Updated 1/14/2018:
I've been working with the backdrop photographer and I'm happy to say we are making progress. One of the things I wanted to do with the rightmost side of the backdrop was incorporate a blast furnace. The original idea was to have part of the blast furnace represented in the backdrop with the rest (the cast house) protruding from the wall. That hasn't worked out as I can't get the blast furnaces to pose at the correct angle. 
Instead, the backdrop will come from a photo I took back in 2005; it contains 3 of the 4 Weirton blast furnaces. Given that the backdrop already represents blast furnaces, I have decided that a model blast furnace is unnecessary (as well as probably beyond my skills).
Accordingly, I am going to substitute the Strip Steel (Rolling Mill) building for a blast furnace. Originally the Strip Steel building was slated for a corner at the back of the layout, but there is enough space (42" wide) for it at the front. It is an interesting 7 bay, two-story brick structure with open square roof ventilators or "penthouses". The original brick color was yellow and the building had a roof-top "WEIRTON STEEL CO." sign. It is to the far right in the photo below.
I will probably put the "run-around" track between it and the Open Hearth. The building itself will have a spur running into it. That wasn't true of the prototype (at least in the front) but I'm invoking "modeler's license". 
George
