The stripper
There being no models of strippers that I could find, I scratchbuilt the stripper crane. While pictures of these are not common, I was able to find several photos of them (see Editors Notebook). They are all different but have two common elements: an outer lifting device to pull the ingot mold upward and off the ingot, and a cen- tral pushing tool to hold the ingot down during the stripping motion. Hy- draulics are used to operate both. The stripper is carried by an overhead crane with an operator situated to be able to see the activities involved. I used Plastruct strip, sheet, and rod to construct the stripper. The photos show the lifting arms under construc- tion. The lifting plates are on the inside at the bottom. The holes drilled near the top are for the swivel pins which allow the arms to separate as they come down over the ingot lifting lugs and then close below the lug. Also shown is the interior pusher assembly with its large, hydraulic ram. The pins
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
ASC No. 7 is pulling a string of ingot cars through the stripper (left and above) prior to their being rolled into plate, rolls or billets. This is normally done while they are still hot, though they can be placed in a soaking pit fired by gas to retain the heat.
hold the assembly together; all the parts are movable and can be posed to simulate the stripping process. The crane is a Walthers Heavy Duty Crane cut down to fit inside an old Suy- dam factory building raised on columns similar to prototype strippers. The trol- ley from the Walthers kit was also cut down and the stripper guide columns attached to it. This allows the stripper to be raised and lowered, as well as moved from side to side on the crane.
The soaking pit
The soaking pits were always right next to the operating floor of the rolling mill so that the soaked ingot could be moved swiftly to the entrance to the rolling line. They were made of concrete or brick and were brick-lined with insu-
lating brick to minimize heat loss. Burners using coke oven gas or natu- ral gas were used to fire the pits. Peri- odically, an observer would check the temperatures from above (my job in 1956). The roofs on the pits were mov- able so that the crane could pick up the heated ingots. The cut-away soaking pit photo shows the ingots in place; a light source is used to simulate the heat.
The rolling mill Most rolling mills have a great many
power, water, and hydraulic lines on, above, or below them. To minimize inter- action with cranes used for mainte- nance, as much of this as possible is lo- cated underneath. In some cases, depending on the date of construction,
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