Hamilton, ON: Grain (& Fertilizer) Elevators and Winter Layup of 4 Lakers

G3: (Satellite)

Agrico: (Satellite)

Richardson: (Satellite)

The US ships grain from western farms to eastern markets using trains. Canada tends to do it with Lakers.

Janey Anderson posted
G3 grain terminal
[This is from the bridge of the Algoma Compass during its 2023 layup.]

Some more photos posted by Janey Anderson of her tour of the Algoma Compass.

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[Past the bow on the left we see some of the five domes of Agrico that store fertilizer. The company on this side of Agrico is Hooper Engineered Vessels International. The blue leg we see peaking over the fertilizer domes is the Richardson Port Terminal.]

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Good shot of the Atlantic Huron and Algoma Strongfield in this shot - they are all close here in layup.

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Algoma Mariner in layup astern.

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Peeking out the Windlass room! Atlantic Huron in view.
[This gives us a better glimpse of the two rows of bins of the Richardson Elevator.]

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Algoma Mariner astern.
[And a good view of the ship loader. Although the boom is rotated away from us.]

 

Longview, IL: Wood Grain Elevator Torn Down and Lost/C&EI Depot

Elevator: (Satellite)

Depot: (Satellite, a guess based on the aerial photo below.)

Don Webber posted
times up...Champaign County. Il.

Brad LaPayne: If it's that strong to hold up while being tipped over, there must be a lot of damn good lumber in it! Probably enough to build a house!

Danny Frye: The reason it stays together like that is the way the wooden bins are constructed. The planks laid horizontal, not vertical, in layers (like bricks) to form the bin box. The structure is then covered in metal to protect is from the weather.

Jerry Walch: What year did the demolition happen?

Don Webber: 2011

Don Webber commented on Danny's comment

Don Webber commented on his post
and it made it to the ground intact...then

That old elevator is not the only thing that got torn down. A current satellite image shows that all of the bins are also gone.

Google Earth, Oct 2010

The railroad was the Chicago & Eastern Illinois.

1956/72 Villa Grove @ 62,500

Carol Erb posted
Depot. Longview, Illinois

Dennis DeBruler commented on Carol's post
A C&EI depot. 1956/57 Villa Grove Quad @ 62,500

Feb 16, 1948 @ 28,400; AR1FO0000010065

Fort Wayne, IN: 1964 Ward Aluminum Corp.

Building #1: (Satellite, 642 Growth Ave. Just the three story building along Growth, but Google Maps won't let me drop a pin on that building.)

Building #2: (Satellite, 641 Growth Ave.)

Building #3: (Satellite, off-site for heat treating)

Building #4: (Satellite, 630 Growth Ave.)

<add link to knitting mills>

This company grew by buying more and more buildings left over from the Wayne Knitting Mills. [WardCorp_history]

"Ward Corporation is an aluminum foundry with engineering, casting, heat treating and machining divisions. Located in Fort Wayne, Indiana since 1964."  [Facebook Group Intro]

WardCorp_history

Photo, Sep 2025

I wonder who owns the office building in the right foreground. Building #1 is behind it, building #2 is the building on the left, and building #4 is the building in the right background.

Street View, Jun 2019

Apr 2016:

Ward Aluminum Company posted
Our new Furnace is here for setup

Ward Aluminum Company posted four photos with the comment: "New Furnace installation is underway!"

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1 of 16 photos added by Ward Aluminum Company to the album "New Equipment 2011" about installing this new piece of equipment. [The link to the album to which the photos were added is broke.]

[According to some photos that I saw on their web site, this is a tilt-pour permanent mold machine. I'd like to see a video of it in action.]

1 of 36 photos added by Ward Aluminum Company to the album "Foundry Makeover 2012."

A newspaper article about the founders and owners, Mr. & Mrs. Ward. Unfortunately, I hit a paywall of too many accesses in a 30-day period. But I don't remember accessing the Journal Gazette. Maybe you will have better luck.

