Some numbers appear to be large and thick in ‘relief’ that are either cast with the shell or welded on later.
- Paul North.
Many people jump to the conclusion that the product being conveyed in your Bottle Cars (aka Torpedo Cars here in South Wales) is Steel.
It’s not, it’s actually Liquid Iron, as tapped from a Blast Furnace, and which has a much lower Melting / Solidifying temperature than Steel, allowing a good few hours for movements from a Blast Furnace to a Convertor Plant.
My experience of work at a Steel Works was over 40 years as a Sandwich Year Student (and very much still wet behind the ears!) and I found the time spent at Port Talbot very very interestng, not least for the chance to see close up their internal rail transport arrangements.
Not only had the erstwhile Steel Company of Wales acquired ALCO locos, but it seems their Rail Engineer spent his time wisely before the diesel change-over by visiting the US to study how your maintenance facilities were laid out, and British Railways followed suit a few years later with tri-level workshops etc.
In latter years, remote control technology has been adopted for most internal rail operations, and I was able to see this at first hand when my Stepson, my Grandson, and I, were invited one day to take a cab ride of 500 yards or so, when we were the only occupants of the cab as the loco was being “driven” by the driver walking away from the loco in advance of the shunt to optimise his view of what was happening.
The driver, however, did go on to clarify that the one “job” within the complex that would never be taken over by remote control technology was the movement of Torpedo cars. He explained that should anything go wrong when a Blast Furnace was being tapped, and the Torpedo Cars needed to be moved away from their normal parking spot under the Furnace Cast House, they’d have to be rushed away at a faster speed than remote control operations allowed.
Also, from memory, the rail used on the route taken by the Torpedo cars, and also the Ingot trains from the Convertor plant to the then Stripper Bay was significantly
U. S. called them hot metal cars. They are lined with refactory [ fire ] bricks, or as we called them “poverty rocks”. I once saw photos of a car that had broken open on an inner plant move. After the metal had cooled they hooked several Cat 988 loaders to the whole thing, dragged it aside, replaced the track and cut the car and load up for scrap.
Tim
Most of my experience comes from observing the Interlake Steel bottle train over more years than I would be willing to admit. The only painted numbers that I’ve ever seen on the cars could be found on the tilting mechanism, away from the worst heat. Reporting marks (ISCX) and numbers on the bottle would be in the form of a large casting, no paint.
In the mid to late 1960’s, smaller bottle cars were used that rode on two 6-wheel Buckeye trucks, no span bolsters needed. The larger cars with two trucks on each end came a bit later. The earlier trains (around 1967) ran with two spacer cars between each loaded bottle and two spacer cars between the bottle and the locomotive or caboose. Trains often returned empty to the blast furnace plant with the bottles coupled directly to each other with most spacers between the locomotive and the first bottle and two spacers between the last bottle and the caboose.
Interlake’s Chicago plant had a most interesting arrangement. The coke ovens were located along Torrence Avenue between 112th Street and 116th Street. The coke was transported by conveyor over the Calumet River to the blast furnace at 108th and Burley. The steelmaking furnaces and finishing mills were located in Riverdale, with the bottle train delivering the molten iron from the blast furnace to the Riverdale facility.