This very impressive operation (built in the 30's) is pretty much immune to cyberattack. Sometimes, old technology is more robust than the latest cutting-edge, computer-driven techniques. You're commentary and drone/video work is superb! Thanks for it!
Cyberattack isn’t a problem if your not internet connected or using proprietary software. It’s an issue that’s exaggerated by the media and people selling tv appearances, books, or looking for a MIC job.
It's amazing how long maritime machines and ships last when they work around fresh water. I love the footage of this dock in action. It's satisfying to watch this ballet of railcars and freighter that's worked for almost a century.
@@KutWrite I’m pretty sure that the Great Lakes (combined) make up the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth. I live in Michigan near Detroit, and there are vehicle stickers with the outline of the Great Lakes, and the saying “Great Lakes, unsalted and shark free!” 😃
This ship has a unique and amazing history. Now an 826 foot bulk carrier laker, she was built as a 500 foot ocean going tanker in Maryland. Launched in mid 1942 as the Chipewa, she was "drafted" as a supply ship to the U.S. Navy in Europe, and later transferred into post-war service the Pacific. She later delivered refined petro products to East coast US city ports until 1960, when purchased by Cleveland Cliffs for conversion to a Great Lakes bulk carrier hauling iron ore. An entirely new 500 foot long 75 foot wide cargo hold fabricated in Europe replaced the original ~270 foot tanker mid-ship section at a Loraine, Ohio Lake Erie shipyard. She was lengthened another 96 feet in 1976, and converted to a self unloader in 1978. But wait... there's more! In 1984 she was one of three "sister" ships sold to Ford Motor Co.'s Rouge Steel Division, each ship renamed for Edsel Ford's three sons. While operated by Ford, she was badly damaged by a grounding accident and nearly sunk... she survived and was repaired. In 1989, Ford sold all of its ships and a contract to haul ore for Rouge Steel to Interlake Steamship, her current owner, and she was renamed Lee A. Tregurtha. Nearly 17 years later (then 64 years old!) her original steam turbine propulsion system was replaced by twin 4000 horsepower (each) diesel engines which power the now 82 year old ship today. Amazing!! This detail and more can be found at: boatnerd.com/
There are additional challenges with shipping on freshwater. Freshwater is less buoyant for example and there are some violent storms that can form over the great lakes. So it's not all sunshines.
@17:05 - That large sheave with all the cables hoists that whole boom. I think that each turn of the sheave equated to about 10K pounds or at least it did on our yard crane. What a mechanism.
Former RRer here. Each car holds 100 tons, each coal train has 100 cars (sometimes more) equals 10,000 tons of coal for each train. (And over 1 mile long). If this ship carries 26,000 tons, then it will receive at least 2 1/2 train loads per ship.
The max allowed weight on rail is currently 286,000 pounds or 143 tons. Steel cars have an empty weight of approximately 60K pounds. Aluminum cars have an empty weight of approximately 50K pounds - they a steel car has the weight capacity of about 113 tons and an aluminum car has the capacity of about 118 tons.
@mmi16 thanks for the great information, I do appreciate it. I'm not sure where I got that cars only carry 50 tons. I must have conflated the empty weight with the load weight.
Your content is really, really good. It's not remotely close to what I normally watch, but I am certainly glad that TH-cam saw fit to show me the first video.
Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think a lot of people are in that same boat (pun intended). They're not interested at first but it's pretty fascinating to follow along.
It’s great that we have so many people who enjoy things like this video shows. TH-cam offers the world such a great variety of content that anyone can search for and find something interesting to watch. How mind numbing it would be if we were all limited to the dreck that’s being put out on mainstream network channels. 🤢🤮
A big thank you from an old-timer in the UK for a grand video. I worked for British Rail engineering dept in the 1970s 1990s. We had a shiploading facility in Blyth Northumberland (cold place!) It was a series of wooden staithes about 40 feet above sea level (North Sea tidal). The wagons held 40 tons, were pushed up the incline (1/2 mile or so) and the bottom of the wagon opened like a trapdoor thus discharging the coal into a steel lined shute down ino the hold of the waiting coaster. Wagons returned under gravity to the stockyardVery few moving parts, no electrics or electronics but very robust. The steel plates lining the shutes would wear right through and had tobe replaced after so many thosand tons but that was about it. Men stood in the hold of the ship and trimmed, levelled off the coal to make the ship stable. All gone now.Happy days fond memories.
