The Red Glow in the Northern Sky

THE RED GLOW IN THE NORTHERN SKY – by G. B. Reid

In 1957 I arrived in Flin Flon in November. After being here about a week, with my evenings walk uptown from my Uncle's place at 52 Tweedsmuir, I noticed a red glow in the northern sky. After questioning people about it, I was informed that this was the slag being dumped from the local Smelter. Little did I realize at that time that I was going to have the opportunity to spend almost 10 years working in that Smelter so during that time, I became very familiar with the slag haul and the train that hauled it and the individuals that operated the train.

On December 17, 1957, I began my work experience in the Smelter. Ted Bouteiller was our bullgang foreman and a great individual to work for. He took great individual interest in the people who worked for him so was more like a father than a boss. He would take you to areas and explain to you what to do and what to look out for. As a farm boy, this was greatly appreciated because the Smelter was a whole new world to me, it was certainly alot, bigger and smokier that I was used to. I remember Ted taking me to the slag tunnel beneath the Fuming Plant to chip ice from the walls as there was water coming down from the Fuming Plant above, freezing on the walls and causing the pots to rub as the train brought them in to spot them under the slag launders so I spent the largest part of the day chipping ice, loading it into a wheelbarrow and removing it from the track area. During the day I came in contact with another elderly gentleman that was putting grease on the rails and cleaning the switches in the tunnel. This mans name was Hans Nordby. When the Fuming Plant started up in 1951, Hans Nordby was one of the first Loco drivers. No. 90 Loco pictured above was one of the first electrical locomotives that HBM&S purchased new in 1950 for use in the Fuming Plant which commenced operation in 1951. Hans explained to me the operation of the slag shuttle which brought the slag from the Reverb Furnace to the Fuming Plant Well, where it was hoisted by 40 ton overhead cranes up into the fuming furnaces in the Fuming Plant. After the slag had gone through the fuming process which removed zinc from it, it then was tapped from the fuming furnaces into the pots on the slag train below. This was quite an operation where it was a series of buzzers and horns which was the method of communicating between the slag tappers and the motorman that operated the electrical locos in the tunnel. This told them when to move to the next pot. With there being two trains parked side by side, they would fill a pot on No 1 train and then switch to an alternate pot on No. 2 train. The locos that I can remember pulling these pots were No. 90 which pulled 4 pots and No. 94 & 95 which were smaller locos and pulled 3 pots each.

Communication between the tappers and locos operators was very important. When you are dealing with a molten material that is ranging from about 2200-2400 Fahrenheit or 1100-1200 Centigrade, you certainly do not want spillage. Yes, at times there was spillage and I also had the pleasure and opportunity to help clean it up too, so as a young man advice and wisdom and guidance passed onto you from individuals like Hans and Ted, made you feel much more comfortable. As I worked in the tunnel I also got to know the train crews. One individual I knew as a brakeman was Elwood Strom. He struck me as a sincere and conscientious individual. He explained many things to me about the operation of the Fuming Plant and the trains.

Elwood started with HBM&S February 2, 1951. He is pictured here in #90 Loco at the age of 20. Elwood worked for HBM&S for 36 years and retired in 1987. He spent from 8-10 years working as a brakeman on the slag tugger from the reverb and on the outside trains. Elwood spent approximately 20 years driving the tugger and the outside train, so handling hot slag certainly became second nature for him. Just lately Elwood and I have had the opportunity to sit down and look back on the past and talk about all the individuals that he had worked with over the 36 years that he was employed as a brakeman and a loco driver. Some of these men were Pat Logan, Jerry Lowes, Freddie Sattleberger, Hans Nordby, Julius Hiebert, Magnar Hanson, Ernie Hahn, Bill Martinot, Jim McDonald, Ron Radics, John Cameron, Lyle Ford, Tom McKercher and Gayle Craig and some of the shift bosses working on the reverb furnace during Elwoods working career were Don Hogoboam, Buster Woods, Dave Johnston and Alex Chisolm. Elwood retired in 1987 and has spent his retirement years at his home at Schist Lake in the summer months and in Apache Junction, Arizona during the winter months.

