The Hottest Train On Earth: Molten Steel Trains Across Chicagoland

Ever since I began taking video seriously in May of 2022, the one thing I've wanted to cover the most (by far!) were Norfolk Southern's bottle trains between the steel plants at East Chicago and Riverdale. I touched on these briefly in my IHB East End video (...if you're new here, I'd highly advise watching that first for additional context to the layout of the railroad, etc.), but didn't get terribly in depth with them. Almost a year since that video was released, here is the long version of the hottest, heaviest, and arguably most unique train in the United States.

In this program, we take a look at over an hour of previously unseen footage of these unique trains, as well as some additional steel mill railroading within both the massive Indiana Harbor Works, and smaller Riverdale Works.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Introduction
1:55 - Lakefront Yard/Indiana Harbor Works Rail Action
10:06 - Chasing the Hottest Train on Earth
24:18 - Riverdale Works Rail Action
41:37 - The IHB and other Steel Mill Trains
53:47 - Empties/Conclusion

As always, for those who enjoy EMD music or other indiscernible steel mill noises, a narration-free version of this video can be found below:

   • The Hottest Train On Earth: Molten St...  

Thanks for watching!


The Much Too Long Creator's Note:

This is the first installment of what I'm calling my #steelmilltrains series! Steel traffic has always been my favorite, and I have a quite a few other ideas in mind to keep the series going! Also of note for you loyal supporters, I'm planning on every 5th upload being a longer, project-based video like this one. These take a LOT of work, and often years of footage to be shot, so keep an eye out in early March for the next big one!