STATE TOOL AND DIE 200 Ton Hot Metal Car - Part 1

This new release from State Tool and Die came out last fall.  I finally got around to ordering one.   Initially the bottle part of the car had a double taper.  After my experience on my scratch built four truck car, I immediately understood why this was done - wheel clearance.   If you remember with my car, I'd followed Treadwell plans online, exactly as possible.  Only after I saw the notation of 28" wheels on the drawing did I figure out the standard 33" wheels I was using were the problem.   So in using standard trucks, ST&D must have run into a similar problem.   After being taken to task online about no prototype, they reengineered the car with a single taper.   The new version says, "Revised" on the packaging.  From what I understand they will send you new ends if you have one of the original cars.

The kit was $50, and is packaged in the standard ST&D baggy.   The parts are the usual heavy grey plastic.   They are nicely molded and not much flash to clean up.  The instructions are easy to read and the fit of the parts is good.   The turning equipment on the one platform is fairly plain and consists of three separate pieces.  There are no registration marks so you might want to just place everything first so the final assembly makes sense.  

The only parts I didn't use are the thin square sheets that fit around the spout.  I've seen this type of thing on more modern photos of prototype cars, but not back in the 50's.    I also didn't use the steel weight provided for inside the bottle.  I will just use lead birdshot until I like the weight.    The kit is basic in that there is no brake equipment, hand rails, grabs, steps,..etc.   I will be adding these.  Also, I'm considering backdating the car a bit to riveted construction - stay tuned.

I'll end with a poor quality photo I took driving across the Walt Whitman Bridge into Philly of a rail transfer yard in Camden on the former property of New York Shipbuilding.   It's used for loading a variety of imported cargo onto railcars.  Lately they have been bringing in steel slabs by ship, from I don't know where, and loading them into gons, destined for AK Steel (Kentucky?)  I'm thinking possibly from Brazil?    The slabs are shipped out in unit Extras.   If you look closely you can see the diagonal siding that the crane straddles and slabs laid out for loading along the track, in addition to the stacks in the middle of the photo.   Rail traffic has been booming here in south Jersey - first the oil trains, and now coal and slab trains.

BOOK REVIEW - Pennsylvania Short Lines Volume 2

After my recent purchase of Volume One of this Morning Sun book, which, organized in alphabetical order, left off at the Ma and Pa, finding Volume Two of this out of print book became a priority.  There were several for sale online.  It's hard comparing these two, as they are both excellent, maybe this one was slightly better from a steel standpoint.   The subtitle for these books is "Traditional Shortlines of Pennsylvania Extant in the 1950's"    This is an important differentiation in that the shorelines the book covers existed to primarily serve a specific industry, or isolated mine or town, and connect with a mainline railroad, as opposed to the more modern versions of shorelines, many formed to operate lines abandoned by main line railroads.    Modeling the steel industry in the 1950's is tough from a color standpoint as most of the resources are black and white.  The color images in these Morning Sun books are especially useful in terms of colors of industry, rolling stock, and roadbed.   This book, like the first Volume is chock full of steel industry images from the 1950's and 60's.   Some of the steel mill shorelines covered are -

McKeesport Connecting Railroad -  National Tube
Monessen Southwester Railway  -  Pittsburgh Steel
Monongahela Connecting RR -  J&L Steel
Philadelphia, Bethlehem and New England RR -  Bethlehem Steel
Pittsburgh & Ohio Valley RR - Shenango Inc
Pittsburgh, Chartiers & Youghiogheny RR - also Shenango Inc
Steelton & Highspire RR - Bethlehem Steel (Steelton plant)
Upper Merion & Plymouth RR - Alan Wood Steel

There are lots of photos of the steel plants and steel specific equipment, in addition to revenue cars with interesting steel related roads.    Some interesting initial observations -

The blast furnace complex at Bethlehem Steel in Steelton was mostly painted a silver color - not the usual black or iron ore/primer red color.  I'm starting to think that the Bethlehem plant at Lehigh, which I am modeling Blast Furnace A, had the same coloration in the 50's.   The peeling paint on A-Furnace, which is still standing, looks silvery to me.  I brought this up on the Yahoo Steel Group about five or six years ago and I was told no way, that it was just a black coating and always had been.

Blast furnaces at all the mills listed above are depicted whole or partially in this Volume.

Some neat shots of those unique Pugh torpedo hot metal cars used at Alan Wood Steel

Ladles used at Shenango, not torpedo cars - a few shots of these

An interesting car load at Bethlehem - a gantry crane being shipped from Bethlehem to another mill.