Here is Elwood today some 60 years later from the previous picture above. You can see he still has a twinkle in his eye and still has a great love for life. Elwood also owned his own airplane and did a fair amount of flying in his off hours of tourists to his fishing camps and also did work for geologists and small mining companies.

Here is Elwood with his wife Helen who he married in 1953. They raised 5 children - 3 boys and 2 girls. Elwood and Helen have had many years of successful married life. I would like to thank them for taking the time of sharing their thoughts and stories of the past. Elwood has passed on some names to me from the past that are still alive, that looked after track maintenance and also drove locos as he did. I hope to add some of their input to this article.

Shown in the above picture is loco #42. This loco was a loco that worked on Surface and then modified mechanically and electrically to be used on the slag haul. As you can see the front of it has been reshaped so that is would fit into the Fuming Plant tunnel beneath the fuming furnaces. This loco today is located at our local Museum in a place of honor as it is one of the last locomotives that was used in the slag haul.

This shows #42 locomotives final resting place at the Flin Flon Museum.

This picture shows loco #42 after it has been decorated for Xmas by Ron Dodds and his Elves.

Ron does a great job at our local museum.

SLAG

Now that our Smelter has shut down in 2010 and 225 jobs no longer exist behind the gates of HBM&S, most Smelter employees were moved to other departments or received retirement packages so the production of slag came to a close. When I first arrived in Flin Flon in the spring of 1958 when the snow was leaving, I noticed every place you went, slag was used for fill, it could be on a road, around a foundation or filling in holes and helping people prepare for landscaping. Slag had many applications and talking to many individuals who grew up in the community, just about everyone could tell you a story about walking or running and tripping and falling while riding their bike, slag had very sharp edges which cut and injured skin very easily, it also did some very good numbers on car tires, truck tires and heavy equipment. In latter years the use of slag in our community has been reduced as HBM&S required the product on their site to meet their needs so therefore we do see crushed aggregate has replaced the slag. When you see the slag being pored from the pots on the slag train and you think that this was once hard rock and part of the precambrian shield is a little hard to believe.

The above picture shows molten slag being poured at the local dump. This slag ranged anywhere from 2200-2400 Fahrenheit which in Centigrade would be approximately 1100-1200. These large pots were classified as 18 ton capacity which was approximately 12 cu.ft. of molten material. The larger locos such as #90 & #42 each carried 4 pots on their trip to the dump and #94 & #95 being considerably smaller, carried 3 pots on each trip. This dumping process during peak years would occur approximately every 2 hours. The train crews would make 4-5 trips in an 8 hour shift.

This picture shows #42 loco dumping during the day. During my discussions with Elwood, he pointed out to me some of the very vital points of operating a slag train. One of the first things he pointed out to me was the necessity of competent maintenance people that were able to maintain your brakes and the dumping mechanism. For years Al Rainville was that individual and I can recall Al working on pots and in the field in all types of weather.

Another group of individuals that played a vital role in the performance of the slag train was the electrical line crew. They were responsible for maintaining poles and the support of the electrical trolley which was the main support for power to the locos. Electricians were also responsible for maintaining the spring loaded pantographs which went from the loco to the trolley line. This took care of the electrical maintenance of the train but Elwood went on to say that the ones who had the toughest job, the hottest in the summer and the coldest in the winter were the track maintenance men. They had to maintain the tracks and switches and also keep moving the track to the edge of the dump. This took a fair amount of skill and ability to know when to move it and how far to move it as there was a train going to be coming over it carrying an extremely heavy and hot load of molten material. This was the responsibility of George Rideout, Henry Vanderbelt and numberous others that I cannot recall so I hope that George will give me the time and the insight into the slag dump maintenance crew. Elwood said they made good coffee.