Sunday, January 31, 2021

Red Wing, MN: ADM Flax and Canola Processing Facility

(Satellite)

This photo caught my eye because it shows the old bridge before the new one obstructed its view. But then I noticed that the grain elevator supported some sort of processing plant.
Tom Brown posted, cropped
A rare visit by American Queen and American Duchess at Red Wing.

I saved this satellite excerpt because it shows that they use barges as well as rail for transport. I think they use the hopper unloader to transload to barges as well as to supply the plant. Note the red industrial locomotive parked southwest of the unloading building. I wonder if it is a Whitcomb locomotive.
Satellite

This grain processing plant looked different than the ones I normally see. So I dug deeper. I determined that this plant processes flax and canola. [ADM (flax is a source of omega-3 fatty acids)] That would explain the small cut of hopper cars. Unlike corn and soybeans, the volume of those crops probably does not justify unit trains.
Street View

Ted Peterson, Jul 2019



Saturday, January 30, 2021

Fort Wayne, IN: Magnavox Buildings

(Street View, heavily remodeled by Philips Dodge; 3D Satellite)

Donald Brockhaus posted
Donald Brockhaus This was on S. Coliseum Blvd. (a.k.a. Bueter Rd.), just South of New Haven Ave. To the South of this building was Zollners and then IH. And to the East of this building was the IH Scout plant.
Darrell Botts Actually Bob, Magnavox moved out of Plant 1 in the early 80's , not the 90's. I started there in 1979 at plant 1 and was there less than 3 years before we moved out to Industial Park off of Lima Rd (The Tech Center) and the EW1 lab was one of the last to move because a pipe broke at the Tech Center and they had to redo our lab before we could move in :)
Dennis DeBruler Thanks for the location information. I had a summer job there in 1969, but I could not remember where this building was. I did programming for the defense part of the company. One of the first things they explained to me was that there were parts of the building I should never go into. At the end of the summer, they asked me to come back the next summer. But in the Spring of 1970 they informed me that they did not have a summer job for me because of the recession.

Bob Zimmerman Sequence of name changes:
The Magnavox Company (Commercial & Govt)
1974: N.V.Philips buys Magnavox Co.
Magnavox for commercial
Magnavox Government & Industrial Electronics Company (Govt aka MAGIEC)
1994: N.V. Philips sells MAGIEC to Carlyle
Magnavox Systems Company
Magnavox Electronic Systems Company
1996 Carlyle sells to Hughes Company
named Hughes Defense Communications
1998 Hughes merges with Raytheon
Raytheon Electronics Company
current name: Raytheon Co.

Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana also posted this photo

Allen County News shared a post
Greg Starr I worked there until they moved Consumer Products to 14 and 69.

Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted
1960's Magnavox Fort Wayne plant,

Wil Babcock posted
My sister worked for Maganox as a secretary in the R&D department. In the 50’s they made this HiFi radio, record player for her to be given to our father as a gift. Being built to order it was unique. I grew up with it and played my first Beatle album on it. I had it for years and in 2015 I donated to the Magnavox Museum. I tried to donate locally but could not get any movement.


Starting at 11:20, this video talks about Magnavox. They had several firsts including the stereophonic record player, the first transistor radio and the first gaming console.



Friday, January 29, 2021

Nashville, TN: 1900 Union Station

(HAER3D Satellite)

This depot served the L&N and Nashville, Chattanooga &St. Louis.

(Update: there are several photos of this station in a Nashville Railroad Album. There is a 1952 topo map that includes the yard for this station in NC&StL Railyards.)

HABS TENN,19-NASH,19--1

1. north side and west front - Union Station, 1001 Broadway, Nashville, Davidson County, TN

 
Ralph Mitchell added
Johnny Oneal shared

In the lower-right corner is a good view of the train shed.
Linda J. Bordenave posted
Joe 'Sonny' Long shared
From another Facebook group.  Please delete if this is a duplicate.
Ca. January 1961, Looking north.
David Jones: What city is this? What Facebook group did it come from?
Dennis DeBruler: David Jones If you click the photo and then the "View post" link near the upper-right corner, you will see that it came from the Nashville History and Memories group.

