Besides being a railroad town, Riverdale, IL also is a steelmaking center. Located along the Little Calumet River's east bank was Acme Steel, later Interlake Steel and, eventually again, Acme Steel. Its Riverdale works once used a cupola furnace to refine iron into steel, but that changed in the mid-sixties, as Interlake constructed a huge Basic Oxygen Furnace facility along Acme Bend. Shown here is Acme Steel EMD SW8 LO-11 changing directions in the yard supporting the mamoth furnace plant. I was across the river on the Chicago side, on the Illinois Central right-of-way. Acme eventually went bankrupt and briefly shut down. Its Riverdale assets were purchased by ISG, which later sold them to Mittal Steel. The facility continues in operation today as Arcelor-Mittal Riverdale Works.
