I have an area on my layout that is 18 inches wide and 3.75 feet long. I was planning on useing it for a steel mill complex. But I'm not sure of how to design it for the most effectiveness. I've thought of uaing several Walthers kits, the Rolling Mill, Blast Furnace, Electric Furnace, and the Coke Oven. Will they fit in the area I have available and if so how? If this Is this two much for that space, what ones would you use? or what ones would you leave out Any and all advice/suggestions are welcomed. Thanks Ron
With that space, you will probably need to have a lot of it on the background, or modeled in low relief. Think of it as modeling the appearance of a SCENE, rather than as building a complete model of a plant and having a space in which to place it.
Or you could just have a user end steel distributer in that spot . All that needed there is a 2 or 3 story building , a siding or 4 , gantry cranes , steel beam storage yard , and a flatbed truck loading area . You could wallpaper the backdrop with a steel mill if you like . Something like one of these http://www.oldchesterpa.com/images/belmont_iron.jpg
There is a busy little steel plant in Northern utah that would fit in that space. It is up by the Idaho border and I pass it going south on 15. Any one from that area know who it is or the town?
If you use those steel plant backdrop sheet photos, and cut the rolling mill in half (its designed with scribed areas for easy kitbashing) as a loading area, you could do it easily by accepting the fact that you are only really modeling the rail part of it. The rest sits on the backdrop which saves space and is a lot cheaper, too! You can probably squeeze in the Coke Ovens and even Blast Furnance as they are very narrow by design and could be linear or cut in half and also built partially or fully on the backdrop. A while back there were some shows on the history channel about some steel making operations. One of the interesting ones was a fence post factory that was a lot smaller than our traditional steel mills and could be modeled with the rolling mill only. If your era is modern, there are a lot of specialty steel factories - in fact they probably predominate in the US over the last 20 years - that would get you steel ops in a more realistic space, if you can change your thinking a bit about what you really want on the layout. Of course, for many of us, thats not really possible!
Model Railroader recently had an article on an old time HO steel mill in a small space. Many of these old mills survived until fairly recent times. Can't remember the issue, but you might want to look it up. Frank
The width is definintely doable.The length also is not bad,but may take some special treatments and creative backdrop use to give the illusion of continuation.The nice part about a steel mill is the labryinth of pipes going everywhere,Perhaps some piping over the top of a mirror to give the illusion of the tracks continuiung onward.I have attached some pics of a mill that I scratchbashed for our club layout.I think it is 24" wide,but that is only because of the interchange track that runs across the front edge.Notice the use of printed backdrops and low relief buildings.
I remember the Pittsburgh steel mills back when I was a kid. Miles of pipes, hugging the shelf between the river and the cliff side. Any building was really just sheet metal hung on a cadaver of bones created by the pipes. The color was also striking, as it seemed to me there was none at all. The closest thing I've ever seen to having a black & white world, with that beautiful sepia of old camera prints on all the buildings. The ground was black, the air was orange with sulfur, and the NOISE! The ground rumbles and the sky glows from the fires of hell. The trees, a uniform dark green, almost black, cluster on the hillsides in fear. Something out of the mind of Sauruman. Lights at night, a kind of mist hangs in the air, blurring the points of light into tiny stars. The rumble of the blast furnaces continue eternally unabated, for they can never be allowed to go cold. It's oppressive, and beats down on the spirit... Probably the only sight I've ever seen that has the same impact on the senses is driving down Miami Beach, looking at an sharp angle the five miles of skyscrapers and seeing a solid wall of Death Star. It's not a "building" as we find it, it's like being transported to another world. Truly the greatest of man's endeavors.
Thanks to everyone for your comments and suggestions. And especially for the pictures. This gives me some ideas of what I might be able to do with the space. Thanks again see ya Ron
Wow Tony,quite a picture you paint with words,very impressive.Perhaps some of the manufacturers should have you write their advertising copy.....seriously.
