October 23, 2015
Leo - I suppose at some later date NWS&W rebranded themselves as
Sterling Electric Steel products. In the inserted image below, left to right,
NWS&W construction products in barrels, fencing and nail products,
the electrodes in the electric furnace used to melt cut-up railroad
scrap and a later company logo.
I'm still involved to a limited degree in consulting to a major US ship
recycling company. In seeing their Louisiana and Texas yards, I'm a little
amazed at how today's burners look, as you say, like they're ready to walk
on the surface of the moon what with all the safety equipment they have to wear.
It's a totally different industry today than what I was involved with some
40 years ago. Much safer and healthier for the workers in the scrap yard. About
the only thing that hasn't changed is a that gross ton is still a gross ton
(2,240 pounds). Still hope to see a NWS&W article some day. Best Regards -
Louis
In a message dated 10/20/2015 7:35:31 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
CBQ@yahoogroups.com writes:
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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Posted by: LZadnichek@aol.com
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