New Carlisle, IN: 1990 I/N Tek & Kote Steel Mill and Viterra/Gavilon Grain Elevator

Steel Mill: (Satellite)

Elevator: (Satellite)

Viral Media posted

New Carlisle Tek - Kote Plant

The Cleveland-Cliffs Tek and Kote facility in New Carlisle, Indiana, receives substantially all its feedstock from Cleveland-Cliffs’ facilities in Indiana Harbor [East and West] and Burns Harbor via daily Norfolk Southern unit trains. The trains run daily from New Carlisle to 60 miles west to the Indiana Harbor Facility in East Chicago, Indiana, and back again. The Cleveland Cliffs Indiana Harbor complex is one of the largest integrated steelmaking facilities in North America.

The plant in New Carlisle was built in 1990 as a joint venture of Inland Steel Industries and Nippon Steel. 

ArcelorMittal later acquired Inland Steel. In 2019, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. completed the acquisition of substantially all of the operations of ArcelorMittal USA LLC and its subsidiaries, forming the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America. The Tek and Kote plant is now part of Cliffs.

railroad_journal posted three photos with the comment:

Cliffs Tek + Kote

Each morning Norfolk Southern B09 (turn) unit train departs with empty open coil cars and gondolas filled with steel scrap for recycling. After reaching East Chicago the empty cars are dropped and returns loaded with steel coils. The Cleveland-Cliffs Tek and Kote facility in New Carlisle, Indiana, receives substantially all its feedstock from Cleveland-Cliffs’ facilities in Indiana Harbor and Burns Harbor via daily Norfolk Southern unit trains.

Each morning the empty coil train leaves the New Carlisle yard to travel about 60 miles west to the Indiana Harbor Facility in East Chicago, Indiana. The Cleveland Cliffs Indiana Harbor complex is one of the largest integrated steelmaking facilities in North America.

The coil steel unit trains that supply the New Carlisle, IN are usually about 40 open coil cars with 3 to 5 coils per car depending and width and weight. Cliffs Tek performs continuous pickling and tandem rolling through the Continuous Descale Cold Mill (CDCM), and continuous annealing, temper rolling, and inspection through the Continuous Annealing Processing Line (CAPL) in order to provide material to Cliffs Kote for galvanizing or galvannealing. In the adjacent facility, Cliffs Kote, uses separate lines to produce 500,000 tons of hot-dip galvanized and galvannealed and 400,000 tons of electrogalvanized sheet annually. The principal are automotive and appliance markets. 

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Viral Media posted two photos with the comment:

Unit Steel Train Power

NS 9839 GE C44-9W and NS GE ES40DC tied up in the Cliffs Tek + Kote yard in New Carlisle, Indiana in 2020. The locomotives are always tail-to-tail as this unit train is a “Turn” – it brings empty coil cars to the Indiana Harbor Steel Mill in East Chicago, Indiana, and returns loaded with coils.  The train is known as Norfolk Southern B09 New Carlisle, Indiana to Michigan Avenue Yard - East Chicago, Indiana. The locomotives always overnight in New Carlisle.

The Cleveland-Cliffs Tek and Kote facility in New Carlisle, Indiana, receives substantially all its feedstock from Cleveland-Cliffs’ facilities in Indiana Harbor and Burns Harbor via daily Norfolk Southern unit trains. The trains run daily from New Carlisle to 60 miles west to the Indiana Harbor Facility in East Chicago, Indiana, and back again. The Cleveland Cliffs Indiana Harbor complex is one of the largest integrated steelmaking facilities in North America.

[The rest of the description is a repeat of the above post's description.]

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Grain Elevator

Viral Media posted

GAVILON GRAIN ELEVATOR

A westbound Norfolk Southern empty coal train with BNSF run-through power on the NS Chicago Line passing New Carlisle, Indiana. BNSF 5740 GE ES44AC leads with BNSF 5679 GE AC44CW trailing. The coal gondolas reporting marks are DEEX (Detroit Edison Co.). The train is passing in front of the Gavilon Grain elevators which is a prominent landmark in the area. Founded as Lake's Farm Service, Inc. in 1968, it was acquired by DeBruce Grain. In 2010, DeBruce Grain was acquired by Gavilon. Gavilon's history dates back to 1874 when Peavey Company built its first grain facility in Sioux City, Iowa. Gavilon employs 2,000 people around the world and is the second largest grain handler in North America based on storage capacity.

[According to a Google Maps' label, this elevator is now owned by Viterra.]

In the lower-right corner is the center cab locomotive that it would use to load cuts of hopper cars.

Satellite

This view shows the two large jump-form silos that we can't see in the trackside photo above.

Street View, Aug 2019

Viral Media posted

Passing Huge Grain Elevator

Eastbound freight passing the massive Viterra Grain elevators in New Carlisle, Indiana on the Norfolk Southern Chicago LIne. BNSF 3800 GE ET44C4 is on point with NS 9487 and NS 9689, both GE C44-9W locomotives trailing.

The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad’s Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the south shore of Lake Erie and across northern Indiana.  In 1998, its ownership was split at Cleveland, Ohio, between CSX Transportation to the east and Norfolk Southern Railway in the west. Now from Cleveland, west to Chicago, the line is known as Norfolk Sothern’s Chicago Line.

Viral Media posted

PASSING TIME

A westbound Norfolk Southern Intermodal on the NS Chicago Line passing a unit grain train in New Carlisle, Indiana. The intermodal has NS 4196 GE AC44C6M is on point with NS 7685 GE ES40DC trailing. The train is passing in front of the Gavilon Grain elevators, a prominent landmark in the area. This is a very busy time of year at the elevator, preparing unit grain trains with grain from the fall harvest.

Viral Media posted

WESTBOUND FREIGHT

The freight is passing a Plymouth MDT 35 Ton industrial locomotive at Gavilon Grain in New Carlisle, Indiana.  While the ground has a dusting of snow, the critter has a dusting of grain dust. This is a busy time at the elevator building unit trains. The westbound train has just passed through South Bend, and is an hour outside of Chicago. NS 4015 GE CC44C6M is on point with NS 9555 GE C44-9W and NS 1075 EMD SD70ACe trailing.  NS 4015 GE CC44C6M was rebuilt in GE Erie in July 2016 from a C40-9 that was originally built in 1995. This is a example of the Norfolk Southern “DC to AC” program repowering their fleet for the more efficient future.