Clarksburg, WV: Glass Factories and B&O Routes

(Satellite)

These factories are another reminder that a lot of glass used to be made in West Virginia.

WVNC Rails posted

Back to my heritage.....

This aerial image captures a view looking west through a Clarksburg, WV now lost to time. The once prominent glass industry and the preponderance of the B&O Railroad are on display in this 1967-1970 photograph that also features the new US 50 four lane highway that once completed would reach Parkersburg (Corridor D).

Dominating the scene at the bottom of the image is the mammoth Hazel-Atlas glass plant that borders both the B&O main line passing through the center of the photo and the original WV&P yard situated in the center. At the upper left the Adamston Flat Glass plant is visible and at upper center, the Rolland Glass Plant. All three of these plants have since closed and vanished beneath the bulldozer tread.

Trains were everywhere on B&O lines radiating from the city during this era. At center moving top to bottom is the Parkersburg Branch (main line) which in its entirety is the St. Louis line. Also at center is the junction with the MR Subdivision which extended to Fairmont of which can be traced along the West Fork River at upper right. Extending south from center (left from yard) is the former West Virginia & Pittsburgh Railroad route that ran southeast to Weston and Richwood. The line was truncated at Weston in the 1940s when the railroad was abandoned between Weston and Burnsville.

Short Line Junction is visible at upper center. Here, the Short Line diverged from the Parkersburg Branch and ran northwest to New Martinsville on the Ohio River. All that remains of the railroad scene in Clarksburg today (CSX) is the main line from the east (Grafton) to Short Line Junction (in name only now) and the Short Line from that point. The main line to Parkersburg, the MR Sub, and the WV&P line to Weston are long gone.

This image includes exceptional detail of circa 1970 Clarksburg for either a general or railroad historian. Too bad a train such as the St. Louis Trailer Jet or Gateway 97 could not have been passing through on the B&O main line when the photo was taken. Image Harrison County Historical Society

Randall Hampton shared

Phillip Cottrille: By the late 1970’s the landscape was changing drastically.

Adamston Flat (Clearlite) was gone.

Rolland Glass was shuttering.

Hazel-Atlas was leaving.

Jerry Run had not even gotten a good start when it started to fail.

Ingersol-Rand was preparing to leave.

The warehouses in Glen Elk and Montpelier became empty.

Total job loss in Harrison County would eventually amount to “thousands”!

Even with the B&O still operating it was doomed after the 1963 reconstruction and the hundreds of millions spent on changing the height of tunnels to accommodate the taller cars but by the early 80’s trains, westward would cease to run and with the “governments” program to put coal out of business the rail services going south disappeared.

Although small in comparison to Clarksburg and Parkersburg all of the communities westward along the B&O suffered when the RR were terminated and the new Route 50 also bypassed all of them basically killing a majority of the “small town” businesses.

The NBRT was promised to have a HUGE impact on those communities but it has never come to fruition. When the State Park (North Bend) became the provider of maintenance along the 80+ miles of abandoned rail ROW it cost taxpayers to help maintain said ROW while taking away from the Park in Ritchie County.

It eventually became its own endeavor but again, another entity funded by Grants, Private Donations and Gifts and as a 501c3 NO tax base.

So the RR left and had been a financial contributor to all of the communities and now the NBRT has replaced a financial plus with a financial burden.

Again, IMOPO!

Old American Life posted

January 1977. Clarksburg, West Virginia. Pittsburgh Plate Glass had a furnace. The furnace ran 1,500 tons of glass a day. If it cooled, it froze and died. It cost $2 million to rebuild. The Cardone family. Father Tony Cardone, 47, furnace tender. Mother Angie, 44, worked the cafeteria. Five kids.

January 10 was the blizzard. 20 inches. The power went out at 3 AM. The furnace had backup generators but the diesel was low. The truck could not get through. The plant manager called everyone. He said get here or the furnace dies and 1,200 jobs die.

Tony walked six miles in the snow. He got there at 6 AM. The generator had two hours left. The only diesel was at the airport, five miles away. The roads were closed. Angie took the kids and their sleds. The oldest was 17. The youngest was 8.

They walked to the airport. They filled five gallon cans. They put two cans on each sled. They walked back. They made three trips. The 8-year-old fell in a drift and the 17-year-old dug him out. They got 60 gallons to the plant by noon.

The generator ran. The truck came at 4 PM. The furnace lived. The plant gave Tony a bonus. He gave it to Angie. She bought snowsuits. The 17-year-old, Rocco, became a furnace tender in 1985. He said: “Dad kept it hot. Ma kept it fed.” The sleds hung in the garage until 2010.

[Several comments are calling this AI nonsense.]

Christopher Bright: While this is a harrowing tale of bravery on the family's part; it also showcases how capitalism doesn't care about people. "get here or the furnace dies and 1,200 jobs die." The company would have been fine, but they basically threatened the working class to risk their lives to keep the furnace and therefore profits working. Why did the generator not have enough fuel stores to run for several days? I'd bet cause it would have been more expensive, and therefore cut into the profit margins. This is the sort of human expendability the made WV coal miners (the rednecks) fight JH Blair

1958/77 Clarksburg Quad @ 24,000