Bethlehem Steel Co. Hot Metal Car No. 127
Baltimore Train Museum
Text says:
The Key Link In Steelmaking
BETHLEHEM STEEL CO HOT METAL CAR NO. 127
Built mid-1930s
One of the most specialized and spectacular types of rail car built, montster like this are key parts of the steel production process or "ladle" cars. Whatever their nicknames, they shuttle molten iron from the blast furnaces to the open hart or basic oxygen furnaces, where it is turned into steel.
The molten iron is poured into the car's open "hatch" - which is as small as possible to minimize heat loss. A plant switcher then moves it to the pouring point. There, power cables are plugged into the car's on board electric motor, which rotates the enormous cylinder and dumps the load. A few "hot metal runs" operate 20 miles or more between separate plants - sometimes over main line railroads.
Built of thick metal plate and lined with firebrick, hot metal cars can be awsomely heavy. When loaded, some larger models can weigh over 400 tons.
Comments and faves
Enolough, borninsextum http://www.borninsextum.blogspot.com/, and MARCHETTo added this photo to their favorites.
MARCHETTo (69 months ago | reply)
WOW
serpentino (67 months ago | reply)
really cool. i just wonder where this jumbo can be spot running "over main line railroad", if possible at dusk, with molten iron glowing through that hatch...? might be an awesome picture.
Bob Womack (56 months ago | reply)
Damn!
uʌ (43 months ago | reply)
lovely, you should add a geo tag and add it to theIndustrial Archaeology Map, we'd love to have it on the map.
baldwin60k (43 months ago | reply)
actually you can see these things in use on you tube, although the facility closed in the 90s. awesome pic that is a great place to visit.
NorthernVirginiaRefuse added this photo to his favorites. (26 months ago)