Eastern Railroad Discussion > What's the deal with Warren , O?

About 1994 or 1995, I sold a small pump station to a Texas contractor that was doing work at some kind of
clean-up site, just south of downtown Warren, Ohio off Warren Ave as I recall. I went to the site but don't remember much about
it other than there were tracks in the ground and a few small buildings still standing, probably WW2 era or earlier, and my pump station
was installed in one of the gutted buildings. There was a lot of rubble everywhere and a lot of zoned off areas.

I asked the contractor what it was all about and he replied something to be fact that I should just get the equipment
commissioned and not concern myself with the surroundings. On my second day there a GSA guy showed up and I showed
him how everything worked ( both pumps were driven by small Diesel engines, about 100 HP each, as there was no reliable
power source there) and left him with some manuals, which was part of the deal,though he was fairly disinterest
In what I had to tell him.

So with the background of my being there said, I recall a lot of tracks at this site and a lot of rail activity in the town too.
Unfortunately at the time I had just started my company a couple years prior (1992) and was up to my ears in debt, was
doing the work of three good men in order to keep things afloat, and the railroads were not forefront in my mind.
Fortunately things gradually got better and I combined railfanning in my travels so this the story ends well.

So the question for y'all is, just south or southeast of the downtown area, what was at this location back in the day?

This explains why you place wild animals around your layouts!

There was a coal gasification plant on the southside as well as a steel mill. I don't remember when each closed down. There may have been other industries there which are also now defunct.

John

Possibly the Republic Steel facility on Pine Ave SE [ which becomes Warren Avenue ], and which was declared "clean" on 12/28/95. [ Republic / LTV had other facilities in this area.]

Methodology: Did an I'net search for "Warren OH superfund".

SZ

Agreed, this sounds like Republic Steel (name later changed) whose plant was situated on the south side of Warren, Oh. between Pine Ave. SE/Warren Rd. and Main Ave. SW. The Mahoning River bisected the mill. Back in the day, this plant was one of the larger, if not the largest steel mill in Warren, Oh. The other plant being Copperweld Steel on the north side.

Railroad-wise the PRR/PC PY&A branch paralleled Warren Ave. and the east side of the mill. The double-track Erie/EL 1st sub main and single-track B&O/Chessie Newton Falls sub passed over the PRR/PC on overhead bridges. The latter two railroads gained access to the mill via a connecting track that extended from near the Erie/EL freight station located on Pine Ave. SE (just south of South St. SE) to the PRR/PC where it crossed Pine Ave. SE. Alongside the connecting track were 4-5 tracks for switching.

It seemed like the B&O/Chessie performed intra-plant switching at the mill for Republic Steel. It's possible all three railroads delivered ore trains and other raw materials to the mill. The B&O/Chessie maintained a small support yard along the Lake sub east/compass south of the junction between the Newton Falls and Lake subs. The Erie/EL also moved bottle cars containing molten steel on the 1st sub and occasionally on the 2nd sub.

Espee



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/18 09:25 by SouthernPacific.

Shane now you know why your feet light up at night!