North Bessemer, PA: B&LE Railyard and Roundhouse

Railyard: (Satellite)

Roundhouse: (Satellite)

Dave Kuntz Drone Photos posted four photos with the comment: "The ivy grows thick on the old roundhouse in the Bessemer And Lake Erie Railyard at Penn Hills Township, PA.  The turntable is long gone but the building itself is in surprisingly good shape, implying it is kept up for storage."

Roger Eyrich shared

John Sobaszko: Railroad location is North Bessemer.

Rolando Maggi shared

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Dennis DeBruler commented on John's comment
Thanks. Found it: https://maps.app.goo.gl/9N54M2njEuBtYsEaA. Before I saw your comment, I found the Union Railroad roundhouse: https://maps.app.goo.gl/9N54M2njEuBtYsEaA.

I labeled these notes as rrOther because it never became part of a larger railroad by 1928. But I see from a Google Maps label that CN owns the railyard now.

Pittsburgh, PA: Industrial Park/Republic Railroad Spike Plant

(Satellite)

Dave Kuntz posted
Former site of the Republic Steel Corporation's railroad spike plant in Pittsburgh, PA.  Unique color choice now.

Street View, Nov 2024

1951/51 Pittsburgh East Quad @ 24,000

Bakersfield, CA: Santa Fe Railyard, Roundhouse, Icing Machines and Depot

Railyard: (Satellite)

Roundhouse: (Satellite, they did a good job of removing the foundation.)

Depot: (Satellite?)

Many of the tracks in the railyard are still left.

Street View, Mar 2022

Robert Hogan posted
Bakersfield, CA roundhouse on January 5, 1969.  Nice pair of GP30's on the left and another in the center.

Tim Starr posted
An illustration of the Santa Fe's concrete, 35-stall roundhouse at Bakersfield CA just after it was built in the spring of 1907. It states that the one in San Bernardino was built with the same blueprints. (Railway Age)

Brian M. Taggart commented on Robert's post
I took this shot at the roundhouse on January 1st 1976. The S-2s were all gone, replaced by S-4s (which were all stored), the GP30s were still around (although renumbered), and a number of CF-7s have crept in and will sadly replace all those S-4s.

Bill Rettberg Jr. posted
Bakersfield service facility in 1977.
Daniel C Carroll Jr. shared

2 of 3 photos posted by Robert Hogan with the comment: "January 5, 1969 found ALCo PA's #64 & #71 on the whisker tracks at Bakersfield, CA.  ATSF was testing the PA's on freights over the loop."

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Comments on the above post

Bob Chaparro posted two photos with the comment:

Bakersfield Icing Machines

Photos posted by Mark McGowan on the Facebook Kern County of Old group.

These were taken at Bakersfield in 1962.

Bob Chaparro

Moderator

Railroad Citrus Industry Modeling Group

https://groups.io/g/RailroadCitrusIndustryModelingGroup

Tom Cockle: These machines were the reason that Santa Fe’s safety-minded “reversed hatches” were changed to the somewhat less safe standard, flat-lying hatches. It was easier to move the icing machines along if the hatches laid down flat, but this meant that now workers dealing with opening and closing the hatches were closer to the car ends.

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Bob commented on his post
A number of Santa Fe's reefers kept their reverse opening hatch covers right through the end of the ice bunker reefer era. There are still photos and a couple of videos showing icing machines working around this inconvenience.

Robert Hogan posted

1954/55 Gosford Quad @ 24,000

Bob Chaparro posted

Santa Fe Bakersfield Yard (Plot)

A post by Mark Mcgowan on the Facebook Kern County of Old group.

Sorry, no date.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

Burnham, PA: 1795 Standard Steel/Freedom Forge

(Satellite)

 

Ruth Rosie posted
Great old post card of Boring Mill -Standard Steel- Burnham. Year unknown

Martin Souček: According to eBay, it dates back to sometime between 1907 and 1915. https://ebay.de/itm/256643170912

Steel Mills are like coal mines, if they are still standing, they are worth noting.

StandardSteel

Fortunately, the street view camera rides rather high so that we can see over their visual barrier.

Street View, Sep 2023

From the same location, about a decade earlier.

