The Carrie Furnaces national Historic Landmark in Rankin, PA, the only preserved steel industry blast furnace plant in the US, will be open for tours three days a week from April until October.

Blast furnaces were heavily dependent upon railroads for handling of materials into and out of the plant, and much of that rail infrastructure still remains. 1930s era Wellman Seaver Morgan car dumper, handling of iron ore via standard gauge self propelled transfer and scale cars, transport of molten iron via Kling and bottle type hot metal cars etc. Come see our collection of historic steel industry rail equipment at home in its natural habitat.

http://www.riversofsteel.com/things-to-do/tours/

That certainly got the kid's attention.

Just to clarify, does the site accept National Park Passes for tours, or just to the museum itself (which sounds well worth visiting if you're ANYWHERE in the area!)

I don't know about the National Park passes for sure, but I'm thinking that we do not.




One of the cars in our collection. This is a modified Kling type hot metal car, built by the William B. Pollock Co. in Youngstown, OH. It was capable of handling 75 tons of molten iron from the blast furnace to the open hearth plant on the other side of the Monongahela River.


Looking at the "high line" and the car dumper. The track on the left was for a self propelled transfer car that would move the iron ore from the ore bridge to the stockhouse bins. The center track was for iron ore that bypassed the ore yard, limestone, mill scale, sinter and whatever other raw materials were needed. The outside track was reserved for coke deliveries and was equipped with a car puller to spot hoppers over the coke bins.