CSX/B&O Near Buffington Harbor in Gary, IN

So far I've been using pictures of junction towers and yards to force myself to learn the Chicagoland railroads because they can usually be found on (historic) maps. But I'm now spending some time locating "trains on track" pictures to learn more about railroad routes through the Chicago area.

Nathan Mackey posted
Heading for the Brookdale Branch at Buffington.
Paul Arden Looks like its taken from the Ft. Wayne signal...also the train is headed to the Lake SD, probably with interchange cars to the CSL...

I knew that telephoto lens compress distances. This picture taught me that a side effect of compression is that it makes curves look sharper. This would be looking eastish from the west side of these power lines because we can see the lines against the sky. The CN/EJ&E overpass is in the background. The NS/NYC/Lake Shore & Michigan Southern tracks are on the left. Note the B&O style color positional signal the engine has just passed.

Since the Brookdale Spur has been abandoned and the B&O Bridge that crossed the Calumet River to access that spur was wrecked in 1988, this track is now just an industrial spur. It will soon join the NS tracks as shown by Nathan's photo below that is looking West. CSX's mainline traffic on the former B&O route turns West on the double track B&OCT just this side of that CN/EJ&E overpass.

Nathan Mackey commented on his above posting

1960/62 Whiting Quad @ 24,000

Actually, this EJ&E bridge is not really near Buffington Harbor. I don't know why I didn't put it in the EJ&E bridge notes instead of here.

Arturo Gross posted his Flickr photo
EJ&E SW1200 306 leads a transfer on the Whiting branch across the IN Harbor Canal at E. Chicago IN headed for Kirk Yard Dec 1996.
Scott Pugh Doubt it was headed to Kirk Yard with just a switcher locomotive, during daylight hours, and without asphalt cars. Notice the ground crew is standing up with his coat on. Probably going to switch NID and Inland plant 4

IAIS/Rock Island Bridge over Iowa River in Iowa City

(Bridge Hunter, 3D Satellite)

Douglas W. Jones released this photo to the Public Domain. From Wikimedia

Bill Kaeser posted three photos with the comment: "1901 Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Bridge, Iowa City." The date 1901 is when the above steel girder bridge was built. This construction was in 1873.
Jeff Alberhasky These photos are of the 2nd CRI&P rail bridge over the Iowa River while it was under construction around 1873. It was the longest bridge West of the Mississippi River when it was completed. It was replaced by the present stucture in 1901.

Chris Lewandowski posted
I never thought I'd have the rare opportunity to see the largest diesel locomotive ever built run on the main line, but I did. And a bonus, finally got to see IAIS 513. Here is the Quad Cities Rocket, led by UP 6936 in Iowa City, Iowa. 9/20/2025

Geoffrey Symons: Impressive saw them stored years ago in Los Vegas yard, when visiting from the UK. What horsepower were the bi-centenial locos?

Steven Jarvis: First few had 7,000 hp then reduced to 6,600 hp speeds up to 90 MPH later governed to 72 mph.

Mike Moroni: Sean they were originally 3,600 hp each, de-rated to 3,300 hp to reduce engine problems at the high output rating. Total 6,600hp on one frame.

[This was an excursion run to raise money for the RRHMA. They run it on just short routes.]

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I the original piers were reused, then concrete was poured around them as well as on top of them. And I think piers were added between the existing piers because the trusses appear to be longer than the girders.

MC: NYC's Michigan Central Overview

We first encountered Michigan Central as one of the four players in the "crossing war" of 1852.

In addition to the mainline that joined Illinois Central to access Chicago, they built the "Joliet cutoff" that went from Indiana to Joliet.

