the steel industry and railroads

[Anonymous]

Some here may be familiar with the late Illinois Terminal, and the late Laclede Steel(now Alton Steel Inc.) in Alton, IL. Well, yesterday at the train shop down in Alton I picked up a 42' Red Caboose IT flatcar, and the idea developed that I should put a steel load on this car to show the IT's connections with the steel mill. The old Laclede mill made hot-rollod bars, steel strip, plate steel and wire according to www.steelnews.com. First off, what do these different products look like ( except for the wire, if you were a m-rr and didn't know what wire looked like... sheesh![;)]), and what would be carried on a flatcar?

Then in last September's Trains magazine, what's this about the steel industry "hardly knowing the railroads" anymore?

Thanks in advance,
Christopher

[Anonymous]

Cjm89,

"Laclede mill made hot-rollod bars, steel strip, plate steel and wire"

Hot rolled steel has a dark gray, dark blue gray, or light gray look to it. Cold rolled steel strip and plate generally has been oiled to protect. CRS would look steel colored to blackish. The bar stock would come in almost any size and shape, squares, strips, angles, channels, I beams, rods, zees, etc. Plate could be any width or length and generally was called plate when the thickness reached 1/8th inch thick or so. Please take what I have said here as simply general information.

Before any of ya'll want to argue with me about the above, know that I spent 25 years owning my own tool and die & metal stamping business and that I grew up in a family of Tool & Die makers. So, I know from wence I speak!

[Eriediamond]

Well Christopher, I'll try to answer you here. Hot rolled bars are made from an ingot that is heated close but not to the melting point, then run through a set of rollers resulting in a long bar then sheared to various lengths. Steel strip is steel that is rolled to long strips of various thicknesses and rolled up into a coil, somewhat like a roll of tape. Plate steel is steel that is rolled to various thicknesses and cut into large rectangular plates of different sizes. Steel is still hauled by railroads in covered coil cars to other steel mills where it is made into structural steel ( I-beams and the like). I'm an over the road trucker (flat bed and low boy and drop decks) and I haul a lot of steel and steel products. Several reasons present themselves for the decline of the railroads hauling steel. Manufactures no longer warehouse materials like they did a few years ago and depend on swift on time deliveries. A manufacturer in Oklahoma City needs a shipment of steel. He calls the mill in Norfolk, Ne. to order it. A truck can pick it up the same day and have it at his door step the next day. Most steel has to be hauled protected from the elements. Again, flat bed trucks and tarps. You can't haul 40x8 foot slabs or bars in box cars. Granted some is hauled in covered gondolas, but again, time dictates trucks. Also manufacturers are moveing and new ones are building in the smaller towns in rural areas not served by railroads. Hope this helps, Ken Also want to add that cold rolled steel does have an oil film on it like dcshane stated and it does somewhat prevent it from rusting but the main reason for the oil film is from the rolling process. The extreme pressures between the steel and the rollers require this lubrication during the rolling. Cold rolling also produces a better grade steel then hot rolling.