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Updated 1/15/2023:
Today, as part of the January NMRA Division meeting, I hosted the first open house (layout tour) for the PRR Panhandle. I am pleased to report that there were about 40 visitors in the space of 4 hours and they were very generous with their compliments.
Forum member BillYo414 visited and delivered these beautifully 3D printed teeming ladles for my Open Hearth.
Eventually, I will paint and weather them and assemble stands to hold them, but they are gorgeous! Thanks Bill!
More when I know it. 
George
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George,
Sounds like it was a fun time. Bill did a great job on those teeming ladle models. Go Bill!
Dave
Thanks @luvindemtrains and @G3750. Seeing them in the context of the open hearth really made them look outstanding.
Anybody that is able really should go see the layout when they can! It's something special. It will definitely be great for photography.
That’s great 40 people attended, George!
Bill, those are nice looking ladles!
Bill, I was down to George’s a couple months ago. Please give us your impressions of what you saw of George’s layout.
The attention to detail was impressive. I saw more things as I kept looking longer! The bridge and open hearth were my favorite items. It's the scale of the bridge that really jumps out at you. It's just huge!
Obviously I like the open hearth because I'm a steel guy but I especially appreciate how unique it is in model railroading, I've never seen one like this. The layout is very unique in terms of the content and how it's being/going to be presented.
You are all way too kind.
Thank you!
George
Updated 1/20/2023:
A thread on this forum about Lionel (ex MTH) Decapods announced in the new catalog triggered a comparison between them and the 3rd Rail engines. That morphed into comments about minimum curve requirements of each. This past Sunday I held an open house (layout tour) for the Panhandle. With a number of people in the room, I thought about aisle space when the layout was completed. All of the above sparked an analysis of the track plan.
Here's what I've learned:
- 3rd Rail Decapods, both long tender and short tender versions, will run on O64 track. The short tender version will even run on O54. This information is courtesy of Bob Bartizek - thanks Bob!
- Changing the curves on the Weirton peninsula from O72 to O64 will buy me another 12" of aisle space at the front of the layout (where space is at a premium). The Weirton peninsula is not yet built (not even benchwork exists). The aisle paralleling the bridge is unaffected.
- Twelve (12) GarGraves O63 sections make up a full circle. Ross uses 16 O64 sections to make a circle, which gives me much more flexibility in accommodating yards and switches.
- Because the Weirton Junction Yard was already planned to use O64 Ross switches, minimal disruption will occur in that area (again, still unbuilt).
- A modification at this point will require replacement of one already installed O72 switch. This is not a big deal.
- 18" passenger cars should be minimally affected by the change.
- No other locomotives in my fleet are affected by the change.
- The full effect on yards and North Weirton's streets and buildings is still TBD.
I am re-working my track plan on RR-Track and still exploring potential impacts, but at this early stage things look promising. Going to O64 is a small compromise that might lead to an improved accommodation of people in the train room.
More when I have finished the analysis.
George
That's nice to have discovered that flexibility. It's worth looking into. The aisles at the model railroad club in Youngstown are ample but it still gets tight during open houses.
@BillYo414 posted:That's nice to have discovered that flexibility. It's worth looking into. The aisles at the model railroad club in Youngstown are ample but it still gets tight during open houses.
Bill please post some images of the layout there in Youngstown.
Ron
I'll check to see if I have any when I get home. It's the Youngstown Model Railroad Association out there on Four Mile Run. Here's a link:
Highly recommend the open house if you haven't been there before. I would like to join in the future.
Gaining some extra aisle space sounds like a good idea since you can get by with 064 curves for your engines, George.
@BillYo414 posted:I'll check to see if I have any when I get home. It's the Youngstown Model Railroad Association out there on Four Mile Run. Here's a link:
Highly recommend the open house if you haven't been there before. I would like to join in the future.
Bill, is the club 2-rail O-gauge or HO?
Ron
Both! @PRRronbh they have a two rail O scale layout upstairs and a VERY extensive HO scale layout downstairs. You get access to both layouts if you join the club.
