Covered Hoppers for Steel Mills

Limestone. One of the raw materials added to a blast furnace.

Curt

The limestone that the WM delivered to Beth Steel's Sparrows Point mill came in (mostly) two-bay open hoppers.

I have "Googled" this a bit and found that limestone ( calcium carbonate-CaCO3) is what is mined and can be transported in open hoppers. Steel mills utilize both limestone and lime ( calcium oxide-CaO) which is made by heating (to high temps) limestone in a "lime kiln", a process callel calcintration. Lime, especially when pulvarized, must be kept dry, hence the need to transport covered. What I can't seem to find is whether lime is /was commonly made ( converted by heating limestone actually) at the mill or somewhere else and then transported to the mills. Thanks, P Hering

The dust from dust collectors can be transported via covered hopper. That's how my mill runs. They just parked a car under the chute of the dust collector and filled it up as far as I can tell.

I don't know of many limestone kilns located at the property but I also mostly study Youngstown/Pittsburgh mills before the 1950s. So it's possible modern mills have the equipment. But I suspect transporting a car of limestone is less effective than transporting a car of lime (which is really what the furnace wants) and so the kilns would be located near the limestone quarry in my opinion. A quick search of my own says J&L Steel received lime from the Blair Limestone Company. Lime was made at the Blair Limestone Company and then transported to J&L via rail.

I don't know of any limestone kilns in the Youngstown district but the quarries are still active today. I'll have to do some digging and see if there were kilns here.

Lastly, there were MANY mills of different styles. You can spec out whatever you want if you're not modelling a specific prototype.

BillYo414  thanks for the thoughtful/ informative reply !!  As an old retired teacher ( still teach some as a professor emeritus, "pro bono") I am amazed with the knowledge/ interests folks carry around in their hearts/brains-especially when they are wiling to share with others. You seem to be one of those great people-thanks. P Hering

Thanks @turtle7 It's easy for me to pick up the info because it's at the cross roads of heritage/tradition, history, and cool machinery. Those are three things that keep my interest. I enjoy talking about it feel free to take the talking stick away from me

Just an an example of mixing and matching equipment to achieve what you want: I skipped the ore yard on my layout because four local merchant pig iron blast furnaces (Anna, the Hubbard Furnaces, and Mary) did not use ore yards when they were built. Anna and Mary didn't use ore yards when they were closed in the 50s and 60s. The ore yard is a massive piece of real estate and would stop most O-scalers from having a blast furnace unless they included the ore yard in their backdrop. I was excited when the research revealed an ore yard wasn't necessary. That meant my furnaces wouldn't be tied to the wall and they would still be realistic even though they were a rarity.

Anyway, I realize I have assumed you're building a steel mill model railroad haha my apologies for making some extra interpretations of your question.

@turtle7 posted:

I have "Googled" this a bit and found that limestone ( calcium carbonate-CaCO3) is what is mined and can be transported in open hoppers. Steel mills utilize both limestone and lime ( calcium oxide-CaO) which is made by heating (to high temps) limestone in a "lime kiln", a process callel calcintration. Lime, especially when pulvarized, must be kept dry, hence the need to transport covered. What I can't seem to find is whether lime is /was commonly made ( converted by heating limestone actually) at the mill or somewhere else and then transported to the mills. Thanks, P Hering

Look up Austin White Lime. They have kiln's both historic and modern plus a company store at McNeil, TX. They have mined the limestone and shipped out the lime all across Texas and beyond. It is also the crossing of the SP Llano Branch and the MP Austin Subdivision and I grew up train watching there.