Dunkirk, IN: Museum/Pennsy (Panhandle) Depot & Freight House and Glass Plant

Depot: (Satellite)

Freight: (Satellite, I could not find it.)

Plant: (Satellite)

Street View, Oct 2024

The museum has a lot of sports stuff.

Photo, Oct 2025

4 of 7 photos posted by Mark Teer with the comment: "Dunkirk Indiana’s restored passenger station and freight station."

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Ardagh Dunkirk Glass Plant

While looking for the freight house, I found this plant. Anything today that still has a smokestack is worth noting.

Street View, Oct 2024

The plant makes glass bottles.

ArdaghGroup_locations

ArdaghGroup_design

I wonder if these bottles in the museum were made locally.

Photo, Oct 2025

Dunkirk is between Hartford City and Redkey on this Pennsy Panhandle map.

Brian A Morgan posted via Dennis DeBruler

Much of  Panhandle has been abandoned, but NS kept the track to Dunkirk.

National Rail Network Map

I'm sure the glass plant is why the route to Dunkirk has been maintained. I wonder what the hoppers hold. I'm guessing sand.

Satellite

This is the second time in two days that I have found a "smokestack industry." The second was the paper mill in Grand Rapids, MN.

Crystal City, MO: Frisco Depots and Pittsburg Plate Glass Co.

Depot: (Satellite)

Glass Plant: (Satellite, brownland with a few brave trees.)

Richard Crabtree posted five images with the comment:

The Frisco Depots of Crystal City, Missouri

Crystal City, Mo., residents are happily proud of the new Frisco station recently completed in their city. The new building is a one-story combination of passenger and freight facilities and cost $25,000. Its construction is of glazed tile with cement floors. The station contains spacious general waiting room, ticket office, freight and baggage rooms with a four hundred foot long passenger platform of brick, and a wooden freight platform. The roof is of tile. Crystal City has one of the largest plate glass plants in the world within its boundaries-the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company. Glass from this plant is shipped to all parts of the United States and to Canada, Mexico, South America, Cuba and the Philippine Islands.

November 1926 The Frisco Employes' Magazine

Photo 1) Frisco Depot Crystal City, MO 1968

Photo 2) Sanborn Map Crystal City, Missouri 1908 1st depot LOC

Photo 3) Sanborn Map Crystal City, Missouri 1926 2nd Depot LOC

Photo 4) Frisco Depot Crystal City, Mo 1971 Photo Ken McElreath

Photo 5) Frisco Depot Crystal City, Mo 1980

Jim Kelling shared with the comment: "Crystal City, Missouri (Frisco Lines)."

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Note that the water tower in Photo 1 is extant. This is a view of the current BNSF building.

Street View, Aug  2022

Today's building is larger than the 1980 building in Photo 5. One normally does not see a yard office, let alone one that has grown. I wonder what kind of business BNSF does in the area to justify a local office.

 Street View, Aug 2022

1964 Festus Quad @ 24,000 and 1949 Crystal City Quad @ 62,500

PPG appears in a 1985 image. These old images make one appreciate how good today's satellite images are.

Google Earth, Dec 1985

The next available image is 1993, and it is gone. So, we lost more than steel mills and tractor manufacturing in the 1980s.

Google Earth, Oct 1993

So how contaminated is this former Pittsburg Plate Glass land?

Statellite

Creighton, PA: and Tarentum, PA: Pittsburgh Plate Glass Works #1 and #2

1883 Works #1: (Satellite, this site has been rebuilt by PPG and some of the later buildings are reused.)

1886 Works #2: (Satellite, west of Bull Creek)

The dates 1883 and 1886 for the two works come from a timeline in glassian.

Works #1:

Photo via glassian

Works #2:

akvalley_122 via akvalley_2
"Pittsburgh Plate Glass Works, No. 2, Tarentum Pennsylvania, circa 1900"

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted
Workers at the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company plant located in Tarentum, Allegheny County.

Real Bubba: Pittsburgh was Glassburg long before the steel industry.

The above image is one of five that is in BrooklynSteregraphy. This webpage also has a description for each image.

akvalley also has the description for each of the five images.

