Designed to shuttle molten steel from the blast furnace to the casting house, hot metal cars are among the most interesting of the extreme trains found in the mills. After receiving a load, these hot bottles must be shuttled quickly. At the pour site, the large cylinders rotate to expel the hot and heavy load so that it can be poured into slabs or ingots.

The hot metal cars' trips are usually kept to short distances within the complex, but there are many examples of these cars being shuttled between mills miles apart. When they are, they always receive the railroad's top priority. You don't need to model the entire mill to enjoy these cars on your layout. Add some old gondolas as spacers, couple up your favorite locomotive and caboose and get them rolling!