I'm going to follow Ernie Hunt's lead and will just post our progress reports for the J&LNG to one thread.

Not only must the 58 be completed and prepared for operation but we also have track to build and at least one turnout to install this spring and summer. Somewhere on the list is the construction of a rider car as well.

More photos

We are attempting to not only operate a former steel mill locomotive but to also replicate the unique rolling stock found on narrow gauge steel mill operations. Aside from the occasional ingot car or ladle that gets plinthed here in the rust belt, nobody has of yet tried to preserve this unique form of railroading.

In an integrated steel plant, the open hearth steelmaking furnaces were charged with scrap fed into the furnaces via long rectangular charging boxes. Often these boxes were handled by the in plant narrow gauge railroad, loaded in a stockhouse and then shoved down a track in front of the furnace doors. A charging machine would pick each box up, shove it into the furnace, rotate it to dump the scrap then pull it back out and set it back on the car. Since OH furnaces are no longer used in most of the world much of that equipment has been scrapped. We have found a stockpile of OH charging boxes which will allow us to recreate a charging box train.

The same narrow gauge railroad that served the charging side of the open hearth would usually serve the teeming side, where ingot molds are brought in and filled with molten steel. After each of the cast iron molds was filled with steel, the train would be taken to a holding track to cool before going to be stripped. At the stripper the molds would be pulled off of the ingots and placed on cars on an adjacent track. The molds would go back to the OH to be refilled and the ingots taken to the soaking pits for reheating and rolling. Plans are in the works to obtain used ingot molds of the same size to build this train.

The narrow gauge would also be used to move other items around the plant such as rolling mill rolls, machinery and repair parts. Some of those cars may also eventually be recreated.

great stuff Rick

A very interesting and worthwhile project, particularly its coverage of the use of rail transport normally "out of the Public view". I particularly like the HOn30 version as well!
At least I know what these cars (Ingot cars) are that I protographed on a standard gauge "inter-plant" steelworks line in Natrona Heights, PA, a few years back are now - Though the line in this case runs alongside a public street, so you can at least observe the traffic.

This is our revised track layout proposal which is planned to be constructed over the next couple of years. The yellow is mostly done except for the north fifty feet and the turnout. The light blue will be tackled next year including the western extension that will bring a track down to the parking lot where a boarding platform is planned. The dark blue is the hill track extension that takes us to the far corner of the property. There is probably a 20 foot change in elevation from the front of the property to the rear so the switchback to get there is actually needed.

The enginehouse will have to be relocated at some point since where it is currently located will be the main track after the western extension is built. Fortunately I built it with portability in mind.