(Update: so it should have been in the other blog. It's not a big enough problem to try to fix.)
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| Screenshot @ -1:01 |
Sunday, February 24, 2019
First spherical pyrotechnics in the world
Fireworks is an industry. And this does seem to be historic. These were shot in Japan at Mount Fuji.
(Update: so it should have been in the other blog. It's not a big enough problem to try to fix.)
(Update: so it should have been in the other blog. It's not a big enough problem to try to fix.)
Saturday, February 23, 2019
Franklin C: West Frankfort, IL: Old Ben #9 Coal Mine
(Satellite, the mine closed in 1968, so there are no structures left)
The johnston_city quadrangle overlaps with the west-frankfort quadrangle. It is disconcerting that west-frankfort marks the overlapped area as HER (High-Extraction Retreat) whereas johnston_city marks it as RPP (Room & Pillar Panel).
Given that we see square lakes have already formed in this 1938 aerial photo, I believe the west-frankfort map is the correct one.
The square lake up by the tipple is probably a holding pond for mine wastes, but the squares south of the tipple are probably land subsidence.
The railroad coming in from the north was an IC branch. The railroad coming from the west was a CB&Q branch. The railyard we see in the old aerial on the west side of #9 was the Cambell Yard. It was jointly owned by CB&Q and IC. You can easily trace the abandoned IC branch north because it was straight and there are a lot of treelines left. The branch joined a still existing CN/IC branch near Muddy River.
It is a good thing that someone did not allow development over the HER mining area because it looks like there have been several more areas of subsidence.
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| TheSouthern, photo 12 of 27 The story that accompanied this photo, published in The Southern on Feb. 15, 1968, reads: "Old Ben Coal Corp. mine No. 9 at West Frankfort, the oldest operating deep shaft coal mine in Illinois, has closed down effective today, company officials announced. The last shift at No. 9 finished working at midnight Wednesday. The mine, which employes 311 men, closed because of 'the greatly changed character of present coal markets and the ever-increasing costs of underground mining in over-age properties,' according to a press release issued by Old Ben." TheSouthern Larry Joe Jenkel posted |
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| Dave Durham posted Old Ben Coal Mine 1920s, West Frankfort, Newberry Library, Chicago and the Midwest [I presume this is #9 instead of Old Ben #8.] |
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| west-frankfort from counties, p19 |
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| west-frankfort from counties, p i, 290% |
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| johnston_city from counties, p i, 80% |
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| 1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
The railroad coming in from the north was an IC branch. The railroad coming from the west was a CB&Q branch. The railyard we see in the old aerial on the west side of #9 was the Cambell Yard. It was jointly owned by CB&Q and IC. You can easily trace the abandoned IC branch north because it was straight and there are a lot of treelines left. The branch joined a still existing CN/IC branch near Muddy River.
It is a good thing that someone did not allow development over the HER mining area because it looks like there have been several more areas of subsidence.
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| Satellite |
Monday, February 11, 2019
Hollidaysburg, PA: NS/Pennsy Railyard, Roundhouse and Samuel Ray Shops
Railyard: (Satellite)
Curry Rail Services: (Satellite)
This yard was on a Pennsy branch south of the mainline that went through Altoona.
This yard was on a Pennsy branch south of the mainline that went through Altoona.
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| First photo in an album of 39 photos of this railyard (source) East End of Hollidaysburg, Blair County with the Pennsylvania Railroad Car Shops around the mid-1950's. (Photo from Daniel Stephen Sheterom via https://www.facebook.com/groups/AncestralHollidaysburg/) [The long white building was the Samuel Ray Shops that replaced the steam engine facilities in 1954. It manufactured, as well as rehabilitated, freight cars.] |
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| Jackson-Township historical preservation posted Pennsylvania Railroad Sam Rea Shops in the town of Hollidaysburg, Blair County. Originally built by the Pennsylvania Railroad at a cost of $14 million and opened in 1956, the (then) state-of-the-art Samuel Rea Car Shops employed over 1400 people and could produce 50 new freight cars each day. (Photo from Daniel Stephen Sheterom via https://www.facebook.com/groups/AncestralHollidaysburg/) Glenn Pupino: Imagine a time when 50 new freight cars a day were needed. James Fennell shared |
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| Jackson-Township historical preservation posted Pennsylvania Railroad Round House in the town of Hollidaysburg, Blair County in November of 1911. The Powerhouse can be seen at the left. (Photo from Thomas C. Ayers) |
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| Jackson-Township historical preservation posted Pennsylvania Railroad Roundhouse in Hollidaysburg, Blair County. This was ;pcated at the East end of Sam Reigh Shops. The hill in the background is where the East Loop Rd. came out of Hollidaysburg. (Photo from Jack Eichenlaub via https://www.facebook.com/groups/Altoonahashustle/) |
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| Jackson-Township historical preservation posted Pennsylvania Railroad Sam Rea Shops in the town of Hollidaysburg, Blair County. Originally built by the Pennsylvania Railroad at a cost of $14 million and opened in 1956, the (then) state-of-the-art Samuel Rea Car Shops employed over 1400 people and could produce 50 new freight cars each day. (Photo from Daniel Stephen Sheterom via https://www.facebook.com/groups/AncestralHollidaysburg/) |
This topo is after the roundhouse was removed, and the previous topo that is available is 1903. According to the 1903 map, nothing was built here back then.