Peter Dudley posted
A map excerpt, retrieved from Joseph Tuch Santucci‎'s copy of the September 1945 Michigan Central Railroad Employee Timetable, shows M.C.R.R.'s Michigan Line mainline, between Marshall MI and Chicago IL.
The M.C.R.R. - owned mainline actually ended at Kensington IL. Access to Chicago's Central Station was via a trackage-rights agreement with Illinois Central Railroad (IC), in force since M.C.R.R.'s 1852 arrival in Chicago. M.C.R.R.'s parent, New York Central System (NYC), moved its remaining trains at Central Station to NYC's LaSalle Street Station in 1956.
Note that a segment of M.C.R.R.'s Air Line Branch (right), between Niles and Three Rivers, had already been abandoned by 1945. Through freight trains had previously used the relatively-underpopulated, former - Michigan Air Line Railroad (MAL) diagonal route as a shortcut.
I believe M.C.R.R.'s Joliet Branch enabled western through shippers to avoid congestion at Chicago, in much the same way that the "Niagara Falls Route" provided a fast freight route to New England, avoiding Buffalo.
Today's westbound Amtrak WOLVERINE passenger trains follow the former M.C.R.R. mainline as far as Porter IN, the west end of the Amtrak-owned Porter / Kalamazoo 110-mph territory. West of the junction with the former - NYC east / west mainline at Porter, the WOLVERINE follows Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) track to Chicago's Union Station. This segment is often slow, but Amtrak and the State of Indiana are working on it.
This map excerpt was originally posted in Michigan Central Railroad Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/NiagaraFallsRoute1/) on September 20, 2014.

Like the Illinois Central and Wisconsin Central, Michigan Central was a land grant railroad.

Update:

Barry Sell posted
1915-01-01/1920-12-31
This system index map pertains to the Michigan Central Railroad

Bill Molony posted
The 54-mile long Joliet & Northern Indiana Railroad was constructed in 1854 and 1855 to connect Joliet with Lake Station (AKA East Gary) and the Michigan Central Railroad. The MC acquired control of the J&NI in 1855, before it was even completed. The Joliet Cutoff, as it was commonly known, became an important part of the MC, as it provided interchange with connecting southern and western railroads while avoiding the congestion and delays associated with Chicago.

Bill posted again
The Joliet & Northern Indiana Railroad was built in 1854-1855 by a group of Joliet businessmen, but it was acquired by the Michigan Central before it was even completed. 
While the J&NI was operated as the Joliet Branch of the Michigan Central and later the New York Central, the J&NI continued to exist on paper for well over 100 years.

BRHS posted
Map of the New York Central's Joliet Cut-Off - circa 1955.

Bill Molony posted

Randall Wiegel posted

Joe Dockrill how much is left?

Manage

ClassicStreamliners
Michigan Central Railroad (red) and New York Central system (ogrange) as of 1918

Dougie Jay posted

Nice map of the Michigan Central Railway.. the "Niagara Falls Route" (courtesy David Bloom, Vintage Ontario Maps)

🚂🚃🛤️

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10162702970329023

Route 219 Extension over Cattaraugus Creek south of Springville, NY

(Satellite)

The Bing satellite has shadows that show the arch.

It is unusual to see a crane's boom used to reach out instead of up. It takes a lot more counterweight for the same length boom when using a large radius.

Gary Swain Cover Photo

2x Facebook Resolution

It was a crawler, not a ringer.

Al Easton posted
Kenny Wojciechowski Stretching out!!! The life of a crane operator!!!
Gary Swain That was 275' of main boom and 140' of fixed jib. I had a working radius of 425' with full counter weight package of 1.4 million pounds.

Gary Swain posted
Springville N.Y. 2008 Cornell & Co. Route 219 Extension , Crane operators Gary Swain local 17 , Lloyd Lyons local 825

Gary Swain posted
We had to move the crane twice, it took ten days , sixty one truck loads and a assist crane on each end . Not to mention a full crew of operators and iron workers to get the job done!

Kelly-Bessemer process pioneered in America in 1864 in Wyandotte, MI

(See also Making Steel.)

Chairs Lion posted
Born Aug. 21, 1811 in Pittsburgh, William Kelly was renowned inventor who created a process used in modern steel production. By injecting air into molten iron, Kelly discovered a reduction of carbon content in the finished product, making the material stronger. However, the same process was simultaneously discovered by Henry Bessemer in England. Both Kelly and Bessemer eventually sold their patents, and the process was subsequently known as the Bessemer process. Pictured here is a State #Archives images of a Bessemer converters.