Jim Pearson Photography posted
Southbound Intermodal at Nashville, Tennessee
CSX Q025-20 approaches Kayne Avenue, as it passes the old L&N Depot in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, on its way south on the Nashville Terminal Subdivision on January 20th, 2021.
Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 24-70 @70mm f/4, 1/1250, ISO 400.
Had a biz trip there once. Sat in my car waiting for some traffic to flow by to take pictures reading a newspaper.
I could see the homeless in the train shed move about.
A CSX employee comes by and tells me to get off the property, I complied.
I returned to NY and read how the train shed was burned down.
Just maybe that employee should have paid more attention to the train shed activity.
The old train station in the background is a boutique hotel now...absolutely gorgeous inside!! 
Colleen Hayden
 Yep, I've stayed the night there before.
Jim Pearson Photography
 Thanks for including the former depot in the shot. It is always nice to learn of another depot that has been preserved. Any interior shots from your stay?

historic-structures

3D Satellite

HABS TENN,19-NASH,19--11

11. Interior, general view - Union Station, 1001 Broadway, Nashville, Davidson County, TN


HABS TENN,19-NASH,19--16

16. Train shed from west


HABS TENN,19-NASH,19--17

17. Train shed interior, looking east


HABS TENN,19-NASH,19--18

18. Train shed, detail of trusses



Ron Flanary posted
From the L&N Railroad Historical Society archives: This is an early '60s image of a southbound solid automobile rack train passing Nashville Union Station. Could you imagine carrying new autos in the open like this today? By the time they reached their destination, nothing would be left but the frames and owner's manuals.
Bob Freitag shared

Was this L&N or NC&StL?
C-DIG-stereo-1s02803

Digitally Zoomed

Ralph Mitchell added







Thursday, January 28, 2021

Buffalo, NY: Donner-Hanna Coke Corp.

(Satellite)

Donner-Hanna Coke was owned by National Steel and Republic Steel and supplied their Buffalo plants. I could not find a decent photo of the coke ovens.

I got the location of the plant from the comment on this post.
Steel Plant Museum of Western New York posted
Today we are sharing an aerial photo of Republic Steel. Near the bend in the Buffalo River you will notice both the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) shop in operation as well as the new ore bridge, both added in the early 1970's. The Donner-Hanna Coke Plant is at the upper right corner. This site is now home to the Tesla/Solar City complex.

James Cavanaugh Photography posted
From My Archives. A 1983 view of the long gone Republic Steel Plant in Buffalo, NY.
Jim Conlin: And DONNER HANNA COKE. I was the Fire Marshal there in a previous life, so long ago.
Bubba Dubs: This was the coke plant of Donner Steel (Original name of Republic) and Hanna Furnace company, a joint venture. The Union slip was the iron making facility and this was the coke plant. This also supplied Republic once they purchased it.
The Republic facility was originally New York State steel, then became Donner steel, finally Republic.
Jim ConlinHanna Furnace was near Bethlehem Steel. They were owned by National Steel. Donner Hanna Coke was a joint venture owned by Republic Steel and National Steel. They were located on Abby and Mystic Streets right near Republic Steel.
Bubba Dubs shared
Another Jim Cavanaugh photograph. 1983 photo of Donner Hanna Coke and Republic Steel Buffalo NY.
Michael Maitland: Wow - thanks for this great photo (more if you have them) The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western's passenger main line cuts right through the Republic plant, crosses the black bridge to their downtown station. Route of the crack passenger train the "Phoebe Snow" Buffalo to Hoboken (Ferry to NYC).
James Torgeson: Michael Maitland Right! In this view, Republic has removed the City Branch embankment that once divided the plant. It purchased the ROW from Conrail.

I include Republic Steel in this topo excerpt so that you can see the bends in the river and determine the overall location. Note the circle marked Gas on the east side of the coke plant. That would be the gas holder. When making steel, gas is a byproduct. In other towns, before electricity, they would have a plant to make gas and coke was the byproduct. For example, the gas plant in Fort Wayne, IN, was on the north side of the downtown. I know that at least some steel plants burned the gas to heat the ovens. I wonder if gas plants burned the coke to heat the ovens. I also noticed on the map that there are two roundhouses.
1948 Buffalo SE Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

I learned from studying Chicago steel plants that steel plants pollute the land, but coke plants were much worse. That explains why so much of the results of a Google search concerns law suits and superfunds.

James Torgeson posted four images with the comment: "The Donner-Hanna Coke Corp. Coke Breeze newsletter from November 1938. Donner-Hanna closed in 1982 when the Buffalo plants of its two owners, National Steel and Republic Steel, also closed."
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Digitally Zoomed

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Will Jamison posted
Since we're on Donner Hannah Coke here's one from Jim Kinkaids collection on Smugmug.

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Buffalo, NY: 1899 National Steel/Hanna Furnace/Buffalo and Susquehanna Iron

(Satellite, on the south side of the canal built for this plant)

Note that if you click the thumbnails near the top of this history, you can scroll through larger images.

