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

[RexHea]

Val, you have some very nice work going on and I will also be following your progress. I worked in chemicals (herbicides) for several years and have often thought about building a process plant. One new plant I worked at, had a complete mock-up of all the building structure, piping, and equipment to exact scale that was used for the engineering and construction people to reference. If I remember correctly, it was close to HO scale. I would give my left one (or both) to have that model. Guess it has gone to the proverbial black hole, as the plant was eventually closed down by EPA.

Oh yeah, a big welcome to you.

 

[grande man]

I grew up close to the ruins of Thomas Iron Works in Pennsylvania. I had heard that Thomas had built a plant in Alabama but never could find any information about it....until now.

I believe Samual Thomas built the Alabama works. He was the son of David Thomas, who was the first to successfully use coal to make iron in the USA. This allowed iron to be made cheaper and in far greater quatities than could be made with charcoal. . This is thought to be the start of the industrial revolution. His first works, the Crane Iron Works located in Catasauqua, were a short distance down the river from the Thomas Works. The base of the last furnace is still standing there.
The ruins in PA, are mostly from 1920's rebuilding of the plant, though the still standing engine house is from about 1911. The depression ended iron production in both Hokendauqua and Catasauqua.

If interested I could post some of my pictures of those ruins, but here are some good ones somebody else posted:
http://news.webshots.com/album/559539867EykOaf

There are some great pictures of the Hokendaqua plant, before being torn down for scrap here:
http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/cdm4/beyond_viewer.php?DMTHUMB=1&searchworks=cat10&ptr=010737

A 1904 history book about the Thomas Iron Company can be found here:
http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/cdm4/beyond_viewer.php?DMTHUMB=1&searchworks=cat10&ptr=5685

Although I only set up a small model railroad at Christmas, I signed up to this forum to thank all the contributors for their work concerning this important historical site. That power house in Alabama may be the oldest intact buildings constructed by the family that ushered in America's industrial revolution!

Hi Keith!

The Pennsylvania connection is facinating. Even the company town here in Birmingham is modeled after Hokendauqua, PA. Much of it still exists today. I can take you to the site of the company's ore mine, the Thomas mine (later the Pioneer Mine and finally, the Spaulding Mine). It closed in 1955.

What a facinating history! The fact that we may have the only standing industrial building connected to the original Thomas family is awesome.

Thanks for the background info.

 

[Spitfire]

Hi Rex and Willis - thanks for the kind comments and the warm welcome.

cheers
Val

 

[WCWBrassHat]

Val,

I'm still lurking here on the forum. To be sure what products were producted in that building, we may have to con Grandeman in to going out to the site and chasing the piping. LOL. I have a flow sheet for a by-products plant that he could use.

What specific questions do you have?

Glenn

 

[Spitfire]

Hi Glenn

Thanks for posting!

I have some excellent reference from the HABS/HAER site, including a diagram that identifies many of the tanks in front of the benzol plant. I'm not sure about posting any of the HABS photos here, as there may be copyright issues, but if you go to that site, photo 119 gives a good overview of the tanks and stills, as does the diagram Benzol Plant 1952.

The diagram identifies the two tallest tanks as the wash oil still and the light oil rectifier, but the others are a mystery.

If you don't mind I'll use a couple of your photo's to explain which ones I'm trying to identify.

What is the short tank in the foreground of the above photo?

What is the tank up on the platform with the safety cage ladder?

In addition there's a smaller tank between the 2 tall ones that appears to be wrapped in asbestos, and another 2 to the right of the light oil rectifier.

If you know what these are, or can easily find out, that would be great. Otherwise, please don't go to a whole lot of trouble on my account. Having already been forced to make some departures from a true scale model, I am leaning towards faking some of the pipe work. (For example on my model there's no room between my wash oil still and light oil rectifier, whereas on the prototype that's where the asbestos covered tank goes)

Anyway, as i say, please don't go to a lot of trouble. Educated guesses are most welcome.

cheers
Val

 

[WCWBrassHat]

Val,

I can't tell from the pictures the order the tanks are connected. Looking at a flow diagram for a benzol plant the tank flow is as follows:

Light oil reflux separator - a skinny medium height tank
Light oil rectifier - medium diameter medium height tank
Secondary Light oil separator - medium diamter short height tank
light oil condenser
vapor to oil heat exchanger
final heater
Primary light oil separator - medium diameter short height tank
wash oil still - tallest tank
wash oil purifier - medium diameter short height tank

The brick building is probably the sulphate plant. Ships sulphate in box cars.

Hope this helps. The sulphate went into ferilizer. I use to share a bag with my supervisor each year to green up my grass in the spring.

Glenn

 

[Spitfire]

Dear Glenn

My apologies for the delayed response. I've been tied up with a million other things. Thank you for your help. I am now waiting for Plastruct parts, and I think I have a pretty good idea now how to connect everything up. Good enough for a model anyway!

cheers
Val