The Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation was founded in 1993 to preserve the historic machinery, equipment and technology of steelmaking and has been steadily working toward that goal at its living history museum on Hubbard Road on Youngstown’s east side, according to Rick Rowlands, its president.
“YSH’s two main programs focus on the history and technology of steam power in the steel industry,” he says.
The J&L Narrow Gauge Railroad is a 24-inch steam powered railroad that features four steam locomotives once used at Jones & Laughlin Steel in Pittsburgh. A hands-on education program teaches students how to fire and operate a steam locomotive.
The other half of YSH is the Tod McDonald Rolling Mill, a steam-driven rolling mill for demonstration purposes. This mill is built from components salvaged from the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Brier Hill Works and US Steel McDonald Mills.
The mill is being set up to replicate the earliest rolling mills in the Valley that dominated local industry until 1900, Rowlands says.
Throughout 2024 and 2025, YSH worked with the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor to preserve over 120 tons of machinery, 5,000 engineering drawings and documents from the former US Steel McDonald Mills, operated until 2023 by McDonald Steel Corp.
The nonprofit has an active membership of approximately 75 individuals and is operated by volunteers.
Pictured at top: Bill Katko Jr., Rick Rowlands, Bob Straley and Kenny Platt stand in front of the 75-ton flywheel of the Tod engine that powers the Tod McDonald Rolling Mill at the Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation museum.
