[PRCo] Re: Stuff That's Gone- West Penn Railways

[Dwight Long]

Howard, et. al.

Being from da Burgh,  (nearby Beaver), I worked two summers in local manufacturing.  First was at St. Joe Lead, a zinc smelting works, where I was a general laborer.  Then in '59 I worked at Crucible Steel as a laborer, but lucked out and was assigned to the cold roll mill, a much less taxing and more pleasant experience than working in the actual making of steel.  Only problem was, the great strike of 59 meant that I only got a half-summer's work out of it.  The strike lasted until well into the fall--the longest steel strike in history.

The steel mill paid the best;  St. Joe next and the other years I had more menial jobs.  Learned a lot from the mill jobs, though, well beyond the good (for the time) money they paid.  Pity kids in the area by and large no longer have that opportunity. Just wish I could have ridden the local interurban line (the Steubenville, East Liverpool & Beaver Valley Traction, a/k/a "The Stream Line") to and from work at Midland--but it had been gone 20 years as an electric operation and 26 years from Beaver by 1959!  Even the successor Valley Motor Transit buses perished in 1955. I had to drive.

Dwight

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Howard Andrews 
  To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org 
  Sent: Saturday, 30 October, 2010 11:34
  Subject: [PRCo] Re: Stuff That's Gone- West Penn Railways


  Hell is right here in Michigan.  No, I don't mean Detroit - there is a city
  named Hell just to the west of Detroit.
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell,_Michigan)

  I think many of us from the 'burgh had interesting summer jobs.  

  I was a hooker at the Homestead works for a summer.  That's the guy on the
  floor who places the crane hooks to lift and move a load of steel - what do
  you guy thing?  

  My toughest job was laboring in a Gray Iron Foundry in Lawrenceville.  One
  of the elevators for reclaiming the mold sand needed repair.  My job was to
  stand in the elevator pit and shovel the sand that fell off back onto the
  elevator belt.  Guess that was cheaper than doing the repairs....  and by
  the end of the summer I had a great set of biceps!  


  -----Original Message-----
  From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
  [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of John
  Swindler
  Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2010 11:05 AM
  To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
  Subject: [PRCo] Re: Stuff That's Gone- West Penn Railways


  Very interesting Dennis

  My father once commented that flying over the Allegheny Mtns. towards
  Pittsburgh at night - my guess would be 1945 -  was like descending into
  Hades. 

  As for college - I was more fortunate - didn't spend two summers in 'hell'.
  Instead spent summer of 1968 and 1969 as a full time temporary CTA bus
  driver, and achieved similar results.  Suspect many are glad they went to
  college then, instead of now.

  Isn't Hell north of Georgetown in the Cayman Islands???

  Cheers
  John


  > From: trombone at windstream.net
  > To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
  > Subject: [PRCo] Re: Stuff That's Gone- West Penn Railways
  > Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 09:24:49 -0400
  > 
  > Great stuff.  If you go the coke oven section and then select Shoaf, 
  > you will see a short film featuring coke production.  This is very 
  > similar (our coke pulling process was different) to where I worked at 
  > Carpentertown Coal & Coke (Sharon Steel) facility on Scrubgrass Creek 
  > in Armstrong County during the summers of 1973 & 74.  Yes, there were 
  > still beehive ovens in production and my college friends who saw it 
  > from the top of the hill at night referred to me working in "hell."  
  > They could not believe such a place existed.
  > 
  > I made $6,000.00 in 2 summers.  My undergraduate degree cost me about 
  > $10,000.00.  Other jobs provided the rest of the money and I graduated 
  > debt free, a life style I still attempt to maintain.  (No wonder my 
  > credit score is only 15 points from perfect.)
  > 
  >           Dennis F. Cramer
  > http://home.windstream.net/dfc1
  > 
  > 
  > 
  >