Found these photo's http://oboylephoto.com/steel/index.htm to help me.Not going to be big as the one in photo's. Rick
http://users.livejournal.com/_nonamenoslogan/ Check out the above N Scale Steel mill (uncompleted, still in the works). Go down through the archives. There are three different departments, Steel, Coke, Blast. It will probably take you 3 weeks to get through the archives and about 6 months to digest it all and get it into perspective. I encourage you at some point to start at the beginning of the archives and go through them to the end. --THIS IS ART WORK! I have 3 Walthers blast furnaces and have used the above exhaughstively for info, form and detailing.
http://realisticbackgrounds.com/index.cfm?page=cf/realisticbg.cfm The pictures are too small on the site. They are about 38" long. I have five of the steel mill backdrops for use behind my mill. They are fantastic. They are digital pictures. I thinkthey cost about $10.00 each.
Steve Stein from our N-Trak club The NM RailruNNers built one that's about 10' long and 6' wide. I'll see if he has any digital photos we can post. It won an award last year at the Denver convention.
Rick Spano is modeling a steel mill on his Sceniced and Undecided: http://scenicedandundecided.net/phase_3.htm
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ntrainz1/NScale/photo#5094621749599907106 http://picasaweb.google.com/Ntrainz1/NScale/photo#5094621762484809010 Bob.
Check out this thread by Dave H. http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=90524&highlight=steel+mill
If switching steel related cars (scrap gons, coil cars) is your thing, there are more space efficient ways to do it. I have the rolling mill (cut in half and doubled in length, placed against the backdrop) with the steel mill scene from Realistic Backdrops behind, as suggested. While those are HO scale, generally, scale buildings are so small that the large backdrop works well. BTW, after seeing the History Channel episode on railroad boneyards, where a rolling mill in Chicago takes scrap steel and turns it into fence posts, I realized that a rolling mill is all you need to have steel traffic on your railroad. The huge Walthers complex isn't necessary, as specialty steel products now dominate the US steel industry. A lot of the basic steel (I think) now comes from overseas, but the specialty stuff is still made here. Of course, it still makes an interesting industry in itself, but only if you have room.
EXCELLENT! Man I knew they were massive and these photo's show that.Thanks all. The Mr. Stein one I think I have seen. The back dropes I have seen and you have convince me to get some,thanks signalz. Wow the first one is amazing.I don't think I have the paients for something like that. Rick
When I first saw Johnathan's mill it made me want to quit doing mine. Then I was able to get inspiration and fabulous Ideas from him. I had two mills built and ended up buying another a month ago when Walthers had them on sale for $79.00. I took my time and it looks great. I also know there are two CDs out about detailing the mill. I saw them on E-Bay.
Rossford Yard is correct. Back in 2004 I think. I was taking my 14 yr old son to Indianapolis to a Star Wars convention. Somewhere on the Illinois/Indiana border there was a mill that consisted of an electric furnace a rolling mill and a big pile of scrap iron. That was it.
The steel mill where I work has the following: Iron plant: ore/coal/lime in molten iron out Steel plant: molten iron, scrap in steel slabs out, vanadium out Hot mill: steel slab in coil (flat and tread plate) and plate out Cold Mill: coil in light gauge coil out Pipe mill: coil, zinc and aluminum in, pipe and galvanized pipe out Hollows: coil in rectangular structural hollow sections Color Coat: coil in light gauge color-coated coil out The iron plant and steel plant need to be co-located but each of the others could exist in isolation. Slabs are moved around the plant by very large rubber-tired Kress carriers (google Kress for some pictures of these machines). Coil is moved around by both Kress machines hauling heavy-duty semi-trailers or by rail using captive flatcars with coil cradles. Coil movements within a plant are by very large forklift with a single circular-section "fork" that goes therough the center of the coil. The galvanizing and zincalume coating requires large ingots of zinc and aluminum. These are unloded from rail cars by forklift. We use concertina roof/side cars that are not used in the US. The same cars fitted with cradles are used for coil transport to port for export. Product goes out by rail and road. Road is normally flat-deck truck-trailer (28 wheelers) with 5 coils. We have 3 coal trains in each day, one manifest (Zn, Al in, pipe and coil out, vanadium concentrate out) and every few days we get a lime train. We get the occasional 20 ft container in - they are generally loaded and unloaded onto a swinglift semitrailer. Iron ore (ironsand) arrives from the mine site by underground pipeline as a slurry but this unique - there is no other steel plant in the world making steel from ironsand, possibly because ironsand is not too common. It's a black sand found along our west coast. One of the more interesting aspects to model in a steel plant is the slag dump. Seeing a Kress dumping a ladle of molten slag is quite a sight - especially at night.
The local steel mill by me uses a bunch of these to move slabs and coils of steel: http://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/ProtoPhotos/photo#5095015362911620114 http://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/ProtoPhotos/photo#5095015654969396258
Seems like I remember seeing an artical in N Scale a few years back where someone had modeled a steel mill. Also, if I remember right, seems like the HO blast furnace paired with all the N scale support buildings made for a very impressive N scale model. I know that someday I would like to build a steel mill switching layout.
