Consider playing Bruce Springsteen's YOUNGSTOWN (Live from the Stambaugh Theatre in Youngstown 1996) as you scroll through the pictures...

 

PART TWO (For Part One, see  http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,17134.0.html)

 

Those of us who were living in the Mahoning Valley and aware of the issues at that time always will remember what a traumatic and pivotal day was Monday, September 19, 1977. Thirty years later, our historical perspective tells us that day marked the beginning of the end of the region’s iron and steel industry as it had been known in the community and throughout the world for several generations. But the impact and aftermath of Black Monday news meant so much more to Valley residents then and now.

 

The notification by The Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company of shutdowns and massive layoffs at their Campbell Works on that day was followed by similar announcements at Sheet & Tube’s Brier Hill Works, all of U.S. Steel Corporation’s District operations and the Republic Steel Corporation in Youngstown between 1979 and 1981. In all, more than 10,000 good paying jobs were lost in the local steel industry. Thousands more jobs were lost in supporting and related businesses such as construction, trucking, railroading, foundries and steel fabrication. Large portions of the real estate and income tax base for local governments in McDonald, Youngstown, Campbell and Struthers evaporated in a matter of months.

-- H. William Lawson, Executive Director

  The Mahoning Valley Historical Society

from: http://mahoninghistory.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

 

Who killed Youngstown's steel industry? Quite frankly, it killed itself through suicidal self interest. Steelmakers treated workers poorly and gave rise to combative unionism and a loss of corporate self-determination. The companies then failed to invest in modernizing their facilities. Steelmakers and city officials also fought to prevent other materials industries, such as manufacturers of aluminum and plastic, from coming to Youngstown. They would have diversified the city's steel-dependent economy.

 

The United Steelworkers, buoyed by victories over working conditions and decent pay, continued their demands and strikes until they were paid better, on average, than other industrial laborers. Meanwhile railroads fought Congressman Michael J. Kirwan's lake-to-river canal that would have given Youngstown's mills lower-cost transportation of coal, iron ore and limestone.

 

When such an industrial juggernaut falls, it truly takes a team effort to kill it. These photographs document the fall of the industrial powerhouse that was Youngstown.......

 

In 1974, as this Pittsburgh & Lake Erie railroad switcher moved a cut of cars across the Mahoning River in Campbell, few could have predicted Youngstown's collapse. In the background is Youngstown Sheet & Tube's Campbell Works, which was pouring out molten steel and prosperity:

 

It is winter 1977, months before the city hears that Youngstown Sheet & Tube will close its Campbell Works, laying off 5,000. But it was just the beginning:

 

Not everyone assumed the good times would last. Some workers speculated the opposite, especially following the 1969 purchase of Youngstown Sheet & Tube by the Lykes Corp. Suddenly, improvements were no longer being made to the mills. Workers remarked that steel was being made in Youngstown in the same archaic manner as it had for a century, despite the advent of modern processes like electric arc furnaces and continuous casters. None of that was evident amongst scenes like this which gave rise to the term "Rust Belt" (though much of the rust was due to iron ore dust):

 

More rust, as a switcher moves an empty hot metal car, or "bottle car" which shipped molten metal to rolling and stamping mills throughout the Mahoning Valley. These trains were EVERYWHERE! But they would soon disappear:

 

Can't you just smell the "rotten eggs"? That's a sure sign that high-sulphur coal is being used for the blast furnaces. Barring the installation of costly scrubbers, high-sulphur coal could no longer be burned in steel mills and power plants. Most of that coal came from Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Plant owners weren't willing to install the multi-million-dollar scrubbers, considering all the other high-cost features of Youngstown's mills:

 

The Sept. 19, 1977 "Black Monday" shutdown of Youngstown Sheet & Tube's Campbell Works started the house of cards falling. Locked doors on steel mills and supportive industries became commonplace:

 

