Steel
Hi all,
This thread could probably do with a review when taling about a 1 industry plant. However buried in that thread was "A different perspective" posting about moving stuff in the Australian steel industry. I'll post some of the relevant bits here:
Quote:
It was not my job to run the trains, however in several roles in different parts of the plant it was my job to get wagon swapped or moved. So this is written from a different perspective in a country other than the US ,as operated in a different time under different industrial and operating rules. This is written from the industry "side of the tracks"
To set the scene -
By the time I started in the mid-1970's, steam operations were done and the plant was fully dieselised with a fleet of 45 diesel locomotives of varying capabilities, with the earliest dating from the early 1950's. The plant was split into operating departments like coke ovens, #1 Plant Blast Furnaces, Plate Mill, Slab Yard, etc. Railway operations were the responsibility of the Traffic Department. The Traffic Department itself was split into several operational areas, each with its own operating radio frequency, with in some cases captive locomotives and rolling stock. All movements were done under radio direction. In at least two roles I held, I was working closely (next desk) to the road foremen controlling rail movements in these different operational areas inside the plant.
If wagons had to be moved from one area to another, the road foreman in the originating area, would call up the loco crew and and give them the go to a certain point where they would switch frequencies, call up the other area's road foreman and request permission to proceed. Once given, the loco would switch back to the originating area and advise they were leaving the area, then switch back to the new area's radio frequency. There was also a direct line phone network between the road foremen in each area. This was used to both alert the receiving area that they had a train on the way, and perhaps to find out how things were going for an ETA of the locomotive and crew coming back to its originating area.
Operationally there were 4 basic scenarios, and some subtle variations.
- dedicated yo-yo service inside the plant - where the locomotive never uncoupled from the consist and the run was between 2 points. This was used in high frequency areas - for example between the Slab Caster Yard and the Slap Yard. Slabs would be loaded on dedicated flatcars by overhead crane at the slab caster and would be unloaded by overhead crane at the Slab Yard, and the train would return empty to the Slab Caster Yard for another load of slabs.
- dedicated yo-yo service with cars being left, and the locomotive staying with the consist, but with drop-off and re-couple moves. In most cases this was to move the locomotive to a safer spot during loading and unloading of the wagons. An example of this was the hot metal run between blast furnaces and the steelmaking shops. The locomotive would spot the hot-metal torpedo ladles under the blast furnace casthouse floor. The furnace would tap and fill the torpedo ladles with molten iron at about 1500 degrees Celsius. Usually the locomotive would uncouple and sit just clear of the casthouse. Once the cast was ended, the locomotive would move in and couple couple up to the full ladles. Any empty ladles would be moved to the earlier spots for the next cast, then the full torpedo ladles would head off to the steel-making shops.
My photo of one of these trains was lifted was from a video stillframe shot many years ago These torpedo ladles carried up to 250 tons of molten iron and weighed in at over 100 tons empty. There are another 3 full torpedo ladles out of shot. Note the traffic lights on the pole in the foreground. These are for rail movements. More on that later
At the steel-making shop the torpedo ladles would be spotted at the pouring station, handbrakes tied down, power attached. The locomotive would move clear before the hot-metal was poured into ladles that would be moved by overhead cranes to the steel-making furnace for charging. After pouring the locomotive would re-attach to the torpedo lades, pump up the air, unplug the power, release the handbrakes and the head back to the blast furnace in time for the now empty torpedo ladles to be spotted under the furnace for the next tap.
The reason that the locomotive stayed close at the Blast Furnace was that if anything went wrong above the ladle, or the ladle lining failed, or the torpedo ladle was overfilled, then the locomotive would race in, couple up and drag the torpedo ladle clear before it became welded to the rails under the furnace and the bearings got cooked This was seriously scary stuff and thankfully it only happened rarely. I saw it happen twice in about 10 years. One of those times involved 3 locomotives trying to break 2 torpedo ladles out from a rapidly solidifying large puddle of molten iron that was around all the wheels of one of those torpedo ladles like in the photo above..
- Yard-Plant-Yard transfer - a variation of #2 where the cars are picked up from the yard, dropped off somewhere inside the plant, and the locomotive goes to do another job elsewhere on the plant while loading or unloading occurs. This was the majority of the work.
- External to plant - A limited number of locomotives and a limited number of crews worked trains of coal hoppers over part of the Government railway network to service collieries nearby that were owned by the steelworks. These were operated under the Government railway rules and signalling system and are not applicable in-plant operations.
Controlling access in plant fell into 3 basic scenarios
- Wagons stabled in an area controlled by Traffic - the wagons were dropped off on the nominated track, and tied down usually the handbrake on the wagon leading out from the siding or loop. The loco was then assigned to another job. Pick up was the reverse of this procedure - couple up, connect the air and release any handbrakes that were set. Before departing the siding, ensure the handbrake of the new wagon leading out was set if any wagons were to be left
- Areas controlled by other operating department - It was the other department's job to request the shunt and also to ensure that the wagons were safe to move BEFORE giving permission to their area. Usually access was controlled by either gates (usually for external trackage) or access lights above the door for tracks inside buildings.These access lights were re-purposed road traffic signals as shown in the photo above.
How it usually worked: The locomotive and train would arrive at the door. There was a switch that activated a siren. This acted as the call for the foreman to grant access for the train. In some cases the access light control switches were in elevated pulpits, but in a lot of cases the switch was near the door and the foreman or authorised person would walk to the door, checking the wagons were safe to move while on the way. The foreman would throw the electrical switch activating a green light above the door that also extinguished the usually-displayed red light light. The siren was sounded while the loco was moving inside the building. On departure, the siren was sounded while the train departed the building and the lights were switched back to display red once the train locomotive had finished shunting that track and was clear of the building. - The shunting yard (interchange) between the Government and Steelworks networks. I'm not sure how these were worked but I think that these tracks were worked as for #1, with liaison being required between the Government railways train control and Traffic for access for their trains to these shared yard tracks.
These operations ran 24-hours a day, every day of the year. There was always something moving somewhere on rails inside the plant. In those days only the locomotives had radios. All train movements were directed by the shunter on the ground or leading wagon using hand-signals and light signals from a white/red/green torch at night. On a wet rainy night, it was not a good time to be working on the train crew around a steelworks. Anything hot became a mobile steam cloud, adding to any other visibility problems. .
There is not much glamour in industrial shunting, just an awful lot of hard work in sometimes dimly lit, hot and often otherwise unpleasant surroundings, and sometimes in tight confines.
So how might this be applied to a steel industry layout? - If you get lucky with were you draw the dividing line then perhaps you can get 2 smaller single-industry layouts from a larger integrated steelworks.
Layout 1 - Processes to the start of steelmaking - This would include coke ovens, coke ovens by-products and gas treatment, sinter plant, blast furnace(s), desiliconiser, and the pouring station at the steelmaking shop.
Layout 2 - Processes downstream of the steelmaking shop - Teeming pit at steelmaking shop, stripper house, mould house, slab caster dispatch, slab yard, rolling mills (plate and or strip), downstream strip or plate processing, dispatch to customer via exchange yard.
If you want, these 2 layouts can be further broken down into traffic flows and by scenarios 1-4 above with possibly another scenario - another minor variation of yo-yo service Scenario #3 with the wagons being left for loading/unloading while the locomotive went and did another job, but with the run being exclusively captive to the plant and not out to the transfer yard. (Scenario 3a??)