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted
Workers casting and rolling sheets of plate glass with dimensions of 12 1/2 x 21 feet at the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company plant in Tarentum, Allegheny County in the early 1900s.

Steubenville, OH: Lost Acme Glass Works and Pennsy (Panhandle) Roundhouse, Depot & Freight House

Glass: (Satellite, some of the buildings are extant.)

Roundhouse: (Satellite, the land is now used by a stripmall.)

Depot: (Satellite, provided by Chris P. Bacon post below.)

Freight House: (Satellite, provided by Chris P. Bacon post below.)

Historic Fort Steuben posted and instagram

🏭 Quick History: Acme Glass Works, Steubenville (c. 1800s–1900s)

One of Steubenville’s major industries, Acme Glass Works was founded by skilled glassmakers (many from Pittsburgh) and operated for decades by the Gill Brothers Company. By the early 1900s, it had grown into one of the largest lamp-chimney factories in the United States.

Acme produced lamp chimneys, globes, reflectors, and early electrical glassware—vital for oil, gas, and early electric lighting. At its peak, the factory turned out hundreds of thousands of chimneys each week, shipping across the U.S. and overseas.

With rail access, nearby fuel sources, and a large skilled workforce, Acme helped make Steubenville a true “Workshop of the World.” The plant employed hundreds and played a major role in the city’s economy and community life.

When electricity made oil and gas lights obsolete, it sounds like they tried to transition to glass insulators.

A study in photo colorization.

PeachRidgeGlass, this webpage has photos of a lot more glass factories

ebay

ebay

The only industrial development was on the south side of the city. The W&LE was by the river and this plant. The railroad that went through the town and over the bridge was the Pennsy.

1904/04 Steubenville Quad @ 62,500

Pennsy (Panhandle) Roundhouse

It does show up on the above topo map. Both railroads through town and the one across the river were owned by Pennsy.

Historic Fort Steuben posted
The Steubenville Round House, shown on the 1877 map of Steubenville, Ohio, stood at the corner of Washington Street and North 7th Street.
[The rest of the description is roundhouse platitudes.]

Pennsy (Panhandle) Depot

Chris P. Bacon posted
The third generation station on the PCC&St.L line was constructed by the PRR which built a larger station at the same location as the station listed above. Sanborn maps show a larger station building there with the date built as 1911 listed (PRR valuation records confirm that date). This new station included a tunnel under the tracks with stairs or an elevator to a platform with a canopy between the tracks. (GPS: 40.36185,-80.617343).

Pennsy (Panhandle) Freight House

Chris P. Bacon posted

A second generation freight house was constructed just north of the original freight house at the corner of 6th and North Streets in 1881 (according to PRR valuation records). (GPS: 40.363542,-80.616603)

Moundsville, WV: Lost/B&O Depot and Fostoria Glass Works

(Satellite, west of the mainline and between 7th and 8th Streets.)

Chris Miller posted
B&O Depot in Moundsville, WV... about 7 miles below Benwood. Moundsville is where my mom grew up.
Jim Kelling: It's long gone, but see it in the 1960s film "Fools Parade" with Jimmy Stewart, Strother Martin, Anne Baxter, and a young Kurt Russell. Many good scenes around the depot, renamed in the film.

Eric Anderson posted six phtos with the comment: "Few more photos of the B&O Union Station located in Moundsville, WV."

Carl King: There was a flood? Did it destroy the station? When was it?

Eric Anderson: Carl King If I had to venture a guess, the picture of that flood could have been in 1936, when Moundsville and the upper Ohio Valley was hit with a historic flood. However, the station sat in close proximity to the Ohio River and probably could have been flooded easily with any seasonal flood. Given the age of that particular photo and the fact that the station was finally tore down sometime in the 1970's or 80's, proves that it did survive that flood and probably many others.

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When I wrote these notes, I thought the route to the left in the above photo that has the train was a branch line. Fortunately, just a few hours later I studied the Board Tree Tunnel and learned that the curving route was the original B&O mainline built in the 1850s. So I was able to remove the word "branch" from these notes before I published them. The route used today between Grafton and Wheeling had not yet been built by 1934. There is more information about these old and new routes in the tunnel notes.

This topo map accurately marks the location of the depot.

