Columbiana, OH: Reichard/Pollock Co., 1933 Columbiana Foundry and 1952 Compco

Reichard Industries/Pollock: (Satellite, they also use the buildings on the east side of Fairfield Ave.)

Compco: (Satellite)

Foundry: (Satellite)

Pollock made the special freight cars that are used to haul molten iron from the blast furnace to a steel-making building. Evidently, the company started in Youngstown in 1863. The plant in this town is now owned by Reichard Industries, but they still make bottle cars.

TheRustJungle

 

Raymond Boothe posted via Dennis DeBruler

Viral Media posted

Hot Metal Car

The Reichard cars are used to haul molten iron from a blast furnace to a finishing mill. The car’s interior is lined with firebrick since the molten steel loads average temperature is about 2,732 degrees Fahrenheit. The outer steel casing is 1” thick steel and is lined with about 20”of refractory brick lining that stops the steel vessel from suffering damage when used to transport molten metals. If the molten metal came in direct contact with the ladle shell, it would rapidly melt through the shell.

They have about a four hour window to move the car between plants once the they are loaded with molten metal. If the load cools too much you have a solid piece of metal which is an expensive problem. The bottle cars rotate to pour out their molten contents. 

The cars are manufactured by Reichard Industries based in Columbiana, Ohio.  They are the successor to the William B. Pollock Co. and are the only domestic builder of hot metal cars. Reichard is a specialty steel industry supplier, and builds or rebuilds ladles, hot metal cars, and an exotic array of items for blast furnace, basic oxygen furnaces, and electric-arc furnaces. 

Rick Rowlands posted 15 photos with the comment: "some builder's photos of Pollock hot metal cars."

Richard Allison: I know those ladles well. They look like mostly 150 ton and 250 ton and a couple a bit larger. I ran a ladle house and did all the maintenance on them from bricking, gunning and mechanical repairs on knuckles, trucks and tilting gearboxes. Good post.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13
[This would be how they shipped the car we see at Sloss. I presume the standard flatcar trucks can travel faster than the 3-axle trucks. These cars never had to go fast inside a steel mill.]

14

15

Building bottle cars is probably no longer a full time job, so they fabricate all sorts of stuff. But they do seem to specialize in round things.

In the background, on the left, I see a ladle. The half-circles on the right are too big for a bottle car.

Street View, May 2024

We are lucky that the street view driver drove by while they were preparing some oversized loads.

Street View, Sep 2023

I wonder where these are going and what kind of machine that they will help build.

Street View, Sep 2023

While looking for the Reichard Industries plant, I found Compco, which makes the ends of tanks, steel domes and other stamped parts.

Compco
"Mechanical and Hydraulic Presses with capacities ranging from 600 to 2,500 tons"

 

ColumbianaFoundry
"The Columbiana Foundry is one of only a handful of companies in the U.S. that offers castings in both steel and iron. In fact, we pour virtually every class of ferrous alloy throughout the year. We are fully capable of complete casting and pattern design, including the conversion of fabrications, forgings, and other metal parts to castings. Whatever your particular casting needs from prototype to low or medium quantity production runs the Columbiana Foundry is ready to serve you!"

Compco is in a rather generic industrial building, but the foundry's building has some character. Note all of the exhaust vents on the roof.

Street View, Oct 2013

Judging from a satellite image, none of these industries are now rail served. Pennsy went past all of these buildings, and Pollock would have also been served by the Youngstown & Southern Railroad.

1951/53 Columbiana Quad @ 24,000