Sunday, April 4, 2021

Mingo Junction, OH: 1872 JSW South/Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Plant (Steubenville South)

(Satellite)

"The Steubenville South works in Mingo Junction is connected with the North works by WheelingSteel's standard gauge railroad. Three blast furnaces and two Bessemer converters are in operation here along with a blooming mill and auxiliary equipment. The South works supplies hot metal for the open hearths at the North works and Bessemer slabs for the Benwood works." [OhioCountyLibrary, 1956]

JSW, an Indian company
[Note, a blast furnace is still standing near the lower-left corner.]

Jon Wolfe posted
JSW Steel Mingo Junction Ohio
Jerry Hosenfeld: I worked years near those 3 white stacks of the reheat furnaces.
Bryan Hockenberry: From what I've read they're installing a Vacuum Degassing process there like Weirton Steel had. That's a pretty nice investment I would think... I worked there from 5/22/77 to 81...
Frank Duymich: Start the 80" hot mill up. Was one of the best in the country.

John Slowikowski shared a Wheeling Steel Hometown post
1901 post card
 
Phil Jadlowiec posted
Carnegie Steel
Mingo Junction

Anthony Scurti posted
Wheeling Pitt. Mingo
Bryan Hockenberry: Worked 44" blooming mill electric in the late 70s. Was operating 240 slab crane when the Deer Hunter was filmed.🦌 They had colored spot lights on the blast furnaces at night. Look so cool.
Don Bywaters: I remember going to work and they were filming the movie The Deer Hunter ln downtown Mingo.

Anthony Scurti posted
Wheeling Pitt... Mingo ...
 
Brian Digman posted
Mingo Junction Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel

Anthony Scurti posted
Wheeling Pitt. Mingo, Apr 28, 2022

Mike Rupert commented on his post
Whg-Pgh Steel Mingo plant on the Ohio River. Blast furnaces have been demolished. 80” hot strip (on left) and BOF (EAF) and caster (on right) now owned by JSW still operating.

Jake Billingsley commented on Mike's comment
Mike Rupert operating in that caster as we speak!

Michael Jones posted
Mingo Junction, OH

Roz Chrisopherson posted
RG Steel (formerly Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel) Mill, Mingo Junction site, Ohio

Anthony Scurti posted
Mingo plant Wheeling Pitt. Steel ...

Wheeling Steel Hometown posted
#3 & #5 Blast Furnaces Mingo
John Slowikowski shared
John commented on his post
Same spot

Raymond Boothe posted
Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel: View of Blast Furnace No. 5 (Dr. Raymond Boothe photograph).

Phil Jadlowiec posted
Mingo Junction   2024
Derrick Ream: So obviously some parts of the old mill are abandoned . But jsw is running out of the rest ?
Larry Owens: Derrick Ream JSW? is only making slabs from the EAF. I think the handwriting is on the wall.
 
Brian Digman posted
#5 Mingo Junction
Stephen Cussen: Never saw Mingo from this angle! Thanks for sharing
Brian Digman: Stephen Cussen At one time there was 3 Blast furnaces in Mingo and 3 miles from there was 2 more in Steubenville.

Raymond Boothe posted
JSW Steel (formally Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel)-Mingo Junction, Ohio: View of the SMS coiler at the end of the 80" hot strip mill (JSW photo).

Nov 2023: Sam Barefield posted
Mingo Junction
Michael Maitland: Just read a news release that they are investing $175 million to upgrade the plant. Good to hear.
Jacob Dittoe: I thought they shut down mungo junction years ago.
Bryan Hockenberry: Jacob Dittoe The EAF and Caster are back in operation and owned by a company called JWS. They restarted the 80" for a little while the shut it down a d ship the slabs to Texas I believe.
Sam Barefield: Michael Wilkes took this pic in like 2017 when they were starting it back up. Haven’t been back since.
Frank Duymich: Worked at 80" 36 years .
[A comment includes a video of a couple of slabs. I presume they are on a cooling bed. And there is another video of a truck on fire.]
 
