Steel Works

[Mr Pix]

Hi all

 

Just started a N gauge 2" x 16" layout .....Heavy Metal. It will be a late 80s early 90s railfreight layout based around a steel works.

 

Does anyone have info or photos of mineral handling and storage facilities at major steel works.. ie .coal ,iron ore and limestone.

 

Coal will be brought in by mgr waggons with Dapols excellent class 56/58s and along with the new Farish class 20s.

 

I know Iron ore was brought in with 102t tipplers at Llanworn and Ravenscraig with just Scunthorpe left now, will use pairs of 56s or Farish 37s,will be getting some ore tippler waggon kits.

 

Not so sure about waggon type limstone was brought into some works, but know that most of Scunthorpes was by HGV.

 

Many thanks

 

Jez

[Arthur]

Jez,

 

As a starter have a look at these photos in my gallery, they show some elements of materials handling and storage facilities.

 

Margam;

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/8958-margam-steelworks-1956/

 

Scunthorpe

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/8960-the-four-queens-scunthorpe/

 

Margam again;

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/9218-ore-prepartion-sinter-plant/

 

and finally, coke handling at Irlam;

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/9295-coke-ovens-2/

 

I've quite a few others I can post from various dates and works which will give you a good idea of what's involved. I'll put some more up tomorrow.

 

Arthur

[Mr Pix]

Jez,

 

As a starter have a look at these photos in my gallery, they show some elements of materials handling and storage facilities.

 

Margam;

 

http://www.rmweb.co....teelworks-1956/

 

Scunthorpe

 

http://www.rmweb.co....ens-scunthorpe/

 

Margam again;

 

http://www.rmweb.co....n-sinter-plant/

 

and finally, coke handling at Irlam;

 

http://www.rmweb.co....5-coke-ovens-2/

 

I've quite a few others I can post from various dates and works which will give you a good idea of what's involved. I'll put some more up tomorrow.

 

Arthur

 

Thanks Arthur

 

Jez

[RANGERS]

You can take a tour around Scunthorpe on the preservation society trips which is as good a way as any of seeing first hand how it's done today. Apart from the wagon types, I'd have thought the basic infrastructure would be the same as it was twenty or so years back.

[Arthur]

Jez,

 

Are you modelling the actual steelworks? All materials would be delivered into the steelworks complex itself, there would be no handling of these bulk raw materials in a Railfreight yard.

 

This yard below belonged, originally, to the Steel Company of Wales at Port Talbot and later the BSC. It's a private facility handling only their traffic. It received coal, small amounts of home ores and limestone for use at the blast furnaces. The vast bulk of the ore was imported and delivered direct the the works wharf and handles by cranes, conveyors and special transfer cars.

The wagon tipplers, four of them, are the concrete towers to the left. Coal is taken from them to the coal blending plant and washery, in the background, by conveyor.

 

 

Some of the works in later years developed large ore stocking grounds separate from the usual blast furnace storage yard. These were served by conveyor belts from the tipplers or wharf. This is the boom stacker at Port Talbot delivering ore for storage.

 

 

This is the ore reception facility at Ravenscraig prior to the opening of the Hunterston ore terminal. Ore arrived from General Terminus on the Clyde in hopper wagons, they can be seen in the centre. The ore was dumped into bunkers beneath the rails and taken, by the conveyor at the side, to either the sinter plant or the blast furnace stockyard, over on the left. You can see the ore bridge which handled ore, sinter and limestone and which served the blast furnaces, spanning the stockyard.

 

 

Hopefully that's of some use. Let me know if there is any particular aspect that you'd like more info on, but, as I said, unless you are actually modelling the works itself, you really just need lines into the works off stage.

 

Arthur

[Debs.]

'We' are very fortunate as Arthur`s pictures are a wonderful resource, and he`s got the t-shirt; having worked in the steel industry.........2mm. scale will permit an impressive (and expansive) industrial-vista to be represented; I`ll be watching your layout`s progress with great interest.

