A couple of weeks ago we created an Indiegogo campaign to raise up to $10,000 to bid on a Pollock 200 ton bottle type hot metal car at the upcoming RG Steel Warren Works auction on March 13. So far we have raised $1,070 with 45 days to go until the auction.

There are sixteen identical cars at the Warren Works, all of which were in service until June, 2012 when the plant shut down. There is currently a surplus of hot metal cars in the US so we are realistically hopeful that they will sell for scrap value. If so we have a good chance of acquiring one.

These cars were built by the William B. Pollock Co. in the early 1960s for the Republic Steel Youngstown Works and used to transport 200 tons of molten iron (hot metal) at 2600 degrees F between the Youngstown blast furnaces and the Warren basic oxygen furnaces, a distance of about 20 miles over the Erie Lackawanna mainline. Car no. 24 is of special interest to us because of an incident that happened in the early 1970s in which a span bolster broke on the mainline in Girard, OH and the car had to be jacked up on the mainline to send the bolster back to Pollock for repair.


RSCX 24 in Girard by Todengine, on Flickr


RSCX 24 in Girard(1).jpeg by Todengine, on Flickr

We inspected the sixteen cars on Friday and found car 24 amongst the fleet:

072 by Todengine, on Flickr

The Indiegogo campaign is here: http://www.indiegogo.com/hotmetalcar/x/1533341

Our goal is to take the $10,000 in money previously raised, add the proceeds from the Indiegogo campaign and then take our best shot at acquiring the car at the auction. If we are successful then we will move the car to the Tod Engine Heritage Park in Youngstown. If we are unsuccessful we may bid on some other equipment to preserve or earmark the funds for other steel preservation efforts.

Rick does a great job with the Todd Engine Foundation so I'd certainly recommend a donation for the cause. The Indiegogo donation process is a neat concept and I'd be interested to see how it works out. Making a donation was easy and various perks are provided which I think is kind of nice. It then provides a quick process for linking the effort to your facebook account and expanding the network of people who will know about the effort. Again, well done.

Best of luck Rick.

J.R.

A $10,000 pledge has recently been made to this project, bringing the total amount available to purchase and move a car to over $23,000.

If the car was built in the 1960s, it is running into the FRA 50 year rule, which may be why they are going to scrap. It could be hard to get moved.

FRA regulating captive cars in an industrial plant? Interesting concept....

dave

These cars were indeed covered by FRA regs at such time as they were being hauled over common carrier trackage by Erie-Lackawanna and Conrail locos and crews. That practice may have ended, but even in their current state any movement over common carrier trackage, even if "going to scrap" (read: preservation) will encounter some FRA issues. At least in theory the FRA has authority over anything that moves on the "general freight railroad network" with a few exceptions as spelled out in the FRA regs. If your trackage is connected to that network, your equipment is in the FRA's vision. They may not opt to exercise such authority, but that doesn't mean that they can't.

Moving this car by rail wasn't even considered as an option.

This is how you do it.

http://site.mawebcenters.com/reichardin ... pic_21.jpg