Vik Sharma posted
Mingo Junction, OH - 80” Hot strip Mill
Tod Brooks: Wow I worked at a 56” mill and thought it was big

The top part of this brownland was the blast furnaces and the bottom part was the stock piles and ore bridge.
Satellite

It is interesting that they left two smokestacks and two hot stoves.
3D Satellite

Since they have converted from blast furnaces to an electric arc furnace, the BOF is also obsolete.
3D Satellite

One of thirteen photos and a drone video of the BOF building posted by Bubba Dubs
Wheeling Pittsburgh steel’s Mingo Jct mill was originally a 3 blast furnace mill that made hot iron for Steubenville North’s 11 Open Hearths as well as for its own 2 furnace Bessemer shop. Later a BOF was added to the Mingo side along with a 80 inch strip mill. Today a EAF occupies the former BOF, but the rest of the mill is a field of “steel dreams”. Mingo did a reline on the blast furnace only to never have it run again.
A bunch of pics and a video up around the the former BOF building.
[The comments indicate that the structure on the roof was a sign. The "plumbing" is pollution control of the gasses produced by the BOF.]

Haiko Hebig commented on Bubba's post
By what I can gather from this view, the EAF got placed next to the BOF vessels into the same building. Does anyone know if there is anything left of the BOF equipment on the inside, e.g. the converters?
Haiko Hebig
 I don’t know what the status of that is, but I’d venture to guess it was scrapped out if it could’ve been.
Haiko Hebig
 the building was originally designed to house 3 BOF vessels, so the area where the EAF is located was for that additional vessel that was never added.
I have seen some steel plant demolitions and every plant completely demolishes the blast furnaces and everything around them but some plants leave the BOFs intact. I don't understand that. Anyone have a clue on that?

Michael Maitland commented on Bubba's post
Fantastic photos and comments. For those interested in the Wheeling and Pittsburgh operations on the Ohio and Monongahela river, then this is the book to get. Many photos and diagrams of the mills. The main facilities. Wheeling Steel - #1 Steubenville North (Hot end) #2 Steubenville East (Coke and Sinter) #3 Steubenville South (Mingo Junction. the old USS Steel plant) Across from Mingo was the #4 Follansbee coating and #5 Beech Bottom Corrugating. They had 2 finishing plants further south on the Ohio - #6 Yorkville Finishing and #7 Martins Ferry (Tin plate/Galvanizing) On the Monongahela they had the #8/9 Wheeling/Labelle and #10 Benwood - blast, nails, tubes, finishing. Myriad coal mines and other smaller facilities. One other major integrated plant was Portsmouth, Ohio. Comments welcome.
In the merger with Wheeling and Pittsburgh steel, they added the main Pittsburgh steel facilities, all on the Monongahela #1 Monessen (hot,coke, productions) #2 Allentport - Strip and Tube.
Michael Maitland
 We knew the Cyclops Empire-Detroit Steel-Portsmouth Plant was in trouble but I was able to go work as a supervisor in Birmingham that was a good move for us. At the last minute in Portsmouth, Armco Steel bought it and we thought Armco would save it but they bought it to shut it down and to acquire the Cyclops Mansfield Plant and the Coshocton Plant. The Portsmouth Plant had the same problem as the other Ohio River steel mills was the high cost of railroading raw materials and Portsmouth had another problem with still having open hearth furnaces and no caster. It was so sad. After I left the Birmingham area, USS and Republic Steel closed down all their facilities.
There was also a substantial blast furnace in Jackson, Ohio that made ferrosilicon at Globe Metallurgical. After 1980, I worked the blast furnaces in Birmingham.
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Author
Richard Allison
 yes Ray Boothe wrote a book about that as well.
 
Bob Gellogos posted
Steubenville OH, 1990s. [Some comments indicate this is really Mingo Junction.]
James Torgeson shared

Bubba Dubs posted two photos with the comment: "Former Wheeling Pitt BOF and 80 inch mill. The BOF building now contains a EAF for JSW Steel."
Rich Wilson: Notice the newer looking down comer and duct on the upriver side. Who remembers when the old one fell through the roof into the pit and shut the shop down?
Luckily no injuries. This happened because those responsible failed to have the duct cleaned and the weight of the dirt in it became too much for the structure.
Not all good memories of that place.
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Dennis DeBruler commented on Bubba's post
Found it. So this is the Mingo Junction plant.

