I am thinking of putting a tool and die company in California in 1885.
But now I’m wondering if it would have been there. I’m thinking Californian would need tools, but would they import them from say Pittsburgh? Steel and coal might be rather short in CA.
The fact is, I don’t know what they would have done.
Do you think the Tool and Die would have been in a large city in California in 1885?
I know there was at least one foundry in California by 1910.
http://www.uss-posco.com/about/history.shtml
There would certainly have been foundries and metal-working businesses, but a tool and die business implies a need to support heavy manufacturing industries. The closest thing to heavy industry in 1885 California was the Sacramento shop complex of the Central Pacific (SP) Railroad.
Blacksmiths (and their anvils) were common. A ‘sport’ developed in California around that time involved blasting an anvil skyward, propelled by a charge of black powder in its hollow base.
Very possibly, a successful blacksmith would have expanded his smithy (and hired his less successful competitors) to produce the exact tools needed by local loggers, miners, farmers and cattle barons. Such a business might receive wrought iron or steel stock from the East, heat it with locally produced charcoal and turn out the exact model Peavey wanted by the foreman of the local woods crew (or the precise design of pick best adapted for scaling freshly blasted rock in a mine.) ‘Made right now’ repair parts for imported machinery would also be part of the business - important to the proprietor of the iron works, vital to people who couldn’t wait from three months to a year to secure a part from the manufacturer in Pittsburg (before the H) or Cornwall. IMHO, “Iron Works,” would be a more likely name than, 'Tool and Die."
Just my [2c].
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Thanks guys,
I know of at least one foundry in the area, so there’s no reason to believe a thriving metropolis like Train City would not have one. It leaves me wondering about fuel though. 1885 is too early for oil–at least in locomotives. Would the foundry use wood as well, or would they bring in coal.
A foundry of that era would primarily cast iron not steel. Look at the machinery of that era for the size and materials used. It wasn’t until possibly the 1940’s that steam chests and large castings on lcocmotives switched to steel. You will need to receive scrap iron and raw ore as well as coal. A foundry furnace is typically a small blast furnace (Walthers blast furnace is ideal). A machinery maker would receive rough castings and do the final machining himself in all probability. Since this predates the hysteria over pollution it would be a smoky belching dirty facility. You also need a sand drying and storage facility since most casting of the era would be sand cast. You might need an overhead crane or jib crane to load larger castings onto flat cars. Think multiple usage for tracks with two or three incoming or outgoing functions per track. Unloading would probably be gravity and manual labor so an elevated track for coal and ore might be in order.
A little historical perspective, and photos, can be found at…
http://jaha.org/DiscoveryCenter/steel.html
Note the Blacksmith Shop, an eight-sided structure with cuppola roof, at the page bottom in the middle of what was in the mid-1880s one of the larger USA steel making plants in Johnstown, PA.
Chip,
Rolling mills at steel plants creates tubes, I-Beams, boxes, sheets, steel coils, billets, and wires
Works shops created semi finished pieces like steel trusses, and large gears. (ie: Vulcan Works by Walthers)
Tool shops created specialized tools. They would get their raw material from Rolling Mills or Works Shops and either forge them or cast them. Obviously there will be a rail shipping and receiving dock for said raw materials.
Tool shops came is all shapes and sizes. You could use any industrial looking brick warehouse from the turn of the century. It will likely have a small power plant house with chimney. Large tool shops typically had high ceilings for the monsterously huge drop forge presses located inside. And with most turn of the century mill buildings, it will have large open windows to allow as much light as possible in. They will be quite grungy. There could also be a smelter for castings. (This is usually remelting of finished metal) This is also quite large oven that will billow all kinds of pollution.
Steel mill complexes (which do make their own finished tools) are quite complex and well…LARGE. You could dedicate an entire layout just to how steel & iron are made.
Here’s a starting example of how ore turns into tools:
rough ore->blast furnace (pig iron)->steel creation (some form of oxygen furnace)->rough rolling mill->finish mill/works
Then there’s ancellory buildings like power plants, coke ovens, coke retorts & gas supply plants, recycling facilities (electric furnaces) and more.
While modeling the steel industry is very rewarding and interesting, it is a space & time hog. Below is a shot of coke processors, blast furnaces, and open hearth furnaces at Sparrows Point in Baltimore. This shot does not include rolling mills or finish & tool works,&nb
Thanks for the information. I’m learning a lot. My big snag, though was fuel. I was able to locate coal mines in Northern California that were operating in the late 19th century. So I can bring in coal.
The building I am leaning towards is this one:
I’ll have to flip the warehouse to make it fit, but seems to do the job nicely.
Don, there’s a steel mill in Butler, PA that I’ve watched. They must be a half mile long and have a 20 track yard. This one will be a slightly smaller scale operation.
Nice building! It has a lot of character. The building extension shows a business that has been around a while, and has expanded.
Sadly though, there’s no indication of a power plant. You need to add some sort of serious chimney on there!
I imagine you already know this, but you have several options for coal delivery
1: Have it dropped into a pit (that’s for more modern works)
2: shoveled out (time consuming and a pain in the duckass)
3: raised platform that drops coal onto the ground. People would then shovel this into a feeder bin. (most likely)
Thanks for the lead. Johnstown is about 30 minutes for me. Looks like a road trip is in order.
The name of the building is the Delaney Iron Works.
What kind of power plant would have existed in 1885? It so happens I can steal the power plant off this model.
That would do it. You would have an oven for heating metal, and a steam engine for power tools. By the civil war belt driven lathes, drill presses, automated drop hammers, and milling machines started to show up. These were attached to an overhead wheel system, which attached to a steam engine. Example:
&
You could put details inside (like I’m doing) and make all kinds of things:
Don,
That first link isn’t working. I can get to the site from the other URL, but I don’t know what picture you are refering to.
Typo on my part. (sorry Chip) Try it again. It was a 150HP steam engine. The second was the furnace that supplied the steam. The third is an example of a finishing tool machine that used 1 & 2.
Great. Now, how would the power connect to the factory. You mentioned cables and pulleys.
Leather belts would wrap around the fly wheel on the engine. These would go up to a central shaft that ran down the middle of the foundry. This shaft had wheels attached at various points. These wheels would also have belts that went down to the individual machines to drive them.
This should give you an idea. You can see the drive shaft above their heads with various size wheels attached.
There’s a great example of the belt drive system down at Harper’s Ferry west virginia. This is where they made the first guns with interchangeable parts. During the summer, the park service will show you how the machines made the gun stock, barrels, hammers, etc… The shop is in a rather unsuspecting stone building on main street.
They also used the belt drive system to “pump” the billows for the furnace. Power came from water, where the two rivers met to form the Potomac. So coal use wasn’t as heavy as a seperate steam engine setup.
~Don
The one California Foundry I do know of was water powered, I just don’t know how to get the water to the location on my layout. [:-^]
You can still get over to that far side of the Conemaugh River to see what remains of the old Cambria Iron Works buildings. The older structures will be beside Johnstown Welding & Fabrication (former Bethlehem Steel Rolling Mill).
Open access is either by the old “Pennsy Union Station” and under today’s N&W mainline and its stone arch bridge, or; on PA 403, in Coopersdale, beside the Conemaugh & Blacklick engine repair shops, on Iron Street keep going straight ahead, and you’ll eventually end up at the older structures through the old gates to Bethlehem Steel’s plants.
Am I loosing my mind (don;t answer that!) or did my post in this topic disappear?
–Randy
Very nice thread. Been lurking a bit thinking about foundry things.