after it leaves. I did work in several areas of the plant, but it was a large, integrated steel works (over 1100 acres), which made a myriad of products. They also had other operations in Ontario and in other provinces, too.
Thank you for the links and for your assistance. I will check out those links.