Greetings fellow Model Railroader's.
My title may seem odd but let me explain. When I was a teenager there was a local scrap yard that help feed the steel mill. Gulf States Steel in Gadsden,Ala. The scrap yard was in Attalla,Ala a few miles away. Both were served by Southern & later Norfolk Southern.
To feed the hungry BOF required a steady stream of incoming scrap loads from Culps Iron & Scrap in Attalla,Ala. Not all the scrap came from Culps but quite a bit did.
In the early 90's Gulf States Steel shutdown,later Culps did also. Both gave me and my friends many hours of watching the goings on of both in the late 80's.
I always wondered what would have happened if the managed to stay operating. Hence my idea for a layout. Culps was an interesting place. Material handlers,friction cranes with electro magnets and the shear. Dangerous place inside the fence but we had a makeshift platform to peer over the fence. Giving us a clear view.
Spent many hours watching this place when it was alive with activities. Which gave me ideas to model.
So my current layout depicts Culps feeding a mini mill BOF. Everything for the most part has to be scratch built. Not a problem just time consuming. I've scratch built/bashed four material handlers, shredder,feeder aprone,two Kress carriers (currently building a slag pot gantry crane)and countless other machines.
A "what if" is starting to materialize in HO scale.
I have to build most everything first before figuring out where to place each piece.
Pictures soon...
Do you model anything from your hometown ?
Fear an Ignorant Man more than a Lion- Turkish proverb
Modeling an ficticious HO scale intergrated Scrap Yard & Steel Mill Melt Shop.
Southland Industrial Railway or S.I.R for short. Enterchanging with Norfolk Southern.
Sounds like an interesting project, and likely less space-consuming than an integrated steel works.
dragonriversteel...Do you model anything from your hometown?
Several of my industries are named for real ones in my hometown, but only a couple of them bear any resemblance at all to their prototypes. Others are named for friends, or for real industries located elsewhere. As on many layouts, most would be too small to require rail service in real life....but then, my towns are only a few feet apart, and I don't find it at all difficult to suspend my sense of scale to make things work.
Wayne
There's an operating scrap yard in my ex-home town, Indiana, PA. It has rail service and everything. You should be able to get a good picture on Google maps.
Edit: The name of the company is Kovalchick Corporation. The rail seems to be gone now, haven given way to a convention center. However, about 10 years ago, they brought in a huge crane for The B&P railroad and made B&P pay for new rails. Anyway, the place still looks active--just not with rail service. Look closely, you'll see that the yard is now scattered in a patchwork over several blocks.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
My layout is a "kind of", and "what if" the WC (Wisconsin Central) was still around, but spun off some local areas, allowing short lines to take up the slack.
I would like to see what photos you have, but, your non-working link in your signature goes to a "never loading" photobucket page.
Mike.
My You Tube
I went to this grade school in my home town.
Here is my rendition on my layout. Not perfect, but it works for me.
doctorwayne Sounds like an interesting project, and likely less space-consuming than an integrated steel works. dragonriversteel ...Do you model anything from your hometown? Several of my industries are named for real ones in my hometown, but only a couple of them bear any resemblance at all to their prototypes. Others are named for friends, or for real industries located elsewhere. As on many layouts, most would be too small to require rail service in real life....but then, my towns are only a few feet apart, and I don't find it at all difficult to suspend my sense of scale to make things work. Wayne
dragonriversteel ...Do you model anything from your hometown?
Yes,quite a bit smaller. My previous steel mill layout,the BOF took all the real estate. This time much smaller footprint same type of building. More on that build later.
That's the beauty of model railroading. Friends and places remembered. Thanks for chiming in Wayne.
SpaceMouse There's an operating scrap yard in my ex-home town, Indiana, PA. It has rail service and everything. You should be able to get a good picture on Google maps. Edit: The name of the company is Kovalchick Corporation. The rail seems to be gone now, haven given way to a convention center. However, about 10 years ago, they brought in a huge crane for The B&P railroad and made B&P pay for new rails. Anyway, the place still looks active--just not with rail service. Look closely, you'll see that the yard is now scattered in a patchwork over several blocks.
Hi Chip,
Thank you for the info. Might incorporate some other places into my mill.
mbinsewi My layout is a "kind of", and "what if" the WC (Wisconsin Central) was still around, but spun off some local areas, allowing short lines to take up the slack. I would like to see what photos you have, but, your non-working link in your signature goes to a "never loading" photobucket page. Mike.
