"BMT Investors" Bulletin Board

[67RModel]

1 hour ago, Joseph Cummings said:

But it goes back even farther than that. The collapse became very apparent with the closing of the Campbell Works of YS&T on Sept. 19, 1977 "Black Monday" instantly putting 5,000 men out of work.

If I'm not mistaken YS&T was purchased by J&L. But that was after Black Monday and at that point J&L was already owned by LTV and a shell of its former self. J&L isn't as well known as say US Steel, but it was an absolute monster in the day and certainly was the most able bodied competition to US Steel in Pittsburgh. Below is a before and after of their blast furnaces of the Pittsburgh Works along 2nd Avenue with the downtown skyscrapers in the background. The before picture was taken probably in the 1950s because the US Steel Tower is not visible in the downtown skyline. It was completed in 1970. The after picture s from a slightly different angle but as it is today. Nothing but office buildings, "mixed use space" and parking garages. The Hot Metal Bridge can be seen in the after picture. Back in the day 1,000 tons a day of molten iron went across that bridge in ladle cars to the South Side Works on the opposite river bank to be converted into steel in open hearth furnaces. During WWII something like 20% of America's steel making capacity rolled across that bridge in the form of molten iron. Now it is only used for bicycles and pedestrian traffic as part of the Great Allegheny Passage rail trail. The third picture shows what the Hot Metal Bridge looks like now with the city downtown off in the distance.

In some ways its very sad what happened here to all the mills but on the other hand Pittsburgh reinvented itself and actually a very beautiful and prosperous city now. It is a distinct exception to the typical rust belt city. It is very clean and the air isn't toxic anymore. Back in the day of the before photo no matter what time of day it was it appeared as if it was dusk outside due to pollution. If you wore white clothing outdoors for any length of time it would turn gray. I don't know. I guess there is good and bad to both scenarios.

[Joseph Cummings]

1 hour ago, 67RModel said:

If I'm not mistaken YS&T was purchased by J&L. But that was after Black Monday and at that point J&L was already owned by LTV and a shell of its former self. J&L isn't as well known as say US Steel, but it was an absolute monster in the day and certainly was the most able bodied competition to US Steel in Pittsburgh. Below is a before and after of their blast furnaces of the Pittsburgh Works along 2nd Avenue with the downtown skyscrapers in the background. The before picture was taken probably in the 1950s because the US Steel Tower is not visible in the downtown skyline. It was completed in 1970. The after picture s from a slightly different angle but as it is today. Nothing but office buildings, "mixed use space" and parking garages. The Hot Metal Bridge can be seen in the after picture. Back in the day 1,000 tons a day of molten iron went across that bridge in ladle cars to the South Side Works on the opposite river bank to be converted into steel in open hearth furnaces. During WWII something like 20% of America's steel making capacity rolled across that bridge in the form of molten iron. Now it is only used for bicycles and pedestrian traffic as part of the Great Allegheny Passage rail trail. The third picture shows what the Hot Metal Bridge looks like now with the city downtown off in the distance.

In some ways its very sad what happened here to all the mills but on the other hand Pittsburgh reinvented itself and actually a very beautiful and prosperous city now. It is a distinct exception to the typical rust belt city. It is very clean and the air isn't toxic anymore. Back in the day of the before photo no matter what time of day it was it appeared as if it was dusk outside due to pollution. If you wore white clothing outdoors for any length of time it would turn gray. I don't know. I guess there is good and bad to both scenarios.

Yeah, I know about Jones and Laughlin. I've been following this Tod Engine thing since the internet started. 

 

 

I grew up in the shadow of the USS Fairless Works. I have deep family roots in steel and mining. That is why I hate the globalists with every fiber of my being

My Uncle

Charles M. Cummings Obituary

CUMMINGS – Charles M. Sr., 80, Johnstown, died Aug. 24, 2010, at Memorial Hospital’s Palliative Care Unit. Born Sept. 25, 1929, in Johnstown, son of Patrick and Martha (Benshoff) Cummings. Preceded in death by his parents; son, Charles Jr.; and brother, John. He is survived by his loving wife of 56 years, Dolores (Gresik) Cummings; sons, Patrick and Michael; sister, Ethel Clawson; and brother, Joseph. Retired from Bethlehem Steel Corp., where he served as president of Gautier Local Union. Democratic Party district chairman and Democratic committeeman in the 21st Ward for more than 50 years. Former bus driver for McIlwain Bus Lines, where he was known as “Mr. C.”  At the request of the family, there will be no visitation, however, family and friends will be able to join them for a funeral Mass that will be held at a later date. The family is being served by Francis G. Ozog Funeral Home Inc., 710 Broad St. (ozogfh.com)