Youngstown didn't take the closing of the Campbell works lying down. Their resolve intensified in early 1979 when the Lykes Corp. announced it would close the Brier Hill Works. The year before community and workers, under the leadership of an ecumenical coalition, sought to buy the Campbell Works and reopen it. Much of the financing depended on $100 million in federal loan guarantees which President Carter nixed. The fate of the loan (and the mill) was evidently known on March 17, 1979 when this somber procession carried a cross from the south gate of the YS&T's Campbell Works:

 

 

The United Steelworkers held a Save Our Steel jobs rally on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1979 on Federal Plaza in downtown Youngstown (note the sign accurately predicting the fate of US Steel's Ohio Works -- photos of it are coming):

 

 

Shortly before demolition, the four blast furnaces at the massive Campbell Works stood silent, seeing their "active light brown rust" give way to "inactive dark rust" suggesting imminent death. Locals awaited their next sounds -- a series of explosions followed by cutting torches and machinery to haul away the steel corpse:

 

In 1986, portions of the YS&T Campbell Works still stood. By the end of the next year, nearly all traces of it would be gone:

 

In 1990, no remnant of the blast furnaces and coke plants of the YS&T Campbell Works remained. Several rolling/stamping mill buildings still stood, however:

 

Compare that photo with the first view in this Part Two:

 

Youngstown Sheet & Tube's other plant in the Mahoning Valley was its Brier Hill Works. It was phased out of operations throughout 1979, 135 years after Brier Hill Black coal was found nearby and gave birth to the local iron and steel industry. Nature was reclaiming the mill in 1990. It was dynamited in 1997:

 

By the mid-1990s, much of Youngstown's Mahoning River valley, once lined with 20 miles of bustling steel mills, supportive industries and other places where 40,000 worked, was returning to nature. A Conrail train on the former Pennsylvania Railroad headed westbound in 1995 past YS&T's Brier Hill Works and briefly shattered the silence. This place housed the Jeanette Furnace or simply "Sweet Jenny" that Bruce Springsteen sang about in his song "Youngstown." Preservationists tried to save Jenny, but she was dynamited in 1997:

 

This was a part of the Jenny that was dynamited 15 years earlier, shortly after the Brier Hill Works was shuttered in 1979. "My Sweet Jenny is coming down, way down in Youngstown":

 

 

Not everything was demolished. Mother Nature did that in lieu of many absentee industrial landlords in Youngstown:

 

Next to close was U.S. Steel in 1980, including its Ohio Works and MacDonald plant. The Ohio Works is shown below in 1981, as a steam excursion train rolls past the silenced plant where 4,000 had labored:

 

While a portion of the MacDonald plant reopened under new owners (as the MacDonald Steel Corp.), USS's much larger Ohio Works never saw activity again. That is, until Aug. 7, 1984 when dynamite shattered the silence and brought down the three massive blast furnaces while brawny men watched and openly wept:

 

In fact, all three blast furnaces at the Ohio Works were felled at the same time, officially ending the plant's 90-year history, yet more demolitions were coming:

 

In 1990, only the Ohio Works' gantry crane and coke plant still stood:

 

Compare the above with the 1964 photo-accurate Fogg painting from Part One:

 

Or compare the photo with the steam excursion passing U.S. Steel's Ohio Works in 1981 with how the scene looked in 2000:

 

Railroads also began to rust away in the Mahoning Valley. This is the former Lake Erie & Eastern, once a very busy "bypass" railroad run by the P&LE "over" the city's other busy railroads. Here it is next to the long gone Ohio Works -- though its coke plant is still active in the distance. In 1990, it was only a couple years before the LE&E would be ripped up:

 

This former Pennsylvania Railroad yard near the Ohio Works was devoid of tracks since the mill that fed it, and vice versa, was gone:

 

Photographer George Bennett captured the sadness of the Youngstown steelworker in 1980. A ray of light shines down on worker Carroll Megginson while the fires of a mill furnace still glow nearby, but not for long:

 

Organized crime only strengthened its grip on Youngstown when the mills closed. Other crimes also increased including murders, domestic violence, drug use, giving the city the reputation of "Murdertown USA." That reputation was displayed on the cover of the New Republic magazine in this way:

