For the slag I used kids “Twister” balloons, cut lengthwise and notched frequently, so that the slag lays flat. The semi-completed “slag pit” is adjacent to the blast furnace “slag troughs”, so that the filled slag car procedes out the rear of the blast furnace to the nearby “pit”. Slag is a profitable by-product, used for making ballast, and building blocks, etc. The slag is painted with fluorescent orange paint which illuminated with a hidden spiral black light, will glow ! The semi-solidified glowing shell is made from the sawed off end of the orange holder of “Silly Putty”. It will dump out when the slag car is hit from the rear by a swinging weight suspended from a crane To animate the dumping and pouring, a fine monofilament thread will be pulled by a ring on the fascia. The glowing shell is not glued into the slag car ladle. It is the last part to fall from the slag car. After falling down the slope, the setup is manually reset. Instead of using a rubber balloon, you might find that yhe straps on deep kitchen bags can be painted glowing orange, and are just the right width, to fit in the troughs in the blast furnace, The 2 previous Ashland Iron & steel articles and photos are now on page#3 of the “General Discussion (Model Railroader)” Forum. Click, once or twice on photo to enlarge it. Bob Hahn
You did a great job of making the liquid slag look glowing hot! However, I’d be concerned about burning up the rail and the ties at the bottom of the slope…[;)]
[EDIT:] Now I can see that the other track is at the top of the opposite side of the pit! My bad…
Depending on the specific make up of the slag, it may or may not flow well, and it does have a tendency to cool much quicker than iron, and as such unless it literally came right from the furnace, is probably going to look more like lava - that is to say a little thicker flowing, redder and perhaps with a dark bits/streaks that have already cooled and solidified floating on top. More than likely there would be some encrusting of cooled slag around the outside of the mouth of the ladle.
This is not to say that what you have doesn’t look like molten material - because it does ( I have been doing metal casting as a side hobby since 86 ), it just that the light colors reminds me of a bronze/brass pour. OTOH, I realy like the glassy look of the previously poured ( and cooled ) slag.
If I was to do it, I might have used a darker more reddish orange, and probably just dribbled the paint at point of the pour and just let it flow on it’s own and once dry, highlight with a few thin streaks of a drk red and perhaps a very thinned out black wash near the edges where it cools much faster, and a few streaks of brighter orange near the center where it’s going to stay hot longer.
This is just something to think about in the future
Thanks for your suggestions as to the variations in color of real slag. Will try out the variations in the color on my next try. Incidentally, be sure to view the “Dumping of Slag” video that accompanies the video, on website: “Hulett Unloader.com/videos”. (One of the options on the right side). A painted rubber balloon was not the best material to use for the flowing slag, since it curls and does not curve properly. I am now going to try painting the tie plastic on a kitchen draw-string bag, or perhaps some self adhesive plastic ribbon. I just ordered another dozen ore cars, (ouch!) they doubled the price, but I guess that $10.50/car is not too bad. When the Hulett Unloader model kits arrive in July, it will just about complete the Ashland Iron & Steel complex. Besides the 7-track pass-through staging yard, on the 5’x6’ peninsula, (with mountain skate & ski resort and 3-track mine), there will two more industries (on spurs), a town with Faller Car System (moving cars), a coke-oven complex, the Blast Furnace and Rolling Mill complex, scrap piles, 4 tracks under the 2 Hulett Unloaders, (next to the dock, on a harbor with an ore boat and fishing shanties), plus 8 tracks for hauling in raw materials, transferring molten iron and slag, storage and hauling out the finished products. Along with 24 electrically controlled switches, there will be 10 manually controlled switches in this one Power District). That should be enough to keep a couple of operators busy ! Bob Hahn
Here is a small smelter ( backyard sized ), having the slag tapped off - notice how it cools fairly rapidly and how it tends to form a crust…much like lava, in many respects.
