Well the whole reason I came up with this idea is because I liked the look of a coil car. It will be expanded greatly though. My latest idea is to build a two deck module layout. Both decks will be of the identical scene, just two different time periods. The upper deck will be a newer time period around late 70’s possibly early 80’s, the lower deck will be much older in the mid 50’s. This came around because of all the talk in post I realized a lot of opportunety. So far there has been 3 or 4 ways of the factory getting the steel coil in the first place and just as many ways as how to unload it. And I also realized the opportunety of modeling a growing factory. Well, 3 growing companies to be precise as I planned on a newsprinting company too. So now I have to go back to the drawing board and redesign the building layout so it will be more sensible in the back date module. As example I had additions to the factory built on both sides of the original factory, a Walthers American Hardware Supply. This would be neat but the factory is built on it’s own block, which in real life the factory would be built towards one side of the lot or the other by an intersection, not in the middle. So I’m going to replan it where the original factory will be located at the left corner of the lot, then a 4 door truck dock, and then a two story office. It will still be made
Well I can’t tell you how others do it but I can tell you how we do it. I work for a flatroll steel processor and we receive coil cars in all the time. First, when you think processor think intermediate step between the mill and the customer. Most customers these days do not have the equipment to break down steel coils into the smaller parts they eventually need so that is where we come in. Also, I believe you are talking about flat rolled steel, steel that has been rolled flat and will be suitable for sheeting (turning it into sheets) for use in auto, tank, construction and appliance industries. Wire steel for mattress springs would never be shipped in covered coil cars, only open top gondolas(remember it’s not surface critical because nobody ever sees the springs) and I don’t believe that bedframe material would be either. You also mention that you like the look of “shiney” coils in the cars, that is stainless steel or galvanized steel, no aluminum because it is to bulky to ship by rail. We receive coil cars from the mills with three 80,000 lb coils in them (max size aloud), the max weight in most coil cars is 250,000 lbs so you can only put 3 in a car or 6 x 40,000 lb coils in the car but for cost savings the mill wants to ship only 3 (less work for them) BTW, if a coil is worth putting in a covered car it is worth keeping covered all the time so there is no “open air” unloading, it is all done inside with cranes. All the steel we receive is going to surface critical apps like kitchen sinks, counter tops at fastfood joints, milk tanker trucks, appliances, auto manufacturers and such. A lot comes in on coil cars but from us, it all leaves on flatbed trucks w/ tarps to cover the loads. If we get one coil car a day average @250,000 lbs and have to ship it out all by truck that = 7 truckloads a day (max truck capacity is 40,000 lbs). Now we never get one car a day, more like 6 cars in one day and then none for
Wow, did this ever get complicated. My factory that I planned on using the steel coils was out the window because I couldn’t find enough info, kind of like the grain elevator. Not I got all the right info and it might have to be tossed out because it’s too much space. I’m a first timer so i’m basically trying to make a small layout and then stretch it out some so I can long running distances and feel like a conitous loop with out actually having a loop. I totally want some point-to-point switching but recently I’ve set up a few various test track pieces to mess around with and also realized I like to sit back and watch the train just creep down the track. I figured putting my yard on one end of the room and an industry or two on the other end of the room would give enough of a run to do this and enjoy another aspect of model RRing that I like. How big is the factory? The one I planned was based off the Walthers american hardware supply modeled after a few add ons so that whole thing could be just factory area. Thee additions were a 4 bay truck loading dock and an office. I already planned on coil unloading being in add on building to recieve coil cars and products shipped out in trucks, so I could still model it as I wanted and when people ask just tell them what you told me. Now all I need to figure out is the damn grain elevator and my two major industries will be set. No one really makes a LP dealer kit in n scale so that’s going to be a fun little kitbashing/scratch building opportunetly so I’m kind of glad no one does make a kit. And the cold storage warehouse but that will be easy…I guess I really have 4 major rail served industries plan that will also be major veiw points on the layout. Wait, there’s 5. I forgot about the lumber supplier. This is also boing to be around 79-80 area so there would still be quite a bit of rail traffic compared to truck traffic. I don’t think rail service really started dying down untill late 80’s, but then again I live not to far away from a pretty b
The lumber supplier is a great idea. We get truck loads of wood skids for the finished steel sheets that are shipping out of our facility, I think you could easily transform that into car loads (probably flats or gondolas) of wood skids for the finished steel sheets. As a general rule of thumb figure 1 skid for 4-5,000 lbs of steel sheets. That means 16 skids per 80K lb coil or 48 skids per inbound coil car.
Check out the new issue of Model railroader, there is a great article with loads of info that will pertain here;
Roll your own steel coils
An easy-to-make common steel mill load By Bruce Dombey
I model in N-scale and have been modeling stainless steel coils almost the exact same way but with tinfoil. You can find tinfoil in different gauges too ie; home kitchen grade vs. commercial kitchen grade so you can model diff gauges of steel in the finished coils. Just be careful not to wrinkle the tinfoil, that makes the finished coils turn out UGLY.
