URR Dumping Slag in West Mifflin

Bill,

 

To be honest,  I don't know if MTH made any slag cars with the illuminated loads.  Maybe someone else here knows for sure.  I know Lionel made them in a variety of different road names/companies.  On the Evan Designs website,  they actually show several different "fire led" products that consist of 3 orange/red/yellow leds grouped together that flash or flicker at various rates to give a fire effect.  If you look through the train photo/video gallery there are several examples shown with these in action.

 

Nick 

 

 

Bill,

 

I didn't put anything in the cars.  These cars are Lionel's.  The Lionel cars have a translucent "load" which is lit (the car has a pickup).  MTH's are empty, as you know.  I have both.

 

The car is 6-39403 Republic Steel Slag Car #42.  The name of the steel mill doesn't matter to me, as I plan to paint out the company markings and weather the heck out it - just like the prototype. 

 

I can remember being stopped at the crossing on Cove Road waiting for the slag train to go by.  It would be a Weirton Steel (painted Columbia Gas Meter green ) Alco S-2 or S-4 either pushing or pulling 18-20 slag cars.  The train was required to have a caboose as it was leaving the plant and passing along the Panhandle mainline.  The heat would shimmer off the pots.

 

George

 

Looking at the prototype videos seems an awful lot of energy is expended/wasted though history shows many fortunes made in the steel industry.

 

Many Pittsburgh natives have found their way to Virginia.  Funny thing is some of them can't wsit to get back to PA except they can't afford to move.

 

Nick:

 

As George confirmed, only Lionel made slag cars with the flickering loads. 

 

To light the dumped load I went to the Evans website as you suggested.  Are you referring to what they call the “Flickering-fire-kit” for $16.99?   I think I’d need several of those.  This project is getting expensive! 

 

Bill

Why anyone would want to come back to PA is beyond me...

Yeah, there are a lot of displaced Pittsburghers out in the world.  My wife and I fall into that category.  I moved out of Pittsburgh twice, both times for jobs.  In the late 80's and late 90's it was really an employer's job market.  Not a lot of exceptional opportunities and not much new industry moving in.  Between 1978 and 1981, Pittsburgh lost over 100,000 steelmaking jobs!  And of course with those jobs went dependent jobs, industry, and the economy.  It wasn't a ripple effect - it was more like aftershocks in an earthquake.  One only has to travel through the small towns along the Mon to see the lasting effects.

 

Back in the early 2000s, the Post Gazette (or maybe it was the Press before it folded) ran a piece surveying ex-Pittsburgh natives.  The groups fell into 3 categories:

1. Those who had recently left and were desperately trying to get back.
2. Those who had been gone a fair amount of time and would come back only if it made economic sense.
3. Those who had dealt with the issue and were established elsewhere.

When I was in category 2, I looked at a few jobs in Pittsburgh.  Employers there know folks are trying to get back to Pittsburgh.  In my experience, offers typically aren't competitive or enticing.  I guess I now belong to category 3.

 

George

 

Ha, Ha!  We went to Virginia for work back in the '80s, transferred to West Virginia in the '90s, but was laid off in '95.  We loved it in WVa, but came back to Pennsylvania in '96 for work.  Made the cycle.  

Dave:

 

Be advised that is the exact same document (but under a different name) to which I posted a link at the start of this thread.

 

Bill

Link removed

Here's one in Northern Canada under catenary wire. They also dump while on the fly (slowly of course) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmocVnyZaaU

 

 

Wow, that’s different!  You would think that the “dust” from dumping the slag would foul the overhead wires.

 

And that locomotive sure looks different as we don’t see electric industrial switchers very often.  What is that big box on its hood?

 

Thanks for posting.

 

Bill

Interesting video.  I note that the pantograph gets lowered and the loco proceeds--battery or diesel???  Also appears that the catenary doesn't extend into the dumping area.

Yunz have me laughing!!! And bringing back a flood of memories and I thank-you!

I was a kid from 'sliberty and got to see that glowing mountain once going down rt. 51

(Saw Mill Run)?  later, used to go to South Side and chase URR and the P & LE.

