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Caption: Industrial scenes are by far my favourite, as are industrial locomotives. I'd love to take one of these home, the throaty sound of these 8 cylinder 567's out of their minimal stacks is just amazing. I was forced to take a day off work over Christmas Break and spent half a day in Hamilton, and boy was this ever a productive day, every 30 minutes I was getting something new, and not just new, absolutely marvellous. Here's the story and some pictures which I posted some years ago, but I've only posted half the goodies I got this day. Here's one more. Sadly the action out of the front of Stelco has diminished recently, it's certainly not as busy as it once was.. but that *can* change.
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Great picture Steve. Blue and Yellow colours make me think of IKEA, or the Swedish flag.
The lack of anything but a coupler at the back (not even a brake hose) confirms that Stelco moves and stops railcars with just the locomotive brakes. Traditional plain (friction) bearing railcar axles would be a good choice for their private on-site railcars, less likely to roll away.
I love the wood wheel choks on either side of the front coupler.
US Steel wasted no time branding Stelco in their colours, I hope Stelco brings their branding back and eliminates these US steel colours.. but it hasn’t started yet.
I would imagine the bottle cars in the USS plant are friction bearings, but they aren’t being used for anything right now. There’s little on-site railcar use at the moment, tank cars for by-products of Coke making (or used in Coke making) and the odd Coil Car deliveries for loading.
The blast furnaces have to be turned back on for this to occur.. and this hasn’t happened (yet).
Somewhere in my mind, I don’t think any rolling stock at Stelco had brakes, air or hand brakes, except perhaps the hot metal laddle cars, and most likley the wooden wheel chocks were a ready supply for securing cars.I would have to confir with a friend that was a Trainman at Stelco regarding the brakes on Stelco cars.
I remember using the wooden chocks while spotting the TH&B rip tracks at Aberdeen car shops years ago, chock the wheel, stretch back 10 feet, chock the next car, back 10 feet, chock the next one.
This is where I had work back in March…passed this spot on the way in/out of the site! It’s an interesting area that’s for sure. Work can definitely take you into some interesting places. This unit was idling right next to the building I was working in
here is a “copy & paste” of a reply from another fellow regarding the wooden chocks and lack of hand / air brakes at Stelco
Hi Doug
You’re correct. The only equipment with hand brakes were the hot metal ladles. Locomotive air brakes were used exclusively to stop all in plant trains. If the cars were cut away and there was any grade, wooden wheel blocks were inserted by hand at a 45 degree angle to the railhead/flange before uncoupling. Bins of wooden blocks cut by the carpenter shop from 3 x3 material could be found throughout the yards particularly at scale houses and blast furnaces. The little pockets above the foot boards were to hold a few blocks, something added during later rebuilds. Blocks were also used under the blast furnace cast house flor to ensure there was no movement when molten iron was filling the ladle. Some of the oldest rolling stock did have friction bearings, but these were often purchased second hand and reused within the plant. Newer cars had roller bearing trucks.
Kevin: There should be 3 units active on the roster: 89, 84, and 90. I haven’t seen 90 since 2011 but I’m fairly certain it’s still there.
85 was sent away to Nanticoke in May 2011 at the time still in Stelco orange.
There may be a GE 80? (65 ton ballasted to 80) tonner outside at the plant still – have an eye if you go back there
Number 51.
I believe that 83/87/91/92/93 were shipped out/transferred over the years (since 2006)
Doug great info – thank you.
I shot 92 at the SOR yard being shipped out on 7/1/2007.
90 was shipped to nanticoke in 2019 leaving just 84 and 89. A new trackmobile is also being used. Sadly I think it’s over for locomotoves. Hope i’m wrong.