Bubba Dubs posted four photos with the comment: "Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel Mingo Jct. + Steubenville plants, taken circa 2011."
[I know that at least the last one was in Steubenville because that is where the highline connects directly to the Ohio River Bridge. But the blast furnaces seem similar.]
Bubba Dubs: At one point Mingo had (3) Steubenville (2) and Weirton (4).
C.J. Diequez: The eaf in mingo is running we just put in a brand new 300 ton furnace... I work there. it's called jsw steel
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Phil Jadlowiec posted
Mingo Junction 2014

Phil Jadlowiec posted four photos with the comment: "Mingo Junction 2014."
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Charlie Wipp posted
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel's locomotive1258 (In Bicentennial paint) works around the blast furnace at Mingo Jct. Ohio in better days. Mingo Junction served as the Pennsylvania steel mill town in the 1978 film The Deer Hunter, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and starred Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, and John Cazale. Many of the scenes from that Academy Award winning movie were filmed around the Wheeling-Pittsburgh steel mill at Mingo Junction. 7-1977

Industrial Culture & Photography shared
Jeff Lawrence: A lot of the movie was filmed in Weirton,WV around the north end of the blast furnaces of Weirton Steel….most of the plant is gone but what is left is owned by Cleveland-Cliffs…
Bob Marshall: Lorenzo Tommasi yes it does exist is owned by JSW now. I worked on both #1 and #4 Blast furnace as a contractor when it was wheeling Pitt steel. Blast fce gone electric arc furnace now

Joshua A Steel commented on his video
It’s 400 ton , 250ton tap. Monster
From what I was told, it’s one of the largest in the world. There were 3 others like it in Chicago, Italy and Russia.
Tony Haysler: 400 ton one of largest in US tapped 300 ton heat left 80 to 100 ton heal when ran hot metal in it could do 40 min heat or less. At one time it was considered world class bc we could run hot metal in it too.
Sean McDonnell: I work at Sterling Steel in Sterling Illinois. 400 ton furnace 385 ton tap. Just under 2 hour tap to tap time. Back in the glory days of Northwestern Steel and Wire we had 3 400 ton furnaces, that was a sight to see!
Rusty Holt: Tony Haysler if it is 400 ton you can’t run 40min tap to tap times.
Tony Haysler: Rusty Holt with hot metal you can and we did

Joshua A Steel commented on his video
16 bolts per cable 4 cables per , 48 cables, by hand , torque wrenched.


C.J. Diequez commented on Joshua's video
New eaf
[If I understand the comments correctly, they rebuilt the old EAF but then destroyed it with a wet charge so the built this new one.]

Charlie Whipp posted
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel's locomotive1258 (In Bicentennial paint) works around the blast furnace at Mingo Jct. Ohio in better days. Mingo Junction served as the Pennsylvania steel mill town in the 1978 film The Deer Hunter, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and starred Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, and John Cazale. Many of the scenes from that Academy Award winning movie were filmed around the Wheeling-Pittsburgh steel mill at Mingo Junction. 7-1977

James Torgeson shared
Will Jamison: Looks like the left furnace is having a slip.
John Slowikowski: Will Jamison that’s no. 4 furnace
Will Jamison: Looking at enlarged I think it's the gas washer having an issue. Never seen one as big as a furnace.
Vince Altiere: Will Jamison - I believe the lower part is a gas washer, but the upper part (larger diameter) was a precipitator. John Glaab made a model of it and did a clinic about it years ago.
Dominic Croce: Charles Porter #3 furnace was the worst. Boxed in on both sides #4 to the west and #5 to the east. No air at all circulated on that cast floor. Brutal in the summer. But I had a great crew. Nuck, Booty, Fritz, Mike Egan. Hrancho as the blower.
Tony Pasquale: Is that part of the gas cleaning system ? Lost all your barometric seals ?
James Musser: It actually looks like smoke is from a boiler house behind washer - four stacks in a row. Deer Hunter was filmed at Weirton, Mingo, several Cleveland Furnaces. More to I think The interior furnace shots were I think Central Furnace in Cleveland. Trailer scenes were on a hill in Weirton two blocks from furnace Mingo was I believe the scene of them getting off work and then racing the truck. Maybe bar scenes too.

