Off topic, but an interesting website devoted to the old Hamms Brewery in St. Paul, which (at last report on the website) still sat abandoned and unused, an industrial ruin somewhat like the Crestline roundhouse.

http://www.actionsquad.org/hammsoverview.htm

Bob -


Ah yes....."From the Land of Sky Blue Waters......Comes the Beer Refreshing......HAMMMMMMMMMMM's!"

Hamm's used to sponsor the White Sox and Cub's games in Chicago. I was too young to drink in those days, but I still remember the jingle! AND the Hamm's Bear!

The sidekick of Announcer Jack Brickhouse (Harry Creighton I believe) would also do a live commercial at least once during the games. In those days, you couldn't drink on camera so Harry would do his spiel and then bring the Hamm's right up to his lips and then the camera would cut out. But you heard from the fans cheers as they swung back to the ball game that old Harry just didn't put the glass down!

I know off topic but you COULD watch trains passing from the old Comiskey Park and there WAS a Milwaukee Road branch line that used to run right next to Wrigley Field to serve a coal dealer next door.

Les

Off topic, but incredibly interesting. Nice post.

Rich O

The Action Squad website has explored a lot of interesting locations in the Twin Cities area. While there is not a lot of RR stuff left some of the site are railroad related, for example, the Phalen creek drain in under Westminister junction and was installed by the NP or GN (I can't remember exactly which) to allow for development of the railroad trackage. I think it dates to the same period as the two tunnels still used by the BNSF.

This is a photo from the Hamms website. Is this a steam powered dynamo or generator?




Wesley

Neither. That is actually a synchronous electric motor that you are looking at. It is probably running a pump or a compressor on the right.

There is also an exploration of the old Soo Line headquarters high-rise in downtown Minneapolis on this site. To my knowledge it's still owned by Canadian Pacific who use it for some regional offices and rents out the extra office space.

http://www.actionsquad.org/sooline.htm

Yup, synchronous motor on a two cylinder ammonia refrigeration compressor. Most likely a York compressor.

Kind of reminds me of some of the buildings I have seen with ancient diesel engines and other equipment retired in place, resting there in silence until the demolition crews arrive...

I ahve seen these types of motors still in place in service around Los Angeles, in old factories of course. They run forever with maintenance.

There are actually two abandoned breweries right next to each other in Tumwater, Washington (a suburb of Olympia). You can clearly see both of them from I-5. The most recent one was where they brewed Olympia beer until it was bought out by Miller then immediately closed permanently. They bought it only to keep their competitors from buying the property and actually making beer there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia_Brewing_Company

Let's not perpetuate urban legends here, okay?

That line is trotted out about breweries about as often (and for the same reasons) as the ones about GM "killing off" all the streetcar lines in a conspiracy. I don't know the particulars of the Olympia deal but in every other case I've personally witnessed, the brewery in question was far too big for a craft/micro brewery (typical annual production 10-20,000 barrels as opposed to 400-600,000 barrel capacity for these places) yet too small for the Bud/Miller/etc. brewery (usual plant capacity 1-2.5 million barrels a year) and wrongly configured to boot.

And to qualify myself slightly: These days I make as much money, if not more, from beer writing as I do from railroad writing.........

I get where you're going with this, but in short, they got bought out, in less than I think two years, they had closed the plant for good, and have blocked all efforts to sell the plant to anyone else since. Several other companies have tried to buy the property for bottled water and soda production, but all have had a condition of the potential sale that they cannot re-sell it to anyone who'd make beer there and also must require the same condition to anyone they sell it to in the future. For obvious reasons, the building remains vacant. They were required to run the plant a specific amount of time as a condition of the sale, which they did, shutting the plant down almost to the day they could do so. At least another condition of the sale was re-building the 1915 street bridge in front of the plant that spans Tumwater Falls, which was completed long after the plant was closed.

The Washington Post did the same thing here in DC when the Evening Star closed in the 1980s. The Post immediately bought the Star's printing plant, thus shutting out the possibility of a start-up or competitor having access to a turn-key operation.

Wesley