Street View, Sep 2012

Rich Shaginaw posted
Those of us whose families work and worked in Big Steel don't often think about smaller plants like this, but they employ steelworkers, too, have interesting histories, and are often owned by larger steel firms. My late father-in-law and his father and other relatives retired from Standard Steel in Burnham, PA. The Standard (as they call it there) specializes in railroad wheels and axles. https://www.standardsteel.com/history.php Real Bubba: Last domestic producer of forged rail wheels. Glenn Beamer: Thanks for posting this. One of the last building standing at Bethlehem’s Johnstown plant was its axle shop — their specialty bar mills were long a point of pride. Kile Stimely: I work at the standard steel in burnham pa to this day. They employ about 500 people. Also at least to my standards. It's not small at all It's huge. That picture is just one side of the entire standard steel. There are 4 major shops and many smaller shops throughout the mill.

The place is huge.

Street View, Sep 2023

 

Jessica Van Giana posted seven photos with the comment "Some photos of the Standard Steel plant in Burnham, PA."

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Jerry Fowle posted, cropped
Amazing place, Electric Arc Furnace and Vacuum degassing. Make train axles and wheels.
James Lupold: I think it is amazing to watch them forge the wheels with the 10,000 ton press 80% complete one shot.
Jon Quinn: First steel mill I visited as a metallurgy student at Penn State - it was a class field trip. We watched the GFM (?) rotary forge work a billet into an axle, and a piece spalled off and we all watched the orange glowing chunk of metal - maybe size of a marble - arc through the air. It plunked the metallurgist who was guiding our group on the tour (also a PSU alum) right on the corner of his safety glasses. He just watched it the whole time coming right at him and he never moved. I guess he never played any baseball and couldn’t judge a fly ball. But he was un-injured and we continued the tour the the ring roller mill. Neat place. They also used to be owned by TIMET many years ago - a former employer of mine.

Jason Lhota commented on Jerry's post
Standard Steel, Burnham, PA

1 of 4 photos on reddit

 

NipponSteel
As of 2011, the company is now foreign owned by Sumitomo Metals, which is a Japanese company. In this case, foreign ownership might be good because it is transferring technologies that they use to build railroad wheels for high-speed trains.

 

NipponSteel

The original corporation was founded in 1795. Does the "founded" date of 2005 mean that the revenue figure of $138.5m and the employees figure of 553 are as of 2005? [datanyze]

I've seen higher figures for revenue and employees.

This news release claims $250m and 620 employees. "Standard Steel is the only producer of forged steel wheels for railcars and locomotives on the continent." I've looked and looked, but I can't find a year for the Sumitomo news release! My guess from the content is 2011. (I wondered if Standard Forge Products/USS Wheel and Axle cast their wheels rather than forged them. IndustryToday implies that is the case.)

 

jbritton_burnham, this webpage also has Sanborn maps of the area

 

jbritton_yeagertown, this webpage has several more images including another interior view

Doug Kroll Flickr
Standard Steel100
Standard Steel. This very rare oval-radiator VO660 #6712 worked it's entire life for Standard Steel and was kept in meticulous condition. Fortunately it was preserved at the Railroaders Museum in Altoona, PA and was recently purchased by SMS Rail in NJ. This photo taken on July 20, 1976 at the plant in Burnham, PA. Built in January 1940 it is the oldest Baldwin diesel currently in existence.(misc941b)

NewEquipment

Ring-rolling mills (1856 and 1977) produce locomotive tires. In 1856 they could produce 2,000 locomotives tires per year. [IndustryToday] I was surprised to see the 1977 date because I thought locomotive tires were used only on steam locomotive drivers. There must be another use for rings.

Indeed there was other uses for rings: "In 2003, the company slashed its payroll when it exited the product line at the Burnham plant that produced steel rings for jet engines, power plants, mining and oil exploration." [IndustryToday]

Said Vice President of Sales and Operations John Hilton, Sr., “One of our works managers back in those days was none other than Andrew Carnegie. He tried to introduce the Bessemer [Kelly] steelmaking process to Freedom Forge in 1866 to produce rail and unfortunately, it was not successful here because the local ore was too high in phosphorus, making it very brittle, and causing a cracking problem. That caused Freedom Forge major financial difficulties at the time. Carnegie moved to Pittsburgh in 1872, resolved the problem, working with people in Sheffield and Birmingham, England, and the rest is history.” [IndustryToday]

In 2002, the Burnham site had 1.5 million sq. ft. of buildings covering a 250-acre site. "New freight cars are still the biggest driver of business for Standard Steel. Company officials say that about 120,000 of the wheels it produces go toward newly built freight cars, with another 60,000 into the aftermarket. The locomotive and passenger segments of the market are much smaller, although Standard Steel does supply the wheels for cross-country passenger trains." [IndustryToday]

A financial, rather than technical, timeline.