 

Edited Tuesday at 06:21 PM by Joseph Cummings

[67RModel]

J&L's Aliquippa Works before and after. The before was about 1970 and an aerial photograph. The after is present day from Google Street view so the perspectives are slightly different but the high tension, high voltage, 4 legged power pole at the bottom center of the before photo, standing just behind the general office building is the same one pictured in the current photo in the middle of the frame. All the houses pictured at the top of the before photo are the village of West Aliquippa, and are out of frame in the current view just behind the trees seen in the distance behind the white factory building. That factory is a US Gypsum plant that makes drywall board. I think at its peak around 8,000 people worked there. Aliquippa, about 20 miles downriver of Pittsburgh, used to be a thriving, nice place to live. Now it is a literal slum. Honestly the entire town needs demolished. Very sad.

[67RModel]

30 minutes ago, Joseph Cummings said:

I grew up in the shadow of the USS Fairless Works. I have deep family roots in steel and mining.

Nice. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend you visit the Rivers of Steel, Carrie Furnace museum in Pittsburgh. I would highly recommend the Industrial Tour. It is a preserved blast furnace from the US Steel Homestead Works. 

Carrie Blast Furnaces National Historic Landmark — Rivers of Steel

 

 

[67RModel]

42 minutes ago, Joseph Cummings said:

I've been following this Tod Engine thing since the internet started. 

If you have interest in the Tod Engine then you also need to check out the Coolspring Power Museum. Their site and museum grounds are insane. They have a couple shows per year where most of them run. Their hallmark is a 600hp at 100rpm Snow engine that formerly ran a NG compressor station. The site is not far from Pittsburgh in rural Coolspring, PA.

Coolspring Power Museum

[davehummell]

I have been over to Coolsprings engine show anyone interested in mechanical things should get to see the stuff on display. Kinser's Ruff and Tumble is a very good show old trucks and heavy equipment running around quite a few steam traction engines running around an ungodly number of tractors and lawn tractors, a working machine shop making parts, old cars on display. Canandaigua's pageant of steam is amazing with the amount of steam powered stuff running. At Penns Caves is a very good engine and tractor, car and truck show. 

[67RModel]

I guess while we're at it National Pike Steam, Gas, & Horse Association in Brownsville, PA is another one to see. Mostly antique vintage earthmoving equipment.

[other dog]

5 hours ago, 67RModel said:

If you have interest in the Tod Engine then you also need to check out the Coolspring Power Museum. Their site and museum grounds are insane. They have a couple shows per year where most of them run. Their hallmark is a 600hp at 100rpm Snow engine that formerly ran a NG compressor station. The site is not far from Pittsburgh in rural Coolspring, PA.

Coolspring Power Museum

That is something I've always wanted to do, the Rivers of Steel Tour. You can see the Carrie Furnace from the Homestead high level bridge. I loaded steel beams at Homestead works in the early 80's. You turned right off the bridge to go down into the steel mill, you went to one side to load beams and turned the other way to load coils. It was the best US Steel facility I ever loaded at. Gary, In. was the worst and Fairless Works wasn't much better. I don't think they cared if you sat there a week waiting to get loaded, and were hateful to you the whole time you were there. 

I hadn't been to Fairless, Pa. for a long time but I crossed the Homestead bridge regularly going to Galv-Tech to load. You wouldn't even know a huge steel mill was ever there now. Kind of like Bethlehem Steel in Sparrows Point, Md. And Bethlehem, Pa. too for that matter.

If any of you are going to Macungie you should go over to the old Bethlehem Steel facility and check it out. They have an elevated walkway that you can walk and see the blast furnaces up close, very interesting to see. Also the 14" gun barrel from the USS Mississippi is displayed there. And there's a casino and several hundred stores there too. Maybe thousands.

The first time I was there since I was actually loading steel there was one night when I was delivering something in Allentown or Bethlehem. A fellow happened to stop by with several chern in his Dodge pickup and told me he was going to take me out for dinner at his cousin's Pizza place. I'd never seen the guy before, but pizza sounded better than beanie-weenies so I got in his truck. Turned out to be a real nice guy, and he showed me around the old steel mill. Big Detroit Diesel fan, he talked a lot about them. Not the new ones, but the old General Motors 2 cycle engines. I think he said he wished he had a 6-71 in his 1958 FWD fire truck.

