It turns out that there’s still two at the old LTV plant in South Chicago and they may even be brought back into operation. www.chicagosteel.org
(Look at the pickup truck to get a sense of their size.)
I saw them as a child but don’t remember them operating. Supposedly they could lift 17 tons in one gulp. Is that what one gondola could carry?
My sister and brother-in-law brought their boat down to Illinois (from Michigan) five or six years ago, and we made the triangle tour (Cal-Sag Channel, Calumet River, Lake Michigan, Chicago River, Sanitary canal, and back to the Cal-Sag). One of the LTV Huletts was in operation when we went by there, and we stopped and watched for a while. At least a couple of my nieces and nephews remember that as the highlight of the trip.
The LTV Huletts were smaller than those monsters at Cleveland, but every bit as fascinating to watch.
17 tons would fill up about a third of a coal car back in the days, and about 15 percent of one now.
It’s nice to see that people are trying to save that stuff. I think it would be great to have an entire mill saved for tour, but I know that will probably never happen. On the video that Trains did for the steel biz, they showed the Huletts at LTV still running. One was run from a remote cab, but the second one still had the operator sitting in the arm. It’s a trip to see that guy going up and down in that thing.
For those of us who grew up in the area, the Acme Steel plant had to be one of the most disjointed steel mills in existence. The coke ovens were along Torrence Avenue between 112th and 116th Streets, connected to the blast furnace by a conveyor belt over the Calumet River. This conveyor was an impressive structure in its own right. The blast furnace was at 108th and Burley, and the finishing mills are located in Riverdale. The blast furnace and finishing mills were connected by the now-famous bottle train that operated over PC.