The ship is moved via two winches that the mooring lines run through. One winch heaves, one plays out and so on depending on which direction the ship needs to scoot.
This is called "warping the ship". The great lakes boat crews are exceptionally good at it as it is very much their "bread and butter" when loading at the lower lake ports.
@kevinzeh3559 Winches are generally located on the focsle ad quarter deck. I would also expect one midships on boats that warp so often but that will vary by shipping company age of the vessel and how many refit she has undergone.
Man oh man. I grew up in the Toledo area, and was a cop at Cedar Point in 2003. I know the area and those waters really well - spent a lot of time out there. Great drone footage and wonderfully narrated - excellent job!
Your video was great, maybe, just maybe, the best filmed industrial video i have ever seen, quad copter skills are incredible, and makes for a great video as well, narration is exceptional as well, going looking for other videos you have made now.
Great video. If you want to get into a rabbit hole, look into tours of the laker ships. They show much of the ships including the conveyers, estate rooms, engine rooms & etc..
We had fun watching your drone coverage! A fantastic and informative video! We’ve been watching these ships coming and going for quite some time. Now we know what they haul and how their ships are loaded! Thank You !!!! Wishing you and yours a “Merry Christmas” ahead of time! 😁😁
I grew up in Erie PA and my dad would take me down to the coal docks to watch the same machine that you show here. I think he did that to show me that the thunder like noise from the coal dumping onto the shute was not something to be afraid of. We lived 2 1/2 miles south of the docks and when the wind was right it sounded like the coal was being dumped in our yard. That was nearly 80 years ago. Thanks for the memories.
YT suggested this video to me, but I almost skipped it. I'm glad that I watched it, as it was very interesting and very well done 👍 It was interesting to see where Cedar Point is situated. All of it's steel supports for their amazing 'coasters and rides looks industrial from the distance, making it fit right in with it's neighbors. I have now subscribed to this channel.
That’s what I love about the internet. A few clicks and you can be transported to a completely different location and see the most interesting things that you may have never experienced!
A Coal Car can weigh 100 to 120 ton fully loaded with a load of up to 25 tons dependent on size/height/length/design of car. Remember not all coal weighs the same. So it could be off by a few tons. I lived there and had relatives that worked here. I explored this extensively in my youth. Even worked here for a summer job. So I hope this helps. Also cars have become lighter using thinner materials so therefor allowing larger capacity.
@nkyrailfan this is correct. They used to be able to run 30 cars per hour, or 3000tph, and another 7000 tons per hour on the conveyor belt into the pan that catches the coal coming from the silos. However, due to NS and their PSR model, a significant number of talented and motivated workers have since found employment elsewhere, taking a ton of knowledge with them. One can only imagine the significance of working on such machine and being able to train the next generation, which again with NS' management methods took a direct hit to the performance of the facility. Last time I saw the cars go up the hill they moved as fast as your 8x video. There's a spring switch on that hill that takes the barney, the cable driven part that pushes on the cars, and moves it to a separate section of track to go down in the hole for the next car to be indexed above it. This video is like watching paint dry in comparison to how she used to run just a few years ago.
Great shots of the dock loading operation! Been at that dock and on that vessel, and that loader is probably the most interesting on the Great Lakes! If someone hasn't already commented, the ships' crew moves it via their mooring whiches forward and aft; no engines required. The crew onboard of either end of the boat is operating the winches and vessel shifting. This particular boat has 5 cargo holds and 24 hatches (4-5 hatches per cargo hold) and uses the "2 belt" method to squeeze and bring material to its boom. The CSX coal loading dock in Toledo is also a interesting rail dock... you could also capture ship's loading from rail cars and unloading there, too.
Thank you very much. I really enjoy recording this dock. I'm hopeful to catch a CSX train unloading coal in Toledo and a ship loading. I have a couple questions for you about a future video. Any chance you could send your email to me? nkyrailfan@gmail.com Thanks either way.
The bays on the ship are 24' on center, this is because the loading chutes at the Iron Ore docks on Lake Superior are spaced at that distance because the Iron Ore cars are that length due to Iron Ore being much heavier than coal. Five separate holds is the most common on older ships, though the Lee A. Tregurtha might be different due to being lengthened a second time. The steel mill is located in Detroit, at Marquette, MI it will load Iron Ore pellets, probably for the same steel mill.
I've actually been looking at planning a trip there. It's about a 12 hour drive depending on traffic, but I think I can make it work. It'll have to wait until spring but I definitely plan on heading up there.
Great job making this video. 👍👍👍 One of the best videos explaining how the whole process works for loading coal onto the ships 🚢. Also Great overview of the dock and the views of the transfer loading tower. Most coal gons are weight rated at 286,000 pounds. Load capacity 116 tons, or 232,000 pounds.
Damn geese, everyone’s a critic. Oh yep, gulls too heh. Great video though, thanks for posting this stuff goes from really cool to incredible when we see the massive intricacies actually working. 🤯👏🏻
In the "Know Your Ships" book (consider getting one) she is listed as a Self-Unloader (SU), which is also evidenced by the 250 foot long unloading boom. All Self-Unloaders have an internal "hopper like" structure (vaguely V-shaped along the axis of the ship) to guide the load in the hold down to the central unloading belt, which pulls the bulk cargo back towards the base of the boom where other machinery lifts the bulk cargo up onto the boom to be expelled at the unloading destination. Because all of the bulk load needs to be carried by the unloading belt at the bottom of the hold space, even if each loading hatch opened into a separate compartment they are all open to the bottom any way to allow Self-Unloading. Not all bulk carriers are self-unloaders, but that is the trend. I am pretty sure that in this case that is all one big bulk cargo area. The hartches are only big enough to fit the old "Hulett" style unloader, Hulett unloaders were high tech in their day but are now completely obsolete and you would be hard pressed to find even one still in operation.. The bigger you make the hatches, the weaker they get unless you made them very strong, which would add too much weight, so their size has been standardized Not being an expert Boat Nerd (I am a junior boat nerd in training, a JeBNIT), I do not know all of the precise terms for all of these things, but I think I have explained the basic idea pretty well. Nice video footage, thanks for posting. If you like to learn about Great Lakes boats check ouy this channel: www.youtube.com/@authorwes
This particular ship has four bulk compartments, and for each loading door on top has a small 4foot by 6 foot door on the bottom to let cargo onto the belt. I miss working on these boats and have been on alot of them in sturgeon bay
Wow great video! A good friend of mine sails on the M/V Herbert C. Jackson of Interlake Steamship Co. and he has loaded in Sandusky a few times under his watch. It’s a slight pain as they have to move the ship and it takes along time. A lot of loaders on the lakes can move themselves to load the ship much faster but it is very cool they are still loading the ships like they did in the 1900s! Adding to what you said about the pilot house placement in the 1970s it started to become too expensive to build vessels with a forward pilot house so they started building all accommodations aft. Also the reason there is no smoke when they are moving is because the movement is fully controlled by the winches and usually the the propeller isn’t even used.
Thanks for the fantastic information! I really do appreciate it. That's very interesting about the pilot house cost and pushing them to the aft. I should have figured it was a winch system and not a propeller moving the ship.
I do have a question I forgot to ask you. I'm working on a video covering the CSX coal facility in Toledo. Any chance you know someone who has loaded there? I'd love to ask them a few questions. Thanks either way.