Oh, that reminds me- he was actually a member here on BMT! Goes by 1958 FWD. I'd like to get him to take us on another tour of the steel mill, it was dark last time.

I also loaded coils at Jones and Laughlin steel in Cleveland several times, it wasn't a bad place to load either.

[Joseph Cummings]

Anyone else remember this?

 

[Joseph Cummings]

 

Parkhurst is the publisher, but in the most technical sense, the magazine belongs to the federal bankruptcy referee. Parkhurst’s corporation overextended itself with a feature-length movie about interstate haulers, starring the late, great Sonny Liston. Even with this setback, Parkhurst points out, Overdrive has never stopped spending money on efforts to aid those in the same fight. One of the projects Parkhurst brags of helping is the only other obvious rallying point of the truckers’ breakout: the Fraternal Association of Steel Haulers. The help amounted to $87,000 in 1967, after F.A.S.H. was born on a picket line in front of Teamster Local 142 in Gary, Indiana.

The local rebellion spread into a wildcat strike that crippled the steel industry for 13 weeks and steel haulers began to organize outside of Teamster control for the first time. Today F.A.S.H. has chapters throughout steel country with two regional offices in Gary, Indiana, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In Gary, miles of steel mills float in a three-day stink. The local F.A.S.H. office centers around Paul Dietsch, a veteran organizer against the Teamsters, who says: “These people [independent drivers] go overseas every 20 years to fight a war for democracy, they come home, go to work for a trucking company that’s under the Teamsters and all of a sudden, they haven’t any rights at all. Their balls shrivel up to the size of peas and they won’t stand up to nothin’ … We decided to change that.”

 

Continued https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/the-truckers-go-to-washington-democracy-in-action-on-the-interstate-68811/5/

[67RModel]

10 hours ago, Joseph Cummings said:

Anyone else remember this?

If I'm not mistaken the president of FASH was a local guy here in Pittsburgh by the name of Bill Hill. He got involved in government via then PA Governor Milton Schapp, who supposedly had a soft spot for truckers and the trucking industry. His obituary claims he was the one who got the 80,000 pound weight limit passed though congress.

William J Hill Sr | Obituary | Devlin Funeral Home 

[67RModel]

13 hours ago, other dog said:

That is something I've always wanted to do, the Rivers of Steel Tour. You can see the Carrie Furnace from the Homestead high level bridge. I loaded steel beams at Homestead works in the early 80's. You turned right off the bridge to go down into the steel mill, you went to one side to load beams and turned the other way to load coils. It was the best US Steel facility I ever loaded at. Gary, In. was the worst and Fairless Works wasn't much better. I don't think they cared if you sat there a week waiting to get loaded, and were hateful to you the whole time you were there. 

I hadn't been to Fairless, Pa. for a long time but I crossed the Homestead bridge regularly going to Galv-Tech to load. You wouldn't even know a huge steel mill was ever there now. Kind of like Bethlehem Steel in Sparrows Point, Md. And Bethlehem, Pa. too for that matter.

Yea the entire Homestead Works is all commercial retail and restaurants in a fancy development called "The Waterfront". They left the 12 smokestacks intact as kind of an art exhibit or tribute to the former mill and history of the area, which is kind of neat. Picture below. The Homestead Grays (aka Highlevel) Bridge can be seen in the background of the photo as a horizontal white line. You can see the road the photo was taken from goes up a ramp to intersect with the bridge. The Homestead works was famous for the Homestead Strike in 1892. I think it is probably one of the most famous labor strikes in US History. Several people were killed when management sent in strike breakers and a battle broke out. At the time it was owned by Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel, which eventually became US Steel. The Rivers of Steel Carie Furnace museum is on the opposite side of the river from the Homestead Works was and like in the case of J&L's Hot Metal Bridge, the molten iron was transported across the river via their own rail bridge to be made into steel.

Did you ever load at US Steel Edgar Thompson, Irvin Works, or Duquesne Works? Like the Homestead Works, the Duquesne Works is long gone but ET and Irvin Works are still going good. You probably never loaded at ET as they make huge steel slabs or ingots from raw materials. I think they get transported by rail to Irvin to be reheated and rolled into coils or whatever else. My father-in-law worked his entire career at Edgar Thompson Works as a boilermaker and fabricator. From what he says he hated it. The heat was unbearable as he got older and the working conditions were terrible.

Edited 14 hours ago by 67RModel