Hey #19 – Please take me along when you slide on down

After my revelatory moment last weekend, it was a matter of time until I ascended to the top of the coal bunker, after months of toying with this in my mind. I could have waited until Saturday (right now it is Thursday evening), but I was driving back from Michigan Thursday afternoon and Acme is right on the way. So I planned it all week and followed through with my plans. I grabbed lunch at Baltimore Foods and sped over to the plant. The wind was intense which probably made an unsafe act even more unsafe but while I’m not proud to say it, there is almost nothing that would have kept me from getting this done today. Video is at the bottom of the post.

No way I was going to just walk out of there without having a look around for a few choice documents. On the larry car scale level (just below the port to topside), I found a number of goodies.

I found a lidman shoe a while back. I set it on a windowsill and inexplicable it was still there weeks later, last weekend. I moved it to a more secure location. It is a very different design than these and if I even find it’s mate I will take them both home. But very interesting to find these! It seems like I may have now found four separate shoes, none of which are related or even the same style. As I poked around in the darkness, I spied a couple documents in the corner. I can never resist these and they are actually fairly interesting.

Kind of heartbreaking to read this one. In the fall of 2000 the plant was 12 months from shutdown, even if no one knew. Not only did they not know, this document shows things were business as usual with big plans for the coming year. I’m guessing the numbers in the second column are costs, in thousands. $1,000,000 for a foundry coke wharf is especially ambitious – foundry coke production ended just a couple months later after only going for a year or two.

I have written a few times about Fosbel. They offered ceramic welding services to repair the refractory inside the oven chambers. I believe this is the only time I have found one of their own internal documents. A quick glance at this shows that climbing inside an oven is no joke and you better have your ducks in a row.

I posted a photo of this cute little binder months ago. I found it on the floor at that time, and set it safely on a shelf. I have come across it a few times since but always left it behind. Recently it was on my mind as I thought I could find a use for the binder, even if the guts are boring boilerplate (not even specific to the coke plant). I came across it today and knew I had to grab it. It was fairly covered with coal dust and needed a good cleaning but it is a decently interesting read (dated October 1990).

I was a bit bored and did my usual wandering. I didn’t want to leave the ovens area because I knew I had to get going soon. I walked into the ground floor of the coal bunker and was standing around when I noticed the graffiti on this door. I believe this cave in was done purposefully to block the entrance to the battery #2 basement. That aside, I never really paid attention to the graffiti before as the stuff is everywhere. It was partially obstructed and I could only see the word ‘STOP’. I thought that was odd so I climbed up there and started chucking bricks to the side to find out what the rest of the message was. There are a few possible interpretations here. An explorer sometime 2001-2007 might have wanted to make a statement regarding the disassembly of their favorite place. But I wonder if this is not graffiti at all, but something written in 2006-2007 when the tear down was going on. Battery #2 was just a few feet outside this door, it was mostly demolished (still not sure why). Maybe it was a note to be sure they didn’t swing the wrecking ball on the coal bunker? Also seems odd that it is so low down on the door. Now I feel like I need to dig more and see what else I can find.

I am such a broken record but here it goes again – NEVER STOP LOOKING. I cleaned out the area manager ovens office in the coal bunker a long, long time ago. I checked again out of boredom and found this 30 page+ document in a manila envelope. I can’t think of more grade A documentation that I’d love to read. Whoever shared this didn’t even have the original, or at least didn’t want to loan it out. I’d like to see that! This is in great shape and looks to be a great text. The binder clip holding it together actually disintegrated – that is a first.

And that bring us to the video. Going up, I felt pretty good until I got about 2/3rds of the way to the top. Then the height started to get to me a bit, there isn’t an inside railing when you are against the building and I was not fond of having only one hand on something. I was shocked when I saw it only took me about 5 minutes to get from the ground outside, up to bench level, larry car scale and port, then up to the top. Seemed much, much longer. Going down was far worse, my brain was sending me signals telling me that I was going to take a tumble at any minute and the wind was positively blaring in my ears. Eventually I learned to start focusing on the next platform at the bottom of the staircase I was on and that calmed me a bit. My mind was racing the whole time, it was exactly the feeling of a nightmare where you are being pulled against your will and you fight but can’t get away. I wanted so badly to be out of there. When I got to ‘the plank’, I actually sat down for a moment, I feel sick even now thinking about it. I can’t believe I did it and I don’t know if I can even yet say “well at least I’m glad I did it”. I do not consider myself ‘afraid of heights’ (clearly I am not, having survived this) but I’ll admit, it all got the best of me. Glad it is over!