[ELTEL]

You can take a tour around Scunthorpe on the preservation society trips which is as good a way as any of seeing first hand how it's done today. Apart from the wagon types, I'd have thought the basic infrastructure would be the same as it was twenty or so years back.

 

Highly recommendable as I did the tour many years ago 15+ must go again.

 

Liked the big DCC system for driving the locomotives in some areas.

 

Eltel

[Mr Pix]

Hi

 

Many thanks Arthur very usefull ...Yes I intend on some works buildings along the rear of the layout with a raised main line along the centre, and a long yard in the forground (16 feet to play with) for rakes of waggons with roar materials arriving and finished product leaving,linked to the works by passing under the main line.

 

I have some Walthers Cornerstone mill buildings which i will halve and place end to end for the loading of coils,i also have the Walthers coke oven which has bunkers fed by a conveyor... Looking for info on discharge facilities by mgr hoppers and rotary 102t tippler waggons, want to have a go at scratch building some of these but cant find any images ?.

 

Intend on having coal and ore stock piles for backscene linked by conveyer to rail discharge facility. I will have a go at scratch building the huge coal bunker like the one at scunthorpe which i have images of.

 

Thanks for the info on the tour around the scunthorpe sight ,I do not live in Lincolnshire any more this was my local spotting area in 80s 90s - Immingham and Frodingham were my local depots ,also spent many a happy hours at Barnatby.

 

Jez

[Arthur]

That makes sense Jez. Can't help with photos of modern tipplers I'm afraid but this youtube clip shows HAA hoppers being unloaded at a power station. It's all under cover, a simple steel clad building would suffice, with a conveyor leading from an underground bunker to the coal preparation facility.

 

 

The Walthers coke ovens are nice models, the only thing I'd point out is that they come with a steel framed service bunker. They were virtually unknown in this country (I've never seen evidence of one, but couldn't say there that were none). Certainly every steel works coke oven battery I have seen, or have photos of, are built in reinforced concrete. Is that what you are referring to at Scunthorpe? Here are some examples of ferro concrete service bunkers;

 

Appleby Frodingham;

 

 

Dorman Long;

 

 

Margam

 

 

Arthur

[Fat Controller]

To give you some idea of the scale of these operations, here's a link to the Google view of part of the current Port Talbot operations:-

http://goo.gl/maps/N2NfY

From left to right , you have the iron-ore unloading jetty, the stacking area (perhaps Arthur can explain the different colours of the stacked minerals), then the sinter plant and blast furnaces. The coking plant is off-picture to the south of the view; originally, it wasn't connected to the jetty, as locally-produced coal was used, but now there is a conveyor belt. This plant was built when the works was modernised; the one in Arthur's photo stood out of use for a long while, before being demolished.

The jetty was built in the late 1960s- the stone used for its construction was brought from as far away as the Peak District by block train. Prior to that, the iron ore used came from a deep mine at Llanharan (higher-grade haematite), and from various mines around Banbury.

[Revolution Mike]

Hi Jez

 

I assume you know that TPM do the PTA iron ore tippler as kits. Sargent make some working rotary couplings in 4mm, but not sure if anyone does in 2mm. There are a few pictures/videos of tipplers in action on the web (possibly at Ravencraig?).

 

Cheers, Mike

[The Stationmaster]

Here's another picture of a coal unloading facility at a power station - as you can see it is as Arthur has already mentioned - a simple building with steel cladding and two (in this case) rail tracks passing over the discharge units which are within the building. The coal goes from underneath the unloading bunkers via a reclaim system and conveyors to the stacking areas and is taken from their by another conveyor system.

 

Similar facilities - usually with only a single line through them - are used to unload limestone.

 

[Arthur]

(perhaps Arthur can explain the different colours of the stacked minerals),

 

Only that iron ores range from black, through brown, purple, red and orange, to deep yellow.

 

The sidings in my photograph were on that bare patch of land to the right of Central Road and East Road.

