Bethlehem Steel - Hoover Mason Trestle Car Kit-Bashed from Lionel 55 Tie-Jector

I know Railpace Magazine back in the year 1999 did a series of articles with photos of the twilight of Bethlehem steel operation.

Dennis,

I wish you luck in your build of the trestle car. Keep us posted as to how you constructing it. Many of us who model steel mill layouts need info and techniques to help us along.

not a lot of dimensions there. I'd make it as 3D resin print. It seems pretty straight forward.

just a block-out of the shapes need details and dimensions

@DENIS ORAVEC 110218 posted:

I am in the process of modeling the Bethlehem Steel Lehigh Plant in "O" and currently working the design of the Hoover Mason high line and associated cars, which delivered ore, lime stone and coke to the blast furnaces.

Thanks!

Got to see these in person a few years ago as the Hoover Mason Trestle is now a walking trail. The cars are still up there frozen in time. It's a cool trail - go check it out if you haven't.

Excited to see you tackle this in O scale! I'll be following along.

Some additional background. I grew up in Bethlehem. In the 70's I worked the summers at the Lehigh Plant as an instrument repairmans helper. One of my tasks was a chart run that went throughout the Lehigh Plant. I walked the Hoover Mason Trestle every morning during one segment of the chart run and had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the cars and many of the operators. The opportunity to work at the mill during the summers between my years at Villanova gave me a very detailed understanding of the mill operations from the sintering plant, through the power house, the gas blowing engine house, the blast furnaces, electric furnace, iron foundry, steel foundry, open hearth, machine shop, the wire mill and the plate mill. This is the reason I plan to focus on some form of the Lehigh Plant as I continue to plan my layout build. The challenge will be modeling enough of the mill functions into what will be approx. 30' of linear space.  It's like trying to place 40lbs into a 25lb bag.

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement.