Working rail roads and their tracks.

[Hay Dude]

Ah yes now you are into something I'm very, very familiar with.........

The real underlying reason SDI and other producers located in Indiana is... You are a RTW state so they don't have union issues. I retired from one of the subs btw. None of the SDI plants are union. Furthermore, most of the raw steel that SDI uses in their various operations comes from the mill in Butler, Indiana and it's a typical remelt (from scrap) mini mill with 3 electric arc furnaces.. Why Omni Source is a wholly owned subsidiary of SDI. It's part of their raw materials, IOW, scrap stream.

if it weren't for the generous tax breaks and the RTW status of Indiana, they wouldn't be there. One of the guys I hunt with is the General Manager of the Butler facility. Want to go on a tour sometime, let me know. I can arrange it. They have an excellent employee cafeteria, I've had lunch there many times.

No secret that companies are running to right to work states as fast as they can.
PA is heavily unionized and they cant plow the factories under any faster. Along with them go the rails.
Just watched National Rolling Mills get plowed under for retail shopping Along with it went the railroad.
I remember a time when PA had more miles of freight railroad than any state in the US. Now we are 5th.
Texas is 1st by a lot.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Since you mentioned hauling rails by train. This was when they were dismantling the RR.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

The aluminum plants in the Ohio valley were shut down years ago. They were the primary employer for the county.

My BIL worked at Weirton steel, also gone.

 

[MossRoad]

So it goes like this, only the train and sections are longer to get the 1600' sections.

 

[MossRoad]

Aluminum production requires bauxite and electricity. There isn't much bauxite mined in the U.S. Never has been. Only during WWII.

Bauxite mining in the United States - Wikipedia

 

[MossRoad]

More food for thought. Despite the loss of trackage, trains were hauling more tonnage in this chart which ends in 2000. I'd like to find current stats.

 

[RobS]

More food for thought. Despite the loss of trackage, trains were hauling more tonnage in this chart which ends in 2000. I'd like to find current stats.

View attachment 677810

I would expect it to be up significantly, just based on my observations.

 

[MossRoad]

I would expect it to be up significantly, just based on my observations.

Looks like you're gonna get a new overpass?

 

[5030]

No argument there. Probably a topic for another forum, though.

You brought it up, I just expanded on your comment a bit but knowing your style of moderation, stands to reason you'd say that....

 

[5030]

The aluminum plants in the Ohio valley were shut down years ago. They were the primary employer for the county.

My BIL worked at Weirton steel, also gone.

Hauled a lot of coils from Weirton steel. They ran a quality mill and believe it or not SDI bought a pile of Terne plate coils from them. Weirton Steel like the other mills on the river all suffered from the same issues, again, a suffocating union and unmanageable legacy costs plus lack of upgrading their infrastructure. You cannot stay profitable running 50 year old plus equipment.

Weirton had a really neat on site rail system. Many times, loading in various parts of the mill, you shared the loading facilities with trains and space was always tight. I remember many times the clearance between the trains and trucks was very minimal as in you didn't dare open your door or the train car would remove it.

The Union and legacy costs bankrupted Weirton Steel more than any one issue, just like the mill north of them The Ohio river provided cheap materials transportation cost (river barges), but it wasn't enough in the end.

I spent many hours there and hauled many tons of steel back to SDI in Butler as well as their other enterprises in Toledo.

Nice thing about hauling out of there was how heavy we could load legally. On permits, we could put 80 grand on the deck and be 100% legal on permits. 120,000 pounds gross in Ohio and Indiana on permits on 5 axles. A nice pair of 40K nuggets was always good and we were paid by the hundredweight.

Just remember the slow slog up Ohio 7 with the engine screaming. Once you got to Youngstown is was pretty flat from then on.

I bet Weirton is a ghost town now.