Hammond, IN: and East Chicago, IN: Amsted Rail/American Steel Foundries

Hammond: (Satellite, also Amsted Rail)

East Chicago: (Satellite, it was between the IHB tracks and Dickey Road)

American Steel Foundries (ASF) was incorporated in 1902 as the merger of several steel companies operating eight plants. The Chicago area company was Sargent Steel, which started with a plant in Englewood. Having outgrown the Englewood plant, "ASF built a huge new casting facility at Indiana Harbor" In 1905, ASF merged with Simplex Railway Appliance Co. of Hammond, IN, to get its management. The Simplex president, William V. Kelly, was put in charge of ASF and moved the headquarters from New York to Chicago to be closer to its railroad market. In 1942, ASF built a new plant in East Chicago to build war material such as "tank parts and vessels for the atomic bomb program....By 1945 ASF had poured 200,000 tons of cast armor--26 percent of the country's total output during World War II." To reflect their diversification after WWII, in 1962 they changed their name to Amsted to stand for American Steel (AMS) and Transportation Equipment Division (TED). [FundingUniverse] I have not been able to determine where the war material plant was. And more than one of the plants may have produced cast armor. (A lot of the armor on battleships was 12" thick, and some of it was 17" thick. I still can't figure out how it was made and assembled into ships.)

This history explains why ASF had more than one plant in the Calumet Region. I presume this ASF plant in Hammond was the Simplex Railway Appliance Co. site. 

Street View

This 1925 industries map shows where the greenfield replacement for the Sargent plant was built. In fact, noticing "American Steel Foundries" on this map is what motivated these notes. I spotted that name on the map just hours after I had added ASF information to my Alliance, OH, notes.

IndianaHistory (source)

In 1912, "the company had begun a special effort to help design and test railroad couplers. Previously, foundries such as ASF were asked simply to manufacture to a customer's specifications. But by helping clients to improve their designs, the company developed a superior product." [FundingUniverse] Testing continues to be an important part of  its product offerings.

Screenshot via AmstedRail