Lived in the Pittsburgh area two times, both in areas of Bethel Park. Recall my first time of ever eating pizza was at a restaurant on the side of PA 51. Across the street from the restaurant was a large slag pile - I don't know which mill it served. I can recall my family eating pizza and watching the slag train operate around the to perimeter of the pile - and the light show of the hot slag descending the side of the pile. This would have been in the 1952-1954 area of time. My second residency was in the Summer of 1967 and worked Train Order Operator position on the P&W Sub from FY Tower, Etna, Bakerstown and Eidenau. The creation of slag is why Lime is added to the molten steel mixture. The chemical composition of Lime attracts many of the chemical impurities that exist in the molten steel. The lime and 'debris' mix rises to the top of the vessel that holds the steel and it gets skimmed off and into the slag bowl cars. One of the first cars I ever got when I was doing HO model railroading (before I got the bug with cars and girls) was a Varney slag car that was made of cast pot metal.
