whats your main industry


CSX_road_slug said:
A prototype rolling mill building by itself is typically 1/2 mile long, which translates to ~30ft in HO scale. And there's usually more than one of these, so the company can process different shapes (sheet, billet, rod, etc.) without retooling.

A basic oxygen furnace building, done properly in HO scale, would need to be roughly 6ft long and 4ft wide. A blast furnace by itself might not demand much space, but once you add in the blower house, ore stockpiling/loading, coke processing and other supporting facilities, the need for space really grows.

Also, don't forget all the extra real estate you would need to accommodate all the rail curves going into the ends of these mill buildings - not to mention the car shops and loco terminal (most mills had their own railroad for in-plant switching).

So that's why I limit myself to showing only a handful of the signature structures. If I didn't severely compress my mill complex to fit on a 12ft by 6ft peninsula, my entire garage would be completely filled up before I could even do it justice. I'd prefer to have a little bit more variety (main line, small towns, etc.) on my pike ;).
Click to expand...



.5 mile :eek: wow....guess I better figure out a way to gain that 30ft span so i can proper model the mill complex as now i got a switcher (chessie system) ;)
 
I too am still planning. However I will most likely go with coal and steel. I'm from Pittsburgh and grew up in the 50-60's. Does anyone remember a company that made a very large HO steelmill? It was a long time ago that I saw one but can't locate one now.
 
steel mill

stooze said:
I too am still planning. However I will most likely go with coal and steel. I'm from Pittsburgh and grew up in the 50-60's. Does anyone remember a company that made a very large HO steelmill? It was a long time ago that I saw one but can't locate one now.
Click to expand...


are you talking about walthers?
 
stooze said:
. . . I will most likely go with coal and steel. I'm from Pittsburgh and grew up in the 50-60's. Does anyone remember a company that made a very large HO steelmill? . . .
Click to expand...

That's Walthers. MB Klein has them all on sale right now:

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Walthers-HO-2973-Blast-Furnace-Kit-p/933-2973.htm
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Walthers-HO-2972-Coke-Ovens-Quench-Tower-Ki-p/933-2972.htm
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Walthers-HO-2971-Rolling-Mill-Kit-p/933-2971.htm
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Walthers-HO-2957-Blower-Engine-House-Kit-p/933-2957.htm
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Walthers-HO-2966-Hueltt-Unloader-Kit-p/933-2966.htm
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Walthers-HO-2964-Larry-Quench-Car-Kits-for-p/933-2964.htm
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Walthers-HO-2967-Engineering-Office-Kit-p/933-2963.htm
 
Me? I'm going with cement products. Coal, aggregate (limestone/ granite) in, portland cement out , all by rail. The "real estate" has been procured, the Walthers Valley Cement kit will be a good start, along with 50 or so cement hoppers! Just gotta build the darn thing!;)
There is also a large grain Co-op, lumber facility and other lineside facilities to keep road crews busy, and then those silly little people we like to refer to as "passengers!";)
 
Thank you very much. There is a lot to the Walther's Steelmill. More than I 'd remembered. Has anyone ever built this entire industry? It appears to be very large. What might the rail system look like?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
wow,those walthers steel mill buildings and such are expensive, wow, and it looks like a person needs all those different items to get the point acrossed. jeeze you can go broke just buying those :)
 
Mine is prolly the grain elevator and farm I've got in the middle of no where. My layout is free lanced but based on agriculture mostly. The other building I love is a hand made lumber shed that a friends dad made outta wood. It looks sexy but isn't very large so it gets over looked I think.


Sent from the past
 
Keystone Specialty Metals Coke Plant

Not built yet, but my father and I plan to have this on his layout in his basement.
View attachment 30298
It will look like this
View attachment 30299
It's 24 feet long!

On my personal layout, which will be 1/87 scale model semi-trucks (full control using n-scale motors, wireless DCC control, a heavily modified slotless-slot car/Faller Car System type steering control, with lithium batteries for power), is/will be dominated by a Cat Rental Center, a Logistics Warehouse and a massive truck stop.
Still in building stage, so no pics yet. The funniest part is that on my layout, the trains are the things that are stationary (for the most part), and the vehicles are what move!
 
Wow. You have me very interested in this/your design.

My son loves big trucks/semis since im a diesel technican. We want to incorporate atleast a trucking company and some other goodies on our layout he would just love it if hey moved.
awesome i need to know more how this works...?
 
The easiest (but not all that cheap) route for you would be to go with the Faller Car System. It's not that popular in North America yet, so getting NA trucks is basically impossible, however it is very easy to convert the Euro style to NA.
A starter set is about $100-130 US on ebay, which gives you one truck, the guide wire and road covering material. That may sound extremely expensive, but when you put it in the perspective of that you would probably pay $70.00-$300.00 for one train engine, it's not so bad. And like everything in our hobby, the more realistic you want it to be, the more expensive it gets.

The downside of the standard Faller system is that there is no direct control or reversing (backing-up) of the vehicles. With the addition of the DCCar system (not the route that I am going), the vehicles can have lights, collision avoidance, respond to stop lights, signal for turns and braking, but they are basically just running on pre-determined paths (and still no reverse or direct control).
Have a look at the attached YouTube files; they are really quite cool.
The last one is a place in Germany called Miniatur Wunderland, and it is quite amazing! They actually have an operational airport using the Faller tech.

I plan to set up a blog as I get going with this some more, and I'd be more than happy to share with you and your son all the +'s and -'s I come across.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqa_iskjADc&list=FLhMSZuVN8aiHv1FXgzaZG8Q&index=52&feature=plpp_video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pClTq_u-fFE&feature=autoplay&list=FLhMSZuVN8aiHv1FXgzaZG8Q&lf=plpp_video&playnext=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zTQF-G_NOo&list=FLhMSZuVN8aiHv1FXgzaZG8Q&index=55&feature=plpp_video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzTpDLWITMY&list=FLhMSZuVN8aiHv1FXgzaZG8Q&index=54&feature=plpp_video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMxCe-WgLQs&list=FLhMSZuVN8aiHv1FXgzaZG8Q&index=47&feature=plpp_video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7jc5fwdpW8&list=FLhMSZuVN8aiHv1FXgzaZG8Q&index=43&feature=plpp_video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLG2K1gYB9A&list=FLhMSZuVN8aiHv1FXgzaZG8Q&index=38&feature=plpp_video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACkmg3Y64_s&feature=g-all-u&context=G28a4f19FAAAAAAAAFAA

I could put so many more, but this gives you an idea of where I'm starting from.
 
Main Industry

I model right in the area I live in southwest Montana. My main industry is grain and cattle. Most towns have grain elevators. In one town there is a flour mill to accept these loads. I also have a meat packing plant to accept the cattle. I model in the mid 1950's where a lot of cattle were moved by rail.
 
my main industries are a paper mill, grain elevator and a ore dock.
 
No main industry for my shelf layout. The building/industries will represent in some fashion places I've worked during my life.

Food joint
Drug Store
Printing
Overhead Cranes
Furniture Mfg.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top