An interesting addendum to Leo's post concerns the
fact that, in the "early" years, the mills found it
impossible to rid themselves of the enormous piles of
slag that accumulated over time. Someone, steel
industry or RR people, decided the slag might make
good ballast. It DID. The mills were anxious to
"unload" the stuff and the RR's became quite happy to
get it for FREE and use it - - hence the Eola "slag
pile".
This arrangement worked well for a long time. Then,
one day, the mills began to realize the value of the
free slag to the RR's. In a market-driven economy the
invertible happened - - - the mills began to CHARGE
the RR's for the stuff - - hence, the demise of the
Eola slag pile.
The Q used every last "rock" before biting the bullet
and BUYING the slag.
As an aside, slag is the product of the purification
process of molten steel. With a "heat" in the pot a
generous amount of limestone is dumped on top of the
molten steel. Limestone will collect nearly all of
the impurities in the steel mixture so when the pot is
poured the slag comes off as a round slab of extremely
hot matter and is taken to slag piles to cool.
To produce ballast the "round globs" were crushed to
specific sizes and, ultimately, distributed to the
RR's. The product of this process contains many
colors - - blue, green, gray, real pretty.
Karl
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