Updated 1/22/2023:
So after further review, the call on the ice still stands - changes are coming. Here's the old track plan.
And here's the new one.
Changes to the switches are fairly extensive:
- Switches 11, 12, 34, 43, 44 are eliminated
- Switches 10, 35, 36 are replaced with RH O64s
- Switch 9 - replaced with standard RH 11 degree
- Switch 14 - replaced with LH O64
Weirton Junction Yard loses 2 freight car tracks but becomes slightly longer.
The aisle at the front (running along the bottom of drawing) picks up 1 extra foot in width along most of its length. This is the most significant gain and to my mind trumps all other advantages and disadvantages.
More when I know it.
George
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Looks great
Seems like you gave up very little to gain an entire foot, to be honest. I think that yard still looks very useful.
@BillYo414 posted:Seems like you gave up very little to gain an entire foot, to be honest. I think that yard still looks very useful.
Yes, I think you are right. I feel very good about this decision.
George
Updated 1/24/2023:
We keep inching forward. Tonight I started assembly of the roof for the 2nd (No. 12) furnace in the Open Hearth. That curved (vaulted) brick roof is tricky.
George
Slowly I turn. Step by step. Inch by inch.
"Whooop whoop whoop" - that's the motto around here. 
George
Updated 2/20/2023:
I got the teeming ladles, bailer (crane hanger), and stopper assemblies yesterday from friend and forum member BillYo414.
Wow, just wow! These surpass my wildest dreams.
Thank you Bill!
George
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I know nothing about steel mills. I know good work when I see it. Those look fantastic.
I'll second that. Looks amazing.
Thank you! 
I agree, they look great, Bill!
Not to be picky, but wouldn't the pour spout on the ladle be at a 90 degree angle to the bailer (crane hanger)? Or, is that spout just for emergency overflows? Just spitballin' here.
Chuck
@PRR1950 posted:Not to be picky, but wouldn't the pour spout on the ladle be at a 90 degree angle to the bailer (crane hanger)? Or, is that spout just for emergency overflows? Just spitballin' here.
Chuck
Hi Chuck!
Excellent question and thank you for asking it as it permits me to illustrate the different types of ladles involved.
Let's look at the 3 ladles pictured below.
Left: This is a transfer ladle and is designed to pour hot metal (iron) into an open hearth oven through one of the charging doors. It has the pouring spout where you would expect it to be - 90 degrees to the bailer.
Center: The ladle you asked about is a teeming ladle. It fills ingot buggies from above using a hole in its bottom; flow is controlled by a stopper activated by a lever-like apparatus - similar to the way icing might be put on a cake. The spout on that ladle allows slag, which is lighter than molten steel, to run off into its own slag ladle.
Right: Positioned under the spout on a teeming ladle is the conically shaped slag ladle. That ladle eventually ends up on a slag car, which is moved to the slag dump.
Hope that explains the difference.
George
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@PRR1950 not being picky at all! That is not the pouring spout. That spout overflows slag into a slag pot that is positioned nearby. George may have a photo of the setup (EDIT: He posted a perfect photo!) but basically the open hearth furnace taps into the waiting teeming ladle. A slag pot sits to the side of the teeming ladle so that the slag can float and flow into the pot once the level is high enough.
That ladle is specifically a teeming ladle. It has a hole in the bottom and a stopper rod system (the rod going down into the ladle and the mechanism stuck on the side). You push down (or pull up with some designs) on the handle sticking out and that lifts the stopper rod out of the hole in the bottom of the ladle. That lets steel pour out into the waiting ingot mold below. Slag floats to the top in liquid steel so pouring from the bottom of the ladle gives you very clean steel to make good steel ingots for rolling and forging.
If you want to be picky , there should probably be rivets on that ladle holding it together and the walls should be thicker since they were brick lined. Buuuuut he can either stick some rivets on there or say that it's a welded ladle. The brick lining will only be missed by the most eagle eyed steel people.