StandardSteel

The Latrobe, PA, plant that Standard Steel owned from 1976 to 2003.

LC-DIG-highsm- 58703 (ONLINE) [P&P], Public Domain
Credit line: West Virginia Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

East Pittsburgh, PA: and Wilmerding, PA: Westinghouse Electric and Air Brake Companies

Holtec/Electric: (Satellite)

Wabtec/Air Brake: (Satellite)

Westinghouse Electric in East Pittsburgh

3D Satellite

onview

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted
Western Electric Corporation Plant in East Pittsburgh, Allegheny County in the 1950's. This view is from the Westinghouse Bridge on Route 30, East of Pittsburgh. The Plant employs over 15,000 people, engaged in the manufacture of heavy electrical equipment such as big electric turbine generators. In addition to other achievements, this plant has produced the world's largest electric motors.
Ray Wuslich: Western electric was in East Liberty. All ATT and Bell Telephone equipment was manufactured there. This is Westinghouse Electrics East Pittsburgh plant.

Joseph Bailey: Ray Wuslich Yeah it was...right there at the corner of Penn Avenue and Washington Blvd. But I don't think they made their equipment there just refurbish phones and other equipment.

Ron Walko: No such thing as an electric turbine generators. Westinghouse produced the generators and exciters for large steam turbines . Erroneous information all around.

Westinghouse’s large steam turbine’s were manufactured by their Steam Turbine Division in Philadelphia.

[I've seen a lot of posts from "Jackson-Township historical preservation," and this is the first time I've seen such significant errors in a description from that outfit. Talk about a bad day. Some comments basically said it is not AI because AI is not that stupid. I don't understand why humans are not correcting the description.]

The plant was just Northeast of the George Westinghouse Bridge.

1933 Photo from U of Michigan Lincoln Highway Collection via BridgeHunter via Dennis DeBruler

 

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted

Westinghouse Works located at Trafford Park in East Pittsburgh, Allegheny County.

(Photo from Linda Dacierno)

Michael Andrew Odorisio: Trafford Park is in the UK, not Allegheny County. Westinghouse had identical office buildings in East Pittsburgh and Trafford Park. Interesting enough for that fact, though.

 

Michael Pearce posted
Westinghouse Electric Company

James J Valentine: Looks like "B" Aisle before "D" and "D Annex, factory in the sky " was built.

Erin Diehl: James J Valentine "B" aisle is correct. Eight pole motor,

Brian Olson posted
Here is to my grandma's former employer, Westinghouse East Pittsburgh.  Prior to 1973 many a large horsepower mill motors were supplied from this location  Today this work is done by Teco Westinghouse in Round Rock, TX.

Jeff Yinzer Wood posted three photos with the comment: "Inside the old Westinghouse air brake mill that is now Holtec. That's the original crane from its start."

Andrew Stewart: Actually that was Westinghouse Electric in East Pittsburgh, Westinghouse Air Brake is still in operation in Wilmerding.

Bill Aguilera: Riveted fish belly. Ours in the department were installed in 1912 and running also.

Linda Hudson: We used to load MPC units (tanks) that went to nuclear power plants out of there Holtec ...the power plants put the nuclear waste in them.

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Jackson-Township historical preservation posted
Electric locomotives under construction at the Westinghouse Electric Works Corporation at East Pittsburgh, Allegheny County around 1920. After introducing the alternating current locomotive, first demonstrated in the East Pittsburgh Railway Yards in 1905, Westinghouse manufactured electric locomotives in Pittsburgh and set up a division for the electrification of the nation's railroad lines. (Photo from http://explorepahistory.com/)
History's Mirror posted a different exposure
Electric locomotives under construction at the Westinghouse Electric Works Corporation in East Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, circa 1920. Following the groundbreaking introduction of the alternating current (AC) locomotive, demonstrated in the East Pittsburgh Railway Yards in 1905, Westinghouse became a pioneer in rail electrification. The facility not only produced state-of-the-art electric locomotives but also played a key role in modernizing the nation's railroad infrastructure. This image captures the scale and innovation of the factory floor, where skilled workers assembled locomotives that would revolutionize rail transport across the United States.

