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Sloss FurnacesNational Historic Landmark |
A lot more than iron flowed from those furnaces.
Our whole culture did. Our whole way of life.
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
he Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark is located Birmingham, Alabama, adjacent to several railroad mainlines. Bearing the name of one of Birmingham's founders, Col. James Withers Sloss, the facility operated as a pig iron producing blast furnace from 1882 until 1971 — nearly a century. After the furnace shut down, the location became one of the first industrial sites and the only blast furnace in the United States to be preserved and restored for public use. In 1981 the furnaces were designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior. The site currently serves as an interpretive museum of industry, host for a nationally recognized metal arts program, and is a frequent concert and festival venue. Additionally, two locomotives are preserved and displayed on the property: a Lima steam locomotive retired by the Frisco and a Baldwin diesel-electric switcher retired from service in the Birmingham steel and chemical industries.
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Click to see the Sloss Furnaces Landmark site plotted on a Google Maps page
Museum
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
collection
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
In the years following the Civil War, railroad men, land developers and speculators moved into Jones Valley to take advantage of the area's rich mineral resources. All the ingredients needed to make iron lay within a thirty-mile radius. Seams of iron ore stretched for 25 miles through Red Mountain, the southeastern boundary of Jones Valley. To the north and west were abundant deposits of coal, while limestone, dolomite, and clay underlay the valley itself. In 1871 southern entrepreneurs founded a new city called Birmingham and began the systematic exploitation of its minerals.
In the years following the Civil War, railroad men, land developers and speculators moved into Jones Valley to take advantage of the area's rich mineral resources. All the ingredients needed to make iron lay within a thirty-mile radius. Seams of iron ore stretched for 25 miles through Red Mountain, the southeastern boundary of Jones Valley. To the north and west were abundant deposits of coal, while limestone, dolomite, and clay underlay the valley itself. In 1871 southern entrepreneurs founded a new city called Birmingham and began the systematic exploitation of its minerals.
One of these men was Colonel James Withers Sloss, a north Alabama merchant and railroad man. Colonel Sloss played an important role in the founding of the city by convincing the L&N Railroad to capitalize completion of the South and North rail line through Jones Valley, the site of the new town. In 1880, having helped form the Pratt Coke and Coal Company, which mined and sold Birmingham's first high-grade coking coal, he founded the Sloss Furnace Company, and two years later "blew-in" the second blast furnace in Birmingham.
collection
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Aug 2021 / RWH
Locomotives
Allied Chemical #921
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Allied Chemical #921
to U.S. Pipe & Foundry #30
to Allied Chemical #921
to Sloss Furnaces National Landmark
Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
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Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
from The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide
by Jerry A. Pinkepank (1974) / collection
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
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Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
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Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
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Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
St. Louis–San Francisco #4018
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
St. Louis–San Francisco #4018
donated to City of Birmingham, 1952
to Birmingham Fairgrounds Park
to Sloss Furnaces Nat Landmark, 2009
Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
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Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Article
Locomotive Idle Since 1952 Is on Roll Again
February 2009
The 319,000-pound locomotive is placed on a trailer for a short ride to a nearby rail flatcar.
About 100 workers with several agencies in Birmingham and Jefferson County assisted in the first leg of moving a 1917 vintage locomotive from Fair Park this morning.
The move began shortly after 8 a.m. when two cranes from CraneWorks hoisted the 319,000-pound locomotive about six feet off the ground and onto a 48-wheel trailer. Later today, the trailer will carry the locomotive approximately two blocks to the nearby railway.The engine will then be transferred to a flatcar, which will take it along the railway to Sloss Furnace. The move should take about two days. The engine, at 19 feet high, is too big to be carried down regular streets and under overpasses.
The locomotive has been at Birmingham's Fair Park since 1952. The locomotive was slated for a move as part of the city's project to convert the park into a sports-themed residential and commercial district.
The move is costing about $180,000, said Mountain Brook Mayor Terry Oden, who has been working to preserve the locomotive.
Bob Sims — Birmingham News
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
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Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
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Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
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Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Quadruple Crossing
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Adjacent to the entrance of the Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark, along 32nd Street in Birmingham, is an interesting quadruple diamond crossing. Here a connector track between former Seaboard Air Line and Lousiville & Nashville mainlines (both now CSX Transportation) crosses the former Central of Georgia and Southern mains (both now Norfolk Southern). The connector track makes a broad curved street crossing before navigating four diamonds in a row on its north-south tangent between CSX lines.
from SPV's Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North Americ
a / collection
Click to see the quadruple crossing area plotted on a Google Maps page
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
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Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
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Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Mainline Action
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
The Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark is bracketed on all sides by busy railroad trackage. Most of Birmingham's former flag mainlines are represented in this triangle, now in the hands of CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern. Amtrak's daily Crescent passenger service makes an appearance once a day in each direction.
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Lagniappe
"Southern Steel"
collection
Sloss Saturation
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Philadelphia Philly
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
First Gen / Third Gen
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
A Century of Frisco
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Rolling Off the Old Central
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Triple Diamonds
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Double Thump
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Snapshots
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / DKT
Birmingham, Al / Aug 2021 / RWH
Links / Sources
- Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark website
- Wikipedia article for Sloss Furnaces
- Encyclopedia of Alabama article for Sloss Furnaces
