Murphy Siding, Chad, and Carl have shamed me into this. It’s not my fault!
This location and the plant of the same name at this location was featured in a Railway Age article circa 1950 entitled “Railroads haul everything to ______” (I may be off on the title). Inbound loads to this plant originated primarily on two Class Is and a Class III, and occasionally on a third Class I that is now a Class III. The plant itself was served by only two of the Class Is. The plant was the single largest customer on one of the Class Is, but the other Class I had about half of the inbound and outbound movements. An interurban ran within eyeshot distance of this plant but it had none of the business. The Class III that in 1948 originated loads was owned by the parent company of the large plant. The largest mine that supplied this plant had the same name as the plant. The Class III has been abandoned for many years but its track is still in place.
In 1948, one of the Class Is delivered its inbound loads with runthrough FTs from origin, the other with articulateds in turnaround service from a nearby terminal, articulateds of a wheel arrangement unusual in the West, except on this particular Class I (that is, you can rule out 2-8-8-2s). Moreover, said nearby terminal was joint with what was then the third Class I that is now the Class III, with the same name and for the most part the same route and same traffic.
The name of this location is supposedly drawn from its resemblance to the location in a European country of the same name, but if you’ve seen both of them that comparison is laughable.
One more clue: Outbound unit trains of this plant’s principal product were alternated between two connecting Class Is, neither of which served this plant but had the lion’s share of the movement.
Name the location, the plant, the four railroads involved in delivering inbound loads to this plant, the two additional railroads involved in the outbound u
One way to think about this is ask how many Class Is each of the Western States had circa 1948. I’ll give a hint that the state in question had five Class Is in 1948 (though if you wanted to be technical it had seven but two of them had been leased to one of the Class Is for 25 years by that point and in the public eye were indistinguishable from the parent road). Be careful that one of these five Class Is is no longer a Class I but its name has not changed.
Hey, 1435mm, I like your name. It is a name that I might have chosen. I suspect most people have no idea what your name means but it is quite clear to me. I am sure you know more about measuring than most Americans with their obsolete measureing system.
Geneva Steel; in Orem Utah. Produced coil sheet steel.
Inbound loads: DRGW, Union Pacific, Utah Railway (now considered a class III), and a United States Steel mine railroad (now abandoned.). Western Pacific and SP got the outbound loads (to California.)
Some minor details. In 1948 it would be U.S. Steel Geneva Works. Geneva Steel, as a corporate entity, didn’t appear until the 1980s. The station is Geneva, Utah, and the U.S. Steel-owned railway, which was a Class III common-carrier, was Carbon County Railway. The outbound loads were to U.S. Steel at Pittsburg (no “h”), California, where it had a cold-rolling and galvanizing mill. There was some steel moved via UP to Los Angeles, too, and elsewhere in the Far West.