Iron Ore Mine & Steel Works in N

[DrGeologist]

I've just joined modelrailroadforums.com so that I can take advantage of all the combined experience out there to help me along my first ever model railroad.

Over the past few months I have slowly been acquiring all the materials I need to get started on my layout and doing an exhaustive amount of research. I am very much a beginner (having never made a model RR ever) but I’m keen to dive in head first.

For several months now, I've had my benchwork complete as shown:

Since then however, I have gotten my extruded foam: twelve 10cm thick sheets which should last for multiple layouts.

I have also got my track: Peco N scale Set Track, mostly R1 and R2 curves, straights and a heap of flexitrack… all code 80. I have all my Peco electrofrog turnouts ST-5 ST-6 yet to arrive, but should be in my hands within a week or two. I’m also expecting some point motors as well.

I also received my first kit: the Walthers Ore Dock. It’s a HO kit, but I’m planning on bashing it down to N. It’s 1.2 m long; at HO, that is ridiculously undersized, but in N, ~200m for a ore dock is just about perfect. I’m amazed at how big it is, 26 sprue sheets. It almost covers my layout bench!

There will also be a large open cut iron ore mine on my layout. The mine will be located in the hills at the back of the layout, as seen in my illustrations below.

Iron ore will then be transported to the lowlands where there will be an industrial area: blast furnace, E.A.F., rolling mill, coke ovens, etc. A branch off of the main line will go to the ore dock where excess iron ore will be exported. Bridge cranes will unload coal from freighters for the steel works. The rolled steel will also be exported via this seaport.

It should take me about forever and a day to do this, but that’s the whole point I guess. I will continue to post my progress here and perhaps a few youtube videos. Again, I’m totally new to this, so comments and advice are welcome.

-Dr.J

 

[jbaakko]

Wow, that is one SWEET CAD drawing! Have a track plan yet?

 

[DrGeologist]

Thanks for the comment. I did the CAD drawing in Google SketchUp. 100% free and easy to use. As for a CAD track plan... I don't have one beacuse I will have to fiddle with layout around the steel industry buildings as I finish them; so it is likely that it will change frequently.

I'm planning on having three lines, all DC (call me old fashioned): a long simple loop going around the layout, a line from the mine to the ore dock and blast furnace, and a complex shunting network in around the steel mill. Maybe some day I'll convert to DCC, but for now I'm keeping it old school.

-Dr.J

 

[grande man]

I like the theme! How about a coal mine and limestone quarry to add even more interest and operation? Any way to fit more in?

 

[DrGeologist]

Coal and limestone will be brought in by sea on bulk carriers and unloaded by bridge crane. My mine will be iron ore only because geologically, coal and limestone, wouldn't co-occur with iron deposits.

-Dr.J

 

[grande man]

Coal and limestone will be brought in by sea on bulk carriers and unloaded by bridge crane. My mine will be iron ore only because geologically, coal and limestone, wouldn't co-occur with iron deposits.

-Dr.J

I dunno man, you need to come to my neck of the woods... (Birmingham, Al) There are areas with coal, limestone and iron ore within a couple of miles of each other! That unique geology is why the town exists.

With your theme, you have the makings of a very interesting model railroad!

 

[B&M1065]

Great looking bench work. Can't wait to see the track layout!

 

[Steve B]

looking good DR J,

 

[IronBeltKen]

Welcome to the forum Dr.J, I'm always excited to see another steel industry modeler here!

What part of the country [or the world] do you live in? If you're in Minnesota then you probably already know about a giant steelworks being planned for that state. The mill will be located directly beside the ore mine. They'll be using direct-reduction smelting technology instead of building a blast furnace,
I don't know what one of those newfangled furnaces looks like.

So there's definitely a prototype [of sorts] for your layout theme!

 

[DrGeologist]

Welcome to the forum Dr.J, I'm always excited to see another steel industry modeler here!

What part of the country [or the world] do you live in? If you're in Minnesota then you probably already know about a giant steelworks being planned for that state. The mill will be located directly beside the ore mine. They'll be using direct-reduction smelting technology instead of building a blast furnace,
I don't know what one of those newfangled furnaces looks like.

So there's definitely a prototype [of sorts] for your layout theme!

Nah, I'm a bit far way from Minnesota. I live in central New South Wales Australia, basically in the "Aussie Outback." Those new steelworks sound like they would be the ideal prototype for my layout... the sad thing is that it will probably be built before my 1:160 model will be finished!

-Dr.J

 

[DrGeologist]

I dunno man, you need to come to my neck of the woods... (Birmingham, Al) There are areas with coal, limestone and iron ore within a couple of miles of each other! That unique geology is why the town exists.

With your theme, you have the makings of a very interesting model railroad!

Wow, that's pretty crazy and unique geology. You're absolutely right about "that's why the town is there." I'm still going to stick with just mining iron ore and importing coal and limestone though, but its very cool to know that these thing can co-occur.