 

Small portions of much larger steel mill complexes survived under new owners, including this former Republic rolling mill just east of downtown in 1986:

 

P&LE's Gateway Yard officially closed in 1993 after just 36 years of operation when the railroad was acquired by CSX Corp. But little traffic was being handled by the yard near its end. In 2005, the yard's tower was a window-less, shattered shell:

 

We conclude Youngstown's industrial story by showing the fall of the Republic Steel Haselton Furnace, starting in 1972 when it was still active. In good times, Youngstown's mills were active 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This was one of those good times:

 

The Republic furnace closed in 1981, but portions of the plant were occasionally active until 1984. These two pictures are from Center Street in 1981:

 

 

I took this photo of the mill and the Center Street bridge in 1987. Ten years earlier, I rode across this bridge on a cold night while steam and flames shot up all around our car. It was like taking a drive through hell, but without any of the guilt or regrets. My only regret is that I wish I had visited more often and taken more pictures:

 

Also in 1987:

 

Republic Steel's Haselton Furnace is coming down in May 1989:

 

With the Republic mill gone, there was no reason for CSX's mainline to snake around it anymore. The maze of tracks was no longer there either with the loss of most other steel plants, too. So the railroad simplified its Center Street junction and straightened its tracks through the former Republic mill property:

 

Steadily, evidence of the city's dominant steel industry disappears piece by piece until soon it may be all gone. Without photographs from the past, you might never know what stood here for more than a century and helped build a nation:

 

Without the steel mills, much of Youngstown has become a rural area, especially in the valley. Even the half-mile-long steel truss Center Street bridge has been replaced by concrete spans and earthen fills where tracks and pipes and conveyers and other steel facilities once ran:

 

But that was then (1968)....

 

This is now (same exact angle and location in 2008).....

 

Dear Youngstown, thank you for your incredible industrial service to our country and the world. You taught us how to make amends and treat workers responsibly, win world wars and cold wars, and make us feel so small like children in watching your immense steel production facilities hiss and roar like something only Mother Nature could create. But it was the will of men who created you Youngstown, and it was the will of men who destroyed you. In Youngstown, we made steel.

 

And you died too soon.

These places employed a good number of my relatives for a number of years ohh great memories to bad it's much different now...

Awesome thread.  I've spent a fair amount of time there and it is a truly fascinating place.  I'll thing I have some pictures of the company houses in Campbell as well as the mill off of Albert St. 

 

On a side note does anyone from ytown happen to know what the large building is off of Powers Way?  I've seen it the last few times I've been in the area visiting family but it doesn't seem to be progressing much.  Thanks.

Again, fantastic job!

It is heartbreaking to see and remember what Youngstown was like back then. Although I was very young when the mills started closing in the 70's, I do remember what it was like. As I have said before, my grandparents emigrated from Italy to work in the mills. I also had uncles that worked there as well, in those days everybody knew somebody that worked at the one of the mills.

 

Excellent thread, thanks for putting this together.

Pretty awesome pictures for such a sad thing..

Ah, the rotten-egg smell. I remember my brother and I taking a train from Dover to Youngstown with my grandma in the summers in the early 60s. My Uncle Roy would pick us up at the station and drive down through the Valley to the house on Midlothian. For years afterward, my brother and I thought the smell was Uncle Roy's car.

wow!

We are so incredibly dumb and short sighted... :cry:

Just an impressive set.  I don't know if it's intentional but (it seems to me at least) that  this was a great set to have on the week running up to the Labor Day weekend.

 

 

P&LE Yard, Struthers, circa 1986. Nothin' goin' on; not a single train arrived, departed or passed through overnight.

 

 

Headed to Ashtabula, meeting a southbound train of ore jennies.

 

 

 

Here's some videos, many of which have photos in their montages that will look very familar. The Springsteen videos will bring a tear to your eye, especially the way Bruce sang it live in Youngstown in 1996. Also, the crowd got more quiet as the song went along...

