Working rail roads and their tracks.

[MossRoad]

Anyone know where the U.S.A.'s largest private RR company is located?


Navel Weapons Support Center/ Crane, Indiana

Who'da thunk the 3rd largest Naval base in the world would be in Southern Indiana?

62,000+ acres!

 

[MossRoad]

Here's some working in Pittsburgh...

 

[MossRoad]

Don't know if this has been posted before, but it's pretty neat.

 

[JRH02]

I think these cars are soooooo neat.
----------------------------------------
The hot metal car was a specialized industrial unit designed to carry molten iron from blast furnaces to steel mills. Liquid metal was poured into the car’s firebrick-lined cylinder through a small hatch at the top. Because of these features, the iron could stay in its liquid state for up to 24 hours. Though the torpedo’s thick metal plate allowed it to withstand the heat and weight of its cargo, it also made the car incredibly heavy and difficult to maneuver. The bottlelike-car design came in a variety of sizes. Standard ladle-cars had 12 wheels and weighed up to 125 tons when full. Larger units had 16 wheels and weighed up to 400 tons.
The Bethlehem Steel Company (BSCo) No. 127 is a standard, mid-sized hot metal car. Buit by the M.H. Treadwell Company c.1935, it was one of 54 hot metal cars used to service the Bethlehem Steel facility in Sparrow’s Point, MD. The car was retired in 1977 after Bethlehem Steel purchased a new fleet of heavyweight ladle-cars and eventually donated to the B&O Railroad Museum in 1984, but did not arrive until 1997.
The M.H. Treadwell facility was purchased by Bethlehem Steel in 1969. For a variety of reasons, the American steel industry crashed in the 1970s and 1980s. This decline led to the closure of Bethlehem Steel eventually in 2003. The company is remembered as a symbol of Maryland’s industrial past.View attachment 1858589View attachment 1858590

I never lived in 'steel country' and have never seen a car like this before. I lived in Omaha until my late 30's and at one point was a locomotive machinist in the UP shops. Trains got into my blood in that time and I never lost interest in them. Still have my books of the local's membership roster and my dues stamp book.

 

[ArlyA]

I never lived in 'steel country' and have never seen a car like this before. I lived in Omaha until my late 30's and at one point was a locomotive machinist in the UP shops. Trains got into my blood in that time and I never lost interest in them. Still have my books of the local's membership roster and my dues stamp book.

I worked as a carman on and off for many years. I like machines in general. Do you recall a private company who had lots of lease cars call North American Car company?

 

[JRH02]

I worked as a carman on and off for many years. I like machines in general. Do you recall a private company who had lots of lease cars call North American Car company?

I never held a posting with the orange hat guys. There were a only a very few machinist positions in the whole of the car shop area. I never heard much good about the private companies which was to be expected in a strictly union only shop.

 

[RayIN]

Who'da thunk the 3rd largest Naval base in the world would be in Southern Indiana?

62,000+ acres!

And North Indiana is home to the largest RV manufacturing industry in the world.
South Bend_ That reminded me of the old joke about the Frenchman visiting Indiana.
I live close to Crane- close enough so when Crane used to destroy old WWII bombs my house shook, and my cattle became uneasy.

 

[MossRoad]

And North Indiana is home to the largest RV manufacturing industry in the world.
South Bend_ That reminded me of the old joke about the Frenchman visiting Indiana.
I live close to Crane- close enough so when Crane used to destroy old WWII bombs my house shook, and my cattle became uneasy.

Indiana:
You have to go north to get to South Bend
South to get to North Vernon
And French Lick isn't anything like it sounds (but is home to the French Lick Scenic Railway)

 

[BravoXray]

Here's some working in Pittsburgh...

Back in the 70s, we hauled a lot of slag aggregate out of the Levy Company and Bethlehem Steel in Gary. When we went into the steel plant to load, there would often be torpedo cars setting on tracks waiting to be loaded or cooling down so they could be relined with refractory brick.

 

[BravoXray]

I never lived in 'steel country' and have never seen a car like this before. I lived in Omaha until my late 30's and at one point was a locomotive machinist in the UP shops. Trains got into my blood in that time and I never lost interest in them. Still have my books of the local's membership roster and my dues stamp book.

A few years ago, I picked up an Electromotive 645E3 overhaul manual at a flea market. I've spent hours browsing that manual, those engines are amazing pieces of engineering, especially the fabricated, not cast, engine blocks. Although the main bearing saddles and some other parts are cast and welded into the blocks.