Out of curiosity can anyone identify from the few remaining clues who made this power hammer? It appears to have been a self contained unit but I’m far from an expert on power hammers. This is in an old railroad repair facility which once had dozens of steam hammers but at the end this was all that remained at a single forge station in another part of the complex. The company broke things up with brutal efficiency when scrapping out the property. Interestingly they left behind this large low ironworking table. Not really a swage block – not really a stake table. I’m guessing that the various holes were designed for bending and punching.

Humphrey,

 

Its ironic how an industry that was capable of making all manner of useful tooling, orchestrating an unrivaled industrial revolution and winning two World Wars of gruesome proportion was in the end sold out by the next generation for its scrap value.  I'm reminded of the quote from the movie Wall Street, "greed is good", truly a sad commentary.

 

Peter

Here’s a neat gas or oil fired heating furnace from the Railroad’s boiler shop. The entire furnace floor can pull out on tracks. The last photo is early piping for an oxweld welding station.

That bottom die would make a heck of a nice anvil....

Peter – I agree on the one hand but on the other we’ve lost so many interesting industries and buildings to “progress” since the beginning of the industrial revolution – these shops are the exception in that they are clinging to life unlike all else which has been cleared away with hardly a clue to prove that they ever existed. These shops were built at the height of steam railroading when railroads dominated commercial and civilian commerce throughout the land. They are far too large and inefficient for today’s pared back railroad industry. I shudder to think what the yearly heating bill would be at today’s energy costs.
 
New England had blacksmith shops in almost every town, water powered mills on almost every brook, foundries in almost every town of any size and thousands of interesting industries throughout(true for most of the country). I guess it is the curse of nostalgics like us to lament their passing.

You sure this was a heating furnace?  From what I can see it looks like it MIGHT be a sand drying furnace.  Engines, Steam or Diesel including the most modern require sand for traction and they had to dry it in large heater system so it wouldn't freeze up or clog up the pipes.

 

Might be    

Oh that table is awesome.  Wish I had it and the space to keep it.  Thanks for sharing the pictures with us.  I love to see things like this that tell a story just in the pictures and get me thinking on what I would use them for.  Thanks again for sharing.

I agree with Thomas, that bottom die looks awesome. Would be worth finding out who to talk to about obtaining it. I like that there would then be a story of where it came from a how it was saved and reutilized.

It is a shame how quickly we forget and dismiss technology once its been improved upon. I always try to explain to my son how things were made in the past and the different stages of manufacturing advancements. I get the rolling of the eyes quite often but now and then he will make a reference to something I said making it worthwhile.

All of that stuff looks pretty familiar although I don't recognize anything on the hammer. The furnace is what is called a car-bottom furnace and at my old place of employment we had three in the heat treating department, each measured about 4 x 4 x 8 feet inside.

Couple more random photos of the shops

Oh the space and the tools! (drool)

I’d love the iron table too but no way that the RR would bother selling it. The place is way to unstable and the hassle/liability issues far out way the paltry financial upside.

I would get in so much trouble if I lived near there!  If they have it torn down; talk to the demolition people about getting stuff---how I got my old ohio penitentiary wrought iron

I would probaly get arrested for stealing if I lived closer.

More than one can bear. Poor Trusty Knocked-Over Machines..... How long before it is scrubbed from the face of the Earth, as if it never existed?

The two semi circular remnants/bosses/chipped divots on the part separate from the anvil look like they could have been the round lugs with the swedged ring that hold together the top and bottom castings on a Nazel.  

 

Or it could be where the teeth of a big excavator hit and broke the body of some other hammer.  The bastards.  It's a shame to see, if only they knew.  

 

But even setting aside the busted hammer, I want the winches, presses, work benches… those were some lazy scrappers.

Where is this place? One of the photos is a back-geared punch press prob 200 ton, and another looks to be a 36-48" Bullard style VBM

There is also a small mechanical shear/nibbler that may be worth salvaging. (first set of pictures second to last).

 

Looks like photo ops here as well. You do not see abandon buildings like this too often, there is a lot of history here.

 

Many big shops like this had platens in the floor.

 

brad

My kind of place.  I could spend weeks there exploring.  I love the long building with the overhead cranes.  So useful. 

Yep, I'd be lucky to get away with just a ticket or three if I lived near there.  I remember "exploring" through mills like that when I was a kid, and I shudder to think about the treasures I walked by and just didn't know about.  

 

I would certainly get in touch with who's doing the demo work.  The railroad might own the property, but it's the scrapper or contractor that's doing all the work and oversight.  Those are the guys to talk with.  Getting that stake table would probably take some work, but if the scrappers are still going at it, they'll have a path cleared soon enough.  It would certainly be worth it.

And scrappers are often *quite* happy to get paid more than scrap price...though sometimes a "during lunch" arrangement has to be worked out to not impede progress.  As a last resort a picture of it and what you are willing to pay at the end scrap yard will sometimes work too.   (why do I know this?  Don't ask I'd have to scrap you send you to China if I told you...)

The kind of work this shop did is still being done in the US but now with more modern equipment. Take a look a the Scot Forge website. We make parts for all kinds of things. Yesterday and Monday we were forging submarine components. Then its on to gears for the big mining shovels and axels for the massive dump trucks used in the tar sands operation. Forgings for oil wells, off shore oil rigs, even the wheels on the Mars rover were made as forgings by Scot Forge. Though I absolutely sympathize with the loss of equipment associated with scrapping out a shop like this, you can be sure that industrial forging is by no means dead or even dying. If anything, the industry is expanding. What has changed in the industry is the need to create some of the very intricate forgings that used to be a part of railroad and other specialized shops. With modern welding, cutting and machining techniques and the relatively low cost of steel as compared to 150 years ago it has become more cost effective to produce a fairly simple forging and machine in those intricate features or weld on extensions rather than create them by splitting and drawing out the stock.

I'll have to check this place out.  Just hope I don't stumble across and of the toxic waste.  This site is a "Superfund Site" , a hazardous waste area.  Cleanup is controlled by the EPA.  Current human exposure is not under control ie asbestos, lead, and toxic chemicals.  Fun place.

Or the railroad police!

No one has identified the maker yet. Here are several more photos if it helps.