Steampunk Porn

It had been too long since my last adventure.  So, on Saturday, my partner-in-exploration and I hit up an old site for a second visit.  On our first trip we saw one blast furnace, but left early when we were spooked.  This time, we made sure to see what else was in store, and boy were we surprised.

Most steel factories operate multiple furnaces, the large volume helps keep their operation economical.  Carrie Furnace, in Braddock, used to operate at least 7 different furnaces…our target today had 4.  The first one we explored, #4, was nothing new.  A standard rusted out furnace, with the tap hole drill and mud gun lying around somewhere.  We took some shots, and headed down under the high line to see the lorry cars that ferry materials up into the blast furnaces.  We headed over to furnaces #3 and #2, only to find that they had been completely gutted. Luckily, the last one, furnace #1, was completely intact. Not only were the tap hole drill and mud gun (used to open and re-seal the tap holes) present, but they were still attached. This was a first for us. We were so excited, we didn’t want to leave.

-aigulf

Clairton Coke Works in the midst of a "quench," where they use water to cool down the coke as it leaves a 2,000C oven.

A few weeks back, a friend of mine told me that the Coke Battery in Monessen, PA had been shut down and was going to be gutted for parts within the month. A coke battery is a facility that takes in raw coal and processes it into an intermediate product that is used as a fuel in the steel production process. This was a rare opportunity to be able to get into a plant that hadn’t yet been stripped, and we were told the time table was short, so we took the unusual step of exploring during the week (thank God for flexible work schedules). Three of us made the trip down, found the plant pretty quickly, and immediately knew that something was wrong. We expected the place to be mostly abandoned, but the parking lot was more than half full. Obviously the workers were still there. Was it possible that our intel was a little premature?

We walked up to the guard shack and introduced ourselves as industrial preservationists and explained what we had been told. The guard seemed a little perplexed, but told us that we were flat out wrong. The plant is currently being “cold idled,” which means that they are not producing, and have basically shut off all of their equipment and cut back staff hours until the economy turns around and demand for coke increases. We asked if there were any way we could get a tour, and she told us that they are taking advantage of the downtime by upgrading all of their equipment, and they don’t want us to see any of their proprietary technology. So, we took some pictures from the perimeter, but couldn’t get near any of the good stuff.

On our way out, we took a quick tour of Monessen, one of the many Steel towns in the Rust Belt that is a shadow of its former self. After we left town, we stopped at an old coal mine a few miles outside of town, only to find that it had been completely demolished and stripped for parts (see the final photo). Hopefully my next adventure will be more fruitful than this one.

-aigulf

Control board for the hoist house.

I have a special affinity for Carrie Furnace.  She was my first abandoned factory, and she’s very close to home, so it’s always nice to plan a return trip.  Not to mention the fact that I always find something new!  Last weekend, I had a leisurely excursion and got a bunch of shots from new angles and places I hadn’t yet seen.

I’m never happy with my blast furnace shots, so I tried another one…the sunlight was pretty harsh, so I’ll be trying that again the next time I’m there.  The majority of the shots I’m posting come from either (a) the hoist house (which was used to power the cables that lifted ore into the furnaces) or (b) the high line, where incoming supply cars emptied their contents.  Take a peek into a National Historic Landmark.

-aigulf

Bell heaters for the annealing mill. Each one fits over a single stack of ribbon coils.

Steel is delivered to the site in ribbon coils, from a steel furnace. You can see one of the coils, in fairly poor shape, next to my friend in the shot below. The first stage is to remove the oxidation, that’s where the pickling line comes in. The ribbons are fed through acid tanks to remove the oxidation layer, and then recoiled. In the gallery below, there is a shot of the pickling tanks, though there isn’t much to see.

Coil of Steel Ribbon (with friend for scale)

The ribbons are then fed into the temper mill, which hardens the steel. From there, the tandem mill produces whatever thickness the customer desires in the steel ribbons. I wasn’t able to get any decent shots of the tandem mill, as it was shrouded by tarps to keep it warm, or the temper mill, because the shot I took didn’t turn out very well.

An unfortunate side effect of the cold mills is that the steel loses some of its workability, and is more difficult to stamp or press. In order to counter this effect, an annealing mill carefully heats the steel to its re-crystallization temperature, allowing the crystals to re-align, and then it is slowly cooled back to room temperature for delivery. Annealing is carried out in several different ways. In the photos below you can see pillars of corrugated metal. These pillars cover a stack of three or four coils, and help control the heating and cooling rates. These pillars can be heated individually with a heating bell, or in groups of three via a heating box. I’m not sure of the benefits/drawbacks of the two techniques, but you can see that both are in use interspersed in the same facility below.

