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

ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.


You know I think all steel plants must have been anal about protecting their property . When my father worked at Vanadium if you were caught trying get a look at anything they would come right over and get you out of there pronto .
 
This inspired me to go relic hunting today, all we found at our local derelict mine site was a tin bucket full of holes and a section of rail stuck in the ground with the remains of a sign attached,,, oh and a bag of coal the boys brought back home to play with.
 
Eric,

Enjoyed talking with you today when we met so I could get my "Republic" materials back. After seeing the photos, you have posted here I can't wait to get time to look at the DVD's you gave me!

Thomas would make a great location to model. I thought about using the concept to enter one of the MR contests many years ago.

I think the Walthers or Plastruct oil refinery kit would give most of the parts to model a By-Product plant. At least that is where I am thinking of starting when I get time to work on that part of my steel mill. Although I have a strong emotional attachment to Republic's Gadsden operation, I have used influences from Birmingham District in developing the concept for the mill on my railroad.

Some other thoughts on the Thomas operation. At least in the last years, the production of the blast furnace or furnaces was sold to one of the local pipe or foundry operations. If I knew which one, I don't remember. The customer had actually offered to pay for the rebuild of at least one of the furnaces to continue getting the iron, but Republic refused. I guess they needed the coke for internal operations but didn't need the iron. It would be interesting to know if the Thomas iron was ever shipped to Gadsden in liquid form. I know the Youngstown blast furnces shipped bottle cars of molten iron to the Warren plant. I think that was over Chessie when I visited in the early 80's.

Glenn
 


WCWBrassHat said:
Eric,

Enjoyed talking with you today when we met so I could get my "Republic" materials back. After seeing the photos, you have posted here I can't wait to get time to look at the DVD's you gave me!

Thomas would make a great location to model. I thought about using the concept to enter one of the MR contests many years ago.

I think the Walthers or Plastruct oil refinery kit would give most of the parts to model a By-Product plant. At least that is where I am thinking of starting when I get time to work on that part of my steel mill. Although I have a strong emotional attachment to Republic's Gadsden operation, I have used influences from Birmingham District in developing the concept for the mill on my railroad.

Some other thoughts on the Thomas operation. At least in the last years, the production of the blast furnace or furnaces was sold to one of the local pipe or foundry operations. If I knew which one, I don't remember. The customer had actually offered to pay for the rebuild of at least one of the furnaces to continue getting the iron, but Republic refused. I guess they needed the coke for internal operations but didn't need the iron. It would be interesting to know if the Thomas iron was ever shipped to Gadsden in liquid form. I know the Youngstown blast furnces shipped bottle cars of molten iron to the Warren plant. I think that was over Chessie when I visited in the early 80's.

Glenn
Click to expand...

Thanks Glenn. It was good to see you. I hope you enjoy the DVD. The new version I'm putting together with Sony Vegas should be much improved. I'll get you a copy if you'll send me your new address. Until then, here's a few more shots I ran across putting it together...

SC #902.
2236854904_c2860f69a0_o.jpg


Oven doors from a low perspective.
2236065533_2587f0124c_o.jpg



A couple from the boiler house. The second is of the very top of the boilers, several stories off the ground.
2236066063_73544cf692_o.jpg


2236855116_dbb0d664f7_o.jpg


Another angle on the power house turbo blower.
2236854268_8d7d25e741_o.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nice one Eric, i have never seen boilers clad in brick like that, here they had insulation and metal cladding.
 
Thanks Paul. I;m glad you're still with me on this one.

Steve, the boiler house is an incredible place. I need to go back and shoot some more there. I don't feel like I've done it justice...

Jim, Keep in mind the SC is sheltered from the weather and protected. It's under watchful eyes around the clock. In a way, it is in a museum. It's in it's natural place and in a time warp of sorts. It's a cool locomotive and one I'm grateful to have been allowed to photograph. The fact that it's still on site after all these years is both cool and pretty amazing.
 