[hmrspaul]

I have a few general photographs of steel works in the following

 

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/ravenscraigsteel

 

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/workingtonsteel

 

There are various other steel works in http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/industrialinternalwagons although mainly wagon photographs some show parts of the associated works.

 

Paul Bartlett

 

 

 

Paul Bartlett

[JeffP]

During the 80's, iron ore to Scunthorpe works was in the hands of a single class 60. Since it went over to class 66's, the wagons are less than 1/4 full.

 

Coal came in in HAA's. usually in the capable hands of Class 56's, the 58's for some reason did not like the climb up Gun House bank into the town. they had the power, but their electronic systems shut the engine down when it slipped, often to a stand.

 

The finished materials were in the hands of class 31's, singly or in pairs, class 37's, usually singly, class 47's, class 56's and the occasional class 60.

we also had quite a few pairs of 20's which worked coal.

[Mr Pix]

Thanks all

 

Arthur.... very informative....The Scunthorpe silos are two rows of 9 round concrete bunkers linked by a over head conveyor i think they house coal?. They can be seen in this Dec Rail Express No 199 on page 52 in the back ground behind 66531 as it passes Frodingham.

 

Mike..Yes thanks i will need the TPM tippler kits if Farish dont in the near future as they have released the baa coil and flask waggons, heres hopping.

 

The Stationmaster.... thats very helpful a good image to base a scratch built one on linked to a conveyor.

 

Fat Controller... great ... thats a massive area, most of the works and stock piles will form the backscene of the layout.

 

 

Thanks

 

Jez

[Arthur]

Jez,

 

Yes, that’ll be the coal blending bunkers. Coal is usually sourced from several pits and blended in proportion to obtain a charge of the required quality for the coke ovens with the aim of producing the best coke for the blast furnaces. The coal will be taken from the tippler, or storage, up the conveyor to the distributor belts and trippers housed in the long structure atop the silos. Each silo is reserved for a particular type of coal. At the bottom of each silo is a controlled outlet feeding onto a conveyor and coal is mixed in the required blend and taken to the coke oven service bunker.

 

Far right you can see the one which once stood at Fishburn coke ovens, the conveyor to the service bunker is clear.

 

East Moors, Workington and several other works had similar structures, sometimes the bunkers were square in section.

 

 

As an alternative to scratch building, the Walthers Grain Elevator silos, suitably painted, might be an option. They include the top conveyor housing.

[class"66"]

Some awsome pictures here guys!! luv the old steel mills and plants....

[Mr Pix]

Arthur..

 

Many thanks for taking the time to reply. Thats great i will link it with a convyer to the coke oven bunkers ,will have to be at a right angle to save space.

 

 

I will give a go at scratch building the silos have been collecting cardboard tubes for a while that look the part, if not happy with the results will look at the walthers grain silo as you suggested. Having a long weekend this friday and the forcast is for snow so will have a bash this weekend.

 

Jez

[JeffP]

Don't forget that iron ore doesn't go into the blast furnaces as such, but as sinter, a heated blend of ore, coke and limestone. Sinter is metallic looking, dark grey and spiky, brittle yet quite hard to break.

The sinter plant on any works is an awful place to work, dust from the crushers, noise, heat and smell from the strands, (where the heating takes place), plus blown sinter dust is terrible if it gets into the eyes.**

 

The sinter then goes up a conveyor to the "high line" where it is joined by more coke from the coke-ovens, before being blended and sent up the furnaces in a hopper for the "charge".

 

**In point of fact, the Scunthorpe works now issues safety glasses that fit close to the eye, copies of Bolle ones, in high dust areas like sinter plant and coke ovens, since my lad bought himself a pair when he worked on the coke ovens, and brought them to the attention of the engineer.

[Arthur]

Don't forget that iron ore doesn't go into the blast furnaces as such, but as sinter,

 

That’s not universally true Jeff. Most furnaces are charged on a mixed burden of raw ore, sinter and pellets (plus coke and limestone).