Well worth the money.

BOOK REVIEW - WESTERN NEW YORK STEEL

This is a new release by Arcadia Press - Western New York Steel - It is an excellent, and very economical book related to the steel industry in the Buffalo, New York area.  The majority of the photos in the book are of Bethlehem Steel's Lackawanna Plant, however, it also covers Republic, Towanda, and a number of other smaller operations.   The photos are numerous and very interesting.  As with all Arcadia books, all the photos are black and white, and are generally smaller due to the format of these books.  There is an excellent historical overview that accompanies the photos, but these are picture books so most of the information is gleamed from the captions.    I visited this area in college during the late 80's, just after most of the Lackawanna Plant was torn down.  I spent some time at the local historical society and their seemed to be a number of people interested in the steel history of the area.  Apparently there is now a steel museum up there that I would like to visit someday.  I'd wished I'd spent more time back then looking for steel industrial archeology, but from what I remember, I was focused on photographing the many grain elevators along the waterfront, many of which were going to be torn down.   Well done - if you are interested at all in steel or steel modeling, buying this book is a no-brainer.  You can order online from the Arcadia site - I think it was less than $25 with shipping and arrived in two or three days time.

BOOK REVIEW - PENNSYLVANIA SHORT LINES IN COLOR VOL 1 By Gary R. Carlson

I found this 2003 Morning Sun publication at the LHS - Sattlers Trains - this weekend.   It's an interesting volume with plenty of steel and heavy industry related subjects.   This book, Volume 1, covers Pennsylvania short lines in alphabetical order - from Aliquippa & Southern to Maryland and Pennsylvania.   Plenty of loco shots, but also plenty with the camera pulled back a bit with plenty of background images included.   Good coverage of both the J&L Aliquippa plant (Aliquippa & Southern) and Bethlehem Steel in Johnstown (Conemaugh & Black Lick)    Some other minor steel operations and short lines.  Also some non-steel heavy industry -  the cement industry in the Lehigh Valley (Ironton RR), and my favorite, NJ Zinc operations in the Lehigh Valley (Chestnut Ridge Railway)   Also mining - coal and limestone.   Some interesting text concerning the industrial operations .  Plenty of interesting rolling stock back to the 40s and early 50's.   A 1950s photo of Bethlehem's facility in Johnstown answered a longtime question for me - When did steel plants start using safety yellow on handrails,,etc.   I, and several others had posted this on the Steel Yahoo Group several times over the last 8 years of so with no answers ever given.  I gleamed a slight clue with a photo in one of the Steel Mill Books that showed orange railings in the 50's at the J&L Pittsburgh Plant, but no yellow.   This book shows yellow railings on the blast furnace and associated stoves.     The book was well worth the money and I've just ordered Volume 2 

WEEKEND GETAWAY - Rare Alco, with a steel lineage - Morning Sun books - etc

A bit of an update on trains and life how it affect them.   Usually the holidays are a slow time for my type of business, however, for us it was not so - we were working like crazy right through them, and just when it looked like I might be back to just normal work days, a project installing all the moldings, doors, and trim in a large (6500 sf) custom home, materialized in the space of a few days.  Since our days were still extremely busy I told the builder that we could only work nights on it, so my days have been going like this - 7am-5pm our scheduled projects, hour dinner break, and then 6pm-12 installing trim.    The good news is that I have had the past two weekends off- my first in four months or more.   Last weekend I was part of the local NMRA New Jersey Division layout tours.  I wasn't able to get much done before the tour as I usually am able to, however, I was forced to clean up and organize the basement, something sorely needed down there.  We had about two dozen visitors.  This weekend my wife and myself did a quick weekend get away.  We usually try to do these things every month or two, but with my business we haven't gone away since last July.   We were going to do the Lehigh Valley as we usually have a fun time there, however, at the last minute we decided on the Lancaster, PA area.  Nice mix for both of us as usual - a few train stores and the PA Railroad Museum for me,  outlet stores for her, and antique stores for both of us.

Monongahela Connecting 701 - a rare Alco C-415 at the PA Railroad Museum.   Monongahela Connecting was the in-plant railroad for J&L Steel in Pittsburgh.  This exact locomotive is featured in the Second Diesel Spotters Guide

Behind the Museum is a narrow gauge shunter locomotive - not sure where it came from, possibly a Hulett facility, although I thought I read somewhere it came from the ore docks in Philadelphia.  