-Dr.J

 

[IronBeltKen]

Nah, I'm a bit far way from Minnesota. I live in central New South Wales Australia, basically in the "Aussie Outback." Those new steelworks sound like they would be the ideal prototype for my layout... the sad thing is that it will probably be built before my 1:160 model will be finished!

Have you visited the Yahoo Steel newsgroup? There's alot of knowledgeable people over there from all over the globe who either model the steel industry or study its history. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/steel/

I think you might enjoy it. GrandeMan and I are both members there.

 

[DrGeologist]

Being away on vacation for the past few weeks, I haven’t made any further ‘progress’ on the layout, in the literal sense, however I did do a fair bit of online shopping. Now that I’m back home, Christmas has come early, as there were several packages waiting for me; so now, I can really get started.

First of all, I now have 13 point turnouts and a couple of truss bridges. Also I now have some WS incline sets and tunnel portals and retaining walls. This means I can get started on laying down my extruded foam and do some serious terraforming.

I also have my first loco (GP38) and some rolling stock to get me started. I’m still waiting on an absolutely beautiful ‘old school’ MRC dual train controller to power it though.

Sadly I’ve left the download cable to my digital camera at my ‘inlaw’s house (4hr drive away) so I can’t show you any new photos yet, but as always: watch this space.

-Dr.J

 

[DrGeologist]

My First Mistake

So… as previously mentioned, this is my first ever model railroad project and I’m a complete newbie to this hobby… this was confirmed today.

I obviously don’t know much about couplers. Silly me, I thought all N scale rolling stock and locos would have a single standard type of coupler, however, my GP38 (no matter how nicely I talk to it) won’t join with my coal/ore hoppers rolling stock.

I’m hoping that I can find a coupler conversion kit out there for my GP38 because I quite like it and I’d hate to see it shelved because of my ignorance.

-Dr.J

 

[jbaakko]

Micro Trains makes the couplers, similar to the one on the hopper car.

 

[DrGeologist]

My next step (I can’t believe how long I’ve put it off) was to put a layer of extruded foam on to my benchwork. For this I used a type of LiquidNails that won’t melt styrene. After setting the sheets, I put bricks on them to ensure a tight bond.

I then tacked my Woodland Scenics foam inclines in places using sewing stick pins and tested to make sure that I liked all my curves before permanently setting anything in place. I’ve read that it’s strongly recommended when having ‘S’ bends with flexitrack that you should have a bit of straight track at the inflection point where the S bend changes from one curve direction to the other.

Once happy with the fit, I glues the WS incline foam sections to the extruded foam using a crafter’s low temp glue gun. Also, because I’m a psycho Virgo, I squeezed a dab of the ol’ LiquidNails into each gap for extra hold.

I’ve used a 3 deg and a 4 deg incline. These are for my main line which is planned to loop around in really only one direction, so I figured I can get away with the 4 deg as it will only get used a decline.

I now have lots more foam to lay down and some serious terra-forming to do. In other news, I’ve started on the ore dock. I’ve painted the majority of it using “High Temperature Barbeque Paint.” The paint is very expensive, but gives an amazing realistic sparkly metallic lustre. And by spraying it on unevenly, allowed the original red plastic to show through a little to give a hint of oxidation.

Of course the whole thing will get weathered later, but it’s just a start for now.

-Dr.J

 

[OldGettysk]

Looks like your off to a good start DrJ .

 

[RexHea]

Hi Dr. J!
Darn, I don't know how that I missed this thread until now. First, let me welcome you to the forum. You have a great theme for your layout and I am excited about following your progress. I have a steel industry on my layout, but everytime I want to work on it, I get some other wild idea and get "side-tracked" in that direction. So far, your work looks very good. Keep it up and you will have a nice and fun-filled layout to operate.

 

[DrGeologist]

The back half of my layout will be relatively hilly, thus the inclines I have glued down. I’ve now started on setting the next layer of extruded foam that will form these hills.

Obviously this involves cutting the foam such that the pieces fit around the inclines. Since the inclines are set in their place, I decided to create stencils by taping together small bits of paper around the curves of the inclines. I could then trace the stencil on my foam and cut out the perfect shape to fit around the inclines.

Once finished, I can smooth or detail it all before painting. I have WS plaster cloth and light weight spackle to fill in any gaps.

-Dr.J

 

[DrGeologist]

Iron Giant

Well the ore dock pieces are all painted. Now it’s a gluing marathon to put it all together. I thought I’d take a couple of happy snaps while I had most of the structure set up prior to gluing just to see how it was going to look.

It’s whole lot of plastic I’ve got here. The kit is not complicated at all to put together, there’s just a lot of it. I’ve seen on the web some folks have put four of these together since they’re modular… a significant effort.

This will get my kit building skills up for my next few structures. Eventually I have two blast furnaces to kitbash together, which will certainly be a challenge… but we won’t get ahead of ourselves.