My friend hasn’t loaded at Toledo that I’m aware of but the Toledo loader is very similar to the Sandusky loader when it comes to loading. They have to wait for train cars once in a while and takes a reasonably long time to load as they have to shift. I’ve heard the now just recently retired Algoma Transport had to wait 4-5 for a coal train to arrive.
@@GreatLakesStateProductions6708 gotcha. It is an interesting operation. The cars are rotary dumped and the coal is then sent to the ship. The facility isn't able to store any coal, only what's dumped from the cars. It doesn't make sense to me why it would not have a storage option (even a small amount) to keep the process flowing. I was up there a month or two ago and it seemed everything came to a halt several times. It was interesting to watch but raised a lot of questions too. Let me know if you ever come across anyone who has loaded there.
Nice video. I would love to see any other industry served by the railroad that you can get your drone over for this type of coverage. Papermill. Steel mill. Automotive plant, shingle plant, etc. great video thx for sharing.
The Lee Tregurtha is (obviously!) an old-style laker, with the bridge and wheelhouse at the bow. It also has a "steering pole"" at the point of the bow - whose function is also obvious! From the '70's (I think) laker design was changed, withe bridge, wheelhouse and accommodation all being located at the stern - and the ""steering pole"" being removed. Although this ship is 80+ years old, I suspect it has had several changes of motive power - marine diesel engines do not last forever, even in fresh water. I visited Cedar Point in 2017, but the season had finished and everything was closed. I missed the coal dock - I did not realise it was there - but i had a wonderful lakeside lunch at Port Clinton. Thanks for the video.
I understand the bridge, wheelhouse and accommodation were moved to the stern because of costs. I don't know much about these ships, so I'm curious why it was more costly when these were on the bow. This is a learning moment for me. Thank you!
My guess is since the rudders are at the rear of the ship, a mechanically-linked steering wheel would be a lot more complex and costly to put at the front instead of in the rear as well. Just a guess though.
If you look at the stern of the ship you will notices how it comes to a point or nose. All lakers need a stern anchor. So when it was converted from a war time vessel an anchor would have hit the rudder if drop. So a nose pice was added to extend the anchor so as to drop further out.
Forward pilothouse ships are not common any more. The spear like projection helps the caption steer as it shows the angle of the ship. He/she lines it up with something in the distance.
The sister ship, MV Paul R. Tregurtha, I believe operates in the same way. That ship was featured in the series Mighty Ships Season 1 Episode 5 - should answer a lot of the questions about how these ships work.
I am sure you will find that each compartment (hold) is separate; it is the job of the load master to ensure the order in which they are filled in order to evenly distribute the load and to avoid straining the ship.
Just watched this for the second or third time. This has to be one of your best videos. Great drone work as usual, lots of good information and highly educational. What a feat of engineering, I would love to see it in person. Thanks to this video I feel like I’m really there. Thanks as always for a great post Christian.
Thanks for the video! I am a boat nerd and spend a lot of time watching the freighters. It was great watching this perspective, and your video and commentary was great!
Nice video, thank you! Great format, great lenses, no music, just right! Of course I now wonder… chucking the coal in is comparatively easy - getting it out must be messier :)
Loading a ship such as this is a complex and criticality important process. When arriving empty to be loaded the ship will often have some ballast water that was needed to maintain her stability when traveling light in open waters that will be released when she is being loaded with cargo. When being loaded, especially a bulk carrier such as this, the loading must be specifically spread out thru the ship both in timing and amounts so as her structural integrity and stability not to be compromised. Too much in the mid ships section at one time could break her back. Too much at one end or other with center section still mostly empty could cause her to sag at bow or stern putting undue stress on her hull. Ocean going ships especially will have what is known as Plimsol markings on their hull to show how deep a ship can be loaded safely in all conditions (salt water, freshwater, winter, summer, and even a I believe a special "North Atlantic Winter" designation).
Loading too much in the middle to quickly will cause the ship to bend with the midships drafting more than the bow and stern. Loading the bow and stern to much and too quickly caues them to draft more than the mishaps and is called "hogging". But you are right, extremes of either case can break the ships keel.
