Nostalgia & History > The Ingot Trains of the EJ&E

 At one time EJ&E ran ingot trains between USS South Chicago Works and Gary, Indiana on a regular basis. I'm guessing the westbound trains were loads and eastbound empty? Regardless, here's a bunch of photos taken in Hammond, Indiana........

1. 319-318 June 1987

2. Caboose 187 June 1987

3. 319-317 June 1987

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 4. 310-314  Sept 1987

5. 610  7-3-88

6. 310-317  6-12-88

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 7. 320  7-16-89

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Very cool. Thanks for posting!

TJY

Were those ingots shipped hot? 

march_hare Wrote:
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> Were those ingots shipped hot? 

I'm under the impression there's molten steel or somewhat soilidified steel inside them. I thought they were called ingots but maybe they're called molds??

ghemr Wrote:
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> march_hare Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Were those ingots shipped hot? 
>
> I'm under the impression there's molten steel or
> somewhat soilidified steel inside them. I thought
> they were called ingots but maybe they're called
> molds??

Those are ingot molds. They're usually stripped off as soon as the steel inside has hardened enough to be self supporting.

Fascinating pieces of history.
Bob

Awesome shots! The one and only time I came across the ingot mold train was on a dismal gloomy day with B&W film.

In photo 1, that's State Line Generating Plant, the world's largest when it was built in the 1920s. It was built by a company that was part of the Insull utility conglomerate. The plant has been razed, and I believe that there is a proposal for a data center to be built on the site. 

In photos 5 & 7, the building in the background is the Hammond Filtration plant, which was once served by rail and had its own spur or siding. 

As a kid in the '50s, I also remember seeing what we called "hot metal cars" traveling on the J in Whiting. They might have been going to or from USS South Works or from the Youngstown blast furnaces which were also on the South Side. 

Growing up in Whiting in the '50s, my friends and I would sometimes play along the tracks. Who knew that three of those railroads -- the Pennsy, New York Central, and B&O -- would no longer exist in a decade or two. The rails are still there (except for part of the PRR ROW), but it's just not the same. 

Only the J and the Chicago Short Line (both under different owners now, I believe), would be familiar to that grade school kid of the '50s. 

 Here's another historical tidbit of information regarding my photos. In the first two photos I'm standing on the right of way (the hill) of the Indian Hill and Iron Range Railway which provided the higher vantage point.....

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10%2C2410563

Great photos of the "J's" past. I didn't get over that too often and usually ended up in Griffith to watch the EJ&E, C&O, EL, GTW, and Michigan Central (PC) all cross each other right at the grade crossing. 

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

I am not complaining about these photos - they are fascinating!
But this series of photos is a good example of the long-time focus of railfan photographers to only shoot the locomotives.
I think those cars are very interesting and would have liked to see at least one side shot that shows how many trucks and what kind are under those cars.
I don't know how many times in recent years I have seen photos of locomotives pulling that appear to be interesting cars --- but the photographer put the camera away as soon as the power was past him/her.
Rant over.

 

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

ghemr Wrote:
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>  Here's another historical tidbit of information
> regarding my photos. In the first two photos I'm
> standing on the right of way (the hill) of the
> Indian Hill and Iron Range Railway which provided
> the higher vantage point.....
>
> https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10
> %2C2410563

I thought that hill might be the remains of the former Bairstow dumping operation just west of Calumet Avenue and a couple of hundred yards from the filtration plant, but I wasn't sure. As I noted in a reply to that post from 2011, I actually witnessed a steam locomotive from the Indian Hill and Iron Range RR pushing slag cars up the inclince to the rotary dumper. A diesel later replaced the steam loco. 

 

This is a very cool series, showing a little piece of the rail universe that most of us never see. I lived in Chicago before your photos and now am sorry to have missed them.
 

If the shots in # 3 and 4 were taken today, you would see the Horseshoe Casino in the background. There is also now a Marina west of the casino. 

Here's my three crummy B&W  shots of an ingot train we caught ca. 1984. I scanned these a long time ago when my scanning skills were brand new.

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What a great set of photos! The J Lakefront line is fascinating and I could enjoy
photos from it all day long.  Thanks a million for showing these excellent shots.

The H. Bairstow operation mentioned can be seen in a previous thread,
"B&O Main along Lake Mich at Hammond 1970 thru 1973" posted on
08/04/17 by PRRFan; has great photos.

Also mentioned was the Hammond Filtration Plant.
See, "Hammond, Indiana Water Filtration Plant Spur (Image)"
posted on 01/29/17 by CSL_SW1001 for a photo and interesting
discussions about that location.
 

Here is a "snip" from a 1930 Sanborn map of the filtration plant. It shows a coal hopper at the filtration plant along the spur, so at one time there must have been deliveries of coal to the plant. 

I certainly enjoy this kind of historical sleuthing, especially when it concerns the places where I grew up. I was hoping for more information from the Sanborn maps, but they were not concerned so much about mapping railroads, only buildings.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/18 11:04 by colehour.

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thehighwayman Wrote:
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> I am not complaining about these photos - they are
> fascinating!
> But this series of photos is a good example of the
> long-time focus of railfan photographers to only
> shoot the locomotives.
> I think those cars are very interesting and would
> have liked to see at least one side shot that
> shows how many trucks and what kind are under
> those cars.
> I don't know how many times in recent years I have
> seen photos of locomotives pulling that appear to
> be interesting cars --- but the photographer put
> the camera away as soon as the power was past
> him/her.
> Rant over.
>
>  

Those cars have 2-axle roller bearing trucks, unlike ingot "buggies" used inside the mill which often have just two axles total....they are essentially operating in Iinterchange service so they need to have "stadard" braking and trucks, etc....

This Walthers page prettty much shows the various types of both in-plant and transfer ingot cars....
https://www.walthers.com/products/trains/freight-cars/steel-mill-car/

Bob