Hello everyone… Let me start by saying this is my first post on TrainBoard and I’m very impressed with what I’ve seen this site has to offer. I’ve been slowly poking away on a steel mill layout over the last couple of years without getting a whole lot accomplished. Lately I’ve found a renewed enthusiasm towards the project as well as a bit of spare time. It also helps that we’re now coming out of the Australian winter (yes it does it quite cold down under) and my garage is a tolerable temperature to work in now. I have dabbled on a few other MMR forums in the past, but it’s been ages since I’ve posted anything; and I’m sure people have stopped following my threads and my accounts have probably been frozen as inactive. However, with this new energy and a sense of a fresh start, I’m quite excited to have stumbled across this forum, and look forward to sharing my progress and getting advice from all of you. It’s also worth mentioning that I’m moving into a new home in about three month’s time, and I think its this upcoming move that has inspired me to get back into modelling with essentially a clean slate. Anyways, posts are generally not very exciting without any pictures. So I’ve just put up a couple of pics showing my layout so far (just to set the scene). Keep smiling. -Dr.J
Wow, great photos :thumbs_up: Looks like it'll be great fun to operate. Forgive me if I missed it, but approximately how big is the layout?
Looks great. Thats going to be a large industry! I like it. Do you have a track plan? How large is the layout?
Welcome to TrainBoarD! Please tell us more about your layout concept. Plans, more pictures! Boxcab E50
More info!! Thanks for the interest. As for layout size… that’s a very timely question. My current layout is rather large. It measures 5.4m (~18 ft.) long and 2.5m (8 ft.) at its widest point. The grid on the attached track plan is 50cm squares. The question is timely because I’ve decided that with the upcoming move, I’ll reduce the size a bit so I have more room in the new garage. Of course this will mean tearing up track and dismantling the benchwork, but I was going to have to do that anyways to transport the layout. The new size will be approximately 25% smaller. A simple rectangle measuring 3.6m x 1.2m (12 ft. x 4 ft.). Of course this means the track plan will change dramatically and I’ll have to make a few sacrifices: · The harbour will be made more narrow and will only have room for one ship · There will be no incline to the upper level · There will be much less room for raw material stock piles (iron ore, coal, etc.) In addition to the two Blast Furnaces the current plan is to have a rolling mill and steel making facility of some sort (I’d prefer to build a BOF but Walthers has a EAF kit). I’m also going to have a coke-oven/sinter plant, I’ve got the blast air engine house under construction, as well a kit-bashed refinery that can be some sort of chemical by-product processing plant/power station connected to the blast furnace gas washers and the coke oven. The real jewel in the crown will be the massive bucket-wheel excavator/reclaimer that will keep a steady supply of iron ore feeding into the two hungry twin blast furnaces. Of course there will be other smaller details: fuel tanks, dorr thickeners, etc. -Dr.J
Your trackwork is impressive. Sorry you've got to tear it up in your move, but it also sounds like you've got a handle on the re-construction. Definately keep everyone here up to date on your progress. I like your concept of a layout supported by one industry. Must have taken alot of thought. I bet you wish Walthers made all the stuff in N scale they do for HO scale steel mills. Thanks again for sharing your layout and good luck with the move.
Man, that reclaimer is going to be sweet - good find too! Welcome aboard, the more Aussies the merrier
Totally! When I saw it on Ebay I HAD to have it. Cost a fair bit in the end and I had to resort to dirty tactics (last minute "sniping") ...but in the end it is so worth it. I'm not in any rush to assemble it yet. I still need to develop my skills on a few more easier Walthers kits before I even attempt to put it together and do it any justice. I don't know if any of you have done a Revell kit before; the instructions are VERY minimal and VERY German. Should be fun! -Dr.J
I believe your kit is actually made by Cejl and only distributed by Revell, hence why the instructions are lacking. Revell do that a lot, the 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars' kits for instance, are actually made by ERTL. When I was a kid making model aircraft kits in the 70's, the Revell kits tended to have better instructions that my Airfix kits (Airfix was the market leader back then; 17p for a 1:72 Supermarine Spifire Mk IX - those were the days biggrin
More Kits on the way Well I gave the ‘ol credit card a bit of a workout and ordered rolling mill and electric arc furnace kits from Walthers. I told myself that I wasn’t going to get any more kits until I finished the ones I’ve already started, but Walthers had a bit of a sale on and the prices were a bit too good to pass up. I’ve got two of each on the way, so they will be “double-sized.” I’m also toying with the idea of kit-bashing them together into a super-steelmaking facility. I’ve got a New River Mining kit that could also contribute to the complex, and I quite like the N scale Walthers paper mill plant as a parts contibuter. Bit too cold in the garage to work on the BFs tonight. Maybe tomorrow. -Dr.J
Is this in Australia? No doubt that is a very large machine. Are there other photos of this operation? Is there still an operating steel mill in Australia? Thanks.
Australian Operations The previously picture reclaimer is indeed in Australia. It is one of three at the Dampier Port on Australia’s West Coast. This is not a steel producing area, rather, the nearby Pilbra region is a world class iron ore producing district. The iron ore is loaded on ships at Dampier bound for China. As far as I know there is only one operating steel mill in Australia; located at Wollongong (near Sydeny). There used to be a big one in Newcastle, that I think is mostly torn down, and there’s been some discussion for a while now on constructing a new one in Western Australia (to save on shipping costs!) As requested, here are more images of the reclaimers at Dampier. As you can see in the aerial photo, there are six stockpile canyons with four stackers and three reclaimers. The long black snake on the left of the photo is an endless unit train of iron ore hoppers, and you can see the shiploader in the distance with room for four bulk carriers. I only plan on having two canyons, one stacker, and one reclaimer!!! …oh, and a steel mill (I win.) -Dr.J Note one of the reclaimers is mislabelled and should be #3.
Dr. G: Thanks for the pictures and the explanation. I was going to say there are no more steel mills in the USA, but I am not sure that is true. I visited an open hearth steel mill in Pueblo, Colorado in 1966. I thought it was the last operating steel mill in the USA, but it may have been the last open hearth operating steel mill. (Also the only steel mill west of the Mississippi River?) So there must be electric furnaces and methods of making steel today other than the open hearth. Also, we sure recycle a lot of metal. That must be a slightly different process, too. I'll tell you that the open hearth operation in 1966 was impressive and big! There were four other hearths on the property that had already been shut down at that time. IIRC, shutting an open hearth down and then firing it back up took a lot of time and energy and was very expensive.