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

[grande man]

Hi everyone.

I was putting a DVD of the Thomas Works photos together a while back and ran across a few (many) more photos that my fellow industrial history fans may find of interest.


Power House with the Boiler Plant in the background.

Wide angle perspective of the 240' oven smokestack

A look down the length of the oven top gas manifold on a crisp November day

Hand operated valve on the ground after parts of the plant were disassembled. Note the hardhat for size ref. That's the benzol plant in the background.

Pumphouse

Cold night view from the top of the ovens

Boiler stack

Detail shot of an electrostatic precipitator (removed tar from oven gas) power pack.

 

[UP2CSX]

Great shots as usual, Eric, although those smoke stack shots were making me dizzy. That was a honking big valve they left behind. I'm really surprised that the valves weren't sold on the second hand market rather than being abandoned. The big valve looks identical to the slide valves we used at water diversion intakes and they go for about 10 grand on the used market.

 

[OldGettysk]

More really impressive shots ! Keep them coimg !!!The twilight shot is amazzzzzzzzing

 

[grove den]

Grandeman: always amazingly beautiful pictures!!!
Thanks a lot!!

Jos

 

[grande man]

Paul, Jos and Jim, Thanks for the comments!

I thought ya'll might be interested in a few shots of the Raimund 2 ore mine from earlier today. R2 is one of the mines that provided iron ore for Republic operations for many years...

R2 main slope

R2 Ruins

R2 ventilation shaft

R2 fanhouse

 

[UP2CSX]

Nice shots as usual, Eric. Even got some of the snow still on the ground.

 

[grove den]

again great pictures Eric...specialy the first one:R2 main slope!!! he he not much "color"....=) the "brown" gives it an "old touch"...like it a lot

Jos

 

[grande man]

A few shots from the administration building... It was built in 1926 and is still used today. There are some interesting pieces of Republic Steel history in this cool old structure.

Upstairs office where plant engineers worked.

Door panel

Stuck in Time. 1982 was the coke plant's final year of operation.

Cool Documents
There are maps of the Spaulding and Shannon ore mines and what I think is the Sayreton coal mine. Some original plant drawings (put on mylar in the 80s) and records are still on site.

Young and Vann were industrial suppliers based in Birmingham. This catalog probably dates to the 1920s.

No Trespassing (and they meant it!)

Guards trained with firearms at the basement firing range. Here's the bullet trap.

Downstairs office Check it out. There's still paper on the roll!

I had to shoot the peeling mens room paint.

Grab a coke on the way out of the head, it's time for a refill.

 

[UP2CSX]

Boy, when they abandonded the place, they sort of left everything in suspended animation. Pretty amazing stuff. That shooting range (which I actually do know something about) looks odd to me. Normally, the targets would be suspended on wires across the room and the back wall would be built of some sort of bullet capturing material, like high density foam. The way that's set up, any off target shot sets up the possibiity of a ricochet. It appears to be built of sheet steel, which makes that situation even worse. We also didn't have what looks like some kind of piping running across the back of the range either. I can guarantee you one of our guys would have put a hole right through one of those pipes.

 

[grove den]

Looks almost like a museum to me!
objects going down to 1958! and still on the "same place", untouched! whow...
cann't immagine that it could happen overhere..=( Overhere, as I once wrotein an earlier post, everythingof the former mineplants is/has(?) demolished, is taken down....nothing , realy nothing...remembers those glorious day on wich over 30.000 people earned their good living.( but with hard labour!) it is sad =(
Glad to see it is still there at "your"place Eric...but for how long?

Jos

 

[grande man]

Jim and Jos, Ya'll are real troopers. Thanks for staying with me.

The Wade family is very mindful of historical preservation. Robin told me yesterday that many items from the plant have been given to the University of Alabama. There was so much there when the plant closed that some very cool items still remain. Fortunately, they are under lock and key and the property is staffed 24/7. Had it not been for the Wades purchase of the property shortly after the plant shut down, these artifacts would have been long since gone.

Here's an engineering map of the once great Spaulding ore mine (Grace's Gap). The link will take you to a full res view, beware it a 5 MB file. Note the penciled in references to the water levels in 1963. It's interesting that they were monitoring things after the mine was closed. That would indicate to me there was a possibility of it it reopening.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2349/2216714814_b62fb32b4a_o.jpg

Handwritten plant records like this one from Feb 1953 are still on site. That would have been shortly after the current plant began production after the modernization.