This is the post that motivated researching this company. The fact that it has reused several of the Wayne Knitting Mills building was also a motivation.

Victor Tonsor posted two photos with the comment: "Ready to cast on this chilly Indiana morning. Ingot and Carousel lines."

Gary Heimbach: Looks like a nice setup but an empty line does not make any money. What are you melting? what are you melting with? I spent 16 years in an aluminum recycling plant.

Victor Tonsor: Gary Heimbach this is run off two remelt furnaces. Alloy 3004, 356, 5xxx, 6xxx, We have a shredder for rims that goes to remelt. Then for the electric furnaces we run chips fed through the top of the furnace by a network of 16" blow tubes

There are five furnaces where I work. Three EAF and two gas fed furnaces. The gas furnaces feed these lines. Location is Fr. Wayne, Indiana [Does Fort Wayne have any other companies that can melt aluminum? Ward's webpage lists the furnaces, but it doesn't have any photos of the melt department.]

Furnace just got a reline. Took this photo right before start up.

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Pittsburgh, PA: 1889-1979 Midvale/Hepenstall Steel

(Satellite, the land has been repurposed by National Robotics Engineering Center)

Lawrenceville Historical Society posted
For years, the Heppenstall company sign was a dominant feature of Lawrenceville. The company specialized in making industrial knives for cutting steel slabs and other specialty items, including dies and razor blades. The company folded in 1979, but the site remained vacant until RIDC prepared the site for Carnegie Robotics to move into the main building in 2014. This photo was probably taken by Bill Levendusky on July 8, 1969.

Erik Williams: In 2000 Tippins steel owed the property I refitted that building with a 2000a 480 volt service and 50 1000 watt MH highbay lights for them. The company that leased the building built the prototype presses for Fords hydroformed truck frames.

Lawrenceville Historical Society: Erik Williams Tippins bought the property in 2000 from the Allegheny County Industrial Authority for $1. Tippins sells it to RIDC in 2002 for $1,230,000.

Reshard Boyér: This is a rather unique photo, because Penn Central was created April 1st 1969, previous to this date this (NYC) locomotive would not have been allowed on these rails.

Nick Markowitz Jr. shared via Dennis DeBruler
Hepenstall.steel in background

“Examine the axle on your locomotive, the shafts that drive the propeller of your ship, and the propellers of your airplane,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette trumpeted in 1936, “and you will find that they are either manufactured by the Heppenstall Company or from its dies.” Even for those who didn’t own their own ships or lacked the will and SCUBA gear to examine their propellers life in the 1930s would apparently have been meaningless without Heppenstall. “Your food is delivered in cans sheared by [Heppenstall] knives and coated by Heppenstall tinning rolls,” the P-G continued. “Your frying pans, bath fixtures and even the steel sash in your windows are formed in [Heppenstall] dies.”

Founded in 1889 as Samuel Treathway and Co., the firm started out serving the steel industry by making steel rolls (to flatten out ingots into slabs) and shear knives, to cut the slabs to the desired size. But under the guidance of the Heppenstall family, the company diversified most notably into razors. According to a 1932 account, a vice president decided that Heppenstall should get into the business “after scraping his face with a dull safety razor blade.” This was a public service indeed: Previously, 80 percent of razor blades had come from Sweden, making us vulnerable to the wily Swedes and their unpredictable demands.

[pghcitypaper]

These old photos are a small sampling of what is available on hagley.

They used to have two blast furnaces. I wonder when they had them.

General view of works. Midvale Steel Company plant album (Accession 1974.362). 1905 (year approximate). AVD_1974362_001. Box 1, Folder 1, Audiovisual Collections, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. Accessed 2025-11-18; https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1974362_001.

9,000 ton hydraulic forging press. Midvale Steel Company plant album (Accession 1974.362). 1905 (year approximate). AVD_1974362_003. Box 1, Folder 1, Audiovisual Collections, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. Accessed 2025-11-18; https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1974362_003.

