The Semet Solvay Division of Allied Chemical Company had a number of coke oven batteries around the country to supply open market coke to the steel industry. They brought coal loads in and coke and by-products out including Tar in both solid and liquid (heated), Toulene, benzene and a bunch of other carcinogenic liquids by tank car. Bricks were brought in by box car for minor repairs as well as equipment like fans and hardware including doors for the ovens and other castings. Here is an opportunity to bring in a load of coal and take the same car out as a load of coke. All of the other cars are enclosed so every car switched in can go out the way it came. This deletes the need to have back to back industries that support each other.
Good idea. Thanks for the history too. What area of the country is the Semet Solvay Division in?
I’m very sure that they have plants in other parts of the country,but from experience,
I know of two Semet-Solvay plants in and around Ky. ARMCO Steel has a plant just
outside Ashland;and gets “supplies” from Semet-Sovlay’s plants in Ironton,Oh.and
East Ashland(West Catlettsburg,Ky.)
At least they did in the years that I lived in that area,I’ve been gone from there about 25 years.
There were 5-7 as I recall. The two I was intimate with were the Detroit plant next to Great Lakes Steel and the Ironton Ohio plant which was eventually bought by McLouth Steel co. also of detroit.
check this:
http://www.hon-area.org/history.html
This company was bad for Onondagua Lake in Syracuse, N.Y… They polluted the lake pretty bad. I can still remember the nasty smell as we drove past Solvay Process to get to Syracuse.
.
Notes from Buffalo, where Tonawanda Coke still operates the Allied Chemical by-product ovens.
Metallurgical coke has a larger “lump” size than most grades of coal, tends to be dark gray in color rather than black, and is less dense than coal. Foundry coke has a smaller lump size, but is also lighter in color and density than coal. Coke moves in high-sided hoppers and gons as well as general service cars.
A couple of modelling ideas pop up here.
Sprinkle a little ground-up lump charcoal over a coal load to simulate a general service carlaod of coke. Prior to being shipped out of a model mine, dump or vacuum the stuff off. This is accurate modelling in a chemical sense, because charcoal is distilled wood, and coke is distilled coal. A little messy, but that’s prototypical too.
Removable loads are another great option–coke loads can be simulated by cementing ground charcoal to cheap load castings that come with plastic kits. I’ve also used oversized ballast and a black paint wash for this. Swap the loads to simulate the production process.
If you like using high-sided cars for your coke traffic, the plant can be a double loop for loads in / empties out. One path could be coal, the other could be coke. You could also bring the coal in by water and just concentrate the rail operations on coke and by product haulage. Some mining operations actually have the coke plant at the minehead, including a brand new Independent Steel Group plant currently under construction on the old Cambria and Indiana RR in Pennsylvania.
I once (1973) had a substantial supply of real foundry coke, courtesy of a train wreck on the Penn Central outside of Niagara Falls, NY. I also had a cast, hand operated meat grinder for reducing the stuff to HO proprtions. Instead of taking care of these historical treasures, I wasted my formative years in classrooms, libraries, and rathskellars and the garbage bag of coke and meatgrinder were lost to the sands of
Since coke is less dense then coal, as a rule, coke is shipped in larger (volume) cars. Of course, rules are made to be broken.
Have fun