Extraordinary Stories

1944 (1) Act of kindness (12) Acting (2) Adoption (4) Adventure (766) Advertisement (6) Africa (1) Aging (14) Agriculture (47) Airplanes (9) Alphabet (5) American Red Cross (1) Americana (116) Amish (43) Ancestry (5) Ancesty (2) Animals (43) Anniversary (4) Antigua (10) Antiques (14) Apron (1) architcture (1) Architecture (36) Art (175) Art? (8) Arts and Crafts (69) Athletics (6) Automobiles (40) Awards (7) Banking (2) Barn raising (2) Baseball (103) Basketball (3) Batik (1) Beaches (89) Becoming A Citizen (1) Bed & Breakfast (2) Bee Keeping (6) Beer & Breweries (2) Bikes (3) Birds (9) Birthdays (34) Blindness (1) Blogging (5) Bookbinding (5) Books (12) Boxing (2) Brother Steve (12) Buisiness (3) Business (5) Canals (1) Cancer (14) Candy (30) Caribbean Islands (9) Caribbean Villas (15) Cats (5) Caves (1) Census (1) Chesapeake Bay (61) Children (28) Chocolate (4) Christmas (57) Church Adventures (122) Cigars (1) Circus (3) Civil Rights (8) Civil War (6) Classic Cars (7) Climate Change (5) Clubs (1) Coin club (2) Coins (1) Collections (73) Comedy (3) Comic Books (5) Commercials (1) Comnservation (2) Conservation (41) Covered Bridges (3) Craftsmanship (12) Creamsicle the Cat (11) Crime (16) Crisis (312) Cruise Travel (6) Crying (1) Culture (4) Dancing (1) Danger (16) Daughter Brynn (58) Daughter-In-Law Barb (7) Death (5) Death and Dying (65) Destruction (2) Donuts (1) Downsizing (2) Dunking (5) Easter (3) Eavesdropping (1) Education (48) Energy (15) Entertainment (165) Entrepreneurial (62) Ephrata (1) Etchings (1) Eternal Life (4) Facebook (5) Factories (4) Fads (6) Family (261) Farming (37) Father (42) Father Time (68) Favorites (88) Firefighting (1) Flora and Fauna (28) Fond Memories (490) Food and Cooking (171) Food and Drink (111) Football (16) Forgetfullness (3) Former Students (10) Framing (30) Friends (359) Fruits and Vegetables (3) Fun (4) Fundraiser (6) Furniture (1) Games (7) Generations (3) Gifts (1) Gingerbread houses (1) Giving (8) Globes (1) Golf (3) Good Luck (2) Graduation (1) Grandkids (136) Grandparents (3) Grandview Heights (29) Great service (3) Growing Old (8) Growing Up (187) Guns (2) Handwriting (3) Hat Making (2) Hawaii (49) Health and Well Being (61) Health Care (4) Health Hazards (110) Heartbreak (7) Heroes (26) High School (142) History (777) HO Railroading (4) Hockey (4) Holidays (134) Home construction (7) Horses (2) Housing (3) Humorous (71) Hurricanes (1) Ice and Preservation (2) Ice Cream (8) Inventions (34) Islands (4) Italy (12) Jewelry (3) Job Related (62) Just Bloggin' (56) Just Wondering (19) Juvenile Diabetes (5) Labor (3) Lancaster County (542) Law Breakers (8) LDubs In-Laws (3) Lefties (1) Libraries (1) Life's Lessons (175) Lightning (1) Lists (72) Lititz (18) Locomotives (1) Lodging (1) Love (4) Magazines (2) Magic (1) Maps (2) Marching (2) Market (5) Medical (161) Memories (28) Middle School (3) Milk (2) Minorities (1) Money (3) Mother (54) Movies (6) Mt. Gretna (1) Music (118) My Brother (19) My Wife (260) Neighbors (7) New Year's Day (5) Newspapers (4) Nicknames (2) Nuisance (3) Obsolescence (5) Occupations (2) Old Age (1) oldies (1) Pain and Suffering (12) Panama Canal Cruise (13) Parish Resource Center (14) Patriotism (3) Penmanship (1) Pets and Animals (99) Photography (220) Pizza (1) Plastic (2) Playing Trains (2) Poetry (2) Politics (27) Polution (3) Postal Service (2) Predators (2) Presidents (11) Pride (4) Printing (81) Protesting (3) Public Service (65) Questionnaire (1) Quilts (1) Race relations (6) Rain (1) Reading (4) Records (2) Religion (10) Retirement (4) Revolutionary War (3) Robotics (1) Rock & Roll (4) Rodents (2) Saints (4) Sand (1) Scouting (2) Sex (1) Shakespeare (1) Shelling (2) Shopping (24) Simple Pleasures (122) Slavery (6) Small Towns (4) Smoking (1) Snickedoodle (1) Snow (1) Son Derek (27) Son Tad (33) Son-In-Law Dave (27) Soup (1) Spices and Herbs (1) Sports (139) Sports and collectibles (1) Spring Break (1) St. James (2) St. Martin/Sint Maarten (306) Stained Glass (3) Stone Harbor (4) Story-Telling (26) Stragers (2) Strangers (4) Strasburg Railroad (1) Stress (3) Stuff (4) Suicide (2) Sun (1) Surfing (1) Tattoos (4) Teaching (49) Technology (90) Television (6) Thanksgiving (2) The Arts (6) The Beach House (62) The Flag (1) The Future (5) The Shore (78) This and That (23) Timekeeping (7) Tools and Machines (25) Tours (2) Toys and Games (31) Track & Field (1) Tragedy (8) Trains (19) Transportation (18) Travel (16) Trees (2) Trending (2) TV Favorites (23) Underground Railroad (10) Unit of Measurement (1) USA (2) Vacation and Travel (545) Vehicles (80) Vison and Eyesight (2) War (14) Watches and Watchmaking (5) Weather (48) Weddings (3) White House (1) Wisdom (3) Yearbooks (12) York County (3)

