today was a beautiful sunny day at the foundry. i snapped these while waiting for my guide to take me away from all of this annoying light and into the basement under the underworld. literally. as we descended the 20 steps in the old original foundry floor into the first basement jim told me there were two more levels below us. we entered and crossed them both and back up the other side. he explained the underworlds were not just mechanized systems of railed cope+drag cars, but real human work areas where men picked up the accumulating debris (mostly unreclaimed sand). i shot video of all that while trying to keep up with jim's explanations and navigating behind him - camera on - under beams - across small rails - under conveyers - and thru black sand everywhere. newly cast iron would ride these rails until cooled off fresh from the oven. some conveyers took away certain sand and redirected it depending on its breakdown. more on that some other time...


NOTE: (( don't tell jim but for stills please see older post from dec 06 archives called 'found the underground' ) )

jim invited me just friday to come with him to measure something downstairs.

we planned for it for today.

what he doesn't know is one day about a month ago i went down to the first basement by myself while some men where dismantling a giant furnace directly upstairs.

it was a rare opportunity when the lights were on so i went down. i didn't go much further than around the base of the stairs on that trip. it was spooky. only a few pix.