NEB&W Guide to Tahawus, NYLast Update: 2009-08-15
- Stone Blast Furnace
- Overview of the 20th Century Complex
- Open Pit
- The Sinter Plant
- The Flotation Plant
- Auxiliary Buildings
- On Our Layout
Stone Blast Furnace
- The stone blast furnace, a remnant of the Adirondac Company's failed
attempt to extract ore in the 19th century, still stands today.
- [Prototype view c. 1800's. Photo courtesy Jon Patton.]
- [Elevation courtesy National Lead Corporation.]
- [Prototype view c. 1980's.]
- [Prototype view c. 2004. Photo by Melanie Sembrat.]
- [Close-up of the bottom arch c. 2004. Photo by Melanie Sembrat.]
- Our model of the 19th century furnace is buried in the woods.
- [Model view.]
- [Model view by James Lauser.]
Overview of the 20th Century Plant
- Aerial and panoramic views of the Sanford
Lakes region and this complex.
- [Aerial view c. 1950, looking south.]
- [Aerial view c. 1950, different angle but still looking south.]
- [Prototype view c. 1950, looking east.]
- [Aerial view c. 1950, close-up of the flotation mill section. (I thought this series of aerial photos was c. 1948 but it sure looks like a bunch of D&H offset hoppers waiting to be loaded, and the D&H didn't get them until '52.]
- [Plan and elevations, 1943.]
- [Topographic map, 1953. Note that as of this date, the village of Tahawus was still located here - it was later moved.]
- [Panoramic view, 1980's.]
- [Moving closer, 1980's.]
- [High level view, 2004. Photo by Melanie Sembrat.]
- [Higher. Photo by Melanie Sembrat.]
Open Pit
- The enormous open pit mine c. early '70's. I used
to think this pit dated back to steam days, but it doesn't show
in the aerial views from then nor in the 1953 topographic map.
(Since abandonment of the entire
complex, we've been told this pit has now filled with water.)
We really should include some of the shelf-like cuts in the background
of our scene.
The Sinter Plant
- "Sinter" is a variation on "cinder".
The sinter plant here, as I understand it, took the finely
ground ore, mixed with crushed
coal, set it on fire, and fused it into bigger chunks so it wouldn't blow
away when shipped in open hoppers. The sinter plant stood
to the south of the flotation mill complex.
When Tony Steele first photographed it in the early '70's, it still had all the conveyors in place, even though I think at that point it was no longer being used.- [Prototype view. The sinter plant loaded cars with ore still smoldering, which blistered the paint on the hopper cars. In this Jim Shaughnessy photo, the flotation plant is in the background. And that's a D&H USRA twin hopper being loaded.]
- [Panoramic view c. 1971 by Tony Steele.]
- [Prototype view c. 1970's by Tony Steele looking west. Note all the conveyors at the north end of the building.]
- [Another view looking west c. 1970's. This is "back" of the sinter plant. Another Steele photo. (The tank car, I believe, brought in fuel oil which was used to ignite the coal and ore, just like lighter fuel is used to start the charcoal in a backyard grill.)]
- [Another view c. 1970's by Tony Steele, showing all the conveyors on the north end.]
- [View looking east c. 1973. The yellow car is one of the modern 100-ton ore cars the D&H purchased in the mid-1960's. The red one sure looks like an ACF 1,958 cubic capacity covered hopper with its roof removed (and the bottom hoppers rebuilt).]
- [Photo c. 1973 (must be later that same year). By this time, all the conveyors on the far end are gone. Note the string of D&H offset hoppers with the paint burned off the side from being loaded with the ore while still so hot.]
- [View of the track scale (with the rails removed) c. 1975. Sinter plant is in the background. Another Steele photo.]
- [Prototype view c. 2003. (Plant now abandoned.) Photo by Will Gill.]
- The sinter plant was of "curtain wall" and concrete beam construction,
similar to the City Classics factory but with concrete block instead
of brick in the panels. Originally we were planning on modeling it
in front of the flotation plant, but 1)it was another big complicated
modeling project and 2)it made the scene look more crowded than the
prototype.
The Flotation Plant
- The flotation plant, as I understood, took the finely crushed
ore and basically dumped it into soapy water (gross oversimplication).
The lighter waste stuck to the bubbles, the higher ore sank to the
bottom. I think they also concentrated the ore by use
of a large magnet, which I think were only work on the pure
iron oxide, appropriately named magnetic. The iron-titantium ore,
ilmenite, I don't think was magnetic.
And thinking this out logically, it would seem the magentic separation took place in the dry mill. - The dry mill section
of the flotation plant was really as narrow as we've modeled it, even
though it looks like we condensed it to fit it up against our backdrop.
(It actually consisted of a wide lower section in front of a tall
narrow section. We flattened the lower section back against
the tall section.)
- [Plan and elevations, 1943. The dry mill was 240 feet long - 33 inches in HO. The cross-section elevation shows the high part was only 14 feet wide, basically two inches in HO.]
- [Aerial view c. 1950, close-up of the flotation mill section.]
- [Panoramic view c. 1980.]
- [Black and white prototype view.]
- [Another b&w view. (There are faint lines drawn on this print to help scale out dimensions.)]
- [Prototype photo courtesy Jon Patton.]
- [Prototype photo c. 2003 by Will Gill.]
- [Aerial photo close-up.]
- [Dust speckled color slide.]
- [Broadside view c. 1980.]
- [Contemporary view c. 2003. (Plant is now abandoned.) Photo by Will Gill.]
- [Close-up c. 2003.]
- [Model view. Flotation plant scratchbuilt by Tony Steele.]
- To the left of the dry mill were some concrete storage bins.
Auxiliary Buildings
- Overview of the buildings outside the flotation plant.
- [Aerial view c. 1950, close-up of the flotation mill section.]
- Further into the plant was this garage, still to
be modeled on our layout on the far side of the tracks.
(Note the large window area on the side.)
- [Prototype view c. 1980.]
- A couple of the small buildings that cluster in front of the plant.
Photos c. 1980. (As typical architecture of the '40's, note there is
no roof overhang on the end gables.)
- [Prototype view of a clapboard structure. (The taller section might be the shower area for workers getting off duty.)]
- [Another view.]
- [Other side.]
- [Prototype view of the concrete block building.]
- [Other side.]
- [Prototype view of the long office building.]
- [Prototype view of the guard shanty at the entrance. (We haven't modeled this yet.]
- On the fringes of the complex.
- [Prototype view, c. 1980's, of a swamp area. Note the piles in the background. These short, but heavy-duty (100 ton), ore cars were purchased by the D&H in 1965-'66 specifically for the Tahawus traffic.]
- [Our model of the culvert and swamp area. Photo by Lou Sassi.]
- [A shed in the woods c. 2003. Photo by Will Gill.]
On Our Layout
- Model views of the Tahawus scene on our layout. (We are
missing the chain link fencing.)
- [Model view, taken directly from Allen Keller's Great Model Railroads video, Vol. 25.]
- [Overview.]
- [Overview by James Lauser.]
- [Model view with a string of NEB&W hoppers ready to be loaded.]
- [Model photo by James Lauser, looking down the track at the base of the flotation plant.]
- [Model view of the trucks bringing in ore from the nearby pit.]
- [Another view.]
- [Model view of an old steam-shovel put to use.]
- [Model view of the loaders next to the flotation plant. Photo by James Lauser.]
- [Close-up of the loaders by James Lauser. These were kitbashed by Tony Steele.]
