The Clairton Works made coke. That would explain why there are such huge coal piles here and why there are no coal piles at the other US Steel Works along the Monongahela River such as the Thomson Works. It is the largest coke manufacturing facility in the United States. [US Steel-clairton] If I correctly interpret Mike Cieslak's comment below ("Kinda miss #2 at Gary I used to run the charge car. Now I burn your rocks and make Satan’s soup."), the US Steel Gary Works used to make their own coke but now their coke is shipped from the Clairton Works.
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| JaQuay Edward Carter posted U.S. STEEL'S CLAIRTON COKE WORKS Clairton's existence dates to just after the turn of the 20th century when the Crucible Steel Company acquired a large tract along the west side of the Monongahela River, about 13 miles south of Pittsburgh. Soon after, the Carnegie Steel Company (later U.S. Steel) built an integrated steel mill and coke production facility, becoming one of the world's largest. Kevin Zeik: We actually had a blast furnace at this location that converted manganese ore using coke. Richard Allison: Kevin Zeik Making ferro-mag in blast furnaces when it is getting old because hard on the furnace linings. They did the same at USS-Ensley in Birmingham before they planned to shut them down. Jf Hull: Still there coking, 10 batteries strong, finishing mill buildings stand, but storage...mills sold to china. Ian Hapsias: Jf Hull soon to be 6. Sammy Maida: I dont think Ive ever seen pics of the hot side. James Ujevich: Sammy Maida the 3 structural rolling mills and the beam yard were shut down in 84. Blast furnaces in the 60s I guess. They were still standing when I was really young. Semi-finished steel shapes rolled in from USS Duquesne Works until shutdown. |
Before the coke works were built, this location used to be the St Claire Works.
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| Phil Jadlowiec posted Mills along the Monongahela 1938 Bill Brown: Clairton once had 4 blast furnaces, 12 open hearth furnaces and a blooming mill. 3 of the 4 blast furnaces, all of the open hearth furnaces and the blooming mill were shut down in 1962, then demolished in 1964. One blast furnace was kept, rebuilt and idled in 1971. The 14 inch rolling mill was abandoned in 1977, and the final blast furnace demolished in 1978. [HAER for the blowing engines] |
Another photo from back in the blast furnace days.
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| David Arnfield posted US Steel Corporation blast furnace engine room Clairton works Clairton Allegheny County PA Arron Kotlensky: The USS Clairton steel plant had at least three blast furnaces as of 1915 and I think there were plans to add a fourth furnace but never materialized. See the Sanborn map here: https://digital.libraries.psu.edu/.../maps1/id/6388/rec/2 |
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| 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻: 𝗣𝗲𝗻𝗻𝘀𝘆𝗹𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗮 posted Clairton Blast Furnance • Circa early 1900s! #rememberwhenPA CR: PowerLibrary |
Johnny Ledwich posted two photos with the comment: "I got this pic from my union hall it is the Clariton Coke Works taken in 1969. At the time it was the largest coke mill in the world with 20 running coke batteries."
William Roper Jr.: Pretty sure I see “B” battery in the second picture. It came on line in 1982. The first one overlooking the tar plant seems correct to that time frame.
James Hosfield: B and 12A are both present, that puts it between 1982 and 1989 if memory serves.