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| 1963/65 Holidaysburg and Frankstown Quads @ 24,000 |
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| Another photo from the photo album Interior of the Pennsylvania Railroad Samuel Rea Shops in Hollidaysburg, Blair County in May of 1957. (Photo from Thomas C. Ayres via https://www.facebook.com/groups/AncestralHollidaysburg/) Thomas C. Ayers This is a production line view of H-36 Hopper Cars taken in May of 1957. Bert Veldhuizen I had no idea fluorescent lights were around back then? Ralph Ciccone They've been around at least since the 1930's. |
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| Jackson-Township historical preservation posted Here is an aerial photo of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Yards in Hollidaysburg, Blair County, that was taken by Thomas Hollyman around 1953. Looking East towards Frankstown, the Westbound Classification Yard is on the left and the Eastbound Receiving Yard is on the right. The Roundhouse has been demolished and preparations are being made to construct the half-mile long Samuel Rea Shop. All that remains from the "Age of Steam" is the wooden water tower in the center of the photo. (Photo from Thomas C. Ayers) |
The facility is now used by the Curry Rail Services.
It looks like they do more than freight cars.
Back when the photos in the album were taken, Pennsy had a branch east of Hollidaysburg that met its mainline in Petersburg.
There was also a north/south branch that went from Altoona down through Hollidaysburg and Bedford and met the B&O at Hyndman, PA. Norfolk Southern has retained the branch from Altoona to Hollidaysburg and Curry Rail Services. A couple of shortlines operate some of the remnants south of Hollidaysburg.
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| Curry Rail Services |
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| Curry Rail Services |
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| Curry Rail Services |
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| Curry Rail Services |
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| AJ Grigg's Abandoned Railroad Map |
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| NS System Map |
Saturday, February 9, 2019
Franklin Park, IL: Motorola (Quasar TV)
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| 3D Satellite |
Demolition began Jan, 2017 for a Digital Realty Data Center expansion. I noticed that Digital Realty Data Center already has a large building east of Martens Street. Schulze Bakery and RR Donnelley Lakeside Press are other examples of properties in the Chicagoland area that have been repurposed as data centers. Fortunately, the Schulze and Lakeside developments preserved their buildings. I'll admit that the Motorola plant is not as near as historic as the other two buildings.
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| Frank Lukashow posted Motorola building 9401 w grand ave franklin park il Judy Foertsch: I worked at Motorola on Augusta in the 60s and my husband worked at Motorola on Cicero in the purchasing department! One of his coworkers was George Lopez who was not a professional comedian at that time but kept the purchasing department in stiches! |
Terry Janas posted six images with the comment: "The Motorola / Quasar building that used to be on Grand Ave in Franklin Park. Photos from company shareholder reports (1956-1963)."
Tom White I'm pretty sure that place operated 24/7.
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| 6 George J. Zerante When we were kids we rode our bikes through the lower level. |
Just some piles of rubble are left in the Street View. The article linked near the top about Digital Realty expansion said they plan to recycle the building materials.
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| Street View |
A photo album of the buildings being torn down At the end of the second page is a video.
