Model Railroading > The 2019 Penn Central - Blast Furnace #2 Set in Place

I had bought two previously assembled Walthers blast furnaces for the integrated mill...and there is #2 in place now. I am building a third from the Ashland Steel series - the more detailed model than the first run o f "The Works" series. and using parts form both Walthers detailing kits, and parts from the other Ashland Steel kit I have - to detail the other one ...along with all manner of parts from both steel mill detail parts makers, and 3d printed parts I am making myself.

Nothing says "Heavy Industry" better than multiple blast furnaces....

Bob

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Excellent work! Thanks for posting.
Bill Pyper
Salem, Oregon
 

In the next post, I will explain and illustrate how this integrated mill is supplied with raw materials, moves product within the works, and ties itself into the entire world.

Bob

Thank you for the compliment, Bill...I appreciate it. What you see here was also the work of others and I want that everyone realize that.

Bob

So, such a large integrated mill as Adirondack Specialty Steel must have both a source of raw materials, as well as a market for its' products. This was an important factor in my building this model railroad - to have at its' core a viable and plausible source of traffic and chief among the things I chose, was an integrated steel mill.

Obviously I want the 2019 PC to be an important source of moving raw materials - but I also wanted to be realistic in the inclusion of ship and barge movement of coal, and ores and limestone, as in the case all along the Great Lakes. Given the mill is theoretically located near Massena, NY - the St Lawrence Rive factors heavily in this. But, because the Seaway cannot host the largest ore carriers on the lakes, year round rail service is needed for iron and nickel ore and coal, coke and limestone....but...also being a naval architect who had designed tug/barge units to deliver those raw materials to integrated mills along the Lakes, I wanted to be sure to include a waterborne supply chain in my modeling.

Ore in particular, is something I wanted to move by water and we can see at Port Ogdensburg, that imported iron ore is shuttled in from Quebec, via ocean bulk carriers, loaded there from Canadian sources and shuttled in from large ore carries by tug/barge that use port facilities in Atlantic Canada. To that end, a special peninsula devoted solely to the maritime connection will be built as one of the final 2 peninsulas on the layout, remaining to be built. Work on them will start this summer.

In Picture 1 below, we see an overall view of what the port peninsula looks like. It is close enough to the mill to allow the mill railroad, the Norwood & South Massena, to shuttle ore from the docks to the mill, as well as limestone and coke and nickel ore. The docks date back to the founding of the mill in 1907, and as such have Hulett ship unloaders that are still in use today, backing up the self-unloaders who often call at Port Ogdensburg. Picture 1 below shows much of what I want to illustrate here....

On the upper right, you will see one of the mill's "remote" operations - the steel casting plant..which receives molten iron and steel from the mill. It is located just above and to the left of the 9 Diamonds.Shuttle trains of the N&SM Rwy move product to the plant over the PC mainlines and then PC moves finished products from the plant. This is unique in that at the main mill itself - PC, and CN share switching duties with the N&SM (itself a unit of the PC).

Just to the right of the 9 diamonds, you see a direct connection from the mill to the port as it ties into the PC Port Ogdensburg Branch. Once in Port O, the facility is fully equipped for multiple types of traffic. There is over 800 feet of docks. In addition to the Huletts there will be a container crane as well. The docks are paved so that both Container and packaged cargoes can be handled, including paper products, forest products, autos, imported steel, project cargo, etc. There are large port warehouses for storage of imported goods. There is also a large grain elevator for export grain in the port owned by CARGILL, and huge piles of mineral storage awaiting transfer to the mill, as well as imported road salt that moves to various points on PC. Also at the port, imported scap is handled as well as export scrap - all creating rail traffic.

Along the N&SM connection to the PC is the mill's scrap handling operation and scrap piles. They feed both the BOF, and the electric furnaces with imported and domestic scrap.

Port Ogdensburg is also the location of a PC's Norwood Intermodal yard that loads and discharges containers loaded onto and off ships at Port O, as well as local trailer traffic.

Accessing the port requires a trip over the moveable bridge at CP RIVER, and over a bascule bridge that opens to allow river traffic to navigate into the Grasse River.

The Port O branch lies along the PC Staging Lead and D&H access branch. The intermodal yard was built on an abandoned former chemical plant. Switching at the facility has to stop when traffic enters or leaves Port O....but the interruptions are not hard to work around. There is more than enough overhead room to switch Port O without fouling the intermodal yard leads.

(Port O also has a yard in which cars carrying cargo into or out of the port are staged. Picture 2 shows the port in more detail.)

Picture 3 shows the approaches to the Port O branch in more detail.

So as you can see - there will be a LOT of operation inherent in the layout design as it applies to the Adirondack Specialty Steel St Lawrence Works, and Port Ogdensburg. It covers three railroads, not even counting D&H traffic to their Canton yard that will be destined to the mill or port. We estimate that in a 4 hour operating session in real time, about 200 freight cars will be moved in and in the vicinity of the mill.

Bob



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/19 16:42 by navarch2.

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Quite a diffrent aproach for your layout many would have just put one somewhere and let it be. This looks to be the center piece of yours wow.

I make my living developing ocean and coastal transportation systems, so for me there had to be some purpose to this railroad. I love operation as amuch as building the layout. Thfive main locations for operation on this railroad and the approx # of cars to switch

The stell mill and environs (200+)
Port Ogdensburg (40+) and environs...
Watertown and its' industrial area (30+)
The D&H yard and the PC-served industries at Canton (20+)
The St Lawrence Classification Yard and attached industries. (500+)

There will also be industries off the main in more than a few places....and many industries on the railroad create or use materials from other industries on the railroad..

Bob


BAB Wrote:
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> Quite a diffrent aproach for your layout many
> would have just put one somewhere and let it be.
> This looks to be the center piece of yours wow.