St Nicks–Recap

First I’d like to thank the folks for leaving in most of the steps. Without these access to the upper levels would be extremely difficult.

I have been here twice, first on the scouting trip and the second time to shoot. On both visits folks were exploring this place. Let’s face it, where are you going to see this stuff? About the only place you may is around Pittsburgh in an abandon steel mill or old rock quarry. This is from an era long since gone. The only reason this is still standing is because it was built so well and they haven’t decided to reclaim the metal. I’m sure they will one day.

I shot some video to help augment the stills. Watch these first and then you’ll have a better idea of what you are looking at with the stills.

Here are all of the photos from the outing.

Now some of the shots.

 

Yup, this is what they did before computers. Look at the date, it is over 50 years old. That is what I love about this place. Hardly any vandalism after being abandon for over 30 years.

 

Heck, these look better than my boots. I should have swapped mine with a pair of these. But I couldn’t… the photag in me said look, frame up, click, and leave it exactly the way you found it.

 

No I didn’t look in the cans to see what was in them. However it looks like someone opened the bottle and dumped some of the contents out right next to it.

 

The pipes didn’t blow me away with color but they were an opportunity for a close up detail shot.

 

I kept these together so you can get a feel for what they look like on the outside and inside. There are several of them throughout the building. I am going to guess they filtered the coal while breaking it into smaller pieces. All of them have some sort of pump attached which must have pulled off the very fine coal dust, maybe slurry as I have heard it called. 

 

I was half tempted to crawl around the edge but with the gear I had on it wasn’t worth the shot. You barely have a foot of clearance.

 

The closest thing I could find to the helm. Electrical in nature I am guessing this is what controlled what was on and what wasn’t. Each major section had one.

 

For the most part the building was symmetrical. Whatever you had on one side was duplicated on the other. Makes sense from a maintenance perspective, repair one side while the other remains up. 

 

Probably not something you want to drag over your head. I’m guessing these pulled off the coal floating on top from one of these separating devices. From what I read the unwanted slate and other heavier stuff sank while the coal tended to float towards the top.

 

The next time you complain about your office job just think of what it was like working here with all these things turning and grinding. Long before the days of OSHA. I doubt they even wore ear plugs.

 

Certainly air related. I‘m guessing these bad boys pulled the dust out of the place so one could see.

 

This appeared to be the main driver of the main conveyor that pulled the coal up to the 10th floor. I am guessing this was the start of the process and everything beyond that was driven by gravity or some smaller chute/conveyor.

 

Definitely would not have wanted to be an electrician in this place. Every electrical closet was dark with a minimal amount of space behind what appear to be open wires. These closets probably had to be closed off due to the amount of dust throughout the place. Each one is dark with a few light blubs hanging overhead. Talk about safety hazard.

 

All the copper had been removed most likely due to the fact it had a fair market value and was worth salvaging. However, if you look closely you can see they left some. You barely have two feet of clearance to navigate behind this panel. The wires, I can only assume full of current, are attached to bolts sticking out the back of this panel. Imaging walking into this closet with a wrench.

The front of the panel shown above.

Yeah they look like solenoids to me. Pretty big ones. Must have been some serious juice running through those terminals.  

 

I wasn’t about to venture too far down this bad boy. Most of this building is solid, except for this conveyor. If you look closely you’ll see sections of the floor missing. Yup, that is why I  remained satisfied with the shot from exactly where I took it. I walked down the shoot about 15 feet and decided the floor wasn’t exactly something I felt comfortable with. One of the few places that had wood.  

 

Hey look at that little toy shovel down there. Looks like a Tonka.

 

EASY! Check out the video of the elevator. You’ll get a better feel for the drop. Whew, making me dizzy just looking at it.

 

I don’t know what this thing did. The pipe was full of silt so I am guessing it was some sort of filtering device.

 

This must have been their mail room. It was one of two areas that closely resembled an office. 

 

I like these perspective shots, never get tired of them.

 

And that was it… I found my door. You know I had to walk through.

 

This was a great shoot. I had never done anything like this before (excluding the scouting trip). If I do go back I’ll be shooting nothing but video. It is the only way for the viewer to get a sense of the immensity of this place. 

If you recognize any of this equipment and know how it works I’d be interested in hearing from you.