 

History's Mirror posted
The Main Works of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, stood as a testament to American industrial ingenuity between 1918 and 1939. This aisle view captures the heart of locomotive production, where massive electric engines were meticulously assembled. Rows of heavy machinery and towering components underscore the scale of operations, while workers focused on their tasks highlight the human element driving this innovation. These locomotives were vital to the electrification of railroads, symbolizing progress and efficiency during a transformative era in transportation history.

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted
View of aisle in the main works of Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, Allegheny County around 1918-1939. This is where rotary converters, turbo generators and large motors are machined and assembled.
Jack Davis shared
Where some of the steel ended up.

Jennifer Onaitis Legler: After World War II, my dad worked there that was when they created generators for large electrical generating dams. They were so big you could walk through them. We would see them on family day. They were called LRA or large rotating apparatus.

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted
Women operating machines in Section E at the Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, Allegheny County around 1900s-1920s.
[Note the line shafts that ran along the front of the operating stations.]
Jackson-Township historical preservation posted again

Jim Oglethorpe: Looks like maybe they are winding copper wire?

A lot of women also wound coils in Irwin, PA.

𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻: 𝗣𝗲𝗻𝗻𝘀𝘆𝗹𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗮 and Ohio posted

GIRLS OPERATING AUTOMATIC MACHINES IN SMALL-COIL WINDING DEPARTMENT

WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC & MFG. CO. ~ EAST PITTSBURGH, PA.  ~ Early 1900s!

Facebook Reel, I didn't watch.

Westinghouse Air Brake in Wilmerding

3D Satellite

Michael Pearce posted
Westinghouse Air Brake Company WABCO

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted

View of the Westinghouse Air Brake Works in Wilmerding, Allegheny County in 1891. In 1890, George Westinghouse built a plant at Wilmerding, thirteen miles east of Pittsburgh along the Pennsylvania Railroad's Philadelphia-Pittsburgh main line. Soon, the Wilmerding plant sprawled across thirty acres. By 1905, it employed about 3,000 workers who produced 1,000 sets of brakes every day. William Rau took this photograph of the Westinghouse Air-brake works plant in 1891.

(Photo and text from http://explorepahistory.com/)

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted again with the same comment

Derrick Parfitt: Wilmerding Station at the left. [Pennsy]

Daniel C Carroll Jr. shared

Wilderding

Two different people colorized the second posting of the above photo.

Mark Griffith commented on the second post of the above photo.

Brandon Peck commented on the second post of the above photo.

Fort Frick Photography posted

The current day Wabtec (Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies) plant in Wilmerding, Pennsylvania.  

Wilmerding was one of the countries first planned towns as it was established to house workers after George Westinghouse moved his Air Brake plant to the area in 1889.  

Late last year I heard the announcement the plant was set to close by July (it may have already as I haven't heard update), and have been meaning to get back out there since I read the announcement.    I've photographed the historic Machine Shop before (far left), but the last time I was in Wilmerding a few years ago, the General Office Building "Westinghouse Castle' was under construction and couldn't get a photo of it without the scaffolding etc.  I'll hopefully get to those photos soon, and might even go again to redo one angle that I know didn't come out how I wanted.  

Out of all of the "Captains of Industry' of that age, George Westinghouse is one of my favorites the more I read about him.  He was a pioneer in many fields, and generally treated his workers well by all accounts.

Google Maps offered this as the signature photo for the town. I presume that is a likeness of George Westinghouse on the sign.

I.E Xam, Jun 2016

safe_image for Photo

1905 - Machine Shop

Westinghouse Air Brake

safe_house for Photo

Westinghouse Air Brake - 1905

Zoom in on this Masterpiece!  Turtle Creek Valley 

A different exposure.

McKeesport Past posted
General view of the Westinghouse Air Brake Plant in Wilmerding, 1905.

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted

Plant workers at a rally for full production at the Westinghouse plant located in East Pittsburgh, Allegheny County in 1944. With close to 125,000 workers at the height of the war, the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co. in Pittsburgh was one of the state's largest and most innovative companies. Boasting that it manufactured more that 100,000 products, Westinghouse produced everything from gun mounts to electric power plants for aircraft carriers powerful enough to light a city of 250,000 people. Contributions by engineers in Westinghouse's fabled Research Laboratories included critical breakthroughs in plastics, radar, x-rays, bombsights, and atomic energy. This photo is from the UE News Photograph Collection, Archives Service Center at the University of Pittsburgh.

(Photo and text from http://explorepahistory.com/)