URR Dumping Slag in West Mifflin

What the devil is a "yunz"?

I pass by that slag dump pretty much everyday. It's too bad Century III Mall has turned into a dump itself. It used to be one of the biggest malls in the country.

Bill,

We've already communicated off forum.  Being raised in West Mifflin and still living in the South Hills,  I remember it all-back in the day there were slag trains running to the dumps every 8 hour shift and as a kid it was a great show!!!  The Union railroad was actually still dumping slag in the 70's but not at Browns Reserve.  The trains came up the Mifflin branch underneath Route 885,  along the old Continental Can plant and curved right towards the back of the plant and dumped over the hill.  For the life of me,  I can't remember the name of that dump site.  This was right about the time that the county was extending the main Allegheny County Airport runway over Route 885 and the Union railroad tracks near Mifflin yard where the URR exchanged cars with the Montour RR.  Once the runway extension was completed the dumping stopped.

Hot Water,

The term yunz is  just a local Western Pa slang contraction for the words you uns,  just as in the South the term ya'll  means you all.  Southern guys,  hope I got that right.

Nick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY0tOIwlCqs

Oh...Jah !    Yunz are rilly crankin' my inner Pixxburgh, once already !  I also remember Dear Old Dad taking me to watch the coke being dumped at Neville Island at Pittsburgh Coke and Chemical.   Course I also remember the skeekin' Class Jay.....Rt. 48 Pitcairn !

Yunz is the plural of you.  Just like Southerners say 'you all' Or 'y'all'.  It is really a contraction for 'you ones' or you'ns.  Western Pennsylvanian.

on to the dump.  My uncle spoke of it when he was an engineer at Edgar Thompson Works.  He was laid off when I was in high school, around 1970.  Living in Butler County, I was never in West Mifflin until I went to Century III in the early '80s.

Wow, thank you for sharing this...  I had no idea thats what this once was.  Dead center of that photograph an about an inch down from the top is the building in which I currently work and have worked for the past 7 years.  Coincidentally enough... on my way back to work at lunch today, I rearended a URR vehicle...

Mike, I like that you like the photo.  Don't like that you had an accident.  Are you okay?

"What's a yunz?"

We'll have to get an English-Pittsburghese dictionary for hot water.  Then he'll have something to study while he redds up his layout or nebs his neighbors.

Mike,

You are welcome and sorry to hear about your accident.  Hope you're OK.

Do you work for Bombardier,  by any chance?

Bill

     WtfTrains I hauled hot rock (SLAG) out of that site back when I was driving truck. That place is owned by La Farge and the other site is behind the air port on Lebanon Church Road. That site still gets the slag from the ET mill in Braddock it is cooled at the mill before it is shipped out. Choo Choo Kenny

Learn to stay out of the jagger bushes too.

Above quote is from a post that apparently was deleted.

Trouble is, the best berries come from those bushes.  My wife used to get a poke of berries and fasten it with a gum band.

Did she bring you a bottle of pop from the frigidare with that gum band? 

And then you wiped your hands with some towel papers....

I thought for sure that WftTrains would talk about the "perty kellers" in the sky when they were dumpin slag. 

Thanks Mark, yep, I'm okay, looked down for one second and they started to turn, I almost missed them, but not quite.  It was in the wife's car...

Thanks Bill, I'm okay, a little angry, but okay.  I do in fact work for Bombardier!  Do you know anybody that works there?

Mike 

I was trying to update the post, and evidently deleted it instead.  lol

Y that is why they are the best berries.  Instead of a toting a poke, my dad would put them in his dinner bucket to take to work.

when dad carried the dinner bucket with the berries protected by the jaggers, the guys would say, jeet jet?  And he would say, No, Jou?

I thank you guys thoroughly for the linguistics lesson - I done learned me sump'n today.

Here's a night slag video from the Canadians in Sudbury.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N64Je77iAM

I thought for sure that WftTrains would talk about the "perty kellers" in the sky when they were dumpin slag. 

Rob:

Thanks for mentioning that which I had forgotten to include.  The sky would light up a bright orange when they were dumping slag and it could be seen for miles.  That was cheap entertainment when I was a kid.  And back then they were still running steam engines like the one in those two side-by-side photos. 

Back to drinking my pop.

Bill

You're welcome!

You learnt that we're a bunch of hillbilly fools, dint ja? ;-)

My wife says that when you call local folk hillbillies, you're on a slippy slope and needs learned.  She also says her dad preferred chipped ham in his dinner bucket.

Mike:

No, not anymore.  I knew guys who worked there when it was still the Westinghouse Transportation Division which had moved from East Pittsburgh.  That was at least 3 owners ago, maybe 4! 

