APN Expansion Proposal – CONSORTIUM IRON & STEEL (P4 Branch Line)

ERA:

1940- 1985

 

GENERAL DESCRIPRION:
A scene based on large scale Steel Mill operations near Monessen, PA the original Plant was built in 1901, with iron and steel making facilities, and work consisting of two rod mills, two wire- drawing mills, a barbwire mill and three galvanizing plants, a nail plant, and a wire fabric mill. After the depression of the 1930s, the facility was expanded during the 1940s and 1950s, in 1942 the company added a by-product coke-making facilities, and in 1948 a No 3 Blast furnace, 1955 found the expansion of the open hearths from 120 to 250 tons, the construction of a new blooming mill, and an additional battery of coke ovens. In 1964 the Plant converted to basic oxygen steelmaking.

CONSORTIUM IRON & STEEL, like many large steel mills is serve by two railroads. The Consortium Steel which is 50% owned by CI&S and the MLM&LE(Muskegon Lake Michigan & Lake Erie). CI&S also owns the CS&SW(Consortium Steel & South Western) which handles all heavy mill switching as in Bethlehem Steel’s Philadelphia, Bethlehem & New England . CI&S also has its own in plant railroad. The diesel locos are lettered CONSORTIUM IRON & STEEL or CIS. Rolling stock is typical for a mill = gondolas, flats, hopper cars, box cars tank cars and “cushion coil” cars. These are lettered CI&S. slag cars & Hot metal cars.

Here are some facts about CI&S if it were real.

The Blast furnace divisions eight furnaces produce between 9600 and 12,000 tons of pig iron per day!

The Conversion Dept produces up to 27,000 tons of steel per day.

To get 27,000 tons of steel daily requires,
140,000,000 gallons of water (most is recycled)
24,000 tons of coal to make about 20,000 tons of coke
9,000 tons of iron ore
4500 tons of limestone
15,000 tons of scrap iron and steel
That is about a total need every day of ; 365 days a year!

 

 

 

Now everybody knows about Torpedo and Slag cars. You will also need Coil cars to transport coiled steel. You will also need Gondolas, flat cars and Hopper cars. Not all steel is transported by coil car. Much is transported in open gondolas. Rail movements are known as “jobs”.
SLAG JOB. Takes slag pot cars from the blast furnace to the slag dump to dispose of the “waste material” known as slag. After 12 hours, this can be mined and processed into Cement, Black top etc.
HOT JOB. Takes the loaded torpedo cars from the Blast Furnace cast house to the Conversion Dept, takes empty torpedo cars back to the blast furnaces.
COKE JOB. Takes 20 car 2000 ton cuts of hoppers loaded with coal to the car dumper & coal blending silo from Steelton Yard. Returns empties to Steelton Yard from Coking Dept. Can take loaded hoppers with coke directly to the Blast Furnace Dept.
BLOOMER JOB. Takes loaded ingot buggies from “teeming” dept (next to Conversion Dept) to Blooming Mill & Ingot Stripping. Here ingots are stripped of their molds; the molds are sprayed with a “Parting Compound” to prevent steel from sticking to ingot mold. The red hot ingots are put in a “Heat soaking pit”. They are reheated yellow/white hot then transferred to either a forging hammer or rolling machines to make “Blooms”{chunky candy bar shaped steel), Billets which are 2ft square/round by 30ft long or slab steel which are up to 6ft wide by 30 ft long. This is called “semi finished steel”. There is also some “acid pickling” to remove scale in this process
“ROLLING JOB”= takes the billets or slabs from the blooming mill to the Rolling mill. Here the semi finished steel is put into a “reheat furnace” and reheated yellow/white hot. Then it goes through a series of rollers to make I beams Girders etc plus coiled steel. MAIN YARD= this switches the rolling mill. Takes loaded coil cars, gons, or flat cars to and from Steelton Yard.
MILL TRAMP= this train goes all over the mill picking up and setting off cars where needed. It also spots mill hopper cars under the “dust collector” for transport to the Sintering Dept. The “dust” contains 10% iron= FE2 (Ferrous Oxide, or Iron Oxide or “rust”). These are palletized and reintroduced into the blast furnace
UTILITY JOB 1&2= this is an on call job doing whatever else is needed. Frequently works the Sintering Dept.
HIGH LINE JOB= This takes the Coke, Iron Ore and limestone from the materials yard to the Blast Furnaces Stock House or Skip hoist hopper. There are three tracks on the high line and three branches of the high line servicing the three banks of Blast furnaces. These are open in between the rails by the stock house. Each of the three tracks is for one material only.