Great times!!

Hi Pete from ‘sliberty:

 

Haven’t heard that one for awhile! 

 

Yes, you could see the slag dump from Route 51 and Saw Mill Run Blvd. is part of Route 51 but too far north of the slag dump to be able to see it.  But you may have seen the sky lit up from there when they were dumping at night!

 

SMRB ended at the City Limits at Stewart Avenue which was about a mile south of the intersection with route 88.  As you continued south on 51 past Brownsville Road in Brentwood the slag dump probably became visible near the cloverleaf in Pleasant Hills as well as further south from there.  Out there 51 is called Clairton Blvd.  

 

And thanks for posting that photo.  That looks like it might be from a URR annual report or book of some sort.  I sure would like to be able to read the caption but it’s too small.  Can you please help us out?

 

Thanks,

 

Bill

 

The caption reads as follows: 

“The dumping of slag is a wonderful display of pyrotechnics. Once the material cools, it is crushed and screened. It can then be mixed with various materials to make a multitude of commodities such as prestressed concrete, masonry mortar, road paving materials, and even railroad ballast. Because slag contains lime which neutralizes acids, it is also used as a soil conditioner and water filter. (Gene Schaefer)”

 

Dan

Dan:

 

Thanks for posting.

 

Bill

Here's links to both the Sudbury and Flin Flon mining loco details; the video loco appears to be the single-end cab GE 60 ton style. Probably was a battery under there somewhere.

http://www.trainweb.org/oldtim...sudbury/inco_ops.htm

http://www.trainweb.org/oldtim...dustrial/mb/hbms.htm

My father-in-law had his driveway paved with slag byproduct.

Bill,

I'm pretty sure that photo Pete posted is from the book "Union Railroad In Color" by Richard C. Borkowski Jr. that was published a few years ago.  I have the book and it's great reference material.  I believe the dumping site in the photo is at Risher,  which is located in the valley behind the Allegheny County Airport.. It is on the Mifflin branch of the URR.  The site still exists and is active with the slag being hauled in by truck from the USS Edgar Thompson plant in Braddock and the slag being crushed and processed by the La Farge company who bought out Duquesne Slag many years ago.  The URR Mifflin branch is still active also,  with the URR picking up gondolas loaded with scrap steel from Tube City Metals at the old Mifflin interchange yard.  There is also an occasional interchange with the new Wheeling & Lake Erie there also.

 

Nick

Hi Nick:

 

Thanks for all of that info.  I’ll have to look for that URR book. 

 

I have a few other questions:

 

1. How did the URR slag trains get across Lebanon Church Rd. from the Mifflin Branch to the Brown’s Dump site?  Was there an overpass/underpass that’s no longer there (although I still visit once a year, I moved 42 years ago so I can’t remember those details)?     

 

1. Re the current trucking of slag from ET Works to the Risher dump site, Choo Choo Kenny also had mentioned that in an earlier posting and I had this same question then: obviously they have to let the slag cool before they load it into a dump truck and Kenny said they do that on-site at ET.  How and where do they do that?  It would have to be dumped out of the vessel while still a molten liquid and they would need to spread it out so that it solidifies into small enough manageable pieces.  Then it would still need to be crushed into even smaller pieces before it could be loaded onto trucks.  Also those trucks would be heavy.  I wonder what route they take as they would have to cross the Mon somewhere to get to that site.

 

Thanks again and thanks to Kenny, too,

 

Bill

 

There was a bridge that spanned Lebanon Church about where the medical building is just before the Target (right before Regis Avenue if you are heading from Delwar to the Bombardier plant).

Thanks, Bill

Bill,

VizKidz is exactly right about the bridge across Lebanon church Road.  

 

I really don't know how US Steel handles the slag processing inside the ET plant today.  When they are finished with their process,  tri-axle dump trucks haul the still warm/hot/steaming/smoking slag loads from the plant down Braddock Ave then across the Mon River via the newly rebuilt Rankin bridge.  Then west on 8th Ave through Munhall,  Homestead,  West Homestead and on to Rte 885 South.  Through Hays,  then right up the steep 885/Lebanon Rd grade.  Once at the summit,  the trucks make a left at the PAT bus garage and down the hill to the Risher site.