This Wyandotte, MI, plant was the first iron plant to install a commercial grade Kelly/Bessemer convertor in America in 1864. But the Pennsylvania Steel Co. was the first plant that was built to make steel instead of iron.

Raymond Boothe posted
View of a Bessemer Converter: (Beth photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe B&W repair).

By Unknown - The Story of Detroit (1923) by George B. Catlin, Public Domain, Link

While watching the video below, at 16:05 they say that Eureka Iron Company in Wyandotte, MI, was the first Bessemer iron works in America in 1864 and made the first rail in 1865.

Detroit1701

Near the corner of Elm Street and Van Alstyne

Boulevard Wyandotte, Michigan

While vacationing near Marquette, MI in 1853, Philip Thurber learned of the recent discovery of iron ore deposits in Northern Michigan. After testing a sample of the ore, he engaged some Detroit capitalists to help found Eureka Iron Works. One of the capitalists was Captain Eber Brock Ward who was Michigan's first milt-millionaire because of timber lands, silver mines, and Great Lakes shipping. (Remember, a million dollars was worth a lot back in the middle 1800s.)

In 1854 they bought 2,200 acres along the Detroit River that had a lot of trees and built a factory consisting of two blast furnaces and a rolling mill. Because they had plenty of trees, they used the old method of wood/charcoal instead of the newer method of coal/coke to fuel their furnaces. As they cut down the trees, they sold the land to create Wyandott, MI.

In 1861, Ward and his investors bought Kelly's 1857 patent for his "pneumatic process" because Kelly's iron works did not survive the panic of 1857 and he went bankrupt. In 1864, they added a 3-ton converter to their plant to produce the first Bessemer steel ingots in America. "The following year, on May 25, 1865, the company produced the first Bessemer steel rails." [DetroitHistorical] But Wikipedia states: "Ward meanwhile had built another steelmill in Chicago called the Illinois Steel Company. From this steelmill in 1865 Ward made the first Bessemer steel rails produced in the United States." This contradiction is resolved below when one realizes that the Illinois Steel Company was formed later from a merger of North Chicago Rolling Mill and Joliet Iron Works.

Ward’s manufacturing career began with the purchase of iron mines in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. With iron ore readily available, Ward opened his first iron mill, the Eureka Iron Works, in Wyandotte, Mich., in 1853. The North Chicago Rolling Mill in Chicago followed in 1857. Both mills manufactured iron rails, but due to the softness of the iron, the rails lost their shape within two years and were returned to the mills to be rerolled.
Ward was interested in the Bessemer process of steel making, which removed carbon from the iron, making for a stronger metal. Ward successfully produced the first Bessemer steel in America at his Wyandotte Plant on Sept. 6, 1864. From this steel, Ward’s Chicago plant rolled the first steel rails in America on May 24, 1865. In 1867 Ward opened his third mill, the Milwaukee Iron Company, on the future site of the Village of Bay View. At that point Ward was considered America’s “Iron King.” [BayViewCompass]

In the 1870's the company began its decline. They had consumed all of the trees in their vicinity. They had land-locked themselves by selling their real estate. So upgrading a plant that was designed for iron production with steel as an add on to a plant that was designed for steel production was not feasible. Eber Ward decided to shift steel production to Chicago. "The death knell occurred on June 1, 1888 when a boiler explosion rocked the foundation of the Eureka Iron and Steel Company. The company officially halted production in 1892 and the Eureka Iron Works were dismantled."

[Detroit1701, DetroitHistorical, Wikipedia]

PlacePromotion

PlacePromotion
Building prior to 1955 renovation

Since they were also in the real estate business, they built a headquarters building at Biddle and Elm. The building was larger than Eureka needed; and John VanAlstyne, the manager of the Eureka Iron & Steel Co., founded in 1871 the Wyandotte Savings Bank in that building.

Unfortunately, the "modernization" of the building in 1955 successfully destroyed all of the historical aspects of the building.

