It looks like time has run out for the remaining stationary steam engines at the former Solvay Coke Plant in Milwaukee. Despite a wealth of ideas and publicity on saving the compressor house intact, it will be cleared out in seven weeks.
(I had contacted Whitney Gould, author of the "Spaces" column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and she was ready to view the compressor house and get involved in trying to save it. The Solvay Coke Plant Photo Gallery has recieved more hits than any other webpage on my site.)
If you can provide a home for one of these steam engines, please contact Larry Tucker immediately at larrydtucker@earthlink.net. I can also provide his phone number, and the phone number of the developer if anyone is interested.
I was talking to plant manager of the plant I worked at about the price/cost ratio of scrapping old plants. He pointed out that scrap iron only fetches a third the price of scrap steel; at $200.00 a ton for scrap steel, that means $66 a ton for scrap iron. It is still not enough to scrap a plant at a profit; but still, the corporation that owns our plant is scrapping two others while the price is so high.
-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a
Milwaukee Solvay Coke Plant
james@survivingworldsteam.com