GE 44-tonner switching Nucor steel mill, Seattle. 7-21-2010

The Nucor steel mill in West Seattle has a couple of these old GE 44-tonners. Nucor melts down scrap metal to make rebar and flat steel stock.

The mill has a scrap metal receiving yard over on W Marginal Wy about a mile away. These switchers move gondolas of scrap metal back and forth between the receiving yard and the mill. The mill also has BNSF drop off hopper cars of minerals that are used in making steel and flatcars to be loaded with finished product.

This is their little storage yard north of the mill. Here, the switcher is moving a flat car from the track outside the wall where BNSF dropped it off into their storage yard. Then she grabs a bulkhead flat and moves it inside the mill to be loaded.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• 44-tonner
• ge
• seattle
• Nucor
• mill
• trains

[metraF40PH163]

Great video! What kind of horn/whistle does thie engine have?

[SeattleRailFan]

@metraF40PH163 No idea what horn it has. I'm not an expert on train horns, so even if I hear one I can't identify the model. Some people are train horn experts and can identify a train horn by their distinctive sounds.

[mafarnz]

WOW!!!!!! Look at how much that flat car overhangs the curve!

[SeattleRailFan]

@mafarnz Yep, those are some seriously tight curves at the mill. It almost looks like the flatcar is about to topple off the rails.

[trainsbybob]

As they say in model railroading... A PROTOTYPE FOR EVERYTHING! Now I don't feel bad about those 15" inch radius curves I have on my layout. :)