Because I lived in West Mifflin and was interested in rail transportation I was hoping to get transferred there when I worked in a different department in East Pittsburgh but when they offered me a transfer to Florida instead I jumped on it and I’m still in Florida 42 years later and now retired.  But I do get up there at least once a year to visit friends and family.  Quite often in conjunction with the York Meet.

I belong to the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum and I know that Bombardier has been a very generous supporter of the Museum.  Thank you to your company for that support.

Glad you’re OK and hope your wife isn't too mad at you!

Bill

Strangely enough, they call a bag a "poke" on the other side of the pond too, in certain places. I'd bet there were a few Scottish/Irish around the Pittsburgh mills aeons ago.

Firewood, you win your bet.  Much Pittsburghese comes from the Scotch-Irish. 

See, for some info on origin:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_English

When I lived in Brentwood many, many years ago I could see the slag being dumped at nigh. Once, my buddy and I hiked over there and slept out in some woods next to the slag dump. What show !!  Plus there was a B&O line from  Hays to Baldwin and they would roar through there at night. I think AV has the line now. Forget the linguistics, please. We spoke English.

Bill - thanks for posting this.  Outstanding!

I've got my own little slag dump going.  Standard Slag in Weirton, WV.

George

Yes, that is true.  It is an interesting study my uncle and I have taken to.  My ancestors moved to Butler County, north of Allegheny County where Pittsburgh is in 1797.  They were Scots-Irish Presbyterians.  Then other Scots married into the family, so I guess I carry the family heritage into the 7th generation.  There are many of us scattered around the area who came from that background.

On to the dump, I forgot to mention my father-in-law worked for a company that at one time reprocessed slag, and was involved in cleaning up the mess at West Mifflin in the '70s.

Nice, George!

Jim is right.  We did get carried away on the linguistics.  I was thinking that, but wanted to wrap up the scot-irish influence.  Crazy how we can hijack a topic.

Speaking of highjacking and trains, ..........................

I loved the little Western PA linguistics exercise.  It brought back many great memories of the time we lived in Pittsburgh.  Great people and fantastic part of the country.

Art

Yo Machinist, good idea a slag dump next to a Rocket Assembly Plant, go for it.

Jack

But Jack, toy train layout real estate is at a premium so industries have to use whatever space is available!

George, those are neat loads in your slag dump cars.  I have some MTH slag dump cars and a hill on my layout over which to dump them so you’re giving me ideas.  What did you put in your cars that looks like glowing slag?

Bill

Found this cool video...  China slag dump in 2005.  Check out the motive power!

Mike,

Do you work in the main building on Lebanon Church Road that has the old PAT Skybus on display?  The Bombardier building on the opposite side of the road that connects with the main building via a pedestrian footbridge over Lebanon Church road used to be Al Schwartz Pontiac,  then Bowser Pontiac,  many years ago before a major remodel.  I bought cars there!

Bill,

I have a number of Lionel US Steel slag cars that operate off track power and have the flickering loads in them.  I ran a URR slag train at this past  Kennywood Holiday Lights Display.  There is a video that Andy made here on the forum.  A company called Evan Designs makes several size leds that simulate fire.  I'm thinking of making a dumping scene for our modular layout.  Possibly doing a pour of clear resin material or the like and letting it flow down the hillside and install the fire leds behind it.  Still scheming

out the ideas.

Nick

Yes, very "hot" cool video which reminds me of the scene at West Mifflin!  I wonder if the Chinese are still using steam engines now 10 years later?

Thanks for posting,

Bill

Hi Nick:

Thanks for the info and I went back and re watched Andy’s video and saw your URR train with those cars with the “hot” slag.  So only Lionel made Slag cars with the “hot” load?  My slag cars are MTH Premier so I’ll have to “trade” them in on some Lionel cars. 

I used Evans orange LED’s on my control panel so I’ll get some more and see if I can somehow simulate the hot slag rolling down the hill.  Also please keep me posted on your progress.

And once again thanks to all of yunz guys for what you do for the hobby with your displays and to Andy for taking and sharing the videos of the Kennywood display.  Makes me homesick (except for the cold weather this time of year)!

Bill

When my buddy and I watched them dup slag from the woods behind the trains it was an awesome sight. The car would tilt and the molten slag would be almost white hot and it would pour like water. When it hit the slag would splash in the air then slow down. Finally they would tilt the car more, bang it, and the colder(relatively) crust would fall out.  By the time they reached the last cars it had cooled enough to affect the way it poured and the slag would be syrupy. Once and awhile a  cone shaped crust would not break apart but sit there like a red hot bee hive or something. Once there was a piece broken out and w got close enough to tossing a piece of RR tie which immediately burst in to flames. I don't think the RR people would hav been impressed with us being there.