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.
