National Tube Works
McKeesport, Pennsylvania


This is an overview of the National Tube Works in McKeesport.  The model of this facility contains a blast furnace, coke ovens, and a warf.   The blue truss bridge is the Duquesne-McKeesport Bridge.  Many criss-corssing tracks fill the facility, leading to two small two-track yards.  This portion of the layout reminds me the most of home.


This building was scratchbuilt to fill in the area above the cut stone wall that parallels the B&O mainline that surrounds the steel mill area.


This is the blast furnace with an elevated track that coke hoppers use to feed the furnace.  Ingot cars can be seen at the base of the blast furnace.  The girders of the Duquesne-McKeesport Bridge can be seen on the right.


The tracks to the right are the double-tracked B&O mainline.  The track bearing to the immediate left of the mainline is the Union RR line,  The signal on the left protects the interchange of the Union RR and B&O.  The cut stone wall can be seen in the background.  It was made from plaster castings, painted a solid gray, then drybrushed with black.  Its length is over four feet long.


Here is a view of the warf.  The characteristic muddy water of the Monongahela River can be seen here.  Recent flooding can be seen along the wall.  The coal barge was built from scratch from photos of another barge I had seen at the Great Scale Model Train Show in Timonium, MD.


Two Union RR SW-1500's # 2 and # 4 lead a slab train past the mill on the B&O mainline.


This is the guard shack at the entry to the mill.  A McKeesport Connecting RR S-2 #1006 makes its way over the crossing as a steelworker begins his shift.  Several safety signs line the entry to the shop building.


A discussion takes place in front of the USS/URR shop.  Doesn't look like the employee is making any headway with the foreman.  In the background is a custom painted URR caboose #102.


A workman directs a new section of pipe into an old B&O gondola in its original paint scheme.


This portion of the mill contains the coke ovens.  Loads of coal from several P&LE hoppers feed the ovens which remove impurities from the coal which is eventually is burned in the blast furnaces.


To make the mill area look larger than it is, these buildings fill in the back corner of the layout.  The track on the far right is owned by the Union RR and interchanges with the B&O at the switch in the foreground.