Andrew Malekovic posted, cropped
Runout at jsw steel in mingo junction Ohio
[Some of the comments talk about the number of heats.]
Comments on Andrew's post

Todd McDonald posted
JSW Steel Mingo, Ohio old Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel
[I wish some explained what is happening.]
Comments on Todd's post

Andrew Malekovic posted
Pot carrier jsw mingo jct ohio I think she's a bit full. I don't have any information on this it's just something that passes by me daily.
 
Anthony Scurti posted
Mingo , Wheeling Pitt. Steel
Mike Collette
: 3900 manitowoc in the picture was tubecity ims breaking skimmer iron
 
Phil Jadlowiec posted
Mingo Junction 2004

Jim Benline posted
Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel.
Frank Duymich: #5 Blast Furnace, Mingo
Jeremy Speicher: I Use to unload the iron ore out of barges on the Ohio river to feed the bins on top the tracks, when they where full slide belt over the wall and fill the pit up, when their where no barges we feed back up the belt to the bins.
A Crazy guy nicknamed weed hopper worked up their filling the bins and unloading RR cars. Lol.
Worked around their 4yrs good guys. Fun to watch. This was in 2001-2005.
Curt Barr: I was Keeper on that furnace until the hot end shut down in 2008 it was in the process of being rebuilt . We were owned by Severstal at the time. The next thing we knew the rebuild was stopped and the contractors left. The only part of local 1190 still operating was the Coke Plant. #5 was modern and highly efficent with a tilting iron spout and a sliding slag spout . It would produce well over 4000 tons of iron daily. It is a shame that as much as Wheeling - Pitt was modernized with a continuous caster , electric arc furnace , and 80inch rolling mill it couldn't sirvive . When I started in 1970 the local 1190 had over 5000 workers. So there were over 5000 families that depended on that company . That didn't count other locals up and down the Ohio river . It's hard to believe the Steel mills ,in what was known as the "Steel Valley " are not what they once were as well as the coal mines and the power plants .
 
This is a better copy of the above photo.
Brian Digman posted
#5 Mingo Junction after a rebuild.
James Ujevich: Looks really new. Is that a McKee top on the furnace?
Mark Indovina: James Ujevich that is a McKee top on that fce. The company paid to have her painted before start up after a rebuild in I believe was 1986, or ‘87 rebuild.
[I wonder how soon the paint will burn off.]
James Ujevich: That’s a really modern looking furnace compared to the two left at USS Edgar Thomson works here.

Jim Benline posted
Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel.
 
Michael Jones posted
wheeling pitt blast furnace - steubenville, oh

safe_image for JSW Steel Plans To Invest $119M in Mingo Junction Plant
"JSW Steel plans to create 26 new jobs and invest at least $119.4 million at its Mingo Junction steel plant for upgrades, a move that will allow it to better serve growing markets in the renewable energy and infrastructure sectors, company, officials announced Tuesday. [May 2, 2023]"


Fred Reddinger posted four photos with the comment: "JSW Mingo Junction Ohio...Steel piled up in slab yard also has new Slab Hauler to be assembled in parking lot."
Kenny Poole: A shame they don't roll that !!!
Dennis Harmon: If the market warrants it they will put the money into the 80" mill and roll again. But currently is cheaper to roll it elsewhere.
Bill West: We’re shipping them out fast just since this picture was taken which was yesterday. 200 bars on the barge and 100-150 by truck.
Bob Villamagna: 5 years ago today [Dec 2023] first slabs out of the EAF
[Some comments say this is Steubenville, OH.]
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1 comment:

  1. I worked there from 1977 thru the closure in the mid 2000's and beyond. I still have production and historical data from that facility from those years.

    ReplyDelete