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| 2 Ray Schloss: Wow all them coal barges on the Monongahela! |
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| Jackson-Township historical preservation posted U. S. Steel works in the city of Clairton, Allegheny County in 1974. |
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| Steve Pierce commented on the above post Jul 2024 |
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| Jackson-Township historical preservation posted Carnegie-Illinois Steel Mill on the Monongahela River in Clairton, Allegheny County in the 1940s. George T. Ocilka: That is a rendering of the USS Clairton Coke works. there is over 5 miles of conveyor belts in that picture. |
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| Thomas Delegram posted A unique and enlightening night time photo of the U S Steel's Clairton Coke Works! In the lower right side you will see the escaping flame from when one of the coke oven's door is opened in the coke oven battery. After the flame appears there is a "boom" that can be heard several seconds later. The coke oven batteries are clearly visible with their associated piping on top of each oven. These batteries are on the city side of the plant, there are more batteries on the opposite or Monongahela River side of the plant. Their is a certain beauty to industrial plants, especially when lit up at night. Matthew Peart: Battery up front (as seen here) is 19 Battery, I work on the one near the river(B battery) the ovens get lit off before the doors are pulled but sometimes the rush if cold oxygen will make the flame temporary get big, and the flames wil get intense as the pusher ram goes through the oven because the ram head as air nozzles on it that blow cold are in the oven to knock of any carbon in it. Brant Billy: The building off in the back is the 2nd Unit Surge Bin building. It houses the 4 bins that hold coal which get sent to 13-15 and 19-20 batteries. Above the surge bins is the Shuttle Floor. Coal is sent to the shuttle floor from the barges then distributed into each bin. Shane Harper: When the oven is ready for pushing, the 'liquor' supply to the standpipe is turned off and the standpipe lid is pushed open allowing the small amount of gasses to escape. One of oven lids is then cracked open allowing air into the oven and up the standpipe, igniting the gasses, resulting in the satisfying boom! Get the trainee to do this, lol....! Thomas Delegram posted with the same comment Francis Hull: 19-20 batteries, the flame is from the oven "standpipe", not the doors, doors are on the sides, pusher and coke, the top holes are standpipes and charging holes |
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| Raymond Boothe posted This is an aerial view of the USS Clairton Coke Works in Clairton, Pennsylvania. It is the last of the company's coke works and serves only the Gary and ET Works. Additional batteries of this plant will be demolished starting next year as the Pennsylvania EPA and USS have made agreements for reducing the carbon impact of this plant. Raymond Boothe posted This is an aerial view of the USS Clairton Coke Works. This is the last of US Steels' mighty coke empire. This plant serves the Gary and E.T. Works. The Granite City Works is served by a new coke plant built by SunCoke Energy (Dr. Raymond Boothe collection). |
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| Bob Clementi posted Aerial of Clairton Works, 1980’s or earlier. Irvin, McKeesport, and Duquesne Works in the background. Michael Hankinson: Isn't Braddock between McKeesport & Duquesne? Bob Clementi: Michael Hankinson yep ET in the photo as well. Homestead and mesta might even be there in the haze. Steve Haynes: A lot of the smog in the Mon Valley was partially caused by the practice by USS of quenching coke with effluent liquids that included pickling acids and other waste water. That’s why the hills across the Mon River were barren, no foliage could grow down wind of the quenching towers. All changed now. Meyer Gray: Duquesne and National Tube in McKeesport both closed in the early 80s, so it must be from the late 70s |
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| Group participant posted Overviews of Irvin and Clairton. 12 x 48 |
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| Mike Lovett posted US Steel Clairton's Coal gantry crane back in the day, Unknown date but before the 50's. Randy Hoke Has to be early 50's if not earlier. I believe the crane collapsed in 52'. I have the newspaper article scanned somewhere but you could probably Google it too. |
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| Ian Hapsias posted Former J&L Steel towboat Aliquippa passes by the US Steel Clairton Coke Works on the Monongahela River at Clairton, PA. Bud Osbourne: J&L Steel did not build this towboat. She was built FOR J&L Steel by St. Louis Ship and was one of three identical towboats built for them by St. Louis Ship. The other two were the Titan and the Vulcan. Dave Haught: Josh Crosbie the flag painted on the back of the boiler house was just done last fall. |
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| Nick Markowitze Jr. shared A hot afternoon view of the US Steel Mon Valley Works Clairton coke plant. |
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| Fort Frick Photography posted Back to the Clairton Coke Works, although I have some other city photos I'll be getting to soon. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jeff Bowser shared |
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| Randy hoke commented on Mike's post It's a little hard to read but the paper is dated Feb 21, 1952 but the incident happened Feb 11 during a snowstorm. |
They still have some coal piles on the north side of the works, but it looks like they try to unload barges directly onto conveyors that will take the coal to the coke ovens. The coal piles would be needed in the winter when the river is frozen.
