From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Bruce Smith
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2020 9:29 AM
To: RealSTMFC@groups.io
Subject: [RealSTMFC] Cable Reel Loads

The "he" at Des Plaines Hobbies was Ron Sebastian whom we tragically lost late last summer.

Is his widow, Susan,, running the store now?  Don't know but she has always been as pleasant

to work with as Ron always was.

Don Valentine

On Thu, May 28, 2020 at 7:19 PM, Schuyler Larrabee via groups.io

<schuyler.larrabee@...> wrote:

Well, thanks Matt, for the answer.  But what a crushing blow to know that all that information is lost to history.

 

One thing I was interested in was the drawings of the one-piece locomotive frames that Commonwealth made in the steam era.  It is my understanding that the technology to make those is lost, and cannot be reproduced today.

 

Schuyler

 

From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Matt Goodman via groups.io
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2020 7:05 PM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Photo: Buckeye Steel Transfer Gondola

 

Schuyler, 

 

The plant’s environmental manager took the president of the club and I through Buckeye's office building about a year after the facility had been purchased at bankruptcy auction and shortly before it started being dismantled. To her credit, she was concerned that a lot of history would be lost in the rubble and was hoping we could help rescue things of value (either directly or through people we knew).

 

I asked about specifically about drawings. Buckeye (then Columbus Steel Castings) had would have had some very interesting casting drawings though their and their predecessors work (including locomotive frames and steam era freight car trucks and couplers). Her story was that the winning bidder (a competitor in the industry) had immediately taken possession of the IP (drawings, etc.) and destroyed them, for reasons I don’t quite understand. What a loss. 

 

I picked up some grounds drawings that day, and other materials were later rescued by the local historical society. Again, as far as I know, the really cool stuff went to the the shredder. With luck the “shredder” means some bigwig took them into their personal collection!

 

Matt Goodman

Columbus, Ohio US

 

On May 23, 2020, at 5:51 PM, Schuyler Larrabee via groups.io <schuyler.larrabee@...> wrote:

 

Not about the car in the subject line . . .

 

Were the records of Buckeye (and Columbus Steel Castings) preserved at all?  I don’t remember what I was after – might have been for a locomotive driver center -  but I once contacted them and they said if I >>REALLY<< needed it, they had the drawings I was interested in at the time, but it would probably take a couple man days to locate them.  Was I willing to pay for that?

 

Ah, nooooo.

 

But I still wonder if they were preserved.

 

Schuyler

 

From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Matt Goodman via groups.io
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2020 1:21 PM
To: main@realstmfc.groups.io
Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Photo: Buckeye Steel Transfer Gondola

 

The amazing thing was that Columbus Steel Castings (the successor to Buckeye) was the largest steel foundry under one roof in North America in the last couple of decades.  Not something you normally associate Columbus with. 

 

My model railroad club, on which I pulled steam era freight cars, was on the grounds (in the old ARMCO executive building) from 1969 until 2016-ish, when we were finally asked to leave, so I’ve long had a soft spot for the facility. 

Matt Goodman

Columbus, Ohio

 

Sent from my mobile

On May 23, 2020, at 1:09 PM, Riverboy via groups.io <river_dweller_ohio@...> wrote:



Beautiful photo.

 

It's interesting to note that over the last year, ALL of the Buckeye Steel buildings have been torn down, and the entire property is being cleaned up and will eventually be redeveloped. I moved from Massachusetts to Ohio in 1993 when I was 25, and moved just south of Columbus in 1995 when I bought my house, and after over 20 years of seeing the complex there, busy with all kinds of activity, along with a smell that was a lot like a burning clutch or burning brakes, the property is now vacant and void of all the structures. It looks so "wrong". Kind of sad in a way. A lot of history is now gone.

 

Tod C Dwyer

 

Lockbourne/Shadeville Ohio

 

On Saturday, May 23, 2020, 12:54:21 PM EDT, Bob Chaparro via groups.io <chiefbobbb@...> wrote: 

 

 

Photo: Buckeye Steel Transfer Gondola

An undated photo from the Columbus Metropolitan Library:

https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/memory/id/71933/rec/2728

This is a very clear photo and can be enlarged quite a bit.

My thanks to Bill West on the PRR Group for the link tip.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA