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My HO exploits

General Information

References to 'Steelworks' in this (HO) section are because this layout is a steelworks in the making. It is not yet named, but will be eventually.

This is an ongoing project to construct an HO scale model. It is being built on a set of 2 foot wide, by 4 foot and 2 foot long, baseboards made into an 8 foot by 8 foot L shape to fit in the available space. This is a plan of the layout imaged from the 3rdPlanIt plans.

Steelworks Plan

The major structures are labelled. The High-line is a raised area above a row of bunkers. Hoppers containing the raw materials are shoved up here and unloaded into the bunkers, which then feed the blast furnace.

The single track leaving the right hand edge of the plan goes to a pair of fiddle tracks representing the rest of the world.

The area to the left of the coke ovens holds the byproducts recovery plant and the coke quenching and storage area.

Rolling stock

Motive power for the steelworks itself are a pair of diesel switchers; a Lehigh Valley EMD SW1200 and an Erie Alco S1. Road units to provide the connection to the rest of the world are an N&W C30-7 and a CSX SD40-2. All will be fitted with SoundTraxx DCC sound systems.

Freight cars are what is needed for a steelworks of course: Ore hoppers, coal hoppers, cole hoppers, limestone hoppers, hot metal cars, slag cars, gondolas (for scrap), flat cars (for slabs), coil cars and a few boxcars, covered hoppers and tank cars for by-products and additives. Passenger vehicles: none!

As this is basically a switching layout I have standardized on Kadee couplings for reliable operation.

Structures

Mostly Walthers plastic kits, some of which are being bashed to do slightly different duties to their official functions.

The HO Pages

These pages are currently a record of some of the things I have done so far, and how they were done. As things progress some more decorative pictures will probably appear, but for now they are more educational than artistic.

The Future

At the start of 2009 most of the track is laid and all the locos have been fitted with their DCC. About 1/2 to 2/3 of the rolling stock and structures have been assembled, but there is still a long way to go. As I started in 2003 this might seem disheartening, but this was always expected to be a several year project - I'm a slow worker with quite a few other distractions.

Copyright Mike Sheridan, 2004-2009