Group of steam hammers. Midvale Steel Company plant album (Accession 1974.362). 1905 (year approximate). AVD_1974362_012. Box 1, Folder 1, Audiovisual Collections, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. Accessed 2025-11-18; https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1974362_012.

Gun tempering plant No.3. Midvale Steel Company plant album (Accession 1974.362). 1905 (year approximate). AVD_1974362_022. Box 1, Folder 2, Audiovisual Collections, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. Accessed 2025-11-18; https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1974362_022.

Steel rifles on naval mounts. Midvale Steel Company plant album (Accession 1974.362). 1905 (year approximate). AVD_1974362_064. Box 1, Folder 4, Audiovisual Collections, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. Accessed 2025-11-18; https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1974362_064.

Power-house. Midvale Steel Company plant album (Accession 1974.362). 1905 (year approximate). AVD_1974362_025. Box 1, Folder 2, Audiovisual Collections, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. Accessed 2025-11-18; https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1974362_025.

This looks much more modern than the above equipment.

Power-house. Midvale Steel Company plant album (Accession 1974.362). 1905 (year approximate). AVD_1974362_024. Box 1, Folder 2, Audiovisual Collections, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. Accessed 2025-11-18; https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1974362_024.

The buildings now house the National Robotics Engineering Center.

Photo, Feb 2025

Sheffield, UK: 1905 The River Don Steam Engine in Kelham Island Industrial Museum

(Satellite)

Joshua Southward posted 23 photos with the comment:

A excellent visit to the River Don engine today and the Kelham Island museum. 

At 12,000 IHP she is a beast. 

Video to follow this weekend.

It ran a steel rolling mill

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I presume this is a Kelly-Bessemer furnace. A Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) would be too new for this museum.

Street View, May 2019

mark green, Jun 2021

I knew that Sheffield made knives.

Stephen Brook, Sep 2021

And I knew they made scissors.

Andrew Nell, Aug 2025

But they also made saws.

Carol Priddle, Jun 2023

Many saws. Do they collect more than one of each make and model of a handsaw? Or are there that many different models? It looks like the rope-based saw on the right is made with animal teeth!

Joanne Hutchinson, Aug 2021

Using steel instead of iron was a big deal before the Kelly-Bessemer Process was developed, it was very hard (i.e. expensive) to make steel. But steel would be needed for knives, etc., to hold a sharp edge. The first steel plows were made by recycling saw blades. They were better than iron in the Prairie states because the soil did not stick to them. That is, they were self-scouring plows. But I still wonder how steel was obtained to make the saw blades.

Carol Priddle, Jun 2023

In addition to saws, they developed tools to punch, scrape and measure wood.

Tracy Wragg, Dec 2023

In fact, more than one company manufactured wood working tools.

Andrew Nell, Aug 2025

And that company expanded to drill, plane, clamp, etc. wood.

Dragos Ionescu, Nov 2022

In addition to wood working tools, more precise tools were made.

Dragos Ionescu, Nov 2022

And surgical tools. I'm guessing most of these tools were made with stainless steel.

Nico Guerrieri, Jun 2021

But Sheffield made more than just tools. They were into different modes of transportation.

Automobiles

Alireza Maldar, Jun 2023

Ships

Jennifer Hollands, Sep 2023

Trains

Ashkan Lotfipoor, Jun 2023

And airplanes

Lana, Feb 2019

The town even made relish. But I don't know what was pressed to make relish.  I thought it was basically chopped up pickles.

Tom Mann, Jun 2021

A line-shaft workshop that still has some of its belts.

STEVE, Jul 2024

I'm surprised that there is still so much line-shaft action by WWI. And this is a reminder that women are allowed to work in factories during world wars.

S K, Apr 2024

An event space can turn a big, old industrial building into a money maker.

Trevor Joseph, Oct 2022