My Photobucket link doesn't work. Just uploaded two photos of my Kress carriers to Flickr. Can't figure out how to link them to MR.
If you really want to see them. Hop on Flickr, type Kress carrier on search bar. Lookie for the yellow monstrosity. Click on that photo. Then Plumpy2009 for the other photo of the Kress carrier modelled after Phoenix Slag scrap box carrier.
If you wouldn't mind. Please post both photos for others to view. Have a tough time posting photos myself.
Thanks for chiming in Mike.
SouthPenn I went to this grade school in my home town. Here is my rendition on my layout. Not perfect, but it works for me.
That's a fine job and exactly what I was talking about. Little bits and pieces of memories made into whimsical structures fondly remembered.
Great job South Penn.
OK, I'll try it.
https://flic.kr/p/24pdQk8
I guess I don't know how to use flicker either. I have an account, just don't know how to share pics.
The link works. I'll ad a couple more links.
https://flic.kr/p/GgkwYy
I'll have to figure out how flikr works.
EDIT: Now the top link doesn't work. Now I got.
dragonriversteelIf you really want to see them. Hop on Flickr, type Kress carrier on search bar. Lookie for the yellow monstrosity. Click on that photo. Then Plumpy2009 for the other photo of the Kress carrier modelled after Phoenix Slag scrap box carrier. If you wouldn't mind. Please post both photos for others to view. Have a tough time posting photos myself.
It's like a treasure hunt
No idea which yellow vehicle is the yellow monstrosity and the likely suspects don't seem to be shareable. Here is the one you built
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I guess I'll have to read up on how to use Flickr. I've have an account that I never use.
The first link in my post above, is another model he built.
The second link is what Henry posted.
Although not a model of a scrap yard supplying a steel plant, I always thought that what's left of the old Kaiser Steel plant (now California Steel Industries) in Fontana, California would make a great layout! So much to model on just a single property!
Hornblower
Interesting post! In the early 80's, I worked in the rail yard of a big steel mill outside of Pittsburgh (J&L Aliquippa Works) stretched for 5-7 miles along the Ohio River) where scrap was handled (for the BOF, as you describe; each scrap "drag" of 7 (?) cars had to have a particular mix of scrap types) as well as prime steel was handled: ingots were stored for future rolling or milling, and steel "rounds" were transferred from in-house rail cars (no air brakes) to different gons for shipment to other mills in the corporation (Indiana or Ohio mostly).
We had one locomotive and I think 6 locomotive rail cranes (two American hydralics and four diesel-electrics, I think), a five track yard (dual ladders) and. There was also a huge overhead gantry crane (the "skullbreaker") that broke up the worn-out ingot molds (more scrap), as well as "beds" where recently made steel was scrapped (I think the metalurgy didn't work out so the whole "heat"--200 tons--would be scrapped). That was done by guys in heavy suits with cutting lances. So these billets and blooms had to be off-loaded by a crane crew and then the cut-up pieces reloaded.
They made this kid (me) a foreman and I had 3-4 two-man crews (engineer/operator and conductor) to supervise each shift. Daylight had a locomotive crew and 3 crane crews, other shifts had all crane crews unless they gave me four crews on midnight and I had a crew do some switching.
Yikes, some days I'd be laughing like a hyena at what was going on and other days end up in shouting matches. Good education, but I'm glad I only spent a year doing it.
There was a local railroad company (the "Aliquippa and Southern" or A&S) that handled traffic between the mainline (Pittsburgh and Lake Erie RR) and the mill. I had to deal with the clerk for that RR in my end of the mill, and the numerous unionized guys working for that RR. I learned to ask nicely for favors.
I'm not going to model that mill but one in my hometown, but I'm going to include some of these rail yard activities that I know about. Wow, you got my mind going thinking about that stuff. Slag handling, different road gons could go only certain places, I learned the hard way about "cross-coupling" and tore up a couple hundred feet of track; I once slipped and fell off a moving locomotive. I prefer the 1:87 ones now!
Mark
Nice job on the Kress Carrier!
At the plant where I worked, they were used mostly for carrying slabs and slagpots. I'm not sure, but they might have used them for coils, too. The BOFs there used mostly hot metal, tranferred from the blast furnace in torpedo cars. The steel went directly to a continuous caster, via overhead crane.They were still using some specialised rail cars for slabs when I retired, and I think that most of their 29 diesel locomotives are gone, too.
There's some more information on the plant HERE.
Spacemouse said "The name of the company is Kovalchick Corporation"
Is that the Kovalchicks that own the East Broad Top railroad?