1972 Businessburg and 1960 Moundsville Quads @ 24,000

I included what appears to be a freight house down by 10th Street and the route that used to go up the Grave Creek Valley. The topo map did not mark the freight house.

Sep 15, 1957 @ 31,000; AR1VRD000030010

There is still a remnant of the foundation for the freight house.

Satellite

Bonus: Fostoria Glass Works

PeachRidgeGlass
Fostoria Glass Works Postcard (Moundsville, West Virginia)

Alton, IL: 1911-2002 Alton Steel Inc (ASI)/Laclede Steel, llinois Terminal Roundhouse and Illinois Glass

Steel Mill: (Satellite)

Roundhouse: (Satellite)

AltonSteel
"Alton Steel operates a 200 ton electric arc furnace and a 14″ bar mill. We have the capacity to melt 750,000 tons of steel in the melt shop a year and to roll 400,000 tons of steel bars in our 14″ rolling mill."

Six Miles of Local History Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) 
[I was going to crop out the lower half until I noticed the NoDerivs in the license.]

TheTelegraph
"Founded as Laclede Steel, the company was incorporated in 1911 with facilities in Alton and Vandalia, Illinois, as well as in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The company went bankrupt in 2001 and emerged as Alton Steel Inc. in 2003." It became employee owned in 2019.

"ASI is a Special Bar Quality (SBQ) steel mill producing rounds, round-cornered squares, and bar-in-coil in the heartland of America. ASI was established is 2003 in Alton, Illinois, and is located 25 miles north of St. Louis." [AltonSteel_press_release]

TheTelegraph
The company started in Madison, IL, and moved to Alton in 1915.

 

DigitalHagley
Charging electric furnace, Laclede Steel Company (Alton, Ill.)

DigitalHagley
Charging electric furnace, Laclede Steel Company (Alton, Ill.) [I think the caption is wrong in this case because the lid is on the furnace.]

David Blair posted two photos with the comment: "Same pulpit. New controls."

Brian Price: Rick Robinson 14” mill

Ken Jamin; I wonder how much down time was required for the upgrade?

Jim Tressa: Ken Jamin You build the panel ahead of time. Then slip it into place. Tie in the old wires to the new panel. Identify everything ahead of time. And do all the legwork ahead of time. This would be installed during a scheduled shutdown.

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I copied this post from Kaiser Steel because of Tom's comment.

Jon Wolfe posted
Kaiser Steel
Daniel Neil Meyers: Continuous butt weld pipe mill? Looks like the same mill we had at WPSC until it closed in 1984
Blaine Chapman: Daniel Neil Meyers You’re exactly right Dan. There is one in Wheatland Pa. still in operation. 1/2” - 4” pipe. The torch is your biggest friend.
Tom White: CBWP 10 Stand Just Like Laclede Steel Plant In Alton IL

I got this aerial because it includes the entire Laclede mill.

EarthExplorer: Mar 17, 1968 @ 24,000; AR1VBZG00040070

But the roundhouse was gone, so I got this aerial.

EarthExplorer: Aug 2, 1945 @ 27,200; AR1BO0000020068

Roundhouse remnants:

Satellite

This is what taught me about the Illinois Terminal roundhouse.

1950 Alton Quad @ 24,000

The NYC and CB&Q evidently shared the tracks above the GM&O tracks. According to a USGS map, Norfolk Southern now owns the Illinois Terminal route.

1968 Alton Quad @ 24,000

Youngstown Steel Heritage posted 18 photos with the comment: "Attended the Alton Steel auction preview this morning. Here are some shots of the bar mill that will be sold in a couple of days."

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Encyclopedia has a detailed history.

Jun 26, 2026:

Bengel Excavating posted 15 photos with the comment: "We are taking on a big job in Alton Illinois.  A big independent steel mill closed its doors for good at the beginning of this year.  We are part of a scrap demo crew that is cleaning out all of the buildings."

Justin Parmley: Eric Saltzman they had big bids from multiple companies to keep this plant open. You see where the buck lands.

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Bonus: Illinois Glass

PeachRidgeGlass
Illinois Glass Co, Alton, Illinois…Early 1900’s – courtesy Dave Hall