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

The "Lancaster's Manufacturing Success" Story

Lancaster Malleable along Manheim Pike in Lancaster, PA
It was an ordinary day. My friend of over 65 years, Jerry, had just emailed me some information about a few photos I had sent to him asking if he knew any information about the photos.  The photos were from a foundry that he could see from the front porch of his house on Manheim Ave.  
The layout of the casting company.  Jerry lived to the
left of the railroad tracks which can be seen on the left.
Remember to click on photos to enlarge them.
I lived about a block from his house and but didn't know much about the work that was done in the foundry near his home.  Place was called Lancaster Malleable Castings Co. and was built in 1910.  At the time Lancaster, Pennsylvania was the fourth-largest manufacturing city in Pennsylvania.  Watch companies, silk and cotton mills, automobile factories and iron and steel mills were some of the many industries that boosted Lancaster to that position.  
Train along siding dumping coal to be used in the furnaces.
Lancaster Malleable was a newcomer to the mixture in 1910.  At first it was known as Lancaster Foundry Company which manufactured grey iron castings, padlocks and harness hardware.  Six years later the company began to produce malleable iron castings which are not as brittle as grey iron.  This was done by using a hand-fired melting furnace.  
These are core machines used for making cores.
Eventually they stopped making grey iron castings. For years the company cast parts for leading manufac- turers of mining, construc- tion, trucking, farm, hardware and electrical equipment throughout eastern United States.  Lancaster Malleable operated a complete pattern-making and repair facility and performed machining and finishing operations on many of the cast products they produced.  
Pouring molds with the molten metal.
The foundry was on the other side of the Pennsyl- vania Rail- road tracks from Jerry's home, fronting on what is known as Manheim Pike or State Route 72.  From the Manheim Pike side of  company we could see the furnaces melting the metal and see the sparks and molten metal run as they poured their molds.  Deliveries and pick-ups were made to the rear of the facility where it backed up to a siding along the main line of the railroad.  What I enjoyed the most about the place was the fact that they owned Stump Field which was about half a block from the factory on Fruitville Pike.  Stump Field was home of Lancaster's Red Roses which was a "B" level team in the Eastern League of Professional Baseball until they stopped playing at Stump Field in 1961. The field still exists and is still used for recreational baseball games.  The Lancaster Malleable Casting Co.'s plant was demolished years ago putting quite a few employees out of work.  The property sat vacant with a few of the concrete slabs from the original building all that remain of one of Lancaster's finest foundries.  Information as to why the plant closed is not available online. So, another childhood memory has passed away as if it never existed; at least physically.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.


This is a sample of the work that could be done at Lancasater Malleable Castings Company.  I suppose these were sample or souvenir ashtrays that were made for customers.  The age of the product can be gauged by the fact that it is an ashtray which may be a rare find at an antique shop. Photo below is the bottom of the ashtray.


Parts of the foundation of Lancaster Malleable can be seen to the right in this photograph.  In the distance are homes along Manheim Ave.  One of these homes was the home that my friend Jerry lived in until he got married.

13 comments:

  1. Hi - My great grandfather owned Lancaster Malleable. Thank you for sharing these fond memories, I found your site while googling to learn more about my family history and this was a pleasure :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank You for visiting with me. My friend Jerry, who lived close to Lanc. Malleable, built a replica of the place in HO size for his train yard. Looks great! In the white box at the top left of my blog you can type HO trains and scroll through all the stories I have written about his train yard over the past 9 years. You will see his replica of the place. LDub

    ReplyDelete
  3. My grandfather worked here for over 38 years.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I toured Lancaster Malleable 20 years ago. I have never seen men work so hard in my life. The molders were on production & they were fast & furious. They made a good salary.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I worked for Lancaster Malleable Castings Co for 10 years, 5 years Molding and 5 years Melting. I earned a certificate of Industrial Metallurgy thanks to Ken Martin, and a good living for my family. I’m very grateful to LMCC.
    David McElroy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey I remember you from there I worked at the malleable from 1978 till the end I worked in the core room

      Delete
  6. Why doesn’t Robert Mason get some recognition? I can’t say exactly when he worked there. My guess would be 1978- 1980. He started out as a molder in the melting department, Then he moved up to being a group leader. He then went back to molding, because he could make more money pouring iron. I remember one year Robert Mason was in a big newspaper article ( Intelligencer Press )

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I WORKED MANY YEARS WITH BOB HE WAS A GOOD FRIEND ALSO THE OLD LMC GANG WAS A SPECIAL GROUP

      Delete
  7. ( same article ) Bob Mason always reminded me of a cartoon character since he was built to the max . ( neck, chest, shoulders and arms ) But his torso and legs were slender. This was probably because he worked at an extremely, physically, hard, job. I knew Robert Mason from high school. He was in my high school class.( Mannheim Twp. , class of 1979 ) Bob played drums on the side. Unlike me ; he never took any drum lessons or was in concert, band& marching, band. Although Bob was a real good rock- and - roll drummer! Samuel Stoudenheimer

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was a molder at Malleable and had a floor next to Bob for a year. Great guy. He was the king of that foundry.

      Delete
  8. From what I know, Bob Masson later installed drywall. He must have been doing re-model jobs.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am looking for old pictures of the old Lancaster Malleable Building. Does anyone have any of the original building or pictures of workers working inside?

    ReplyDelete