One thing I like about the PA Museum, and also with the Strasburg Train Shop (located in the Rockvale outlets now) is their vast selection of Morning Sun books, but more importantly, they have "Store Copies" unwrapped and browsable.   As you know from my recent disappointment with Steel Mill Volume 5 or 6, forget already, I'm always bothered by the expensive gamble you take buying one of these books.  There were four volumes that I was planing on purchasing, that after leafing through, I'm glad I didn't.  The book I did buy, that wasn't even on my radar, was the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie in Color, Vol 2 by Richard C. Borkowski Jr.    This volume covers the P&LE from 1956-1976 (Volume 1 covered the post 1976 P&LE, after they became independent of NYC/Penn Central)    The book has many shots of steel mills from Youngstown to Pittsburgh to Monessen.    Excellent captions throughout with lots of information on train movements, mills, etc...  Best of all, NOT the dreaded locomotive money shots over and over and over - there are plenty, but that's to be expected, put also plenty distance shots with facilities and industries included.  Gives you a much better sense of the environment around which the railroad operated.   I realized after reading through the book for the first time, that the author is the same as for my favorite, the Union Railroad Morning Sun Book.  

Since the area is a destination for plenty of railroad enthusiasts,  the antique stores seem to have an above average amount of railroad related items.  I picked up a Morning Sun, Bessemer and Lake Erie for a modest $25,  and also a number of other railroad books and magazines.  

BOOK REVIEW - Steel Mill Railroads Volume 6

To sum it up - a disappointment.  It looks like the Steel Mill Railroads series has finally "jumped the shark".    The most interesting photo in the book- your looking at it on the front cover.     My problem with this volume is that it isn't about steel mill railroads, as the title professes, but rather, steel mill ENGINES.   Don't get me wrong, I love Baldwin locomotives, which apparently so did southern steel mill operators, however, after 20 or 30 it starts to get boring.  The vast majority of the photos in this book are your Extra 2200 South type locomotive photos.    If you like that sort of thing - the ex Penn Central 1234, ex PLE 5432,..etc..  I guess you might like this, but otherwise don't waste your $55.    There were a number of shots that looked promising - if the photographer or editor had zoomed back from the locomotive a bit so I could actually see more than a small section of the mill in the background.   Much of the text of the captions relates to previous owners of the locomotive, lots about the paint schemes,  spark arrestors on locomotives, re-engineening Baldwin primer movers with EMD,...etc...   boring to me.     There were no maps, and I gained virtually no knowledge about southern steel mill locations, facilities, or operations of any sort.    Some of the very few interesting things - the cover photo, a close up of the air compressor car in the cover photo,  and a caboose from I think, USPipe.  There was a shot of a train of interesting ore jennies, hauling "Venezuelan iron ore" on the "high line" to an ore conditioning plant, but from where?, and what and where did the highline run?.....etc..     One of the few mill shots, was a 1950's vintage "commercial photo" that apparently was sold locally in Alabama or done as a promotional thing - night shot, poor resolution, oh, but if you look real close you can see the ass end of a Porter saddle tank in the open hearth.      My opinion is if there are to be more of these geographic themed volumes, a good template  to follow, would be the Morning Sun Union Railroad Book.  Most of the shots were of entire trains, with the mills visible in the background, so you knew where the trains were going or coming from and had some reference with the mills they served.    There were also maps and amble text describing the operation of the RAILROAD.     Otherwise, change the title to Steel Mill Locomotives of the South or something along those lines.    Of course, since Morning Sun books are wrapped in plastic, they are sort of like a box of Cracker Jacks - you don't know if you are going to get something good or bad until you fork over the money and buy it.  

 

1/35 WWII GERMAN STEAM LOCOMOTIVE BUILD - Part 2

Some photos of progress.  Many hours of work to get to this point.  I'm deviating from the instructions due to painting considerations.  I'm going with the standard, non-camo scheme - black body and red frame.   The instructions call for attaching the boiler section to the frame early in the assembly process.  Doing so would mean painting many many parts individually that would be added later.   I'm continuing with the assembly and evaluating every part as to whether they can be attached before mating the sub assemblies together.  If I'm not sure, or concerned that they would interfere with future assembly I leave them off.   I've only lost one part - one of the dozen or so clamps for the smoke box door - popped off tweezers and vanished.  I was able to replicate a decent enough replacement from styrene scraps on bench.  Notice the etched brass parts.

Tender frame and body under construction

Boiler and Cab

Loco frame