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The first step in the production of steel takes place at the blast furnace. The railroad hauls carloads of raw materials to the trestle where the contents are dumped into storage bins until they are needed by the furnace. The iron ore, coke, and limestone is then dumped into the top of the furnace using a pulley-hopper system called a skip hoist. For over 100 years, the Union Railroad has moved train loads of raw materials to the steel mills in the Monongahela River Valley. This view from August 1958 shows a southbound ore train passing through Kenny Yard on the Munhall Branch. The train is powered by a calf-cow set of EMD switchers which are pulling a long string of 70-ton Bessemer hoppers. This train arrived on the URR from the interchange with the B&LE at North Bessemer. It is headed for the blast furnaces of the Carrie Furnaces and will soon be crossing the Rankin Transfer Bridge to get there. (Al Holtz)

Photograph from UNION RAILROAD In Color.

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