From: gjcoatsworth <gcoatsworth@...>
Subject: [STEEL] Re: Hot metal in bottle cars
To: STEEL@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, July 9, 2009, 8:52 PM

The wool blankets that were used during my time in the mill were a pain in the butt. The blankets were about 4' wide x 6' long x 2" thick. The construction was like an oreo cookie. On the outside was a wire mesh and sandwiched in between was the wool blanket. The wire mesh provided the proper stiffness needed to throw the blankets on the bottle car from a position above and to the side of the track as the bottle car left the BOF. The worker would often use a long hooked length of 1/2" gas lancing pipe to properly re-position the blanket from where it landed when tossed. The pipe was readily available in long lengths which made for a good tool/hook. The problem with the blankets in practice was that often the blankets would blow off during the return trip from the BOF to the Blast Furnaces. There were blankets along side of the track that the bottle cars were run on all over the plant. If they were not picked up they sometimes would get caught by the 'trucks' of the bottle cars and hook on to whatever was close by. By far the most dangerous part was when a blanket was not picked up and it rained. The wool would breakdown and you would be left with the wire mesh. The railroad crews and gandy dancer crews would not see these at night and would trip on them while next to the track. A potential disaster with rolling equipment going by.