Chicago Steel Mill Railroading: Switchers at Riverdale

On September 4th, 2023, I visited Cleveland Cliffs' compact strip steel mill in Riverdale, Illinois. This steel mill is pretty unique, as it receives its molten iron from the blast furnace at Indiana Harbor roughly 15 miles east of here. Norfolk Southern delivers the iron in torpedo cars a few times a day via the Indiana Harbor Belt.

Here's a video of one of these trains on my channel:
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On this day, I caught a green SW8 dropping off loaded torpedo cars and picking up empties at the BOF (Basic Oxygen Furnace). I then followed a former Acme Steel SW1 on its journey between the BOF and CSP (Continuous Strip Processing) mill down the line. What's neat about this train is the usage of a ladle car that carries the steel to the processing mill. Riverdale had been a spot I'd been wanting to fly my drone at for a while, so I'm glad I was finally able to get a good look at this steel mill's operations!

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