I had a brief career of the Lakes when I was a cadet at the GLMA. Therefore I am not an expert. Our boat(boats on the Great Lakes, not ships) was even older(1929) than this one(1942), but has since been broken up for scrap. So odd to see a boat with a pointed bow, not mant of those on the GL. We picked up coal in Huron, and Ashtabula and Conneaut, all Ohio coal ports. We picked up coal in Chicago on our way to Two Harbors, MN, where the coal was burned to power the mines in the area. A lot of coal is still unfortunately used to power electrical utilities. The captain would likely not be overseeing the loading, on our boat that job was delegated to the first or second mate. The "workers" as you termed them are deckhands, and a dock is the water alongside a pier or wharf, not the structure. That smoke you saw coming from the funnel was steam, not smoke. The reason the boat fills various hatchways at different times is the mate in charge of loading is making sure the boat's trim is even - can't just dump it all in willy-nilly. Ballast water is NOT stored in the holds! There are tanks for such. Our boat was not a self-unloader. There used to be huge clamshell shovels used to unload boats without self-unloaders, but I think they're all gone now. Then bulldozers are lowered into the hold to scrape the last remnants of coal together for removal. I remember being amazed I could sleep through that noise despite having the hold on the other side of the bulkhead from me:-) ALL boats used to have their pilothouse at the front of the boat. Even the first thousand footer(M/V Stewart J. Court) was built that way. Since then all boats I'm aware of have been built like salties with the superstructure all at the stern. If you move the mooing cables to a point farther up the boat and pull from there, the boat will move in the direction - providing the rear lines have been relaxed of course. It's all done with the capstan or winch that controls the lines. That water at the side of the boat is most likely from a stern thruster. Our boat only had a bow thruster but these are tubes through the boat contained propellers mounted transversely. They can operate in either direction and make tug boats superfluous. In this instance they are probably pushing a small amount of water between the pier and the boat so it doesn't scrape down the side. I ran out of the time 3/4 of the way through, but I hope these comments helped. If you asked Cliffs you might get to ride along on boat on a run or two. They used to do that anyway. BTW there two Tregurthas on the Lakes now, the other is the largest boat on the Lakes.
Thanks for all the great and detailed information. I really do appreciate it. As someone who did not grow up on the Great Lakes or knowing about bulk cargo in general, this is all fascinating to me.
An interesting technology, there's no such ship-loading machine in the Eastern Hemisphere. It's an engineering marvel. Well done. I hope it will operate for another hundred years.
This is fascinating, I just visited the decommissioned McMyler Coal Dumper in port reading NJ. It was amazing to explore up close. awesome ingenuity. Thanks for the video !
Front pilot house ships are old classics, my favorite. Rear pilot house are the newer. Bow thrusters keep the ship close to the dock. There is a round marking on the side of the ship to show where the are located. She is 826 feet long.
Wherever you choose to film next, just keep to the format of all commentary and birds with no crappy music and I will keep watching.
Wow how rude
@@TOTALCAMARO Why is it rude to say that he does excellent editing, whithout crappy music?
@@Manigo1743don't like the music GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. Where is the link to your channel so your perfect productions can be evaluated???
Rude and obnoxious comment.
@@LokiOdinson-fz8ps NO. Music ruins videos. It is annoying as heck.
This very impressive operation (built in the 30's) is pretty much immune to cyberattack. Sometimes, old technology is more robust than the latest cutting-edge, computer-driven techniques. You're commentary and drone/video work is superb! Thanks for it!
Thank you very much.
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.
built in 1942
Cyberattack isn’t a problem if your not internet connected or using proprietary software. It’s an issue that’s exaggerated by the media and people selling tv appearances, books, or looking for a MIC job.
@@zeitgeistx5239One Ill intentioned employee is all it takes to cripple your whole operation through the intranet
@@jimslater82121937 put in service in 1938.
81 years old and still a jewel. Amazing video, sir.
It truly is an incredible piece of engineering.
