Birmingham History - Republic Steel Thomas Plant. Dial up Destruction, new pics P7/8


The overall plant drawing came out of the copy of the equipment specs for Republic Steel's Southern District for 1969. I also have a 1959 book, but the plant drawing does not show the railroad tracks.

If you would like to see how the Thomas plant fit into the overall railroad scene in B'ham, go to www.nmra.org, then go to region web sites, find the Southeastern region, go to Steel City division, go to links, then find John Stewarts B'ham Rails website. On his site is a 1935 map of all of the rail lines in B'ham.

Glenn
 
Benzol Plant Detail
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Benzol Plant Pumps
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Locomotive Shop and Quench Tower
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Loco Shop and Plant detail
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A peek inside the Locomotive Shop
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Alex and Glenn check out the conveyor system that delivered coal to the hopper
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Misc Shots
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What an awesome thread, thanks Eric & Glenn for posting it! That drawing looks like it could serve as the 'uncompressed' version of the WKW kit, I'm going to use it as a reference for a byproducts plant of my own.
 
Hey, that crane outside... Petibone? I know where those cranes were made. They've weeded it down to material handlers at the plant in question, but they used to make that model crane there too...
 
CSX_road_slug said:
What an awesome thread, thanks Eric & Glenn for posting it! That drawing looks like it could serve as the 'uncompressed' version of the WKW kit, I'm going to use it as a reference for a byproducts plant of my own.
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Sounds like a plan, Ken. A by-products plant would be an awesome addition to a model RR!
 
Paul and Alco, Thanks for making the trip to East Thomas with us! It's great to hear ya'll are enjoying the thread. :cool:
 
For anyone that's interested, here's a Google Earth shot of the facility. The coordinates at the lower left can be used as a starting point to see the surrounding area. To the north is the old company town and the ex Frisco East Thomas yard is to the east.

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Very beautiful pictures you both made!!( sooo bright)
Very interesting too!
Enjoyed looking and reading your "article"!

Jos
 
Eric,

I found some information on the Thomas plant in a 1948 publication that indicated a byproducts type battery in use. If I remember right the existing battery dates from 1952. So this would mean that the beehive ovens have been gone longer than I thought.

Glenn
 
WCWBrassHat said:
Eric,

I found some information on the Thomas plant in a 1948 publication that indicated a byproducts type battery in use. If I remember right the existing battery dates from 1952. So this would mean that the beehive ovens have been gone longer than I thought.

Glenn
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I'm not surprised, Glenn. I was under the impression that most of the beehive batteries were pretty much done by the early to mid 30s in Birmingham. That would also be consistent with the original by-products plant at Thomas being built in 1925...


Thanks for the comments Jos!
 
Very interesting pictures. Does the plant still have any rail connection left? I wonder why Republic didn't sell or scrap the locomotives when they abandoned the plant? That SC would make an awful nice contribution to the Heart of Dixie railroad museum. I wonder how many SC's are even still in exisitence?
 
Jim, I believe the folks at Heart of Dixie were given a Republic locomotive. I don't think they ever did much with it.

As for the rail connection, the BNSF runs right thru the property but I don't think there's an active connection anymore. The main BNSF yard is very close by.
 
grande man said:
Jim, I believe the folks at Heart of Dixie were given a Republic locomotive. I don't think they ever did much with it.
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Sadly, from my visit up there, it looks like they haven't done a lot with a lot of the equipment that they have. So I'm told, it's better than it was in Birmingham when everything was being vandalized but most things seem to be sitting in the sun rotting away. :(

So are those two locomotives just sitting in that engine house now as you photographed them? It seems like there has to be a museum somewhere that would jump at the chance to get that SC. I was a member of the Orange Empire Museum in California and we got things donated from all over the country and somehow came up with the money to get things there. Just seems a shame to have two locomotives like that sitting there slowly falling to pieces
 
UP2CSX said:
Sadly, from my visit up there, it looks like they haven't done a lot with a lot of the equipment that they have. So I'm told, it's better than it was in Birmingham when everything was being vandalized but most things seem to be sitting in the sun rotting away. :(

So are those two locomotives just sitting in that engine house now as you photographed them? It seems like there has to be a museum somewhere that would jump at the chance to get that SC. I was a member of the Orange Empire Museum in California and we got things donated from all over the country and somehow came up with the money to get things there. Just seems a shame to have two locomotives like that sitting there slowly falling to pieces
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Yep, the two of them are tucked away in the locomotive shed where they were parked in the early 80s when the plant was shut down. Who knows, maybe someday Mr Wade will find them a good home with folks that will see to it that they'll be taken care of and properly displayed. I suspect that either of them could be working the rails again with minimal effort. :cool: They appear to be in great shape.
 
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