 

As the quality of ores has deteriorated, and the cost of fuel risen, the ore ‘benefication’ processes, which improve the performance of the burden in the furnace, have become widely applied, however, there are still ores which can be readily smelted with minimal preparation. Most UK plants installed sinter plants in the 1950s.

 

Sintering also enables iron rich dust or ‘fines’, collected from the blast furnace gas and various ore handling points, to be smelted without choking the furnace.

Appleby Frodingham in Scunthorpe was the first works in the world to use a 100% sinter burden, in the 1960s, because of the poor quality of the local ores being used. Later they reverted to a mixed charge, I don’t know what their current practice is.

 

Also attached is a shot of the 3D cad model of a replacement conveyor plus shot of an autocad drawing. Happy to forward information but the work in the conveyors

alone is terrific.

 

Great photos Dave, yes, there's potentially a huge amount of work involved in modelling a steelworks.

 

Were you working at Redcar when the furnace was mothballed and was your work part of the proposed start up by Sahaviriya Steel Industries, or prior to that? I'm just wondering how much work was done whilst its future was uncertain.

 

Your last photo showing the Redcar furnace, once Europes largest and still the second largest, illustrates charging by conveyor. Though the modern method, it's relatively unusual. Only two furnaces in the UK were so equipped, the one at Redcar and the now demolished Llanwern No. 3.

 

Most furnaces had traditional skip charging, wheeled, counterbalanced skips, rope hauled up an inclined gantry or bridge.

 

Here's the charging side of Margam No.4 in the 1980s. You can see the skips passing each other on the skip bridge.

 

 

 

Llanwern. Two skip charged furnaces nearest and the conveyor charged No. 3 in the background. The telephoto lens has caused some foreshortening, No.3 is much further back than the photo suggests.

 

 

Arthur

[Fat Controller]

Llanwern was RT&B, my father's employer (directly or indirectly) for most of his working life; I remember passing the site on a Cardiff-Birmingham train in 1961, and being impressed by all the huge plant on site (I was six..)

That dust was endemic in the steel industry; in my dad's case, it came from the Wheelbrator opposite the Drawing Office car park at Landore, and my Sunday job was to try and get as much as possible out of the car interior. Later, working at Landore as a summer job, I would collect it and use it to weather wagon interiors..

[The Stationmaster]

Brian

 

I believe that the abbreviation S.C.O.W. referred to Steel Company of Wales.

Rather a long time ago.

Dave

 

S.C.O.W. was indeed Steel Company of Wales but Llanwern - Brian pointed out - was actually an RTB (Richard, Thomas & Baldwins) plant.

[JeffP]

I've asked a mate, a fitter on the scunthorpe works to find out the current charge in our blast furnaces, in % sinter, ore, coke and limestone, if any.

 

When I worked on Appleby-Frodingham and Lysaghts in the early 70's, as a student, no limestone was used, in fact I was mocked for asking about it, having learned it for my chemistry "O" level.

I think that, at that point, there was sufficient in the local ores used.

There are no ore mining operations still in use in this area, for certain.

[Arthur]

When I worked on Appleby-Frodingham and Lysaghts in the early 70's, as a student, no limestone was used,

I think that, at that point, there was sufficient in the local ores used.

There are no ore mining operations still in use in this area, for certain.

 

That's correct Jeff, the local Scunthorpe iron ores contained enough limestone without charging any extra. It helped AF in their pioneering use of high sinter burdens. There's no ore mining anywhere in the UK, it ceased many years ago. There are still hundreds of millions of tons available, but it's of low quality with poor iron content.

 

SCOW modernised and operated the Port Talbot works, Baldwins having owned the original Margam plant. SCOW was a joint venture between several Welsh steelmakers (Baldwins, RTB, Lysaghts and GKN were, I think, all involved) to spread the cost and risk of the undertaking. They also operated Trostre and Velindre.

 

RTB pulled out in 1957 as they embarked on Llanwern, a risky venture nobody else wanted any part of. RTBs stock was still owned by the state at this time, the only company never returned to private ownership after the short lived nationalisation of 1951-1953. Llanwern would have bankrupted them otherwise.