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
If I was the owner it would be considered as outdated and obsolete and would've ended up getting sold as scrap metal
Hope it is inspected often to not develop a fatigue hole like that ship up in the great lakes.
It’s nearly as old as me and I’m still working, sort of……
@@surtersYou might need to be more specific there, as there's over 8000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes.
My grandfather was a skipper on the bulk freighters in 30s and 40s, retired in 55. Loved visiting him on his ships.
I really like this video, it goes to show that with all the tech going, analogue old school stuff still works well, many thanks
Thank you.
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the video.
Great video...very interesting
Thanks, Randy. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
very interesting and we now have a complete picture of how the unloading and ship loading works, thanks for making the video and sharing
Thank you as always.
I'm glad you enjoyed it
It's amazing how long maritime machines and ships last when they work around fresh water. I love the footage of this dock in action. It's satisfying to watch this ballet of railcars and freighter that's worked for almost a century.
Until now, I thought the Great Lakes were salt water.
@@KutWrite I’m pretty sure that the Great Lakes (combined) make up the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth. I live in Michigan near Detroit, and there are vehicle stickers with the outline of the Great Lakes, and the saying “Great Lakes, unsalted and shark free!” 😃
This ship has a unique and amazing history. Now an 826 foot bulk carrier laker, she was built as a 500 foot ocean going tanker in Maryland. Launched in mid 1942 as the Chipewa, she was "drafted" as a supply ship to the U.S. Navy in Europe, and later transferred into post-war service the Pacific. She later delivered refined petro products to East coast US city ports until 1960, when purchased by Cleveland Cliffs for conversion to a Great Lakes bulk carrier hauling iron ore. An entirely new 500 foot long 75 foot wide cargo hold fabricated in Europe replaced the original ~270 foot tanker mid-ship section at a Loraine, Ohio Lake Erie shipyard. She was lengthened another 96 feet in 1976, and converted to a self unloader in 1978.
But wait... there's more! In 1984 she was one of three "sister" ships sold to Ford Motor Co.'s Rouge Steel Division, each ship renamed for Edsel Ford's three sons. While operated by Ford, she was badly damaged by a grounding accident and nearly sunk... she survived and was repaired. In 1989, Ford sold all of its ships and a contract to haul ore for Rouge Steel to Interlake Steamship, her current owner, and she was renamed Lee A. Tregurtha. Nearly 17 years later (then 64 years old!) her original steam turbine propulsion system was replaced by twin 4000 horsepower (each) diesel engines which power the now 82 year old ship today. Amazing!! This detail and more can be found at: boatnerd.com/
There are additional challenges with shipping on freshwater. Freshwater is less buoyant for example and there are some violent storms that can form over the great lakes. So it's not all sunshines.
@@billyjoejimbob56
Wow. Thank you for sharing that insight on this ship's history, very fascinating!
@17:05 - That large sheave with all the cables hoists that whole boom. I think that each turn of the sheave equated to about 10K pounds or at least it did on our yard crane. What a mechanism.
That was fascinating. Next time I see her coming in through the Duluth Ship Canal, I'll know way more about her. Thank you!
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.
Very informative, indeed. Thanks so much for this additonal video at the coal dock. I love this kind of stuff. Cheers from Wisconsin!
Thank you very much.
I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the video.
Excellent video. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the process! Thank you. 😊😊😊😊😊
That is some cool stuff, with amazing shots! Thanks for sharing with us all.
Thank you very much. I do appreciate it.
Absolutely phenomenal video. Thanks for sharing!!! 😃👍
Thank you very much.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Wow, what a view, with great narration, very cool production, thank you! Fantastic work! (Dave).
Thanks as always, Dave.
I hope everything is going well for you all.
Thanks, All is fine our friend! (Dave).@@nkyrailfan
Excellent video, well done.
Thank you very much.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Just so pleasant to watch. Informative, yet free from silly music. Calm and nice!
Great job, great video, thanks for sharing
Great job! Very interesting and super Drone shots!!
Thank you very much.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I watched that operation once many years ago from a fishing boat. It was neat to see the cars roll down the hill after being emptied.