EDIT: ope...George beat me to it haha
The other thing I'd like to point out is that Bill (BillYo414) absolutely nailed the relative sizes of the two ladles. He made the teeming ladle about 200 tons, which is the capacity of the Weirton OH furnaces. The transfer ladle would be a bit smaller, in keeping with the 200 ton (and smaller) hot metal cars (Pollock, etc.). And of course the slag ladle is much smaller (courtesy of MTH), who also did a nice job with it.
George
Thank you for the info; didn't know there were multiple ladle "styles" and uses.
Chuck
George, now you need a T-800 and a T-1000 fighting it out on the pouring floor. Nah, that is before their time, you don't need those(a Terminator 2 Reference). The ladles look great. I just wonder when you get everything together if you are going to have a way to open the roof to look inside?
@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:George, now you need a T-800 and a T-1000 fighting it out on the pouring floor. Nah, that is before their time, you don't need those(a Terminator 2 Reference). The ladles look great. I just wonder when you get everything together if you are going to have a way to open the roof to look inside?
The roof (both sides) of the main structure will be removable. I am also toying with the idea of making part of the south end wall removable as well. That's still to be determined. In the meantime, here's a peek at Murderer's Row in the spray booth. We have 4 teeming ladles with a transfer ladle in the center.
George
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Awesome roster of ladles you got there 
From my experience with my own buildings, it's nice to be able to move a wall to look inside. Much like the trains, overhead is excellent but trackside perspective is outstanding.
Updated 3/15/2023:
- The stand for the bailers has been built, painted, and weathered. I'm pretty happy with how this little side project turned out.
- The 3D printed spools for furnace door motors arrived. Thank you AlanRail!
- I built the first motor / spool stand as a test exercise. I learned a lot from it and have made changes to my approach.
- Now building the rest of them as a result of the lessons learned.
- Learned a few more lessons about the order of assembly for the furnaces.
- LED circuits for the remaining ladles arrived. We'll get to these soon
More when I know it.
George
Updated 4/8/2023:
Sorry that's it has been so long since my last update. A lot has been going on around here. Here's the list:
- I attended and presented at the Railroad Prototype Modelers Meet (RPM-East) in late March. That took a fair amount of preparation, but I had a good time, made a few friends, and saw some really cool clinics.
- On April 1st, I helped man a table for the NMRA at the Fort Pitt Division's TCA meet.
- Tonight, I finally completed Furnace No. 11 (the 1st of 4) for the Open Hearth. All the door paraphernalia is installed, including the hoses, chains, and piping. The roof needs a very small bit of weathering, but the next step is to permanently mount it in the building and then wire it. This was a pretty large learning curve and I hope to speed up the remaining 3.
- Completed the detailed revision of the layout plan; I have gained a foot of aisle space with no real impact on the layout. Changes that came out of this included a new list of switches, revisions to the RR-Track plan itself, and an updated shopping list for York.
- Investigated wheels and rails for the Open Hearth's overhead (bridge) cranes.
More when I know it.
George
Could we get a JPG of the latest layout revision?
Chuck
I second the motion for a recent layout revision!
Have the remaining three furnaces been started at all?
@BillYo414 posted:I second the motion for a recent layout revision!
Have the remaining three furnaces been started at all?
Oh absolutely, the other furnaces have been started. In fact:
- Furnace 12 is about to get some wiring and LEDs installed for the pouring activity. The electronics will be tested and after that, it's roof will be permanently affixed. Then it will get all the front (charging) door details, piping, motors, and chains applied. Then it goes on the mill floor.
- Furnace 13 will get its electronics tested and then it's roof will be attached. Then it gets the charging door details, piping, motors, and chains. And then onto the mill floor.
- Furnace 14 needs to have its roof constructed. Then it too gets all the front (charging) door details, piping, motors, and chains applied. And then it goes on the mill floor.
I would love to have Furnace #12 done by the end of April.
George