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| US Steel-clairton |
While studying the steel mills in the Chicago area, I have learned that the coke making facility in a mill is the part that generates the most pollution and is the hardest part to cleanup for reuse. In fact, some of the land is still vacant such as the Interlake/Acme coke plant. Pollution generated by coke production explains why so many of the Google search results are about law suit settlements and fines. It is amazing how a corporation at least gives lip service to safety and environment protection after they have been punished. [US Steel-environment]
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| bobscaping, Oct 2019 |
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| Evan Wright posted US Steel Clairton Coke Works. Clairton, PA Photo credit Chris Litherland Photography |
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| Phil Jadlowiec posted Clairton Coke Year unknown Richard Kudrik: Guess old P&lE George Sivak: The air, filled with pollutants, was, at one point deemed the dirtiest air in the world. Please read it again, the world. Right there in Clairton,PA. A vegetated hillside directly across the river had all vegetation killed by the discharges of chemicals from the plant. Look it up. At one time, I lived in Port Vue and in the complex were 2 US Steel employees who owned a boat. They would ride on the river on Saturday and Sunday. Coming back the boat had oil, grease, and other residue all over! Yet you swam their years ago. As a boy we went in the river across from the Donora, US Steel plant. A few barges past and we were covered with bits of tars like substance. Retreated to my cousins house to use gasoline to clean off all the yuck on us. Last time we did that! Dave Brown: The Hillside was bare for years USS cleaned up Air ...LAst time worked there Hillside was covered with Vegetation..2004.. Robby Beck posted in the "Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Interest Group" Wylie, Pa Kenny Fitne: That is clairton Coke plant most of the stacks are gone now. We have 6 operating batteries left the stacks closest are 7-9 and farther back are 1-3 which shut down last year. |
Thomas Delegram posted two photos with the comment: "I wanted to show U S Steel's Clairton Coke Plant working at near capacity. It was more demanding of my patience than I thought. Many an evening I awaited for the three quenching towers to be working in unison. As I observed they are all on a different production schedule and many a night all three were not working together, it was like playing poker. These images were the result of many evening trips to the vantage point and sitting on a camping stool with cheeseburgers & tea. This is the largest Coke Plant in the United States! I thought you might appreciate two different views. Enjoy"
Thomas Delegram posted posted with a similar comment
Christopher Ferrington: There are 4 towers in operation. B, C, 13 14, and 19 20.
Don Hutch German: Well, the air and water must not be too bad, they had peregrine falcons nesting on quench tower past three years and of course our nesting pair of Bald Eagles (Irvin and Claire) living 1.2 miles away at the Irvin Plant. Great photo and great job to the men and woman at Clairton for doing such an incredible job with the environment. You are the heartbeat of the Mon Valley.
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| Manuel Canamero Rueda posted Joe Chiodo The ACHD would go nuts if USS CLAIRTON would push coke without using the emission hood. |
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| Robert Henry posted Here's the topside of B-Battery at Clairton Coke Works. Kinda miss #2 at Gary I used to run the charge car. Now I burn your rocks and make Satan’s soup. How many batteries do u have ? Antonio Van de Walle 10 batteriesCareful with posting in the plant pics, if the wrong person sees this you will get 5 days off..... I know from experience lol [So I guess I won't complain about him not turning his phone 90 degrees.] Remember people wearing wooden shoes during the summer on top of ovens. That brings back memories worked coke plant 1978 to 1990 in Cleveland Ohio. [I wonder if they now get their coke from Clairton. Or if the works even still exists. I did find two blast furnaces with a conveyor across the river to buildings next to coal piles. But I don't know if this is US Steel. Google Map labels it "WTW 5&6."] |
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| Lou Hunyady posted Coal barge unloader We have 2 unloader machines. They go thru a full barge in no time. [With all of those buckets on chains, it looks like a scaled up elevator leg.] |
Some comments on a post:
Thomas Borek: We, at Clairton, supply Gary. Even with transportation, more cost effective. Also, had a partnership with another steel mill and coke plant for logistical reasons.
Richard Allison: USS has made a huge mistake investing in that big battery at Clairton. They messed up at coke plant at Gary and decided to feed all their BFs except for Granite City from Clairton. Now Clairton is having huge problems with the county health department over emissions. They have been fighting the health department for years but the pressure for USS to comply with regulations is more serious than in the past and with the lay of the land and the coke ovens in the Mon Valley traps these emissions with temperature inversions that trap pollutants in the valley and nearby towns. Coke oven gas is being sent to ET Works to heat BF stoves, power house and process steam, and also sends coke oven gas to Irvin to power walking beam furnaces, process steam and etc. I would not be surprised USS is selling steam or gas to outside customers too. If Clairton is threatened to close, it would be the end of Mon Valley Works and force Gary to find another coke supplier such as Sun Coke or coke on the open market. Clairton is like having your eggs in one basket.
