Abandoned Steel Mill, Gadsden Works

[grande man]

Originally Posted by WCWBrassHat

Eric,

Great pictures!

The locomotives may have been brought in after the mill closed as the smallest locomotives on the property when I left in '86 were either 65 or 80 tons and there were only 2 or 3 of them.

Also you have a couple of photos labeled "Open Hearth building". The shots with a building with some sheet metal on the walls is either the mold shed or the stripper building. The mold shed prepared the ingot molds to be poured in the BOF shop. The stripper building removed the molds from the ingots. The ingots were then transferred down to the Blooming Mill were the were loaded into the soaking pits to reheat them.

The Bolt & Nut buildings were not originally warehouse space but were the mill buildings. All of the original machinery in the buildings was powered by overhead shafts. I never saw any of the original machines, but would occasionally walk thru the buildings enroute to the operating mills and marvel at the overhead shafts and wonder what it was like in the "day".

You had a photo of a large building which you didn't have a comment on. I think was the Plate Mill. If I'm correct it was at the east end of the plant and your shot was to the south.

I'll try to check the thread a couple of times a day over the weekend in case there are any questions that I can answer.

Thanks for the trip down "Memory Lane".

Glenn

Hey Glenn!

For those of you that don't know, Glenn worked as an Industrial Engineer at the Gadsden Works.

Here is a satellite view with some of the buildings I shot and sites for demolished buildings labeled per my 1950s plant map. Obviously, there were many changes made over the years. For instance, the plate mill and hot strip are shown in the same building. A rod mill that doesn't exist today is shown on the 50s map. There are late drawings of the plant on site. Maybe I need to go back and get a closer look at them. Is the building shown as the plate mill correctly labeled? Thanks.

[grande man]

Originally Posted by Burlington Bob

By grande man:

I live in an area that has been hard hit in the last 30 years as far as manufacturing and mining are concerned. What used to be a thriving area is home to six coal mines that have been closed (one of which I worked at until 1983) and many factories both large and small. If you are to have a good paying job, it usually means that you will be driving about 60 miles one way. The bottom fell out of our real estate market back in the 80's and has yet to recover. Sad indeed.

Yep, I know what you mean. As you might expect, Birmingham and Gadsden are very different places today as well.

It is interesting that you mentioned coal mining because that is an industry that highlights another modern phenomena. Technology has maintained production levels with just a few mines and light employee roles replacing hundreds of mines and thousands of employees of yesteryear. During 2010, Alabama coal production was about 20 million tons. This was done with a handful of mines and approx 4600 total employees. In 1925 we had hundreds of mines and thousands of men mining coal. Guess what the annual production was? You guessed it, about 20 million tons. As you know, one continuous miner can dig about 5 tons/minute in optimal conditions. A longwall machine, now that is another level altogether. Contrast either to men with breast augers and picks...

Production technology has had a similar effect. During the Civil War our local blast furnaces (on red ore) like Oxmoor and Irondale produced 6-7 tons of pig iron per day. Over at USS Fairfield the state's last operational blast furnace (there used to be over 40) currently produces 6500 tons of basic iron per day for the steel mill. That is the equivalent of 1000 Civil War furnaces!

If you visit the hot side at Fairfield you'll see very few people there. A handful of men in control rooms and a few on the floor replaced thousands of employees from just a few years ago. Innovations like continuous casting machines streamlined production with far fewer labor hours needed.

The point I am trying to make is that many times our output is still relatively high but the job numbers aren't there. Add in environmental regulations/red tape, labor disputes, greedy management and cheap foreign product and next thing you know we're producing 1/10 the steel of the Chinese. Its sad.

[railfan]

My step brother Dan worked in a giant steel mill in youngstown ohio. He gave me a tour of the mill one day I'll never forget. It began where they melted crushed cubes of old cars in large ceramic crucibles which they fed into a molten creek of flowing liquid metal.....they added alloys to and it became more solid but still white hot as it flowed and moved though the plant. Eventually it was cut into long ingots that were spun and first made into rods....then became seamless well casing.....and finally threads were cut onto the pipe sections in another building. It was almost frightening to be in there because there were hazards everywhere. I think it was called a continuous something mill.


Mike

[WCWBrassHat]

Eric,

You have the Plate Mill correctly identified. The building directly north of the Plate Mill was the Trusscon building. I understand they originally built trusses in the building. In my time (76 to 86), it was the Plate Mill warehouse annex. They did rework and heat treating in the building.

The building area connecting the Plate Mill and the Hot Strip Mill was the Pipe Mill. It wasn't running anymore in '76. Continueing West of the Hot Strip Mill was the Cold Strip Mill. The HCL Pickle Line was in the building running to the south. Coils of Hot rolled steel were brought into the south end of the Pickle Line and exited in the East/West building. Just to the west of the pickle line was the 2Hi Hot Temper Mill and the Hot Slitter. The next area running to the north was the Tandem Mill. The next bay to the west was the annealing area. The 3rd north south bay was the 4Hi Temper mill. The galvanizing line, cold slitter, and warehouse areas were further to the west. It looks like some of the buildings may have been torn down or added to.

Glenn

[grande man]

Thanks Glenn.

Can you give me some background on the 2Hi hot temper and 4Hi temper mills? I kept seeing manuals labeled as such on shelves but the 2Hi and 4Hi terms are new to me.

[WCWBrassHat]

The temper mills were to add temper to the steel and also improve the gauge and finish quality. The 2Hi and 4Hi refer to the number of mill rolls in the mill stand.

Glenn

[WCWBrassHat]

Eric,

I found an old aereal view in my collection. Thought you might enjoy.

Glenn

[grande man]

Originally Posted by WCWBrassHat

Eric,

I found an old aereal view in my collection. Thought you might enjoy.

Glenn

Hey Glenn,

That is a great shot. Obviously it was after the open hearth days. Any idea when the BOF went online? Thanks for the info on the temper mills.

[WCWBrassHat]

Eric,

I don't remember hearing when they went on line. The electric furnaces were off line by '76. I'm not sure if they were still there. I never spent much time in the BOF shop. I never got comfortable there so didn't want to spend time there. Spent a lot of time at the Blast Furnace, Plate Mill, and Cold Mill.

Found something for your next trip to the Thomas plant.

Glenn

[grande man]

Thanks Glenn.

Great layout view of the Thomas plant. The trip we took over there a few years back was fun. We should get together and go to Gadsden someday.