SouthPennIs that the Kovalchicks that own the East Broad Top railroad?
The very same, I believe.
Thank you Henry.
hornblower Although not a model of a scrap yard supplying a steel plant, I always thought that what's left of the old Kaiser Steel plant (now California Steel Industries) in Fontana, California would make a great layout! So much to model on just a single property!
Yes very interesting to model that outfit. Those U30C's painted in Kaiser steel colors. Which reminds me. Model Railroader's Magazine did a whole series on building a small portion of Kaiser Steel. Really great article and nicely modelled.
I hope it inspires you to take that modeling on.
S and C Branch Interesting post! In the early 80's, I worked in the rail yard of a big steel mill outside of Pittsburgh (J&L Aliquippa Works) stretched for 5-7 miles along the Ohio River) where scrap was handled (for the BOF, as you describe; each scrap "drag" of 7 (?) cars had to have a particular mix of scrap types) as well as prime steel was handled: ingots were stored for future rolling or milling, and steel "rounds" were transferred from in-house rail cars (no air brakes) to different gons for shipment to other mills in the corporation (Indiana or Ohio mostly). We had one locomotive and I think 6 locomotive rail cranes (two American hydralics and four diesel-electrics, I think), a five track yard (dual ladders) and. There was also a huge overhead gantry crane (the "skullbreaker") that broke up the worn-out ingot molds (more scrap), as well as "beds" where recently made steel was scrapped (I think the metalurgy didn't work out so the whole "heat"--200 tons--would be scrapped). That was done by guys in heavy suits with cutting lances. So these billets and blooms had to be off-loaded by a crane crew and then the cut-up pieces reloaded. They made this kid (me) a foreman and I had 3-4 two-man crews (engineer/operator and conductor) to supervise each shift. Daylight had a locomotive crew and 3 crane crews, other shifts had all crane crews unless they gave me four crews on midnight and I had a crew do some switching. Yikes, some days I'd be laughing like a hyena at what was going on and other days end up in shouting matches. Good education, but I'm glad I only spent a year doing it. There was a local railroad company (the "Aliquippa and Southern" or A&S) that handled traffic between the mainline (Pittsburgh and Lake Erie RR) and the mill. I had to deal with the clerk for that RR in my end of the mill, and the numerous unionized guys working for that RR. I learned to ask nicely for favors. I'm not going to model that mill but one in my hometown, but I'm going to include some of these rail yard activities that I know about. Wow, you got my mind going thinking about that stuff. Slag handling, different road gons could go only certain places, I learned the hard way about "cross-coupling" and tore up a couple hundred feet of track; I once slipped and fell off a moving locomotive. I prefer the 1:87 ones now! Mark
Thank you Mark for sharing your insight. Fascinating stuff. Would you mind me picking your brain on steel mill stuff from time to time ?
You wouldn't happen to know the model numbers of the American hydraulic boom material handlers would you ? I've been searching for the identity of the American crane in my Flickr photostream. Can't find out what model number it is.
If I can find out more information on that specific model. I can bash a Walthers crane into it.
Anyone know what darn model number it is ? Shoot, I've even contacted American crane AOL themselves. Haven't heard a peep back.
doctorwayne Nice job on the Kress Carrier! At the plant where I worked, they were used mostly for carrying slabs and slagpots. I'm not sure, but they might have used them for coils, too. The BOFs there used mostly hot metal, tranferred from the blast furnace in torpedo cars. The steel went directly to a continuous caster, via overhead crane.They were still using some specialised rail cars for slabs when I retired, and I think that most of their 29 diesel locomotives are gone, too. There's some more information on the plant HERE. Wayne
Thank you Wayne . It's sad the steady decline of North American heavy industry. How many years did you have in Wayne ? Do you miss it ?
Where those old steam loco tenders used as mill cars ?
Uploaded more scratch built HO machines recently if you care to view. Still haven't figured out how to post/link my flickr photos. Yelling at my table doesn't work...
For those of us not familiar with steel making terminology, by BOS you mean Basic Oxygen Steelmaking?
Your models look great! Hopefully everyone has seen the red one you built. What did you use for the hydraulic hoses?
mbinsewiFor those of us not familiar with steel making terminology, by BOS you mean Basic Oxygen Steelmaking?
Did he say BOS or BOF? BOF is basic oxygen furnace.
Your right Maxman, he said BOF. I had to look it up, as I had no idea to what BOF is.