You can view these photos in a flickr set.

Blast House

I had another adventure with friends last weekend, to probably the best site I’ve seen so far. We were there for 6 hours, I took ~400 photos and was excited to go home and sort through them for goodies. Unfortunately, I had to turn around and go out to a semi-formal party, and I wanted to bring my camera. So I dumped the photos onto my computer, and pulled the card to use again. When I went back the next day to process the photos, only 50 of the 400 were there. Son of a bitch.

I downloaded some data recovery tools, and they managed to salvage 50 more, but not any of the ones I wanted from the blast furnace, casting mill, rolling mill, or massive ladles for hauling molten steel. All the cool shots I got are gone.

This is a lesson for me. Don’t wipe the card until you’ve verified that the photos are indeed in place. No more using picasa’s built-in “delete the photos that are copied” feature. I’ll copy them. Make sure they’re all there, and then use the camera’s built-in format function to wipe the card.

Thankfully, though, I was not alone on Saturday. Below are a few shots of mine, and three that I’ve borrowed from a friend.

-aigulf

P.S. I have facebook connect running, so you can leave a comment with your fb login, if you like.  If you do so, you will be asked whether you’d like the comment also posted to your wall.  Isn’t integration fun?

Dave Zupkovich

There is a locomotive factory, nestled in a ravine, that was closed about a decade ago. This record was lying around, and begged to be set up for a shot, the album cover was in the next room. The rest of the facility, which was much smaller than many of our other sites, was fairly empty. A few nice equipment storage rooms, but the massive empty warehouse was quite a disappointment.

-aigulf

Emergency Alarm

Another little gem. This former casting plant looks like the factory that builds other factories…or at least, the machinery that goes into them. We would have spent a long time exploring, but the weather was unbelievably bitter cold. We were expecting 25° F, and got 5° F…45 minutes was all we could handle.

Be sure to check out these photos on flickr if you want to comment on them.

-aigulf

Commutators

This weekend held another expedition, but I’m going to be a little vague on where. Wouldn’t want too many people to find it and spoil the fun.

Our destination this time was an abandoned blast furnace, and boy were we surprised.  The facility is significantly larger than we originally thought.  Every time we turned a corner, it seemed like we were greeted with an expanse of new buildings and half-gutted machinery.  Needless to say, this place will necessitate a return trip or two.

-aigulf

The Stamping Line

In 2008, General Motors closed down their stamping plant in West Mifflin, PA.  This plant was used to take sheets of steel from a nearby USS finishing mill, and stamp them into various shapes for assembly.  Check out these photos  of the now-defunct plant.

It’s no mistake that the American automotive industry has been struggling in recent years.  Economic downturns, a consumer push for more fuel efficient vehicles, and perceptions of higher quality in foreign cars all have contributed to Detroit’s troubles.  The ripples have spread far.  Following a UAW strike in 2007, GM began to seek a customer to purchase their metal stamping plant outside Pittsburgh.  In April of 2008, Allegheny Holdings LLL, the prospective buyer, had to back out of the deal when their financing was pulled. After the deal fell through, the plant was only around long enough for GM to remove the equipment that they wanted to salvage.

Below are a few photos from around the plant. A few from the offices on the second floor, and a handful from the factory line. It’s amazing how much machinery has been left behind by GM, absolutely MASSIVE stamping machines sit idle, along with plenty of robotic arms and support machinery. Be sure to check out the set of photos below. If you want to see larger versions, hop on over to my flickr page.

-aigulf

Sadface

On a recent excursion, I went with some friends to visit an abandoned mental institution in Torrance, PA.  The building was constructed in 1919, and shut down in 1967, following allegations of abuse.  There is a new facility, currently in operation, within sight of the original structure. Unfortunately, we discovered the old hospital was surrounded by electrified fence, about 6′ high, and none of us were too comfortable with trying to circumvent it.

Luckily, while trying to park, one of us discovered some buildings of interest about 100 yards down the road…

Behind a thick patch of trees, we found a few abandoned farm houses, most of them with at least one wall missing.  We have absolutely no idea if they have anything to do with the former mental hospital, but they look like they’ve been unused for more than a decade. It made for some great exploring, and a whole lot of shivering in the Pennsylvania December chill.

Shut

After poking around the stable, and finding a room with some abandoned sinks (Grumpy) and toilets (His & Hers), we drove around for a bit and found the resting place of several dozen construction vehicles (Cogs and Why so sad?).  You can see all of the photos below, or in my flickr photostream.

-aigulf