 

Bruce Springsteen: YOUNGSTOWN (Live at the Stambaugh Theatre in Youngstown, OH 1996)...

 

Springsteen "Youngstown" Montage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVXYzcb3r-w&feature=related

 

Lost Youngstown: Part I - metromonthly.net

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LLmT4Ao-m8

 

Youngstown, Ohio, Part One - CoxWashington

 

Youngstown: Fall of the Steel Valley

 

Decline of Midwestern Civilization

 

Youngstown, Ohio: 1973 - A look back

 

1960s Youngstown - E. Federal St. - metromonthly.net

 

Downtown Youngstown - April, 1964 - metromonthly.net

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dzcti-GcA0&NR=1

Thanks to all for your comments. It's obviously a subject I care very deeply about. Sometimes when I'm in Youngstown, my heart aches because I can remember what it was like.

 

As for the timing of this thread, I wasn't consciously thinking of Labor Day. But for some reason this time of year I think about our nation's and region's industrial standing. It may be that I come to expect those feelings and contemplations since Labor Day is associated with late summer. It's also when Black Monday happened. And while I don't remember that event specifically, I somehow associate fall as when decline happened. Perhaps it's just that fall is when the growing season ends. I couldn't say. But I have some associations that automatically happen this time of year and my thoughts often go back to Youngstown.

Thanks for the threads, KJP. I recall driving along the Ohio River through the Youngstown - Steubenville area around 1963 and seeing an almost endless procession of ore trains on the tracks that are, for the most part, no longer there.

 

Here are three from last week's visit to Youngstown. I'll have a bunch more when I get home where it's much easier to work with them.

 

 

There were photo murals and reproductions of old movie posters and other expressions of optimism posted on this old theatre, but on the second level a fire door had been kicked in from the fire escape so long ago that the unrepaired damaged was rusty and decaying.

 

A sculpture outside the Historical Center for Industry and Labor. If you haven't visited this, I recommend it strongly. It's walkable distance from the Butler Museum, and overlooks downtown.

There were photo murals and reproductions of old movie posters and other expressions of optimism posted on this old theatre, but on the second level a fire door had been kicked in from the fire escape so long ago that the unrepaired damaged was rusty and decaying.

 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the Liberty-Paramount Theater is doomed.  Those murals were a recent (within the last year or so) addition by a local artist to cover the blank plywood.  They have nothing to do with a possible restoration. :(

 

--edited to add--

Since old videos are being posted in this thread, here is a recent addition to the collection of Youngstown related videos on YouTube:

Absolutely amazing KJP and greatly appreciated. I am truly moved.

 

Dear Youngstown, thank you for your incredible industrial service to our country and the world. You taught us how to make amends and treat workers responsibly, win world wars and cold wars, and make us feel so small like children in watching your immense steel production facilities hiss and roar like something only Mother Nature could create. But it was the will of men who created you Youngstown, and it was the will of men who destroyed you. In Youngstown, we made steel.

 

And you died too soon.

 

Well said

Thanks Clvlndr in LV

 

And that video was awesome, JRC. I'd love to get a DVD of that.

And that video was awesome, JRC. I'd love to get a DVD of that.

This movie was posted on the Shout Youngstown blog, (http://shoutyoungstown.blogspot.com/2008/07/this-is-my-hometown-1944.html) and one of the comments was this:

The Mahoning Valley Historical Society has this program available on DVD for $15. Contact lrich at mahoninghistory dot org for more information.

Thanks! I will do just that.

what a elegiac couple threads. let that be a lesson, do not to put all your eggs in one heavy industry basket....unless it's a longaberger.

Interesting discussion of the labor situation in Youngstown-Warren on this Labor Day weekend. Some pleasant surprises in the data.....

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,17190.0.html

Updated with new YS&T Campbell Works photo circa 1980, immediately before demolition.

 

EDIT: Also added photos of rallies in the late 1970s to save the steel mills.

 

EDIT2: Added another photo of the Ohio Works demolition and corrected the date.