 

Nick

 

Does anyone have a more concrete timeline as to when they stopped dumping on the site?  The link in the original post indicated the late '60s?  I really thought they dumped into the early/mid '70s..?

 

Also, there was (what I remember as being) an engine wash shed located off of Delwar across from the lumber yard.  Does anyone remember that?

 

Nick,

 

I’m very familiar with those roads and I guess that’s the FLATest route from ET to the dump site for those trucks.  I’m sure there’s opposition to those trucks clogging those roads as they lumber slowly with still warm slag along 8^th Avenue and then Mifflin Road in Hayes.  Those streets aren’t exactly 4-lane expressways and have lots of commercial businesses and some residential areas.  OTOH, that area is not exactly Fox Chapel or Upper St. Clair!

 

Thanks again for info,

 

Bill 

I have this book $60.00 shipped if interested.

Many, many years ago my Dad would take us to the Allegheny Co. Airport, THE airport at the time to watch DC3 land, and on the way home if they were dumping  slag he would pull off the road and we would watch it. Long before Century III and all that. Not too long go they went through a lot of the slag dumps and reclaimed iron that had been dumped with the slag. I think they did it in West Mifflin and Aliquippa. Of course, they sold the slag, too.  Made good roads.

 

Thanks for sharing! I grew up not far from here.

HI! I was out of town a couple days. the pic I posted IS from the URR book from Richard C

Borkowski Jr. Thanks Nick!! They handled the slag and "pickling acid" from a lot of mills. There's a pic of dumping the acid right on top of the cooled slag!! There are pics dated as late as 1978.

Its a great book with a lot of info and pics. URR had Baldwin DRS-6-6 1500's. Interesting diesels, they called them "buffalos".

     When I was hauling (hot rock) slag out of the mill in Braddock they had 2 places you drove the trucks into to get loaded. Each location had 2 concrete pits that had water pipes around the 3 walls. the slag came out of A shute and into the pit and they would turn on the water and it would spray on the slag to cool it down. When you got loaded the slag you were getting loaded with was from the day before apparently the slag took A hole day to cool off enough to be loaded into the trucks. I have scene some trucks with aluminum bodies get holes melted through them because the slag was still to hot. I got loaded one time and drove down to the scale house to get my paper work and leave. When I puled onto the scale all kinds of sirens and buzzers started going off and the guard starts screaming at me to get the truck off the scale. I puled off and the driver behind me was asking me what was wrong I told him that the sirens started going off. He informed me that I must have A "HOT" load. I asked him what did that mean and he said just sit there and someone will be over to help you. I am sitting there for just A minute or two and A security vehicle comes puling up and he starts screaming at me to get going and follow him. He takes me to the other side of the plant where it is isolated no buildings and to dump the load off here. I dumped the load and on the CB someone asked if the load was dumped off and I said yes. he told me to go back and get reloaded again. I get back in line and the guys are asking me if it was me that had the (HOT) load and I say yes it was me. I asked them what was wrong with my load and no one will answer me. I spot A driver walking up to my truck in my left mirror and he tells me that my load had radio active material in it but no one will talk about it on the radio. Another time at the mill it was cold might have been 5degrees that morning. they have this area where the put the cars to have steel that is stuck in them burned out. They have the car body turned 90 degrees with A pipe going into the opening with the gas burning to keep it heated up until the guys can come in and burn out the steel that is stuck in it. Well as I drove past the passenger window shatters because of all the BTUs. I called my boss to tell him what happened and he told me that because I was so dumb that I was to keep driving the truck for that day to teach me A lesson to not to do that again. That day was very cold even with the heater on full blast and I never did that again. Choo Choo Kenny

Kenny:

 

Wow, what experiences you had on that job!

 

Thanks for sharing,

 

Bill