Learn how to create a realistic mill area and set up its rail operations through chapters on ore processing, steel mill railroads and railcars, track planning, and modeling tips.

Pittsburgh's Monongahela River is named after the Lenape Indian word Menaonkihela, meaning "where banks cave and erode." The name is fitting: for over a century, these riverbanks were lined with steel plants and railroads that have now "caved and eroded" away. By the 1880s, Carnegie Steel was the world's largest manufacturer of iron, steel rails, and coke. However, in the 1970s, cheap foreign steel flooded the market. Following the 1981-1982 recession, the plants laid off 153,000 workers. The year 1985 saw the beginning of demolition; by 1990, seven of nine major steel plants had shut down. Duquesne, Homestead, Jones & Laughlin, and Eliza Furnace are gone; only the Edgar Thomson plant remains as a producer of steel. The industry could be said to have built and nearly destroyed the region both economically and environmentally. While these steel plants are lost today, the legacy of their workers is not forgotten.

This illustrated look at the history the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railroad begins with a brief look back at its late-nineteenth-century origins in the Duluth & Iron Range and Duluth, Missabe & Northern railroads. The bulk of the book, however, covers the period from 1937-when those two roads merged under U.S. Steel-to today. Along the way, readers will learn about and witness the road's legendary early steam power, the evolution of its unique mining operations, its switch to diesel power in the 1950s, and its modern fleet and operations. About the AuthorJeff Lemke is the advertising director for RailModel Journal magazine. His photography has been featured TRAINS, Model Railroader, and RailModel Journal. He lives in Bloomingdale, Illinois.Hardcover - 8-1/4" x 10-5/8" - 160 pp - 125 color, 75 b/w