Steel mills are a lot of work to model

[slagpot]

Hello all,


As plans for my outdoor shed have fallen through the cracks for now. I sat back down at my work bench and started scratch building again. Many thanks to Docwayne for his pictures of his heavy duty overhead crane. Yup thats what I'm working on as we speak. Shoot its a lot harder than i once thought, friggin tons of detail goes into these cranes.

Although mine won't be a great looking as Docs,still a HDOC none the least.

When i first returned to the hobby five years ago,I discovered that the hobby had changed so much that I had to pretty much start all over.
I wanted something that would fit into tons of switching with eye catching details....hence a steel mill layout!!!

I grew up in a steel mill town as a youngster,but never really paid attention to the mill. Hindsight is a wonderful thing,luckly I had a Uncle who worked in the mill,pouring molten steel for a number of years. Again luckly for me Uncle Duncan liked to brag about his job,I guess some of his rambleings stuck in my head.

I didn't realize the amount of detail,machines,off site buildings, cranes ect,that go with a modern steel mill. Sheez this is gonna take years to pull off. As luck would have it,I have plenty of time in the evenings to work on all the things that I want to see in my mill.

Anyone know the secret to getting the wife into the hobby ? Sure would make it a lot easier to build things if, my red headed wife would help. Heck while I'm at it,might as well ask this too. What is the meaning of life ? HEH HEH HEH just goofing around.

Patrick
Beaufort,SC
Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}
Tied to my work bench for now making odd steel mill equipment.

 

[bigsteel]

Hey slagpot,still working on my steel mill we talked about in another post a while back.

Anyone know the secret to getting the wife into the hobby ? Sure would make it a lot easier to build things if, my red headed wife would help. Heck while I'm at it,might as well ask this too. What is the meaning of life ? HEH HEH HEH just goofing around

JEWELERY!!,and the meaning of life is to model! LOL.--josh

 

[Chessie System]

Dont bother trying to get her into the Hobby, she is who she is. Would you not be into the hobby if someone tryed to make you not like it? Just help her understand that its what you enjoy and her love for you should due just fine.

As for the meaning of life.

Working/obtaining/accourering the things you want and need with acceptable consiquenses.

 

[doctorwayne]

I don't know if you've seen these two photos, or if they'd even be of any assistance at all, but they're fairly recent.

Wayne

 

[TruckLover]

SWEET PICS WAYNE :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[tomd81]

Nice shots

Wayne:

Very nice work on the crane, do you have a shot of it from above?

Tom

 

[doctorwayne]

Thanks Josh. Tom, this is the only more-or-less overhead picture that I could find.

This crane started out as one of two casthouse cranes for a blast furnace that I was scratchbuilding. I worked at a steel plant and had obtained copies of enough blueprints to get a pretty good start on the blast furnace, but I eventually ran out of money and space. We were living in a one bedroom apartment at the time, and the completed complex would have covered more than a 5'x8' area. Over the years, it was broken up, and some parts were given away. Since I had already constructed the basic crane bridge, I revised it to incorporate features of two cranes in the department where I worked. These were fairly accessible, so it was easy to check the details. Construction is sheet styrene, with basswood structural members (this was built over 35 years ago, and I wasn't aware of any styrene shapes being available). The crane spent many years in a shoebox, until I finally decided to use it behind the engine shops in Lowbanks, on my layout. The crane runway is new, built from Evergreen styrene shapes, and the bridge rail is steel rail salvaged from the skipbridge of the scrapped blast furnace. On the crane itself, the bridge and trolley wheels are brass wheels from a freightcar truck, with bearing caps on the trolley wheels from a model of a Russian tank. Some other tank parts were used on some of the scratchbuilt gearboxes and motors, the cable sheaves are from a ship model and the louvres on the electrical cabinets are from a plastic model car kit. As best I can recall, the only other commercial part is the siren horn mounted beneath the floor of the operator's cab. Most of the handrails are basswood angles, except on some stairways where it had been damaged.

Wayne

 

[CCT70]

Hey slagpot,still working on my steel mill we talked about in another post a while back.

[Anyone know the secret to getting the wife into the hobby ? Sure would make it a lot easier to build things if, my red headed wife would help. Heck while I'm at it,might as well ask this too. What is the meaning of life ? HEH HEH HEH just goofing around/QUOTE]

JEWELERY!!,and the meaning of life is to model! LOL.--josh

AMEN BROTHER! MAN, I can't stress enough the give and take with a wife/fiance and model railroading, hence, a lot of time and money spent jewelry shopping. Unfortunately, it leaves little cash to model with, but it's the only thing that works. Flowers are only good anymore for the occasional rolling stock purchase, but major expenses will require Gold, Silver or Platinum.

Just a fact of life and an expense of enjoying this hobby and still getting to enjoy the comfort of your own bed.

 

[CCT70]

By the way Wayne, I about fell out of my chair when I saw the photos of your crane. I am speechless. And for a bigmouth like me, that isn't an everyday occurence. :thumb:

 

[bigsteel]

but major expenses will require Gold, Silver or Platinum.

is that the credit card or the jewelery! my wife "tolerates it" but every ONCE IN A GREAT WHILE shell join in.but back to the serious stuff,wayne every time i see one of your pics im amazed.i dont even have a layout yet and am starting to think il never get that level of detail like you did!very nice!i plan on building my steel mill from scratch and itll never be that good,just enough to convey "hey is that a steel mill" every once in a while. --josh

 

[Mountain Man]

It helps if you have a wife with an eye for color and detail. I invite mine to review my ideas and comment, and then make a point of gratefully accepting her advice periodically but always discussing my thoughts and choices with her.

After that, I find that some major sucking up is extremely helpful. :thumb:

 

[MadHatter]

I told my girlfriend that I wanted to involve her- I needed a womans touch, she doesn't admit it but I can see she listens more these days to my ideas- I don't push it or she'll tell me to shut up, hehe

 

[CCT70]

I told my girlfriend that I wanted to involve her- I needed a womans touch, she doesn't admit it but I can see she listens more these days to my ideas- I don't push it or she'll tell me to shut up, hehe

I told my ex that I needed a womans touch on the layout when her and I were together. She kicked me in the @$$ and told me to quit spending so much money on trains.

She now misses those trains. :thumb:

 

[bigsteel]

I told my ex that I needed a womans touch on the layout when her and I were together. She kicked me in the @$$ and told me to quit spending so much money on trains.

She now misses those trains.

HAH,they say they "hate it" but in reality they would rather have us doing something than us complaining about there hobbys and us getting tired of how many times they ask "do i look fat in this".so this hobby is win win it keeps us outta there hair and them out of ours.LOL

P.S honey if your read this I LOVE YOU!!!

 

[Ralph]

Slagpot I've enjoyed your threads about specialized equipment for steel mills. You do great work!
Ralph

 

[Pitchwife]

AMEN BROTHER! MAN, I can't stress enough the give and take with a wife/fiance and model railroading, hence, a lot of time and money spent jewelry shopping. Unfortunately, it leaves little cash to model with, but it's the only thing that works. Flowers are only good anymore for the occasional rolling stock purchase, but major expenses will require Gold, Silver or Platinum.

Just a fact of life and an expense of enjoying this hobby and still getting to enjoy the comfort of your own bed.

I never realized how much money I'm saving being single. tooth1 tooth1 tooth1