Friday, January 25, 2019
Fulton C: Cuba, IL: United Electric Coal's Cuba #9 Mine
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| Larry Senalik posted
Strip Mine - probably east central part of the state based on the other pictures in this collection 10/24/1951
#sangamonvalleycollection
James Stine Well, it took me a bit, but we can tell you where and what’s here. This is the United Electric Coal’s Cuba No. 9 which was located near Cuba, Illinois. The machines are a BE 950-B stripping shovel in the foreground and the W-1 Koble Wheel at the back of the cut or pit. James Stine If you look in the upper right hand corner of this photo, I believe that’s another 950-B belonging to Truax Traer Coal and is their Fiatt Mine. Alan Hummel That looks like County Route #5 and the TP&W [now Keokuk Junction Railway] track at the upper end of the pit. Must have been in the late 50's. |
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| One of several photos in a 1958 brochure provided by Charley Smart that describes the wheel excavator. |
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| Roger Kujawa posted United Electric Coal Mine 9 Cuba, Illinois. Wheel excavator. John Carson Great picture. When I was a child I remember stopping and watching a Wheel and Shovel pair work outside of Cuba Il. I remember seeing equipment like these mine along Il. Rt. 95 west of Cuba, and along the Canton -Cuba blacktop. I do not know if this particular Wheel and Shovel were the ones that were moved to mine the Banner Marsh area, but somebody knows for sure, I remember them sitting silent in a field near Banner, until they were disassembled and moved to the Industry Mine which was starting up. I met the gentleman who was an Engineer with Bucyrus-Erie, who was in charge of their reconstruction, and he showed me around several times during the process and I got to see the engineering blueprints. He told me that the Wheel originally started life as a Steam Powered Bucyrus-Erie shovel. Freeman United Coal Company came up with the idea for the wheel, which was a cooperative venture between B-E and Freeman. This wheel was either the first or second one. The thing that amazed me was this Engineer (I can't remember his name), was showing me these HUGE parts and explaining how this or that was worn out and had to be replaced. He knew them by sight to be good or bad. More amazing was Bucyrus-Erie had replacement parts in stock. I was up in the Cab of the Shovel several times while it was in operation. Nice little benefit of being a Deputy Sheriff on Night Patrol. As I understand, both the Wheel and Shovel from the Industry Mine were scrapped when it closed. . JCC |
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| Justin Curless posted United Electric Cuba Post Card Photo - Unknown Year: This Machine is Similar to another '' Wheel Machine" set up at the Fiatt Mine in about 1962.The back of the post card says . W-4 Kolbe Wheel Excavator , in operation near Canton, illinois. Constructed at United Electric's Cuba illinois,Mine,This 2100 ton Mobile giant was developed by Frank F . Kolbe. Powered by Electricity for overburden removal in open pit pit mining, it is this Nations largest in both size Capacity. Tall as a Fifteen story building and 420 Feet long,it's maximum capacity is 4,800 cubic yards per hour. Justin Curless posted United Electric Coal Strip Mine Excavator Cuba illinois 1950 S |
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| Justin Curless posted Shown here is one of the Cross-Pit Bucket Wheel Excavator Machines Built By The United Electric Coal Companies(Now Freeman-United Coal Mining Company).The one illustrated was Known as The W4 Kolbe Wheel,Named. after The Company's President Frank Kolbe. It Started work at the Cuba Mine in Illinois in 1959,and Could excavate at the tremendous rate of two million Cubic yards of overburden per month. The'Cross Pit Bucket Wheel excavator had its Discharge boom fixed in the same position as the digging Boom. Kent Beckner THEY DEAD HEADED IT CROSS COUNTRY T0 BUCKHEART MINE .I BELIEVE IT WAS 1967 IT WENT TO THE SOUTH PIT WITH THE 1650 |
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| Justin Curless posted Kolbe Wheel-Near Cuba Roman Keating Any mines still operate in Illinois? Myron Dudenbostel Peabody's Gateway Mine at Coulterville, Carter Coal has several underground and strip mines in the area also......... Lennie Hanner I work at Prairie State Generating Company's Lively Grove underground mine, in Washington County, near Marissa. Pat Willard W-4 on it way to Buckheart mine. Bill Richter Pat i have a full page out of daily ledger showing w4 crossing route 78 |
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| Justin Curless shared Stine James' photo In Jan. of 1959, at the Cuba Mine of United Electric Coal, the Kolbe W-4 BWX began its work assisting the 950-B shovel which had worked the mine since 1941. The W-4 was built on the lower works of the old Marion 5600 shovel and was the largest of it's kind in it's day. The dia. of the wheel was 27 feet with ten 2.5 yd. buckets and spanned the cut some 420 feet. She could move 3500 yds./hr and weighed in at 2100 ton. I believe this machine was moved to the Industry Mine in the early 1980's and had the lower works of the first 1050-B installed on it for service there. Bruce Weirauch's posting gives photo credit to Hedrick-Blessing |
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| Bruce Weirauch posted 1959 Bruce Weirauch posted |
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| Larry Senalik posted
Pana - 9/25/1950
no additional information on the photo
#sangamonvalleycollection
James Stine We believe this is United Electric Coal’s Cuba No.9 shops and prep plant. |
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| lewistown from counties, p12 |
I started by finding Cuba on the Google Maps road map. I could tell by all of the long skinny lakes that there had been a lot of strip mining in this area. [MetaLandscars]
The mine was opened in 1923 by building a spur north from the CB&Q line that ran from Galesburg to Havana. [Blog] The blog indicates the mine spur was west and south of Cuba. So I found a 1949 topo map that covered this area when the spur existed.
