Hi all. I'm a fan of local rail/industrial history. Birmingham, Al has a rich history in those areas. The local surroundings had all the ingredeints needed to make iron and steel. Red Mountain is literally red from the iron ore it contains. Sloss Industies was a major player in the area. Today, I went to visit the old Sloss #2 ore mine on Red Mountain with a friend from work. I thought ya'll might find the pics interesting.

Entry mantle of the main drift.


A close up of the mantle inscription. Look closely. It reads: 1890 SSS&I Co, Sloss #2.


Winch house that was used to pull loaded mine cars up the drift.




Inside the winch house. Note the drive motor and gearing. The winch drum is just to the right of this view.


Shot from an adjacent cemetary that inadvetantly got bulldozed.  It was so overgrown when they brought in heavy equipment that I'm sure it was just an accident. I'm guessing that most of these folks were miners. Almost all were male.


RR bridge on what I believe to be the old Tennessee Coal and Iron (TC&I) High Line. Empty trains went up to Red Mountain mines and returned their ore loads to the Fairfield Works.


Block signal on what must have been the L&N's Birmingham Mineral Sub. The tracks are long gone...

Cool.

Thanks.Makes me want to get out and poke around the old PawPaw tunnel some more. (that sounds dirty,don't it?)

Cool pics. Probably pretty scary at night.

Quoted: Cool pics. Probably pretty scary at night.

Scary enough during the day. That's Apache territory... I wouldn't consider going there without my sidearm.

Here's a few more shots.

The actual cable drum. Look close, the cable is still there.


Wanna go downstairs?


Downstairs shot. There was alot more (different rooms, even a restroom), but I didn't get any pics.

Check out this forum.

Urban exploration, lots of cool pics in the forum, similar to yours.

cool pics