Some labor day lessons......

 

http://www4.vindy.com/content/local_regional/289860843775800.php

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

 

About 10,000 steel jobs were lost in less than three years after Sheet and Tube...

 

 

For local blogger's thoughts on Black Monday, click here:  http://new.vindy.com/local/blogosphere/

 

For the Steel Town Bust ( Audio Slide),click here:  http://www.coxwashington.com/news/mplayer/m/29387

 

 

By MARILYN GEEWAX

COX NEWS SERVICE

 

CAMPBELL — Like a stomach punch, the news hit men so hard they bent over — tried to breathe, but couldn't.

 

On Black Monday, Sept. 19, 1977, the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. announced its Campbell Works on Youngstown's East Side would close, wiping out 4,100 jobs.

 

"We thought we'd be there until we retired," said Robert Shaffer, who as a 47-year-old Steelworker was stunned when the calamity hit him. "I thought I'd get a good pension."

 

 

After the Campbell Works went cold, one mill after another shut down along the Mahoning River, eliminating some 10,000 steel jobs in less than three years. Tens of thousands of additional jobs disappeared for suppliers, fabricators, truckers and others.

 

 

...........

Found lots more photos and took some of my own on Sept. 16, three days before the 31st anniversary of Black Friday (the announcement of the first mill shutdown in Youngstown).

 

Today, without some guidance, it's hard to tell what was what. So I've included some then-and-now scenes which demonstrate how dramatic the changes have been in such a short period of time:

 

First, some historical reference. This is a view typical of many along the Mahoning River from the 1800s until the 1980s. The truss bridge in the background is the Center Street viaduct, with Republic Steel's Haselton Works on both sides of the barely moving and probably stinky river:

 

 

 

The same area today, but obviously not along the river. This is Poland Avenue which is next to where the above shot was taken, between downtown Youngstown and Struthers/Campbell. Today it's virtually rural:

 

 

 

The same stretch of Poland Avenue (at lower left of this photo) but in the 1950s:

 

 

 

Where did the steel mills go? I found pieces of one of them at a scrap yard. See the kink in Poland Avenue in the photo above? These photos were taken looking toward the river at that location:

 

 

 

 

 

On the Struthers side of Youngstown Sheet & Tube's massive Campbell Works (the first mill to shut down in Youngstown), the view of the plant must have been awe-inspiring:

 

 

 

Today, the view is less impressive (note the steel truss railroad bridge is still standing today, as is a former YS&T rolling mill building in the trees):

 

 

 

Yep, some YS&T buildings still stand. This was taken from the roadway that used to be the Struthers-side plant entrance to the Campbell Works. This road and bridge was removed some 20 years ago but recently put back to make the former YS&T site more marketable as a development site. This was taken from Walton Road hill:

 

 

 

This is what the same area looked like in 1937 during the Little Steel Strike. The bus is on Poland Avenue and Walton Road hill is to the left, just out of view and heading behind the photographer:

 

 

 

This plot of green is the former YS&T Campbell Works, though some rolling mill buildings still stand in the background. Some 80-90 percent of the mill was demolished 20 years ago however:

 

 

 

The only remaining portion of what was Pennsylvania Railroad's huge Haselton Yards, now owned by Norfolk Southern. This is westward view is from the Walton bridge (former YS&T plant entrance). The track at the far left is the former Lake Erie & Eastern, which was one of the last railroads built in the valley to bypass heavily congested steel-oriented freight traffic on existing lines. Today the LE&E is the property of an Ohio Central subsidiary:

 

 

 

Heading back toward Youngstown, I stop at Center Street.

