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

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