Nice to know there's a watchful eye kept on although I'd feel better if they'd take all that junk off the walkways and blow the dust off occasionally. :) It is surprising that is was abandoned in place when the mill shut down. I would have thought that it had some trade in value to EMD for parts alone.
 
grande man said:
. . . I need to go back and shoot some more there. I don't feel like I've done it justice . . .
Click to expand...
after finding your pics on flickr and reading through some of your threads here (great contribution btw) i had to drive by the site today. :)
unfortunately got there just after sunset.
came down florida ave. and saw the admin bldg along w/ what i guess is the bldg being used by some local artists as a studio!?
i find your posts about your adventures very entertaining.
enjoy learning local history and photography myself.
 


Hey Eric. What's up Glenn?, well after looking at all these great photos,I'd say you guys had a royal blast out there poking around the old site. Now,with that in mind,I need to carry you guys down to Childersburg,and show you an old Central of Georgia bridge that still has the ORIGINAL CofG markings on it,and it is still in use by NS. Also,in Goodwater,I came across an unusual side track on the Cof G line. What makes this piece of track somewhat interesting is,that it is more like a runaround track,if anything. Great photos as always guys. William.
 
Very nice work, Glenn and Eric. I'm studying those drawings and what you guy wrote to get a better understanding of how steel is made. I can see you'd need a huge layout just to model even a small mill.

Glenn, my brother-in-law retired from Repubic in Cleveland many years ago on disability. I don't know how big that plant was but he took me on a tour once and it took about three hours to see about half the plant riding an electric buggy. The sheer size, complexity, blazing steel, and noise were overwhelming. They had a huge rail operation. There was an incoming yard for coal that was about 20 tracks and at least half a mile long, serviced by the Pennsy and NKP. The plant had about 25 switchers IIRC, including lots of 60-70 ton center cabs and SW's of almost every model up an SW-7. There was aslo a huge dock on the Cuyahoga River for ore boats. It was quite an operation. I think the plant is closed and almost completely dismantled today. :(
 
What the heck? All of Glenn's pictures and the drawings disappeared after I made my post. Don't know if there's something wrong with the list database or what.
 
grove den said:
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
Click to expand...


I ran across another view of the R2 slope Jos. I thought you might get some enjoyment out of it. :) This is the point where it really begins it's drop to follow the "dip" of the ore seam. At almost 30 degrees of slope, one can get a good way under Shades Valley in a hurry!

2500834962_ac2a80c706_o.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Steve B said:
wow, thats like a roller coaster Eric
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's true Steve! Those ore trips moved quickly too. :cool:

I just happened to notice that this thread has almost 17500 hits! Whoa! I wonder who in cyberland is so interested in the Thomas Works??? Wondering aside, I'm glad there is an interest in our industrial history. :)
 
Eric: "Whoa! I wonder who in cyberland is so interested in the Thomas Works??? "
also , and that is for shure, because of the great pictures/photographs you make!!!
so make it 17500 and 1 ;)

Jos
 
Eric, I think that the word has spread about your great photos. I've e-mailed at least 10 people telling them to check out this thread to see some of the industrial history of Alabama.

What sort of traction method was used to haul those ore cars? Was it all downhill for loads and uphill for empties? From your picture, it looks like they would need some kind of cable/winch system to get the cars up that kind of grade, even for empties. Given that kind of grade, I'm kind of surprised that they never went to a conveyor belt system.
 
You two are very kind in your comments and I appreciate it. :)

Photography is such a rush to me. The technical challenge of actually getting the images is fun (many times in situations ranging from either super high contrast to pitch black), but the thought that they are seemingly helping to promote an awareness of our history is even better. I was a bit shocked when I realized how many hits this thread has. It's pleasing to know that folks are interested in what took place here years ago. The folks that made our industry great deserve to be remembered. They were resourceful, lean achievers that are a proud part of our lineage. We could learn some valuable lessons by remembering them.

Jim, the ore trips were typically hoisted by steam or electric power out of the mine workings. Early mines sometimes used balance cars for gravity assisted hoisting. Republic's Raimund 2 may have originally been steam powered (Raimund 1 was for sure). In any event, later the operation utilized an electrical powered hoist.

Ya'll check this out. The locomotive was used at Thomas... http://www.lynnville.org/museum.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:


I'll be darned. The last steam engine that operated at Thomas is still in one piece. It would be great if we could get that SC reunited with the 2-8-0 somehow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.




Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)

Back
Top