 

This what the eastward view looked like from the bridge in 1968. This is part of Republic's Haselton Works:

 

 

 

Here is the same view from the EXACT same location today:

 

 

 

During World War II, more railroad freight cars passed under this half-mile long bridge (when it was a steel truss) than under any other bridge in the world. This is in 1968, the year after I was born:

 

 

 

Today, crickets are the dominant sound, with occasional passing cars and wild dogs chasing rodents through the underbrush. Not only is this the same location as above, but taken at the EXACT same angle as above (yes, the tracks were dramatically realigned in the 1990s):

 

 

 

 

About 50 times per day, a freight train passes this location. Back in the day, more than 300 trains daily passed this location:

 

 

But I'll end this update on a positive note. This appears to be new industrial construction along Poland Avenue, near its intersection with Center Street. It appears as if construction has stopped or slowed, based on another forumer's post in this thread. Hopefully that's not the case. This appears to be a mini-mill or similar structure under construction:

 

Powerful stuff, KJP.

 

Awesome work.

wow.

Rolling Stone recently had a crushing critique of Youngstown based on old lore and class bias--murder capital BS and "armpit of Ohio" were cited. Having grown up in Warren and attending YSU right after big steel fell I can tell you this: it does not get MORE real than Youngstown, Ohio. It is not a bad place, but it is a place that demonstrates as many have pointed out "putting all you eggs in one basket." I don't know if it will ever come back, but maybe it can be better as a small community.

Youngstown's economic catastrophe was tragic, but there's still a lot to like about the city, and its people, at least the ones I met, are among those assets. I just hope they can reestablish a sufficient economic base soon enough to preserve and utilize the good artifacts, structures and public works that have survived.

I don't think of Youngstown as an "armpit" at all. In fact I absolutely love the city and the fact that it is still fighting to reinvent itself keeps hope alive. If many superficial cities like L.A. or Las Vegas or Miami had to go through what Youngstown endured, I doubt whether any of them would still be on the map. In many ways I feel sorry for Youngstown and in other ways I greatly admire its survivability. Yet I cannot shake the images of the last 30+ years which I've personally experienced from having family there and working with Youngstown's city officials in the 1980s and early 1990s. In a way, the city actually haunts me, probably because I see it as the poster child of a part of America's industrial prowess that died yet never should have been allowed to die. Indeed, none of us should forget what happened here but we also shouldn't let it weigh down and prevent Youngstown from emerging as something better.

Very interesting!

For those of us who came of age when America was still an industrial powerhouse, who can remember looking out from a workplace on an upper floor of a five-story factory building in a complex that employed 5,000 people and is now dark and half-razed, across a city where smokestacks still smoked and people built heavy trucks and forged iron and steel and made automobile pistons and axles and copper wire and motors and transformers and gas pumps, where downtown streets on Saturdays were busy with shoppers, where transit buses ran from 5 a.m. until midnight and many of them were full - some packed to standing, and where now-dangerous neighborhoods were pleasant working-class neighborhoods with schools the kids could walk to safely, for us it's beyond interesting. It's like looking at the aftermath of a war.

As someone who was born after Black Monday and only heard stories of the mills, all that I can say KJP is wow. Seeing all of those pictures really puts a new perspective what was lost. Thank you for putting these together.

Thanks! I'll occasionally update this thread. I have more pictures, but not the time to add them -- yet.

Added about a half-dozen new pics today.

Hello,

 

please permit me to share my enjoyment about the outstanding collection of historic steel-mill photographs.

It is a real shame, that this kind of beautiful industrial landscape has been wiped out almost completely in Youngstowns and most other areas.

I visited Youngstown in 1992 in the course of a trip to the "rust belt".

Almost everything was gone in Youngstown, but at least "good old Jeannette" was still there.

See photographs on my website:

http://hfinster.de/StahlArt2/archive-Youngstown-en.html

I had a wonderfult time at Youngstown and would like to say "thanks" to all the kind people I met there.