 

[rhoward]

Eric, as always with this series, AWESOME! I enjoy these photos and the info very much! Thanks for posting them.

 

[CP9302]

Its been awhile since I last looked at this thread. I'm glad I checked back in. Eric, your photography is excellent. That is one incredable time capsule of a place. I'd love to have that old Coke machine in my garage, if I has a garage...

Thanks for sharing, and please, keep up the outstanding work.

 

[UP2CSX]

Eric,
I wonder if they were monitoring the water level because of settling pond shown near the top? It looks like it was fed by a four inch main from the mine and they may have had some requirement to make sure enough water was being fed into the pond. Seems unlikely, although not impossible, that they would monitor the water level in case the mine reopened. They would usually do a water level survey at the time there was serious discussion about reopening the mine rather than spending the money over time.

Can you imagine the poor bookkeepers that had to transfer all that stuff in the handwritten ledger to a balance sheet? They sure did have neater handwriting back then though.

And I still wouldn't use that target range. Actually, in looking at it again, those targets are typical hunter's targets rather than the standard law enforcement targets, whcih would have been larger and human shaped. I wonder if someone wasn't down there using the range to sharpen up their hunting skills?

 

[grande man]

Jim, the bullet trap is filled with sand. As the rounds glance down from the angled steel the sand stops them. I think it still sees occasional use.

It's interesting to look back at the protective stance Republic took with their properties. While I've had access to freely take photographs, in the old days Thomas was no man's land for anyone with a camera or who wasn't an employee. In the excellant book, Birmingham Rails, The Last Golden Era http://www.birminghamrails.com/, contributing author Thomas Lawson Jr describes on page 202 his cat and mouse game with Republic security in the late 50s. At 15 years old, he was escorted to the Birmingham Police station for trespassing to get photos of two 0-6-0 switchers. Later he had permission to take photos from the L&N agent at the railroad's Thomas depot. Republic gaurds would leave the plant property to tell him not to photograph company locomotives switching outside the fence! Of couse there was nothing they could do but make threats as he was legally on L&N property.

 

[OldGettysk]

Really cool pictures again Eric. I wonder if the coke machine still has coke left in it ? Looks like they sure closed up shop in a hurry .

 

[grande man]

Hi Paul.

Edit...

That one flew right by me, lol. I'll have to look inside it sometime and see.

 

[grande man]

Does anyone know of an HO scale by-products plant kit? I'm not sure when I'd find the time, but modeling Thomas would be cool. Robin was very kind in giving me several booklets I found in the admin building yesterday. Two of them are part of a "Training for Better Jobs" series for new Republic coke plant employees. The titles I have are "Introduction to the Coke Plant" and "Benzol Helper". They date to 1954 and are some cool reading on the subject. The background they and the materials Glenn provided would make modeling the plant that much more interesting...

ETA a few historic photos... These were all provided in the books Glenn loaned me. They are "pictures of pictures" taken from across the room with a telephoto lens.

This shot of coke being pushed into the quench car was actually taken at Republic's Gasden plant. It seemed applicable to the discussion of the Thomas by products plant though as they were very similar. Note the coke guide (transfer).

Thomas blast furnaces taken in the late 40s.

Spaulding mine in the 40s. The foreground tracks are L&N.

 

[UP2CSX]

Eric, I don't know about Alabama but, in Cleveland, the Republic security force was actually a private police department, authorized to make arrests both on and off company property. When I was a kid, anyone caught taking pictures of Republic property was promptly arrested and charged with an industrial espionage statue violation left over from WWII. I remember very well sneaking around trying to get shots of Republic 0-8-0 switchers while avoiding the Republic cops. They were also well know for giving you a good beating with their nightsticks as an added incentive to stay from thier property. I think the authority for private police forces was finally repealed in the late 60's but they were a tough bunch until then. Their patrol cars always had shotguns and I saw at least one of their officers with a Thompson submachine gun. I wouldn't be surprised if Alabama had a similar law.

BTW, that sand on the bottom works great until you get someone who fires a round that strikes one of the upright portions of the steel box. When that happens, you'd better be ready to duck quick.

 

[Steve B]

Got to say i'm stunned at the condition of the relics left behind, awesome stuff Eric just awesome.