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<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic">Fred</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic">Good point.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic">I worked one summer at a zinc smelting plant on
the labor gang, including repairing the inside of sulphuric acid storage tanks
wearing the full space man suit. Then another summer I worked in a steel
mill, which was my intro to rotating shift work and showed me that it was
something to avoid if at all possible! But I only got a half summer
out of that experience because the longest steel strike in history cut it
short.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic">Dwight</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=fwschneider@comcast.net href="mailto:fwschneider@comcast.net">Fred
Schneider</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org
href="mailto:pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org">Western PA Trolley
discussion</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, October 22, 2013 11:48
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [PRCo] WORKING IN THE MILL
AND GROWING UP</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>That is something a lot of kids do not get today … the
opportunity to work in the mill or factory and GROW UP. You got it
in the coke ovens. I had it for three years in the army and then
helping working myself through college in a local factory and feeding the
fireboxes of locomotives on the Strasburg Rail Road (I actually had 119 months
of service on the railroad). Swindler paid for his whole college
experience dodging L support poles in Chicago with CTA buses. Ed Skuchas
remembered Lukens Steel … guess that means the Coatesville plant (as in the
knock-knock joke that Coates villa wear better than the pants vill).
<BR><BR>I am afraid that too many kids today think that they are entitled and
should not need to get dirty.<BR><BR><BR>On Oct 22, 2013, at 7:18 AM, DF
Cramer wrote:<BR><BR>> Many of you know I put myself through undergraduate
school working two summers at a beehive coke facility located off Mahoning
Creek just north of Templeton (on the Allegheny River). We were a captive
facility of Sharon Steel. The devastation to the environment was severe. I
once brought some classmates over at night during the winter term and as they
looked down from the road above they replied: "You worked in Hell!" That
is probably a great way to describe what it was like.<BR>> By the way, I
made great money; over six thousand dollars over two summers. (73 &
74) The coke yard closed shortly thereafter and nothing remains. The
environment has recovered.<BR>> <BR>> Dennis F. Cramer <BR>> <A
href="http://home.windstream.net/dfc1/">http://home.windstream.net/dfc1/</A><BR>>
<BR>>> From: <A
href="mailto:eskuchas@comcast.net">eskuchas@comcast.net</A><BR>>> Date:
Tue, 22 Oct 2013 07:07:31 -0400<BR>>> To: <A
href="mailto:pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org">pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org</A><BR>>>
Subject: Re: [PRCo] Burning Leaves--and Coal<BR>>> <BR>>> Back in
the 70's, the Clairton works had an open house. First time in ten years. I
signed up and went. We did go next to the coke batteries. They were tight with
little leakage, and they had semi-automated capturing devices when they
emptied a section of the battery. Doors removed with pusher on one side and
capturing unit on receiving end. Various ducts and fans to suck off the
vapors. <BR>>> The bus taking us through that part of the plant went by
the chemical processing plant where our guide pointed out the chemicals that
they can recover and sell. Also mentioned that the chemicals were nasty.
<BR>>> The other perspective that I had was how bare the hill side was
opposite the plant. We were over by the barge unloader and had a clear view.
<BR>>> <BR>>> Ed S<BR>>> <BR>>> Sent from my
iPhone<BR>>> <BR>>>> On Oct 21, 2013, at 10:53 PM, "Dwight
Long" <<A
href="mailto:dwightlong@verizon.net">dwightlong@verizon.net</A>>
wrote:<BR>>>> <BR>>>> <BR>>>> Herb<BR>>>>
<BR>>>> But Irvin works is not a primary producer but rather a
rolling mill (as you said) and so would not generate the "fire and brimstone"
that characterized a primary steel producer.<BR>>>> <BR>>>>
I went by Clairton on a train in July and did not notice any smoke at all,
just some condensed water vapor. I think the coking processes are so
contained these days that very little emissions emanate from it. Besides
environmental concerns, the steelmakers have learned that the effluents from
the coke making process are valuable by products that need to be trapped and
sold. The days of the beehive coke ovens that spewed all the byproducts
into the atmosphere are long gone.<BR>>>> <BR>>>>
Dwight<BR>>>> ----- Original Message ----- <BR>>>> From:
Herb Brannon <BR>>>> To: Western PA Trolley discussion
<BR>>>> Sent: Monday, October 21, 2013 10:41 PM<BR>>>>
Subject: Re: [PRCo] Burning Leaves--and Coal<BR>>>> <BR>>>>
<BR>>>> Bob R,<BR>>>> It still had that "orange glow" when I
first moved here in 1972. Plus, when<BR>>>> atmospheric conditions
were right, it smelled like fire & brimstone,<BR>>>> everywhere.
Even today, on humid days, I still smell the "fire &<BR>>>>
brimstone" coming from the Irvin Works just over the hill (on Camp
Hollow<BR>>>> Rd) to the south-east of my place.<BR>>>>
<BR>>>> Contrary to popular opinion steel is not dead in Pittsburgh.
The Clairton<BR>>>> Works still produces coke as it always did, the
Edgar Thompson Works makes<BR>>>> primary steel, the Irvin Works
produces rolled steel and the relatively new<BR>>>> Mckeesport
Tubular Works (old National Works, now reopened) makes tubular<BR>>>>
products for the Marcellus Shale drilling industry. So the sulphur and
fi<BR>>> <BR>>> <BR>>> <BR>>> <BR>>>
_______________________________________________<BR>>>
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href="https://mailman.dementix.org/mailman/listinfo/pittsburgh-railways">https://mailman.dementix.org/mailman/listinfo/pittsburgh-railways</A><BR>>
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