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I will be starting construction for my layout extension room very soon, and I want to get the Ashland Iron & Steel series. I completed the track plan for this, and I was wondering if this is the correct placement of tracks and buildings for the Mill complex?
I'm not sure about how to switch this industry, I will have a dedicated loco.
What about the incoming coal shipments?
Are the buildings placed correctly? Are the loading/unloading tracks ok?
I'm in the middle of doing my Steel layout as well.
I like using Google maps to get ideas for my track plans. I am finding out that that I will need LOTS of space for this. Lower deck will be the coal dock, coker, blast. Top deck will have electric furnace, rolling mill (3 - pipe, coil, structural)
I don't see any actual measurements on your diagram. It's kind of hard for me to give much insight without seeing exactly how much space you have [or will have] available. Have you seen the footprint diagrams of the structures you want to have on your layout? If you have the kits in your possession, you can find them printed on the sides of their boxes.
If I was in your situation, I'd wait until I had the footprints [or at least the length & width measurements] so I could see exactly what would fit where. Other things to consider: Do you want to run trains in and out of the mill structures, or just have them as part of the background to "look purty"? If you want to do mill operations, you'll need to make sure you can fit the supporting trackwork among the buildings.
Kalmbach recently released a book by Bernie Kepinski about modeling steel mills, there are several sample track plans in it. I'd strongly recommend buying a copy of that book before starting construction of the layout. [I'd include a link, but Kalmbach has their web server shut down for maintenance this entire weekend...!]
Am I correct to assume that you're doing this in HO scale? [the Ashland Steel series isn't currently available in N scale] I can tell right off, your building footprints are way too small - you'll need much more space than that, unless you plan to cut away parts of them.
And I'm also seeing other industries; you'll probably need to eliminate those ethanol tanks to make room for a blast furnace. In fact, your entire area could easily be taken up by steel mill buildings alone! But you can still run just as much a variety of car types with a steel mill, as with a mix of different industries: Gondolas, open hoppers, covered hoppers, coil cars, flatcars, boxcars, and tank cars. And that list doesn't include the intra-mill bottle cars and slag cars.
Like I was saying earlier, I think you should hold off on designing any type of track plan until (1) you've read the Kalmbach steel mills book and (2) you know the exact dimensions of the structures you want to include.
I don't plan on having the entire series due to space, I don't want to get rid of my ethanol tanks.
I did some more research, and I have the manuals for the structures, and I have all the correct demensions now. One thing I just realize was the rolling mill needs 3 tracks.
So I did some tweaking to the plan. I'm ordering the book as well. I'm not starting construction for a couple of weeks.
A lot depends on whether you wish to be realistic or not.
You have two ends of the process represented here that don't really make sense without other elements you aren't modeling. The Coke Ovens would typically feed a Blast Furnace. And if you are placing the quencher in the middle of the Coke Oven complex, that wouldn't be accurate. This is usally located a distance away.
Likewise, the Blower and Engine House would typically be associated with a Blast Furnace.
Finally, the Rolling Mill would be getting steel ingots from a furnace of some sort (or a soaking pit, but that's another story). Rolling Mills don't take Coke directly and they don't need a Blower House.
[And the Ethanol Tanks don't seem to fit at all]
A random set of unrelated models may be appealing as a newcomer, but as you learn more about the real thing, you may find it is not satisfying.
One way to make these unrelated models slightly more plausible would be if you had staging that could represent an unseen Blast Furnace/Open Hearth/Electric Furnace complex elsewhere. Then you could take finished Coke to the unseen furnaces and bring steel in to the Rolling Mill.
The Blower House still seems out of place, but if you already purchased it you could perhaps kitbash it to represent another mill or even a soaking pit.
I'm not shooting for absolute accuracy here, just something that functionally works with my area. I do however have staging tracks on the bottom where the entrance of the extension room. Like you said, it could simulate a blast furnace off layout.
The ethanol tanks is for receiving shipments from my ethanol plant, which is on the main layout.
This is just a start of my lower level section. This includes ore dock with hueltt, yard for coal delivery, coke oven, blast/blower, slag pit, and pig iron ingot plant.
Might be hard for some to figure out, but it not as confusing as it looks. Different tracks ethier cross or go under/over. The main line will climb after the coal yard at the bottom, divide to helix and back to double main line at top right. This will give clearance for the pig iron ingots to pass under the mainline and enter the Helix to go to top level where steel making facitlies are going to be. Slag pit will have a spur for loading hardened slag for recycling. All tracks will in one way or another connect allowing for easy switching.
Access thru helix, and the other circle areas that have lines from them, and the dock channel is going to be a drop down between this table and my existing table. I'm giving myself a 36'' reach limit. I planned it on my floor, and its ok. Only the duck under is going to be a pain in the arse.
Access thru helix, and the other circle areas that have lines from them, and the dock channel is going to be a drop down between this table and my existing table. I'm giving myself a 36'' reach limit. I planned it on my floor, and its ok. Only the duck under is going to be a pain in the arse.
Yup. but I will most likely expand it a bit. I also might have another pit and conveyor go to my blower house. This is a maybe, cause I most likely going to have that just Natural gas.