Jeffery Trusewixz posted
Here's a little know mill , I believe. It, however boasts a historic feat in american steel making. It was in Wyandotte Michigan. It has an historic plaque in the city stating it was where the first Bessemer Process steel making facility in the United States was. It was the Eureka Iron Works. Sadly destroyed by explosion more than a century ago.

Kevin Nelson Extremely interesting! I did not know this history of the Bessemer Process.

I worked at a USS mill in Youngstown, Ohio in the 1970's where part of the Bessemer Plant was still standing, I walked by it every day on my way to the Open Hearth Furnaces. The building that I remember clearly had molten iron holding tanks in them that we called Mixer tanks. There were probably 6 tanks, 100 tons capacity each.

The Bessemer Furnaces there had closed in 1958.

Steve Howell: Cambria in johnstown was first with the Kelly converter

Mike Delaney posted five photos with the comment: "Eureka Iron Works, Wyandotte, Michigan.  Built by the Industrialist Eber Ward.  Self made man involved in Lake Shipping, iron and steel.  First plant to use the Bessemer Process.  A book about Eber Ward was just released earlier this year.  Became one of the richest men in America.  He bought plants in Chicago and Milwaukee.  Slag underlies most of Wyandotte.  Old pig iron ingot from the works and partially smelted iron ore from my collection gathered at old excavations around the city."

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Making Steel from the Kelly-Bessemer Process

(See also Kelly invented the "pneumatic process.")

William Kelly got the US patent in 1856 and refined his converter in the Cambria Steel Co. in Johnstown. PA. The Eureka Iron company in Wyandotte, MI, then used it in 1864. The Pennsylvania Steel Co. in Steelton, PA, was the first plant built specifically to make steel instead of iron. After Kelly got a US patent renewal, the steel industry successfully avoided paying royalties to Kelly by claiming that Bessemer was the inventor of the process. [RodneyOhebsion]

The previous cementation process makes you appreciate why steel was so expensive before this process was developed.

Don Cassata posted
An early photo of the Kelly Converter. An early steelmaking process pioneered in Cambria Iron Co. 1860's.
Randy Wilson: They were using the Bessemer process over in England before any one started it up here in the U.S.
Dennis DeBruler

Randy Wilson It is true that England, with their better capital, put it into production sooner. But let's be clear that Kelly invented it. Kelly started in 1847 and had his process working by 1851. Bessemer got a patent in 1855, but Kelly waited until 1857 and then soon went bankrupt. It wasn't until 1864 that a steel mill used the "air-boiling process" in the U.S.

("As early as 1847, Kelly began experimenting with what he called an air-boiling process in which he forced air into molten iron. By 1851, he apparently was beginning to produce steel in this cost saving manner. Apparently, there is some evidence that those working with Bessemer in England had learned about what Kelly was doing in Kentucky and tried to imitate the process." http://detroit1701.org/Eureka%20Iron%20Works.html)

Mike Theisler commented on Don's post

 

Randy Wilson commented on Don's post
The Pennsylvania Steel Company. 1st steel plant built in America.
Now owned by Cleveland-Cliffs
Dennis DeBruler

Randy Wilson In 1864, Eureka Iron Works in Wyandotte, MI, was the first to use the Kelly/Bessemer Process.

http://detroit1701.org/Eureka%20Iron%20Works.html

Randy Wilson

Dennis DeBruler I agree however, The Pennsylvania Steel Company was the first plant built specifically to make steel. They were not a converted Iron company.

Dennis DeBruler

Randy Wilson So Pennsylvania Steel was the first "greenfield" steel plant. That is a significant distinction.

Randy Wilson

Dennis DeBruler Yessir!

