Steel Mills

[Anonymous]

Could someone direct me to on-line sites with info on steel mills. I'm looking for exterior and interior pictures, general knowledge on the functions of furnaces, hearths, rolling mills etc.

[dknelson]

I know of no websites (I am sure there are some) but I strongly advise finding a copy of the book Dean Freytag wrote for Walthers on the making of steel. It has all the information and pictures you want. It is out of print but I see copies sold at swap meets and suspect Ebay has some as well.
Dave Nelson

[coalminer3]

See the thread "Operation Ideas" on this forum. It has some more information.

Here are some other books (you can interlibrary loan them - saves having to pay max price for stuff you might not want to keep.)

United States Steel Corp. Steel Making in America (1949) Most recent technology discussed in this book is electric furnace and a continuous hot strip mill - neat b&w pictures.

AIME. History of Iron and Steelmaking in the United States (1961) Again some good information.

US Steel Corp. Making, Shaping and Treating of Steel (Monstrous technical book, but some good information. This went through many editions - my copy has a red cover.

If you want to build a Bessemer converter in your back yard (the noise will keep the neighbors awake, for sure!) check out. LaVerne W. Spring's book Non-Technical Chats on Iron and Steel. This was written in 1917, but r/p by Lindsay Publications in 1992. This one is worht hunbting down for the material on Hulett unloaders alone.

Also, Pentrex did a tape on Pittsburgh not too long ago that has archival and contemporary footage of the Edgar Thompson Works - neat stuff - some the work practices shown will sacre the !@#$% out of you!

The Walther's book mentioned above will give you some basic information on BOF processes, etc. which will round out the stuff I mentioned above.

American Association for State and Local History has published different books relating the history of steel towns. The best thing on the decline of the industry and what happened after is a book called And the Wolf Finally Came.

Check out websites related to Lake Boats and also different historical sites such as Buffaloworks. You'll be pleasantly surprised at the pictures, etc. you can discover.

Folks who work in steel were (and are) a special breed; my father-in-law worked at Beth's Lackawanna plant for years. I told him I didn't want his job, and he didn't want mine either (LOL)

Hope this helps.

work safe

[dehusman]

The Yahoo Groups forums has one that deals with the steel making industry.

[DTomajko]

I picked up a VHS tape at AB Charles hobby shop in Pittsburgh called "Hot Metal" that shows many video and still views of working & closed mills in Minnesota,Ohio,Pennsylvania,Indiana,and other states.It is produced by Prairie Works Productions,6300 Sequoia Circle,Eden Prairie,MN,55346 www.prairie-works.com The tape cost me $19.95. Trains also offers a VHS tape titled "Making & Moving Steel on the Rails",which I believe is still available.I thought both tapes were very informative.You also might get a copy of Dean Freytag's recent book;"The Cyclopedia of Industrial Modeling" from Highland Stations Publishing,2600 S.Parker Rd.,Suite 1-211,Aurora,Co. 80014-1601 or www.modelrailroadingmag.com.It contains many modeling projects invovling steel mills and supporting operations.I also agree that the Walther's book is an excellent source.Good luck and good modeling.

[Anonymous]

An interesting idea I've had for modelling steel works: Fit a glowing light inside your hot metal cars as described in MR recently, and fit a Function-only DCC decoder to control the light - you shunt the car under the furnace, turn the light on, and pull the car back out "loaded". Just thought I'd pass it on as I don't have a model steelworks (as yet).

[Pennsy58]

A newer book out called the Union RR in color has plenty of pictures of operations near and in steel mills in Pittsburgh. I have found it useful in viewing the buildings, color schemes for them etc. Also, try the www.railpictures.net site. Look up the Union rr and there are some pictures around the steel plants.

[ndbprr]

I've spent my career in the steel industry and will try to be brief
Blast furnace and direct reduction furnace convert ore to iron
Open hearth, basic oxygen, Argon Oxygen Decarburization, electric furnaces convert iron and steel scrap to various grades of steel
Slab millconverts ingots to slabs (10-20" thick)
Hot strip mill converts heated slabs to hot rolled coils also called hot bands and green coils
Cold strip mill converts COLD hot rolled coils to thinner coils
Anneal furnaces remove the cold working at the cold strip mill
temper mills put some of the cold working back in if required for strength
galavnize lines coat with Zinc, aluminum
Any specific questions ask away.

[preceng]

Got one ndbprr. I am modeling a Walthers blast furnace at one end of a 2.5'x5' space on my layout. I only have room for one other facility at the other end. I have multiple tracks between the two ends. The between area is also my primary switching area. I have a crossing track that brings coal from a mine at a different location (no room for a coking plant) to the rear or the blast furnace. I have aquired several switchers. hot metal cars and slag cars for the furnace. I am wondering what type of facility you would recommend for at the other "hot steel delivery" end of the area?

I have been reading alot and have realized I do not have the room for all of the correct structures I would like. I have been lookin at the rolling mill, and some flat cars, gondolas, etc forthe finished steel. Is this close enough, or is Mr. Carnegie roling over?

Thanks

[ndbprr]

Sorry to not respond sooner but I was out of town. Since you have a blast furnace the only product it produces is molten iron. Slag cars are not used at blast furnaces as the quantity is too large. There are two huge rectangular areas that the slag flows into at all but one furnace that I know of. One pit is being filled for about a week at a time while the other one is being dug out by a front end loader and transported away by Euclid dump trucks to a slag processing area. So the only cars that you need are the hot metal bottle cars. They would be going to one of the various melt shops that convert the iron to steel. Armco steel actually ran a hot metal train from Ashland Kentucky to Middletown Ohio for awhile which took about a day to get there. I might suggest that the Walthers blast furnace is an extremely small version that would have been phased out many years ago. It would make an excellent cupola furnace for a foundry however. That would add much more variety as a variety of castings both small and large could be cast in the foundry and transported by box car and flat car dependent on size. You would also need deliveries of foundry sand for making molds, alloy agents, scrap, pig iron, fuel (coal or pipelined gas or oil), Patterns and lots of castings lying around. That would increase your car selection considerably

[preceng]

Thanks for the guidance. hope you had I good trip.