In a definition I found, it can also be called BOS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_oxygen_steelmaking
I wanted to know what the OP and another poster, were talking about, with BOF. Thats all.
dragonriversteel ....Thank you Wayne . It's sad the steady decline of North American heavy industry. How many years did you have in Wayne ? Do you miss it ? Where those old steam loco tenders used as mill cars ?....
Close to 40 years there, and while I enjoyed much of my time there, the last couple years were tough, particularly watching the ingot-associated mills being torn down - I worked most of my time in the slabbing mill, where we turned ingots into slabs.
The social atmosphere was deteriorating, with upper management very adversarial towards frontline managers, and the company struggling. It went into bankruptcy protection, and was eventually bought-out by U.S. Steel. They gutted the customer accounts, taking them home when they left town after Bedrock Industries bought it. There's been some talk of beginning steel production again (the plant currently supplies coke to another branch of the company, and does some finishing work).
Many of the hi-riser cars shown in the link were former Nickel Plate Berkshire tenders, and I believe there's also a photo there showing a C&O articulated being cut-up for scrap. There's another large steel company in the city, along with several large scrap yards and many steel-related industries, mostly finishing operations. Our particular plant, only one of several belonging to the company within the city and in other cities, itself employed over 15,000 unionised workers, in addition to management and office staff. Currently, I believe that number to be only a few hundred.
Here's a look inside the now-gone slabbing mill...
..."E" blast furnace...
...and hot slabs heading to the next step in the process...
I can't get into your photobucket, but to post a photo here, I simply click on the line titled "img", which automatically copies the data, then here, place the cursor where you want the picture to appear, right click, then click on "paste". (That's when using Mozilla). If I'm using Safari, I have to left-click on the img line of data - not just the "img" - then right click once the data changes colour, then click "copy". The procedure for placing it here is the same.
mbinsewi I had to look it up, as I had no idea to what BOF is. In a definition I found, it can also be called BOS.
Not sure, but I believe that basic oxygen steel making is the entire process, while BOF is the furnace itself. But I could be mistaken.
I have 2 WIP structures that are models of real structures that did exist here in Bend Or. Both will be very recognizable land marks, and both will be such that I'm the only one who will know the minor adjustments I had to make to fit them to my layout's footprint.
One is a wooden concrete batch plant that was used from the mid 40s to the late 90s, The other a famous verylarge lumber shed
A third is a very accurate model of another structure I built and still have and currently display... in 1/24 scale; A detailed truck shop
maxman...Not sure, but I believe that basic oxygen steel making is the entire process, while BOF is the furnace itself. But I could be mistaken.
Where I worked, it referred to the process, the vessels in which it occurred, the heat (batch of steel), and the building in which those furnaces were operating.
While I preferred to call it the Bee-Oh-Eff, most referred to it as the Bawf or, even worse, the Boff (which to me is a totally different operation altogether).
It's a very efficient way of making steel, especially small batches of specialty grades. Each of our three vessels originally made about 100 ton heats in approximately 45 minutes, but over the years, upgrades allowed over 120 tons in about 40 minutes.
There's some information on the process here: The Basic Oxygen Steelmaking (BOS) Process.
Depending on the end-use, various additives would be used to alter the chemical composition of the steel during this operation.
Products at the plant where I worked ranged from fasteners (nails, screws, nuts & bolts), to rod and wire, re-bar, automotive uses (body steel along with wheel rim and wheel spider) siding and other building/construction products, tin plate, galvanised steel, other coated steel products, tire mesh, pipeline steel (they also had their own pipe mill, for large diameter spiral-welded pipe), tie plate (but not rail), steel for rail cars, shipbuilding and armour plate, too. One day I was expecting a heat from the BOF, but didn't recognise the grade code (Stelco had over 300 of them listed, I believe). I looked it up in the set of grade books that we used, and discovered that it was 120 tons of steel for toe caps in safety boots. Wheel rim and wheel spider (centre of the wheel) were different grades, and GM, Ford, and Chrysler all had several of each, and all were different.
The plant also had a small fleet of tank cars, used for transporting the various chemicals produced by the coke ovens' by-product plant.
mbinsewi For those of us not familiar with steel making terminology, by BOS you mean Basic Oxygen Steelmaking? Your models look great! Hopefully everyone has seen the red one you built. What did you use for the hydraulic hoses? Mike.
Mike, that's left over glow stick lanyards from Halloween. Bought them at the dollar store. They make great flexible hydraulic hoses as you can tell. The silver lines are paper clips. Many hours figeting with those lines.
Far better than using electronic wire for hoses.
Thank you Wayne.