Steel Plant Museum of Western New York posted
This image is from the Hanna Furnace Corporation, see it on display in our exhibit "The Steel Crisis! The Decline of Buffalo's Steel Industry."
Just to clarify, Hanna Furnace only made pig iron and Donner-Hanna was a coke plant behind and half owned by Republic Steel.
They sold to many customers nationwide. One of their big local accounts was the Chevrolet Foundry in Tonawanda.
Hanna was on the south side of the Union Ship Canal, east northeast of Bethlehem Lackawanna. A park is there now.

Photo via hmdb
Established in the early 1900s and productive until its closing in 1982; Hanna Furnace was Buffalo's lucrative pig iron manufacturer employing 800 and producing over 3,000 tons of pig iron per day
The term "pig iron" arose from the old method of casting blast furnace iron into moulds arranged in sand beds such that they could be fed from a commin runner. The group of moulds resembled a litter of sucking pigs, the ingots being called "pigs" and the runner the "sow." Source http://www.pigiron.org.uk

The area before you was once packed with hundreds of proud workers in Buffalo's booming steel industry, an integral part of Western New York's industrial development. The city's many assets, including a strategic geographic location and strong labor force, positioned it as a major contributor to the economic growth of America. This growth would propel Buffalo's population to the 8th highest in the United States in 1910.

Geographically, Buffalo has no rivals. Access to the Great Lakes provided an unprecedented groundwork for marine-based commerce. The combination of marine, rail, and highway access created a unique transportation Paid Advertisement

Click on the ad for more information.
Please report objectionable advertising to the Editor.
hub ideal for the production, storage, and movement of goods. A cluster of companies would soon form along Lake Erie including Bethlehem Steel, the largest steel manufacturer in the U.S. from the 1930s until the 1970s.

Bathlehem Steel spurred the creation of many related industries including The Hanna Furnace Corporation, specializing in the process of steel production. Occupying nearly 70 acres of this site, Hanna Furnace stored an annual supply of 650,000 tons of iron ore, 150,000 tons of limestone, 350,000 tons of coke, employed 800 workers and produced 63,000 tons of pig iron per month at the peak of production during WWII.


James Brese posted, cropped
Hanna Furnace Corporation, Buffalo, NY, Dock Department.
Debbie Matthews: I always thought those blast furnaces were part of the Bethlehem Steel Lackawanna Plant.
James Torgeson
: Debbie Matthews The two plants were very close. There were another two blast furnaces at the Republic Steel plant on South Park, which wasn't too far away.

Bill bittner commented on his post
Hanna Furnace, Buffalo NY

James Torgeson commented on a post:
Hanna was a merchant iron plant that once had four blast furnaces. It shipped 10 and 35-pound pigs all over the country, by rail, truck and water. It also shipped hot metal to the adjacent Shenango Ingot Mold plant, and also to other area steel plants as the need arose. The pigs were also used in the trunks of employee cars during the winter!
James Torgeson posted
Here's a plant layout for Hanna Furnace in Buffalo, from the centerspread of an employee handbook, circa late 1950s, early 1960s.
I forget how many tons of pigs were removed from the Union Ship Canal when it was remediated a few years back!

Steel Plant Museum of Western New York updated
A nice graphic of one of the pig casters at Hanna Furnace. This handbook is from the late 1950s or early 1960s.

The park was built on the land that had the storage piles. I noticed in a satellite image, that the foundations and floors for some of the building still exist. So the cleanup is going slowly. One business that has moved into this area is the Hazmat Environmental Group.

1965 Buffalo SE Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Bubba Dubs posted
Hanna Furnace, Buffalo New York date unknown. 

Mike Delaney posted seven images with the comment: "A series of photos of Hanna Furnaces Buffalo, New York.  Took Limestone in there once on a vessel.  I believe these were all merchant pig iron furnaces.  I know a friend of mine who sailed one of the Columbia crane boats took loads of pig iron ingots out of there."
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Antoniao Ignazio Medina posted
Susquehanna Furnaces, Rodgers-Brown Iron Co. Lackawanna,NY. 1933. This photo was taken from east window of Main Office building of Bethlehem Steel Company.
[Some comments indicated this was also known as Hanna Furnace.]
zzz

James Torgeson posted

Some pig casting action was featured on this Hanna Furnace Christmas card. Year unknown.
Digitally Zoomed
 
Michael Maitland commented on a post
Looking at pictures on line and found this ad

Robert Lackemeyer posted
A trip down to Tift St. caught Donner Hanna Furnace EMD SW-1 # 14, Buffalo, NY idling beautifully lit.   
James Torgeson shared
National Steel's Hanna Furnace in Buffalo closed in 1982.

Bill Hecht posted two photos.
Brian R. Wroblewski: Hanna Furnace, Union Ship Canal.
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Bubba Dubs commented on Bill's post

Buba Dubs shared seven photos.