The only bad experience was the "Italian" ice which consisted mostly of glucose-syrup and artificial colorants  :wink:

 

Kind regards from Aachen (Germany)

 

Harald

 

Just discovering this piece on Youngstown- fantastic KJP, fantastic. I'm a long time railroad buff, so naturally the Youngstown area was an interest to me. I managed to catch the last few good years around the railroads in Youngstown, and actually still go there on occasion nowadays for photos. I won't get into the politics of all this other than to say I'm seeing a replay of sorts with the auto industry in Ohio. I work for Norfolk Southern in the Cleveland area, and have seen firsthand what the closing of Chrysler Twinsburg has done to us and many others. What I will do is share a few links to some Youngstown RR photos I took. (In the future I'll attach directly)

 

  RAD

 

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=139844&nseq=54

 

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=61106&nseq=73

 

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=60207&nseq=75

 

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=60471&nseq=74

Thanks to both of you for your comments and welcome to UrbanOhio!

 

Harald, I've been through Aachen on the train from Brussels to Cologne (er, Koln!). It's a very pretty area with rolling hills. Very much like eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. And I suspect you've heard that the Cleveland - Youngstown - Pittsburgh industrial corridor was once called the "Ruhr of America."

 

Erie833, glad you found this thread, and hopefully the companion thread "In Youngstown, we Make Steel (1803-1977)." Great photos! I've seen some of your work in the past and hot-linked to some of your pictures. I hope you visit the transportation section of UrbanOhio, especially the railways area.

BTW, Erie833, in your photo shown at:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=139844&nseq=54

I'm having trouble placing the location. Is this looking west on the LE&E from the Center Street bridge?

^ Yes. Site as of 2007:

Thanks Florida Guy.

 

1979 LE&E: Two tracks with shiny rail heads, new ties waiting to be installed, all of it alongside a Republic Steel mill that's still ticking.

 

2007 LE&E: One streak of rust that doesn't go much farther west than Center Street and a mill structure that looks like it's barely able to stand.

You're welcome. Plus the abandoned train in the first pic.

KJP,

 

I reread this thread from front to back everytime it gets bumped. Thanks again.

 

My friend that split his time growing up between his dad's and his  mom's house in Youngstown, recently commented that her old neighborhood was like the "Wonder Years" TV show when he was a kid, now when he drives through it looks like Afghanistan.

 

What is really sad is I imagine that there are several areas of China that now look like Youngstown did from 1940-1970...

 

 

You're welcome. Plus the abandoned train in the first pic.

 

Actually, those railroad cars are owned by the Steel Valley Railroad Museum which has permission from the property owner to store their railroad cars there. There are some pictures of their equipment at:

 

http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?location=Steel%20Valley%20Railroad%20Museum

 

What is really sad is I imagine that there are several areas of China that now look like Youngstown did from 1940-1970...

 

I have no doubts. In the 1970s, the cheap steel was coming from Japan and Brazil. Now it's coming from China and areas of Eastern Europe. The newest and best steel mills will be built anywhere the labor is cheap and the environmental regulations are lax.

KJP,

 

I have a website dedicated to Youngstown - specifically her historic homes

and buildings, etc.  I would LOVE to [with your permission, of course] put

your post and photographs on the website.

 

My website is strictly non-for-profit.  I am a Youngstown native who now resides

in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC and I'm just old enough to remember

when the steel mills were still operating there.

 

Please let me know if its okay to put your article on the website.  I am

always looking for content for everyone to share and enjoy.  You can email

me at [email protected].

 

The URL for the site is:

 

http://www.allthingsyoungstown.net

 

 

Best regards,

 

Allan

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.

 

 

 

 

Do you have a website? People need to know about this. 

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

 

Rick

 

 

I'd heard something about this, but glad you're here to spread the word, Rick - welcome to UrbanOhio. I worked in a mill (just as a go-fer in the offices) for a summer in Salem, and I remember just being amazed by the overhead cranes. Great job on the heritage park!

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.

 

 

Rick, great stuff. I didn't see your posting until just now. I would love to see some of your pictures.

 

I appreciated your contributions to the book Steel Mill Railroads. Nice work! And would enjoy talking with you more sometime. I come to Youngstown pretty regularly as I have family and friends there and am executive director of All Aboard Ohio. I have been involved at various times in Cleveland-Pittsburgh passenger rail advocacy for more than 20 years -- heavily in the late 80s/early 90s, and again since 2005.

 

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