Ispat Inland Steel Roundhouse

(Satellite, part of the footprint is still visible)

This was part of the Inland Steel Mill.

1 of 28 Inland railroading photos posted by Christopher Lohse-Gutierrez
James Torgeson shared

Bing map has a roundhouse that is gone in the Google image, so that probably means that some year it will disappear from the Bing maps also. It looks like part of the roundhouse had already been removed to build the big rectangle building because there is no longer a lead track to the turntable. (Update: per Bob Lalich's comments below, they built a new lead through the roundhouse from the canal side. The bright red "wall" for the stall that is second from the rectangular building would be a door. They filled in the pit and laid track through the stall.)

Bing, South

Bing, West

Frank Newton shared his post
Here's a cool 8x10 picture out of my Inland collection . My guess 1970's . Love these black and white photo's . Don't know who the folks are and notice one guy in engine compartment . Photo credit to Dennis Erdelac .
Daniel Perez: It's the Round House for sure. Did a lot of piping maintenance work there. Those wheels were machined and pressed in the CMM Machine shop. They actually called the outer rings tires.

This was at Inland Steel , East Chicago Indiana in the Plant 1 Round House . Long gone building .
Thomas Flynn: Old friction bearing axles.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Frank's share

I presume it was this roundhouse.

41°39'28.0"N 87°27'14.6"W

41.657764, -87.454048

(Facebook has been deleting most of my comments that contain a Google Maps URL. It declares them a violation of Community Standards. But you can use Google Maps if you copy&paste the GPS coordinates into the search field.)

Frank liked the comment, so evidently the presumption is correct.

LTV on the left, Inland on the right. Note the roundhouse on the right shore of the canal.

Kevin A Heggi posted
Indiana Harbor Works, circa 2005?

Kevin A Heggi posted
Bob Lalich: An unusual roundhouse on the left. The lead to the turntable passed through the structure.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Bob's comment

Bob Lalich I had concluded that they were in a hurry to build the long building so they tore down just enough of the roundhouse to clear the land that they needed. A contemporary satellite view shows that there is no door in the side of the new building for a lead track.

https://www.google.com/.../@41.6590779,-87.../data=!3m1!1e3

I fired up Google Earth and determined that the remainder of the roundhouse was removed between Mar 2012 and Apr 2013.

More comments after Dennis' comment on Bob's comment. Higher resolution copies of the images are included after the comments.

Comments on Kevin's post

Comments on Kevin's post

1

2

3

4

Sam Foster identified a different portal than I found on the south side.

Sam Foster posted two photos with the comment: "Was reviewing some footage I shot on Monday at Indiana Harbor and was curious about this tunnel that connects two of the mills on the Inland side of the plant. Any idea what trains traversed this tunnel and when it was last used?"

There are several interesting responses. Of note is:

Frank Newton: Inlands Rail Transportation department used that tunnel . Went from Plant #2 to Plant #1 . Plant #1 at one time had a roundhouse and large repair area . It was also home of an early large Open Hearth department operation and the rope driven 100" Plate Mill and a few other production facilities . Plant #2 had many of the early Merchant Mills requiring materials and products produced at Plant #1 . Eventually more Open Hearth Departments and a Bloomer were built in Plant #2 as the older departments in Plant#1 were becoming obsolete and eventually closing making the need of the tunnel less important . Both train and vehicle tunnel were very high maintenance often flooding . Plant #3 just to the other side had two Blast Furnaces and several Coke batteries . I don't know if any of the production facilities there also used the tunnel to transport material thru Plant #1 to Plant #2 mills during any outages or breakdowns in Plant #2 production departments . I imagine they could .

A  lot more tunnels are in Plant #2 . They are narrow mostly for placement of 660 volt power lines . There was also a narrow gauge tunnel with tracks running along the Blast furnace row in Plant #2 ( Madaline #1 thru #6 ) . Workers could move materials by pushing carts on the tracks to different furnaces underground .Where the final destinations were I don't know I was in it twice only going about 150 feet each time before turning around in my best interest . Kinda scary . There was also a underground tunnel from Plant #2 Coke Plant to the Blast Furnaces , Lol , that was really scary .

[It seems the portal I found by the canal is a vehicle tunnel.]

Scott Walker: There is a vehicle tunnel just north of their by the canal also.

1

2