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Roof of Penn Station

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Posted by wanswheel on Tuesday, January 9, 2018 1:02 PM

Miningman, thanks for introducing me to Stompin' Tom. I hear my grandfather's accent.

https://archive.org/stream/transactionsofen31engi#page/n45/mode/2up/

Amazing they let him drive a streetcar for a music video years before MTV.

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Posted by Miningman on Monday, January 8, 2018 6:07 PM

Wanswheel-- What a great post. Just luv those ads and pictures. Wonder how many people realize the amount and use of nickel in rail construction of rolling stock. The pictures are terrific. 

There is a lot of buzz in the Mining industry that Vale'wants to sell off it's Canadian assets and that an independent INCO re-emerges. 

As for Stompin' Tom...well Wanswheel, you actually made me cry. I played it for my Mining Class today ( in addition to a power point using those INCO ads...you're a TA, teacher assistant, for this one!....and yes I gave you credit for it all)...me being a hard tough hardrock underground Mining guy and a frontier Northerner to boot, it really got to me, and I was reduced to an emotional vulnerable mess. Tried to hide it but it was obvious.

Been to the Horse Shoe Tavern a hundred times in my years in Toronto and saw Stompin' Tom at least 20 times. He was always accessible and would talk to anyone. Nothing but fun. Not like today's too cool crowd.

As the National Post characterized him:

'He sang of a nation without politics, to its proud history, and to its better angels. His songs remind us that Canada matters — that we’ve built something amazing here, and must not take it for granted.'

Sadly he has passed. Always a humble man, he never forgot his Maritime roots ( New Brunswick, PEI, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland) and his long time spent in Ontario's hard rock mining town of Timmins.

This one for Wanswheel becuase he has roots in PEI. ( Prince Edward Island)---- you just want to stomp along!

"Bud the Spud from the bright red mud, rolling down the highway smiling

Cause the spuds are big at the back of Buds rig

They're from Prince Edward Island

They're from Prince Edward Island" 

 

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Posted by wanswheel on Sunday, January 7, 2018 11:40 PM

Miningman

" The girls are out to bingo and the boys are getting stinko, they'll be no more of INCO on a Sudbury Saturday night"

--Stompin' Tom Connors

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, January 6, 2018 8:01 PM

INCO's own in house ore cars were built for use at the Clarabelle Mill and that was a rotary tipple, so yes rotary couplers on the one pictured.

Canadian Pacific also used their own 80 ton ore cars for use in Sudbury on the North Rim mines but they were bottom dump.

INCO also had side dump 30 ton Hart cars. 

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Posted by MidlandMike on Saturday, January 6, 2018 7:41 PM

I drove thru Sudbury in 1979.  I remember the black rock and lack of vegatation in the area.  I saw that Inco gave tours, and I called the number, but they said that there were no tours that day.  Not sure if it was because of the weekend, or if they were just not giving tours.

Was that Inco car in the photo a rotary dump car?

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Posted by Miningman on Friday, January 5, 2018 11:43 PM

Midland Mike and all---Vale' is a big multinational and concerned with the " big picture" ...they can control the price of nickel, to an extent anyway, by opening and closing different streams of production all over the world. When they purchased INCO the price of Nickel was close to $24.00 a pound, China, Indonesia and India were in full swing into their big run to modernize and metal prices seemed poised to stay high for a long time...then the bottom fell out, to $6.00 a pound. Vale' shuttered several high cost very very deep mines in the area,... Canada signed on to Kyoto which limited smelting and refining, ...electricity pricing, once very abundudant and inexpensive went through the roof as Ontario pursued its green agenda, the first to do so, with devastating results. A strong anti-mining agenda was enforced by an unsophisticated and ingenious government.  Vale' could get production to meet demands from low cost mines in other parts of the world. Things spiralled down. A huge year long strike ensued. 

Some of it was new mining methods and automation, especially in the mills.' Vale' was very skillful in manipulating things and getting what they needed. The age of getting the most out of the least had arrived. 

INCO was a very "paternal" company, job for life, security, you were part of the family. I remember well the day I hired on, going to the company medical building for a physical and the company doctor telling me that "this is a great company to work for and will look after you for life" or something along those lines. Vale' was like a corporate raider and activist investor rolled into one. The workforce was not expecting that treatment, stunned and shocked, they were taken by surprise.  I suppose you could say the world caught up with Sudbury, but really and truly it was much the same story all over North America and the established industrialized world. 

INCOs fierce competitor was Falconbridge, another beloved all Canadian company. They merged with Noranda the copper giant, yet another big established and loved Canadian Company and then quickly got bought up by Xstrata, a Swiss company. Canada no longer had a say in the nickel market, now mere serfs producing for less and less of a paycheque in order to compete.  Xstrata in turn was sold to Glencore Commodity, a hedge fund company. You can see where that's going. 

Things are not the same as they were....not in Sudbury, or Detroit, or at Canadian Pacific, or at US Steel. Every city has their story. 

The world turns...

INCO 801, 80-ton ore car built 7/1930 National Archives PA 195048

Interesting that the INCO logo and car number are on a steel plate bolted to the car.

" The girls are out to bingo and the boys are getting stinko, they'll be no more of INCO on a Sudbury Saturday night"

--Stompin' Tom Connors

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Posted by MidlandMike on Friday, January 5, 2018 10:32 PM

Was the contraction in number of workers at Sudbury due to automation or fall-off in production?

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Posted by Miningman on Friday, January 5, 2018 9:14 PM

During my ten years working for INCO, virtually all of the 70's they were still very proud of their Monel, the Monel Division and their advancements with stainless steel. They had quite the research facility in Mississauga, down in Southern Ontario, near Toronto, in addition to manufacture of Monel in Sudbury. Great company to work for.

INCO sold out to Vale', a Brazilian Company, in an irresistable stock price offering. Cannot blame the many many workers that made out like bandits on their stock share holdings and the stockholders themselves. The down side was loss of dividend and other revenue to Canada and the sovereignty that went along with a firm handle on the Nickel market.

When I worked in Sudbury as a junior geologist for INCO there were 33,000 employees. Today there are 2,200 in Sudbury working at Vale'.

Somebody somewhere is making one big pile of loot. 

Thanks for this Wanswheel....I had no idea the roof of Pennsylvania Station in New York City was made of Monel. 

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Roof of Penn Station
Posted by wanswheel on Friday, January 5, 2018 1:07 PM

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