The mine spur left the CB&Q branch where the CB&Q track curved close to IL-97. So now that I know where to look, I found the 1938 aerial photos. 00rz05422 shows the mine spur leaving the branch. The one to the north is the one of interest and an excerpt is included below. It shows the land scars of strip mining already covering a significant amount of land.
Below is a contemporary satellite image of the same area. A problem with strip mining is that it buries the top soil with subsoil. I've seen evidence with other old mines that trees seem to be able to grow in the infertile subsoil. And they hide the ridges left by strip mining. The oldest aerial photo since 1938 that I could find was 1988. And the land already looks like it does today. You can tell by the 1951 date given for the photo at the top of these notes that at least basic land reclamation regulations had been written by then. The top soil was saved and used to not only to restore the land along IL-5, but some of the land mined by 1938.
At the bottom of the above 1938 aerial, we can see the CB&Q branch entering the frame. Below is a closer look at the prep plant. There is a small rail yard north of the plant. And, like a logging camp, they have built tracks to the North and East to access the active mining areas. The prep plant in the 1950 photo looks bigger than the one in this image.
The rail spur to the north was extended to give them access to the TP&W as well as the CB&Q. The coal mine was closed in 1971. [Blog] So the USGS has done a good job of updating the map to show the spur as abandoned. Their railroad connected to the TP&W in 1954. [David Jordan comment on a post]
It appears someone left a toxic waste holding pond. They build an earthen dam with the solid waste to hold the liquid waste. I assume the inside has been lined with clay and/or plastic to keep the toxic liquid out of the surface and ground water. Given the amount of land available around Cuba, I would have thought they would have built their school further away from the waste dump.
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| Satellite |
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| Havana, IL 1949 1:62500 after searching for Cuba IL |
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| 1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
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| Satellite |
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| Digitally Zoomed |
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| Burlington, IA 1958 (1976 ed.) 1:250000 after searching for Cuba IL |
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| Satellite |
738 UNITED ELECTRIC COAL CO. CUBA 9 STRIP 1923-1971 FULTON 6N 3E 28 [index]
I presume that the grey numbers below are index numbers. I don't know what the black numbers are. The index entry above for #738 indicates section 28. But I see the index number in Sections 14 and 13. Green (blue on a different monitor) is abandoned strip mining, pink is abandoned underground mining, and yellow is indefinite abandoned underground coal mine boundary. We saw in the 1938 aerial photo above that mining began in Section 28.
Cuba used to supply Wallace Power Station.
Roger Kujawa posted three images with the comment: "Old set of Postcards from United Electric #9 Coal Mine Cuba, Canton Illinois."
[At least the first one duplicates an image that is already in these notes. But it is worth repeating.]
Justin Curless shared
I presume that the grey numbers below are index numbers. I don't know what the black numbers are. The index entry above for #738 indicates section 28. But I see the index number in Sections 14 and 13. Green (blue on a different monitor) is abandoned strip mining, pink is abandoned underground mining, and yellow is indefinite abandoned underground coal mine boundary. We saw in the 1938 aerial photo above that mining began in Section 28.
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| Excerpt from Fulton County Mine Map |
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| lewistown from counties, p i |
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| Justin Curless posted, cropped and at posted resolution Shown here in this Photo is a little Story of Coal Mining. |
Roger Kujawa posted three images with the comment: "Old set of Postcards from United Electric #9 Coal Mine Cuba, Canton Illinois."
[At least the first one duplicates an image that is already in these notes. But it is worth repeating.]
Justin Curless shared
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| Justin Curless posted United Electric Cuba Coal Mine Complments photo of Carlos Shaw Montey Johnson I remember this move the highway had a dip in it from the crossing. |
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| Bruce Weirauch posted 1965 [At Facebook resolution] |
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| Bruce Weirauch posted 1 of 3 Alan Hummel Bruce, I couldn't find a date on this article. Do you know when it was published? Bruce Weirauch Alan Hummel 65 |
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| Bruce Weirauch posted 2 of 3 |
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| Bruce Weirauch posted 3 of 3 |
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| Roger Kujawa posted EARLY CUBA ILLINOIS Real Photo Postcard Strip Mine - United Electric Coal Mine Roger Kujawa posted with the same comment James Stine: I’m glad you got that Roger Kujawa. You beat me out on this one. This was the first stripping shovel to be mounted on crawlers. It a Marion 350. It forever changed the industry. |
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