Robert Rice Sr. posted
This is a diagram of a Bessemer converter for those who don't know how it worked. It was tilted so that the belly could be filled with molten pig iron then tiled back upright as air was blown into the bottom to blow impurities out of the iron. It could be used alone or in conjunction with an open hearth furnace to make steel.
Garry Stewart: Invented by Henry Bessemer and I think the first one was installed at workington iron and steel company, Cumberland, England. I just can't remember which year.
Dennis DeBruler: Garry Stewart It was invented by Willilam Kelly in the US. Henry Bessemer simply hired a couple of Kelly's assistants.
https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2017/03/making-steel-from-bessemer-kelly-process.html

I knew that an American invented making steel with blown air in parallel with Bessemer developing the idea in England. If you have been reading the railroad histories in this blog, you will have noticed that a lot of railroads were being built in the early 1850s. The Midwest railroads were competing to buy iron rails imported from Europe. They must have been cast iron because they are described as brittle. They tended to crack, split, and loose chunks. It was well known that steel would make better rails. But it was too expensive. (Wrought iron was not brittle, but it was also too expensive to provide the quantity of rails needed by the railroads.) Steel was also wanted for bridges, ship hulls, etc.

Cannons suffered from the same problem, they needed to be made from ductile steel instead of brittle cast iron. But steel was too expensive to make the guns needed by the Crimean War. Since necessity is the mother of invention, and steel was necessary in the 1850s, Sir Henry Bessemer invented a new process to make guns while William Kelly, a metallurgist, invented the same process. Kelly purchased an iron factory in Eddyville, KY, in 1846. "As early as 1847, Kelly began experimenting with what he called an air-boiling process in which he forced air into molten iron. By 1851, he apparently was beginning to produce steel in this cost saving manner."

Apparently, there is some evidence that those working with Bessemer in England had learned about what Kelly was doing in Kentucky and tried to imitate the process. Many people were attempting to improve the production of steel since the demand for industrial products was growing rapidly. Kelly, however, did not obtain a United States patent for his process until 1857. Unfortunately, he went into bankruptcy in that year and had to sell the rights to his patent for a small sum. Steel making firms wishing to use the Bessemer paid for the use of the patent but 95 percent of the funds went to Henry Bessemer and only 5 percent to William Kelly. It is no wonder that the Bessemer process came to dominate steel making since it produced steel for about 15 percent of the cost of the previous blooming method. [Detroit1701]

Even after the Bessemer Process was developed, steel rails were more expensive than iron rails, but they lasted 10 times longer than iron rails so railroads wanted the steel rails. An iron mill in Detroit installed the first commercial scale pneumatic process converter in America in 1864. The steel ingots from that plant were rolled into the first steel rails in America in a Chicago plant in 1965.

Bessemer also invented the converter vessel that was in a vertical position for the blow, but then could be turned to pour the contents into a ladle.

save_image for The Bessemer Process: What It Is and How It Changed History
Dennis DeBruler: I'm one of those people who do not accept Bessemer as the inventor of the "pneumatic process." William Kelly had been "boiling iron" in the US years before Bessemer turned his attention to improving iron for cannons. http://www.rodneyohebsion.com/steel.htm

 

Memoirs of History posted

The 19th century witnessed the birth of the industrial age, and at its molten core was the Bessemer process. Invented by English engineer Sir Henry Bessemer in 1856, this revolutionary technique transformed the way we produced steel. By blowing air through molten iron to remove impurities, the process made steel production faster, cheaper, and more efficient. This breakthrough had far-reaching consequences, shaping everything from the construction of skyscrapers and bridges to the mass production of automobiles and railways.

The Bessemer process quite literally built the foundations of modern civilization, providing the strong and versatile steel necessary for the infrastructure that defines our world today. 

Dennis DeBruler: Actually, it was invented by William Kelly in America in 1847. The American steel industry credited Bessemer so that they could avoid paying patent royalties to Kelly. For example, http://www.rodneyohebsion.com/steel.htm

Leon Haniel posted

The end of the Chertal steel mill (BE)

Liege Belgium

Converter 1 is standing in the middle of the industrial wasteland just like an unknown sculpture.

A short video:



A longer video:


I could not find a date for this film. This plant is obsolete, not only because it is using the Bessemer process, but because the steel is being poured into molds. The Bessemer process was replaced by the Open-Hearth method. Now plants use a Basic Oxygen Converter and continuous casting.

While looking for a photo, I found 77 other ones. The one I was after was in 44 more photos.

I didn't read this article because it didn't mention the Kelly name for the process.