[PRCo] Re: Home

[robert netzlof]

--- Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:

> Westmoreland County ....  There was a rather large steel mill
> in  Latrobe (name escapes me).  [Actually, there is no such thing 
> as a small steel mill.]

Not so large, but there were several. A saying of the time was
"Pittsburgh sells steel by the ton, Latrobe by the pound." The point
was that for the most part the steels produced in Latrobe were fine
steels such as spring and tool steel.

There were no blast furnaces in Latrobe, everything started from
purchased pig iron or scrap. The companies were:

Latrobe Electric Steel (later just Latrobe Steel Co.) used electric
furnaces to melt and refine tool steels.

American Locomotive (formerly Railway Steel Spring Co., and before
that, Latrobe Steel Co.) had 3 open hearths, made billets for forging
into axles and tires for ALCo. Also did the forging.

Vanadium Alloy Steel Co. made tool steels, primarily (surprise)
vanadium alloy steel. I suppose they had an open hearth, but I don't
know for sure. They were in a 1920's industrial park a half mile out
of town and behind a fence. Never saw much of their plant.

"The Electric" became a subsidiary of Timken. These days (or last I
knew) they were heavily into ultra-high purity controlled atmosphere
melting of steels, primarily for Timken's bearing production.

"The Railway" still sits there, now owned by (I think) Standard
Steel. Every once in a while their electric furnace (which replaced
the open hearths (that in the 1960's, I believe)) is fired up and an
ingot teemed, or a big lump-o-stuff is trucked in and a boring mill
started up to machine it.

"The Vanadium" was acquired by Allegheny-Ludlum and has some sort of
ghostly existance.

Trolly enthusiasts may be interested to note that the plant tracks of
the ALCo plant crossed the West Penn at grade, making for an unusual
5' 2.5" by 4' 8.5"/3' 0" five rail crossing diamond.

The spur to the Vulcan Mold and Iron also crossed the streetcar track
at grade.

Bob Netzlof

Bob Netzlof a/k/a Sweet Old Bob



	
		
__________________________________ 
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 
http://mail.yahoo.com