While I’m at a standstill waiting for track I decided to work out some fine details on the overall layout I decided to move one turnout in my WYE to the yard so that I can have more room for the reverse loop and it also meant changing my plans for the Steel mill. I hadn’t put a lot of thought into it because I was absorbed with getting the yard done. Well now that I had to change it a little to fit and I was wondering if there were any other thoughts on this. I’m limited to this size layout because of room dimensions. It is going to be more of a diorama then an actual operating mill. I am going to have a functional track and I’m going to do it all in Code 80 track. I’ve been to enough steel mills as a kid in Pittsburgh to know that you can’t see much of the ties anyway because of all the ore spilled everywhere. Plus I’m not into dealing with all the Code 55 problems anymore. I’m just going to bury the track in iron ore. I’m also going to use 9 ¾ radius sectional track for my loop because of size restrictions. I don’t believe its going to be a problem because the only thing running in this layout will be a switcher and some small ore cars. Anyway Barstow Rick will recognize this photo of the actual structures. And here is the layout.
That's OK, because no one has the room to do a steel mill, in any scale! :tb-biggrin: In any event, you can't see past a block when a mill is in operation. What you can do thiugh, is to create the atmosphere. Get orange gels for your lights, as a mill creates a Mars- like atmosphere. You'll also need some rotten eggs, or lots of baked beans for your friends, because the sulfur pollution from these mills is un-be-lieveable. It's always twilight, even at noon. White sheets can't be left outside to dry, and white shirts worn to work turn gray by afternoon. Perhaps a pulsating red light from the bellies of the furnaces. Everything is LOUD! Like Dante's inferno with lots of rust...
Woo, that sounds bad! err: I remember as kid in around 1958 Pittsburgh there was soot falling from the sky on to fresh white snow just before Christmas vacation and I was so disgusted because the snow was turning black. I was wearing a light colored pair of corduroy pants and the bottoms were also turning black. Um, maybe I should make it an abandon steel mill. baffled:
what types of cars are at a steel mill? I don’t know anything about steel mills, but I was doing a looking around and I saw couple of HO videos showing hot metal bottle cars. I didn’t see anything in N-scale which brings up the question what types of cars are normanly found at a steel mill?
johnny peachcreekshops.com has alot of steel mill stuff but just like a real steel mill it cost big bucks to run one...
Never saw a bottle car around the mills. These cars are all inside. What you usually see is a fleet of coal cars, and corrugated steel sided buildings with little or no windows anywhere. The tops of the mill buildings have lots of thingies sticking out of them, but they make no sense from the road. Everything is jammed up tight, no space is uncovered, because the hills start right next to the river. The houses are built up on top of the hills, perched precariously where ever there is room. :tb-biggrin: It's COLD in the winter next to the river! Ice biting freeze your nose kind of cold! The dirt around Pittsburg (or Pittsburgh after WWI) is a rich black, so everything starts out looking dirty. It's not just the soot, which is hard to believe! The Monongahela River was always a rich chocolate milk color, and the water temperature was above the boiling point for a few miles below the mills. Iron City Beer was made from water below the mills, Iron City Light was made from water taken from above the mills. Pittsburgh gets two weeks of sun a year. Usually you get grey overcast, not even true clouds. Just paint the backdrop, you got it, grey... What color were the rail cars at the mills? Grey. What color were the houses? Grey. What color were the trees, grey/green. What color were the birds? Grey. What color were the automobiles? Grey. You get the idea... People in this day and age have no idea what pollution is!
Indeed. Pittsburgh in it's heyday: http://railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=275466&nseq=20 http://railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=275520&nseq=19 They just don't make orange smoke the way they used to.
Wow Tony you sure know a lot about Pittsburgh for living in San Diego. I left there in 1966, but all my family still live there and I visit occasionally. I might even retire there if my sister has her way. The funny thing is I don’t remember the orange smoke, but I do know that it happened, As far as the soot goes, it was definitely not mud. I saw the ash falling. Some of my relatives lived near town and the buildings were black from the smoke in the air. That rich black dirt you talk about was always covered with thick vegetation. Well anyway I’ve been rethinking the steel mill and I think I’m going to do a closed down mill. A lot of the parts are broken and it will take too much research to figure out where everything goes.
Those are great Photos Gary :thumbs_up: They bring new meaning to the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words".
BTW, it looks like you have some first class material for a really nice scene there. I look forward to seeing the progress! -Gary
I have Rick to thank for the steel mill, unfortunately it got broke up and I don’t know how to put it back together because it was a Kit bash from a couple of kits,
Lived there 'till 1983. I remember our school was canceled one day because you couldn't see to drive from the sulfur smoke inversion. We lived at Simmons Loop at the end of the Library trolley line (San Diego doesn't have a trolley, it has a tram). I remember driving down to the river and seeing an accident at the mills. There was a bank of orange smoke coming out that was truly amazing. Seems the water from the river got away from them, and almost made it to the blast furnaces. If that would have happened... BOOM! Bye Bye Pittsburgh! Ahh yes, Saw Mill Run (a creek or "crick" as it's known). Florescent orange water! :tb-biggrin:
Wow, sounds like you where right in the middle of it all. I was fortunate enough to be upriver on the Allegany side and my exposure was when visiting relatives on that side. I never heard of florescent orange water. I do remember my relatives talking about how dirty the Monongahela River was but I didn’t know how bad it was. I used to swim in the Allegany and our biggest problem was keeping away from the barges.:tb-biggrin:
My parents are both from the Pittsburgh area (Dad - Pitcairn, Mom - Mt. Lebanon) and this is how I know you're legit – Western Pennsylvanians are the only northerners I've heard use "crick" for "creek." My father still does and he's lived in California since '68. BTW, Pitcairn, what a railroad town that used to be.