Richard Allison: That is not the only coke scheme USS screwed up but there is an ongoing screw up in Clairton Works right now where they are in a bad way with the people of Clairton, County Health Department and others from closing it down and where the entire Mon Valley is dependent on coke oven gas. There was another screw up USS did in coke and it was at Fairfield Works. They built a 6 meter Carl Still coke battery that was to have no charging car on the top of the battery. Pulverized coal was to be piped into the ovens with a pipe at the top of the ovens. It was innovative but a disaster like Carbonix at Gary. USS-Research hired us (company I worked with) to do an investigation of what was the failure of the coke battery. We took apart some of the hot ovens from the top and eventually found the failure and there was no fix so the gas was shut off on a completely new coke battery and naturally the old ovens were shut down for the new battery.
Chad Allan Bercosky posted two photos with the comment: "USS Clairton Works blast furnace 1974. My late uncle Bernard retired from Clairton Works as a electrician in 1995 with 32 years of service."
Ian Hapsias: Clairton once had 4 blast furnaces, 12 open hearth furnaces and a blooming mill.
3 of the 4 blast furnaces, all of the open hearth furnaces and the blooming mill were shut down in 1962, then demolished in 1964.
One blast furnace was kept, rebuilt and idled in 1971. The 14 inch rolling mill was abandoned in 1977, and the final blast furnace demolished in 1978.
Richard Allison: One thing is for sure is USS has experience in tearing down blast furnaces.
[There is some debate in the comments if one or more of this phots are of Duquesne furnaces.]
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| Paul Jasinski posted, cropped Clairton didn’t look happy this [Jul 4, 2022] am.. I’ve never noticed this many flares burning at one time. Definitely an eerie sight. Doug Craig: No power for control room to suction gas, gas has to go somewhere so they flare. Nicholas Bernhardy: Control room had a loss of power due to the power company. Anthony Bellisario: Large power outage. Matthew Peters: USS Lorain Works whiz kids took out all of the emergency backup systems. The first time we experienced a power outage, our blast furnace burden fell into the tuyeres. Nick Snyder: They lost power at all three Mon Valley plants. [That indeed was a large power outage.] |
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| Tom Knight Jr. commented on Paul's post I've been through several of those at Burns Harbor plant. This is typical of a power loss. It gets very eerie when it's gets quiet around here. |
Looking downstream:
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| Rick Arnold posted U.S. Steel’s Clairton Pennsylvania Plant David Farbacher: That’s a fairly recent picture, T1 tanks has its new top on. Rick Arnold: David this picture was from today [Dec 30, 2022]. Ian Hapsias: 1,2,3 batteries shut down end of March. 15 battery is pretty much done for too. Leaves 13,14,19,20, B and C batteries left after that. |
Looking upstream:
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| bobscaping, Oct 2019 |
Tom Wilson posted two photos with the comment: "Coal destocking pile at USS Clairton Works, They would take coal from coal pile and reload the barges then bring them up to the hoist or barge unloader to be sent up to the batteries."
[This facility goes rail and stored coal to barge. But how do they get coal into storage?]
John Keating: Wow, lots of double handling. That’s a killer to the cost book.
Tom Wilson: The coal pile was used when miners went on vacation, or coal strikes, or problem getting coal due to the river.
James Torgeson shared
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| 2 Car shaker and ramp to unload coal hoppers. |
They have multiple barge unloaders along the plant and an extensive conveyor system. But I don't see a conveyor going from here to the storage piles.
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| 3D Satellite |
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| Fort Frick Photography posted Early morning at the Clairton Coke Works. I have a ton of photos still to sort through from my last two visits (including some that have potential to be among my favorites I've taken there). This one was easy to review as I only took a small handful from this angle, and liked how it came out, on this particular morning a few weeks ago. I subsequently decided to move spots, only to end up returning later in the morning. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Prints: www.fortfrickphotography.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jeff Bowser shared Sean Flanigan: Take them while she is still running. |
(new window) Clairton Works starts at 0:32
Jick Lionti posted 23 photos.
"Question for you guys what is in the green pipes? And what on the barges in the water?"
Kim Beveridge: Coke oven gas is in the green pipes. It goes to Edgar Thompson and Irvin plants to supply them with gas. That's coal in those barges. I work there..
Nathan Gower: Coke oven gas which primarily feeds the blast furnaces(Edgar Thomson works), the reheat process on the rolling mill (Irvin works), and a bunch of auxiliary purposes.
John Groves posted a long history with 6 photos.
7 photos of the iron works and there are more in the comments
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