those pipes are just that, pipes for water. It's surprising that no one has taken them down yet... further down the road as you cross under them, there is an old pumphouse on the lefthand side of the road. If you had turned left on to Cheney Road, and gone maybe less than a 1/4 of a mile, there is a little dirt road on the left that would've taken you down to the Sludgepond dam.
The piles in Mineville have been overgrown for awhile, at least since I was in high school (1987-91)... those were abandoned back in the late 50's, so there was plenty of time for them to grow over. You are correct about the trails everywhere. Those were the old tracks that were shared by Republic Steel, Lake Champlain & Moriah Railroad and the Delaware & Hudson. Now, they have pretty much become an ATV/Sled superhighway. And the trackbed goes all the way to Port Henry, too. Behind the gate on the backside of the huge pile on Switchback is the Seperation plant. If you had backed straight back from the gate and turned right, at the end of Switchback Road, where it meets Pilfershire Road, the old tracks cross the road and head off into Mineville. Now, currently, the only way to get pics of the plant is to ride an ATV into it, snap the pics and boogie. The rent-a-cop wannabe is a local weenie and has given my brother a hard time for just riding through the yard. I have a videotape shot in 1990 of the plant and the pile and a bunch of other crap floating around. I was thinking about making a copy of that and my Tahawus trip and sending it your way.
This area has some pretty amazing crap left behind... everyone here just thinks of it as crap. They don't even look twice at it.
By the way, since you have been to my town and seen our deepest, darkest secrets, my name is Scott...
everyone knows me here... the fat guy with the striped blue Cavalier.
Best,
Scott