I can’t seem to wait much longer, till I can build my steel mill layout. Over the past year or so I’ve scratch built many of the machines and fixtures to go with it. Now only a short month way ,can I say that this will be the last month to wait. But first I have to build a out-door shed in which to house the layout. 12’X16’ shed complete with AC and heat,throw in a coffee pot and freg…then some more creature comforts.
I have all of the Walthers steel mill kits and trust me I spent big bucks on E-bay to get them! I figure I’d build the BOF structure first,seeing its going to be the largest structure on the layout.It will measure about 4’ long by 2 1/2 width by 2 1/2 high ,with all the piping,access doors ,rail doors ect. I also plan on scratch building a Demag ladle caster,close to the BOF building.
I can’t seem to decide on building a shed or buy one.Living in Hurricane center kinda sucks,but what can one do but hope one doesn’t blow through.The other problem is the wife…she sure is gonna miss me ,with all those long weeknights building a layout in the shed…hahahahahaha.
Being a model railroader for more than 25 years {off and on},I’ve learned alot from you folks and hope to learn more.With this being said,I’d like to thank those of you who have givin me insight on how-to’s and other things.
Well, I’m looking forward to seeing it. Finally, all those neat scratch-built models will have a home. Don’t forget to come into the house once in a while to upload pictures. And to see the wife.
Having lived most of my life on the SE coast and gone through more hurricanes than I care to count, I’d say that the shed type is not a casual decision.
Don’t fool around. One of those pre-fab aluminum sheds ain’t what you need. Real lumber, real roof, all anchored and secure.
I’m with MikeT on staying away from aluminum sheds. You’re right in the center of the bulls eye for hurricanes. Building a sturdy structure will take longer, but it’ll definitely be worth it.
Do you remember dave9999? He lives near Pensacola and he built his own train shed, which has survived a few big ones. Maybe he could give you some pointers…
Your of coarse right. I should build my own shed and will now.Wasn’t thinking clearly…geeez what the heck was I thinking ? I’ve built houses before and all those hurricane clips haven’t failed yet. Thank you for the input,dunno what i was thinking…buy a shed ha not now.
I’m with you pal, my minds made up. So hows your mill coming ? Haven’t seen it in a while and the wife cleaned up the puter and I lost the link.Would you mind posting a link to it again ?
Thank you for the kind words and I’ll surely upload many pictures of the progress.As for the wife yeah I’ll being seeing her ,she told me she would help with anything I needed in regards to building the layout. I don’t think she knows what she has gotten herself into…what a great wife I have.
It’s not the most up-to-date (doesn’t show the modified coal mine). Haven’t had much time [or $$$] to devote to the layout for the past few months. I made the mistake of reading Armstrong’s book after my track was laid, and realized how flawed it was. Kinda killed my motivation. I’m almost recovered now though…
Now you just need to build the layout as good as all of the scratchbuilt machinery.[:P] And one question. Will your mill be prototype based or freelanced?
Pretty much freelance,might have a few things related to real mills. I’d like to go all the way by the protoype but that would be way out of my present finaces. I plan on scratch building a ton of mill features,including the following. A demag ladle caster with structure,ingot stripper,slag dump and skull cracker crane {this will go with the slag processing faclity},blower house,limestone,ore and coke pit and a couple of more that I can’t think of right now.
The whole layout will be a dogbone,with an island for the mill. I’d like to get a hold of a walthers bascule bridge for the river.This is the one part of the mill that bothers me…the river.I’ve never made water before and thinking of just using flat black paint with a shiney coat of polyurethane,with silcone waves painted white.Also on the river I have to find some shale rock somewhere,for use on the river bank.Living in the south at least where I do theres no shale within 100 miles of Beaufort,SC.
NO! NO! NO! PLEASE TELL ME THAT THIS IS NOT TRUE! PLEASE TELL ME THAT IT IS NOT REALLY GOING TO BE ANOTHER MONTH!!! I HAVE BARELY BEEN ABLE TO GET THROUGH THE LAST TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.
Excellant work! I load live coal using Black Beauty grit and also have a Walthers Rotary Dumper. In looking at the pictures on your web site, the caption mentions you modified your dumper to handle solid loads. Do you use the coal load as shown on your site or do you also fill cars with loose material and then use the rotary to unload.
What is you experience with the rotary? Does it have the power to revolve and unload a car weighing several ounces? Were there any special modifications you needed to make to the mechanism?
Your layout is terrific. I want to build something similar based on the Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna, NY. Here’s my dilemma: I have several O27 Bethlehem rolling pieces, switcher, etc. The Walthers kits are large. Will my trains look OK with them? I know my layout won’t be to scale but I have limited room (4x8 currently) and can’t find any O27 scale kits.