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Louis,
Very interesting. Even in my youth(back in the dark ages) we had boxes of nails from Northwestern Steel and Wire. Never saw Sterling Electric Steel before !
As comparison for the on fire pants discussion. Today a torchman looks like someone who is ready to walk on the moon when he's all suited up for work. Full face shield with fresh air supply, protective leather or fire retardant arm and leg shields, body vest, foot shields,etc. and handling a 6-8 foot long torch to boot.
When I look at the men in the yards,working in 90 plus degree heat, I have no idea how they can take it. Needless to say these are high turnover positions. On the other hand we have one little Irishman who's been a burner for over 30 years. How fast he makes a tank car into 3 X 4 foot plate is amazing. He loves his job.
Leo
October 20, 2015
Leo - As it used to be said in Chicago rail fan circles of the early and
mid-1960s, "In every box or roll of Sterling Electric Steel products there was a
steam engine!" Such existing packaging as shown below is now a collector's
item in itself.
<Untitled.jpg>
I got a few chuckles out of your comments about the NWS&W burner whose
pants were set on fire by another burner who was working too close to him.
This was a real danger for several reasons. One, a burner's bib coveralls and
winter jacket/cap were quickly dirtied by grease and grime off the locomotives
and other rail equipment he was cutting with either a long or short hand torch.
Two, a burner often wore the same grease/grime saturated work clothes day
in and day out until they literally fell apart (why change coveralls when
they would just be ruined on the next work shift). Three, and this was expressly
forbidden but often overlooked, an inexperienced or foolish burner would
sometimes blow the dust and dirt off of himself with raw oxygen from his set of
gas/oxygen hoses. You know, but for those who don't, oxygen and oil immediately
combust and the results can be quite spectacular if not deadly. So, getting a
"hot seat" from one of his workmates on the deadline was by far the least
indignity that your burner friend could've experienced.... Working in a
scrap yard was then as it remains today a dangerous occupation. Best Regards -
Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope, AL
And to think, these stalwarts of the industry were turned into
nails,screws and fencing !
A friend of mine, now deceased, worked as a torchman at NS&W after
WWII and had many stories of cutting up rail equipment. Including having his
pants set on fire by another burner working too close
Leo
Phillipp
October 19, 2015
Hol - Only a hand few of us in this Group have had any first hand
exposure to the deadline of Q and GTW steam locomotives at Northwestern
Steel & Wire in Sterling, IL during the early 1960s. The yard
tracks holding the scrap locomotives were within the steel mill
complex and strictly off limits to visiting rail fan photographers.
Trespassers were roughly ejected with a stern warning not to come back. If
they did, then they would be arrested. And don't even think about trying to
remove a builder's plate or other "souvenir." Just walking along the busy
CNW right-of-way that bordered the deadline had its risks from pesky CNW
gumshoes and frequent freight and passenger trains. Whereas NWS&W did
issue photography permits, they were only to be used on public roads
and right-of-ways to shoot photos of their GTW 0-8-0's that switched the
mill. The mill itself and adjacent company property holding the
deadline were largely inaccessible. Very fortunately, since
my Dad was a Q operating official and knew Mr. Dillion, NWS&W
president, Dad and I were allowed entrance on two occasions that I
remember to visit the deadline. And, fellow rail fan friend and Group member
Bob Campbell and I made one "unauthorized" visit deep into the heart of the
deadline on a freezing cold winter day, but that's a post for another
day. That being said, it's still difficult to describe the
large number and variety of scrap steam locomotives there awaiting
dismantling in 1963. There were locomotives of all sizes and descriptions,
branch line 4-6-0's to main line 2-10-4's, dirty freight 2-8-2's
to beautiful semi-streamlined passenger 4-8-4's, some locomotives decently
painted, others covered with rust, some locomotives with tenders appearing
to be in serviceable condition, others near-wrecks missing tenders and
coupled cab-to-cab, an expanse of sad, derelict locomotives whose time
had come. And tenders, yes tenders..... NWS&W burners had "gutted"
many large tenders turning them into scrap yard gondolas, still with the
locomotive's road number or company herald on their sides. I also saw coal
bunker portions of Vanderbuilt tenders that had been turned into large
hoppers for overhead gantry cranes to move scrap around the yard. By
that date, many of the Q locomotives delivered earlier had already
been cut-up. The Q had purged themselves of the Lincoln and Galesburg
deadlines during 1961, with the exception of those locomotives saved for
donating to on-line communities for display. The purged locomotives all
were sold to NWS&W to be scrapped. When the attached aerial image was
taken of the NWS&W dead line in 1961, all, or nearly all, of
the Lincoln and Galesburg dead line locomotives had
arrived there along with a large number of GTW
scrap locomotives. You might say it was their last great
"reunion." I tried counting how many locomotives are shown in the
image and I'd say there are at least 50. Over the years, I've heard
estimates of 1,400 (+/-) steam locomotives off the CNW, IC, NYC,
NPK, Q and GTW that were fed to the furnaces at NWS&W over
a 20 year period. Some 0-6-0 switchers off the CNW, IC and Q were used
to switch the mill until they failed and were ultimately replaced by the GTW
0-8-0's that some of us in this Group still fondly remember. Now being
nearly age 70, I can reflect back on how sad it made my Dad to see the many
Q steam locomotives there at the time. It represented to him a tremendous
visible change in culture and technology over what he had been
accustomed to up to that point in his career. The Q and railroading in
general of the 1940s and 50s that he had grown-up and matured
in as an operating officer was dying right there along side those
scrap steam locomotives and would never be the same again. Best Regards -
Louis
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