You know the old saying that there's a prototype for everything? Well, I ran into something interesting while looking about on Google Earth. I used to work at US Steel's Fairless Works plant in Pennsy (I live across the river in Trenton, NJ). Got curious as to how things looked at the old plant so started looking in Google Earth. Lo and behold I found what look like a couple of pre-fab turnouts (a left and a right hand) sitting on a concrete pad. Remember that this is for a 1:1 standard gauge railroad. Take a look at these co-ordinates in GE (I'm assuming there's some way to punch in latitude & longitude): 40 degrees 09'08.21" North and 74 deg 45'20.14" West The image date GE shows is September 20, 2010.
What was amazing for me looking at the images is what all is gone - the whole hot side is no more, and if you didn't know what was there you wouldn't be any the wiser. No more coke works, open hearth, all 3 blast furnaces are gone. There's still what looks like some of the rolling mill buildings left though. Spent 2 years in coke works and 2 years in the billet & bar rolling mill. My late dad worked there 30 years from when the plant opened until he retired at age 55 (with full benefits) having accumulated enough points to retire.
What was amazing for me looking at the images is what all is gone - the whole hot side is no more, and if you didn't know what was there you wouldn't be any the wiser. No more coke works, open hearth, all 3 blast furnaces are gone. There's still what looks like some of the rolling mill buildings left though. Spent 2 years in coke works and 2 years in the billet & bar rolling mill. My late dad worked there 30 years from when the plant opened until he retired at age 55 (with full benefits) having accumulated enough points to retire.
