What's New on the PRR Panhandle 2.0?

[G3750]

Updated 1/14/2018:

I've been working with the backdrop photographer and I'm happy to say we are making progress. One of the things I wanted to do with the rightmost side of the backdrop was incorporate a blast furnace. The original idea was to have part of the blast furnace represented in the backdrop with the rest (the cast house) protruding from the wall. That hasn't worked out as I can't get the blast furnaces to pose at the correct angle. Instead, the backdrop will come from a photo I took back in 2005; it contains 3 of the 4 Weirton blast furnaces. Given that the backdrop already represents blast furnaces, I have decided that a model blast furnace is unnecessary (as well as probably beyond my skills).

Accordingly, I am going to substitute the Strip Steel (Rolling Mill) building for a blast furnace. Originally the Strip Steel building was slated for a corner at the back of the layout, but there is enough space (42" wide) for it at the front. It is an interesting 7 bay, two-story brick structure with open square roof ventilators or "penthouses". The original brick color was yellow and the building had a roof-top "WEIRTON STEEL CO." sign. It is to the far right in the photo below.

Strip Steel002W.jpg (130.06 KiB) Viewed 1769 times

I will probably put the "run-around" track between it and the Open Hearth. The building itself will have a spur running into it. That wasn't true of the prototype (at least in the front) but I'm invoking "modeler's license".

George

[rogruth]

Make it recognizable but make it work for you.

[healey36]

You can pull that off as long as you don't invite any Weirton Steel foamers down to the basement, lol.

Saw this pic while plowing through old photographs...looks like "The Bridge":



Dated 1935.

Healey

[G3750]

You can pull that off as long as you don't invite any Weirton Steel foamers down to the basement, lol.

Saw this pic while plowing through old photographs...looks like "The Bridge":



Dated 1935.

Healey

Nice find, Healey!!! It absolutely is "The Bridge" (must be spoken in a hushed reverential tone. ). And with a date of 1935, the bridge is less than 10 years old. Apparently that sand and gravel yard (where I've taken lots of photos) is just about as old.

Nice! Thanks!!

George

[G3750]

Make it recognizable but make it work for you.

I will. Overall this is a positive outcome. Over the past 6 years, I purchased the gazillion Tichy 20-pane industrial windows required for the building in anticipation of putting it on Panhandle 1.0. When this layout plan (2.0) evolved, I doubted there was room for it. But this development brings it back to the front burner and gives me the opportunity to build the full-scale structure, complete with sign.

George

[G3750]

Updated 1/19/2018:

Since a picture is worth 1,000 words, here's what the plan for Weirton Steel looked like a few days ago.

Open Hearth Track Layout.jpg (460.98 KiB) Viewed 1718 times

I have since re-thought the area. As previously mentioned, I have:

• Removed the blast furnace
• Reworked the track plan
• Added the Strip Steel (actually increasing its foot print somewhat)
• Added a compressed air tank structure
• Added a coil field / yard
• Am toying with a gantry-style crane to load trailor trucks with coils; Weir-Cove Moving & Storage did this for the prototype.

2018 Changes to WSX.jpg (468.57 KiB) Viewed 1718 times

[healey36]

Wow, that is quite an expansion of the facility footprint. Adding the gantry-crane would bring another interesting feature to the plant real-estate.

[G3750]

Wow, that is quite an expansion of the facility footprint. Adding the gantry-crane would bring another interesting feature to the plant real-estate.

Yes, it is. The Strip Steel Mill will be easier to execute than an O-scale blast furnace. I always planned to have the Strip Steel on Panhandle 1.0.

The gantry crane is just an idea that came to me; I haven't thought it totally through, yet. It is intriguing, though.

George

[healey36]

George - Is any of the Weirton Steel facility still in operation? The Library of Congress collection has a number of photographs taken in 2015 which show the plant to be relatively intact:







Is this stuff still standing?

Healey

[G3750]

Healey,

2015 was a long time ago. Here's what I know.
- Open Hearth: gone
- Blooming Mill: gone
- Structural Mill: gone
- Ore Bridges: gone
- Brown's Island Coke Plant: gone (long time ago)
- Blast Furnaces: in the process of being torn down

Operating:
- Tin Mill
- No. 9 Tandem Mill (part of the Strip Steel)
- About 600-1000 people employed (from the high water mark of 13,000)



George

[rogruth]

The upper Ohio valley went through this process with the number of workers dwindling until in many areas all was gone.
I remember many small towns with mills that were a major part of that areas economy.
I realize how bad the air pollution was from the mills but clean air has made some unwanted changes to the area.
Mostly unemployment that has led to depression of the local population. Pittsburgh was able to diversify and overcome
some of the depression but smaller towns have not. My hometown, Bellaire, Ohio has gone from a nice, proud small
city of 18,000 to a village of @ 4,000 with most businesses closed. Steel went first then the mines. The B&O and the
PRR in the early 1960s ran over 20 trains a day of various types through town with all except the through coal trains
making working stops. Today there is, I have been told, not more than 6 a week on the WLE and NS.
I was amazed at all of the empty land in the Pittsburgh and Youngstown area when I was last through those areas.

The Weirton Steel plant at one time was the largest independent steel mill in the country and maybe the world.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

A steel mill once stood along this street (on the left side of the photo) which lead into downtown McKeesport from East McKeesport and well beyond the frame of the photo and down to the riverside off to the left. ALL gone.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

2015 was a long time ago.

Suddenly feeling very old......

[G3750]

2015 was a long time ago.

Suddenly feeling very old......

Yeah, me too. 2015 was a long time ago in the death spiral of Weirton Steel. By 2009, the 100th anniversary of a steel presence in the Weirton valley, steel coils were no longer being made. They were being brought in for finishing. Mills began to disappear. Here's a photo from 2010.

2010 Thanksgiving 311.JPG (3.43 MiB) Viewed 1661 times

The valley floor after nearly 100 years became visible again. It's worse now, but I don't have the heart to take the photos. Maybe it will return to this:

12779048_542287175947088_6249698407167870774_o.jpg (112.71 KiB) Viewed 1661 times

George

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Thanks, George.