So why is it that nobody seems to know how to model a foundry? You can’t just plant a building with a clear story and stick a smokestack next to it and call it a foundry. Fact is, most all foundries don’t even have smokestacks. The most common furnace is the cupola or vertical shaft furnace. They are varied and easy to model and extend out and above the roof of the foundry. Old foundries have open top cupolas and newer ones have a closeable cap and downcomer pipe to a bag house. The bag house is also easy to model. They need a constant supply of coke and scrap iron on steel brought in by rail, so a well modeled foundry is fun to operate. I believe there should be some education here on how a foundry operates so modelers can build a realistic foundry.
LTGeiste,
Welcome to the MR Forums !
If someone did a keyword search on foundries at the Index of Magazines, to which the below is a link: http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?opt=S&cmdtext=foundry&MAG=ANY
they would find 6 article citations.
If your foundry had a drop forge, you would also need some sound effects.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543
I have suggested that the Walthers blast furnace makes a better cupola furnace in a foundry than a blast furnace and replicates very well what you want to do if you can find one at this point.
I model a HO scale steel mill complex,based on my own design. With a blast furnace,EAF,coke oven,rolling mill,and as soon as I can find a suitable sorce of sheet metal a BOF building. There’s two more guys on this forum that model steel also.
Shoot me an E-mail and we 'll talk more…also Yahoo has a steel modeling group forum,that I and one of the steelies guys on this forum belong to.
Patrick
Beaufort,SC
Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}
Making HO scale steel by the ton!!!
Foundries make castings. They can be steel, iron, brass, copper, aluminum stainless steel or other metals so raw materials are called for in the form of scrap - never ore that I know of or have seen. Foundry sand can range from normal sand color through black. Most molds today are made from styrofoam or the equivalent so don’t forget deliveries of styrofoam. they are dying breed today because polution controls have forced most of them out of business. A typical casting house and furnace occupies less tha a city block but add an office building, warehouse, scrap pile, alloying agents, sand storage (reusable) and maintenance and it can mushroom as your space permits. Basically the furnace is a miniblast furnace without the stoves and typically does not use preheated air. Foundires do not make strip, structural shapes or merchant iron ( angles, channels etc.)
actually, if anyone wants detailed information about the American Car & Foundry buildings in St. Charles, Mo; my father used to work there, and is always going into great detail about the production operations there, along with the structural details…I’m sure I can get him to provide whatever help he can in modeling this industry, he was in his late teen’s and early 20’s at the time, and seems rather fond of the memories he has of his time there…
please email me with any requests…no matter how specific
Almost forgot[#wstupid]
if anyone is interested in seeing an ‘operating’ iron processing plant…the Science Center in Pittsburgh, ( literally around the corner from 3-rivers stadium, also, the one with the WW2 Diesel submarine docked outside), had at one time, an HO scale layout, the structures resemble a set the was released several years ago as part of the Walthers Cornerstone line, I believe…kinda burnt-rusty colored…etc…well, they had it done up…even had liquid slag running through the troughs…as well as automated unloading of ore, and loading of finished iron stock…but the last time I was there was 9 years ago…so call ahead to see if they still have the layout
It is a bit small for a blast furnace but early furnaces were. It would make a good modern cupola if it wasn’t for that peculiar blast furnace shape. Most small foundries have cupolas that are about 5 to 6 feet in diameter. That’s outside diameter. The East Broad Top railroad had such a cupola in their foundry.