Rick Rowlands

From a few weeks ago: http://wytv.com/2015/06/19/old-steel-locomotive-preserved-for-future-generations/

Another piece of Youngstown Steelmaking history preserved. Former US Steel Ohio Works diesel locomotive No. 73, which became McDonald Steel No. 777, has been donated by McDonald Steel to Youngstown Steel Heritage. I hope to have it running again within a couple of weeks. The 777 is one of the very last pieces of equipment to remain from the once vast Ohio Works. It can be seen sitting near the guard shack in this photo of the Ohio Works taken in 1981 before going to McDonald.

I filmed a video tour of the Youngstown Steel Heritage Museum yesterday for everyone who has not yet been able to pay us a visit.

Yes I believe it is still standing, although I haven't been by there in a couple of months.

Activity continues at the Youngstown Steel Heritage Museum as we prepare for the Tod Engine's 100th birthday celebration to take place on Sept. 20 and 21. The museum will mainly consist of one exhibit, a recreation of the interior of a rolling mill engine house, with our 260 ton, 4,000 horsepower rolling mill engine being the centerpiece. Our idea is to immerse visitors in the sights, sounds and smells of being in a steel mill and we will place a high priority on operating equipment and audio visual effects to recreate the drama of at least one part of the steelmaking process. How much of it we get done by Sept. is anyone's guess, but we will at least have the engine reanimated by then so its machinery can be seen in motion. This is what you see as soon as you enter our building. The engine was built in Youngstown. The crane was built in Alliance in 1893. Outside view of the south side of the property. We will be doing some work on the south wall this summer to improve its appearance. A planned addition to the building will be built on this side. For more photos go to our Flickr photostream. http://www.flickr.com/photos/33523379@N03/

McDonald Steel is still going strong. We visited them last September. 016 by Todengine, on Flickr No. 14 shape mill. Dates to 1918 and is still profitable. 002 by Todengine, on Flickr Shear at the end of the cooling beds.

The original plan for AC was to use 25 cycle power for electric motors and 60 cycle for lighting loads. Westinghouse actually planned on two completely separate AC systems because most equipment at the time was designed to operate at slow speeds, comparable to the speed of the steam engines they were replacing, and 25 cycle motors spin at much slower speeds than 60 cycle. But at 25 cycle, light bulbs flicker and that was unacceptable. Rhe idea of two separate electrical grids never caught on except in steel mills where slow speeds were essential and they were making their own power anyways. The third major electrical system in steel mills was 250 volts DC which was used to run most of the auxiliary equipment such as overhead cranes, roller tables, skip hoists, ore bridges, etc. DC motors are variable speed and series would DC motors are insanely powerful and have huge overload capability, essential for starting heavy loads from a dead stop.

The Tod Engine Heritage Park in Youngstown is a manifestation of a dream that I had back in the early 90s to create a true "steel museum" for the Mahoning Valley. Nothing like the sanitized version as handed down by Columbus at the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor, but something built by Youngstowners and incorporating examples of the equipment that gave the steel industry its unique place in American history. I formed a non profit organization now known as the Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation and went about trying to save the last of the gigantic steam engines that used to power the rolling mills. Built in 1914 by the William Tod Company in Youngstown, the "Tod Engine" became our centerpiece of the collection. At over 260 tons it is one of the largest stationary steam engines ever moved for preservation. . by Todengine, on Flickr This photo was taken a couple of months ago. The building that the Tod is housed in was built in 2009 and is designed to replicate a typical steel mill building with overhead crane. Even the overhead crane has historic significance. It was built in 1893 by the Morgan Engineering Co. in Alliance, OH and first installed at the Otis Steel Co. in Cleveland. YSM Aerial current property lines by Todengine, on Flickr This is an aerial view of the Tod Engine Heritage Park. The large grey structure is the Tod Engine building. Behind it is our "hot metal train" consisting of a diesel locomotive from Ellwood Engineered Castings in Hubbard and a Kling type hot metal car built in Youngstown by the William B. Pollock Co. In front of the building is half of a teeming ladle and an ingot mold which will become a very large steelmaking sculpture whenever I get around to completing it. . by Todengine, on Flickr The hot metal train. The museum still has a ways to go before we can be considered officially open, but we will be on site during regular hours in the summer of 2013. This is truly what can be done when just a handful of people get together to make a difference in their community. No taxpayer money has been harmed in the construction of this museum. Please feel free to visit us when the weather warms up. http://www.todengine.org

Well, I didn't know that I had such a following! Thanks for your support of our project. Last month we added another 110 tons of Youngstown significant steelmaking equipment to the collection, and currently I am working on another 100 tons worth. We're quickly running out of room at our Hubbard Road site! I'll post a few current photos of the museum project later on when I have a chance.

Chadslink, the intersecting street was Robinson Road. Which Struthers entrance did your dad use? There was the Walton Avenue entrance which was also on a bridge off of Poland avenue, and then there was an actual Struthers Works of YS&T off of Bridge Street. I have stuff stored in the former powerhouse at the Struthers Works, so I am curious if that is where your dad worked. The stationary engineer's office still exists in the powerhouse.

I too was amazed by the steel industry, although by the time I was old enough to know what I was looking at everything was closed. What really hooked me was sneaking into the Jeannette blast furnace plant in Brier Hill. It was an amazing place. That got the ball rolling on a sixteen year struggle to save as muxh local steel making history as possible. So far we have preserved well over 500 tons worth of machinery and equipment. I managed to take over 300 photos of the plant, as well as save over 10,000 engineering drawings of the entire Brier Hill Works.

www.todengine.org or just Google "tod engine" for more sites. Rick

I am kind of suprised that nobody has mentioned my project in this thread. In 1996 I initiated a project to save an historic rolling mill steam engine from the former Youngstown Sheet and Tube Brier Hill Works. In 2000 I purchased some property on Hubbard Road, and for the past ten years have been building a collection of historic steelmaking equipment known as the Tod Engine Heritage Park. The green thing is the Tod Engine, the crane was built in 1893 by Morgan Engineering in Alliance for a steel mill in Cleveland. I constructed the building last summer. (When I say I built it, I mean I BUILT it. No contractors used at all.) I ran out of time before winter came, thats why there are no end walls on the building yet. Those will be put up this year. In December we moved a 70 ton locomotive to the Park. This locomotive worked local industries for the past 55 years, and worked last at Ellwood Engineered Castings in Hubbard. My big project for this year is moving this 1903 era electric generating steam engine from the former Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel Steubenville plant to the Park. That is one of our volunteers standing next tothe 18' flywheel. The Tod Engine Heritage Park will, when finished, be open to the public as a museum of steelmaking history and technology. We intend to preserve and display authentic steelmaking equipment in an appropriate setting. It is all done by volunteer labor and donations.