Interesting video, thanks.
Another great video of Sandusky. Thank you!
Thank you.
I am very glad to hear you enjoyed it.
I will say it's quite peaceful and fun at the same time with the seagulls and sound of water.
This kind of Great Lakes shipping stuff always makes me start singing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" in my head.
Great content! Thank you!🇺🇸
This was such a great video and very educational. I hope coal comes back as a source of energy like it was years ago.
Thank you very much.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for a great informative video. Appreciate your work.
Thank you very much. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Another fascinating video. Thanks.
Thank you, Tom.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Former RRer here. Each car holds 100 tons, each coal train has 100 cars (sometimes more) equals 10,000 tons of coal for each train. (And over 1 mile long). If this ship carries 26,000 tons, then it will receive at least 2 1/2 train loads per ship.
Thanks for the great information.
I think I read 100 tons and for some reason split it by 2 (from 2,000 lbs in a ton).
🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
The max allowed weight on rail is currently 286,000 pounds or 143 tons. Steel cars have an empty weight of approximately 60K pounds. Aluminum cars have an empty weight of approximately 50K pounds - they a steel car has the weight capacity of about 113 tons and an aluminum car has the capacity of about 118 tons.
@mmi16 thanks for the great information, I do appreciate it.
I'm not sure where I got that cars only carry 50 tons.
I must have conflated the empty weight with the load weight.
@@nkyrailfanwhen it was built they only had 50 ton cars.
Your content is really, really good. It's not remotely close to what I normally watch, but I am certainly glad that TH-cam saw fit to show me the first video.
Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I think a lot of people are in that same boat (pun intended). They're not interested at first but it's pretty fascinating to follow along.
Thank you interesting to watch from an ex British Seaman
Thank you
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Thanks for sharing this video. Very informative and interesting.
Thank you, Brady. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.
Thanks for the interesting topic. Who knew it would be fun to watch a ship being loaded.
I agree 💯
It was very peaceful out there with the sound of the water and the gulls.
It’s great that we have so many people who enjoy things like this video shows. TH-cam offers the world such a great variety of content that anyone can search for and find something interesting to watch. How mind numbing it would be if we were all limited to the dreck that’s being put out on mainstream network channels. 🤢🤮
Thank your so much information about days before computer controllers, more videos will be nice. TOM from Nh
Best videos I’ve seen yet. Keep up the wonderfully edited clips👍👍👍
Thank you very much, Paul.
I really do appreciate it.
Excellent, Excellent!
A big thank you from an old-timer in the UK for a grand video. I worked for British Rail engineering dept in the 1970s 1990s. We had a shiploading facility in Blyth Northumberland (cold place!) It was a series of wooden staithes about 40 feet above sea level (North Sea tidal). The wagons held 40 tons, were pushed up the incline (1/2 mile or so) and the bottom of the wagon opened like a trapdoor thus discharging the coal into a steel lined shute down ino the hold of the waiting coaster. Wagons returned under gravity to the stockyardVery few moving parts, no electrics or electronics but very robust. The steel plates lining the shutes would wear right through and had tobe replaced after so many thosand tons but that was about it. Men stood in the hold of the ship and trimmed, levelled off the coal to make the ship stable. All gone now.Happy days fond memories.
Thanks for sharing all that information.
I'm very glad to hear you enjoyed the video.
That had to be quite impressive to see in person.
The ship is moved via two winches that the mooring lines run through. One winch heaves, one plays out and so on depending on which direction the ship needs to scoot.
Thanks for the great info, Kevin.
I should have figured it was a winch system instead of propeller driven movements.
@@nkyrailfan I believe there is a set of winches on the other side also in case they have that side facing the dock.
This is called "warping the ship". The great lakes boat crews are exceptionally good at it as it is very much their "bread and butter" when loading at the lower lake ports.
@kevinzeh3559 Winches are generally located on the focsle ad quarter deck. I would also expect one midships on boats that warp so often but that will vary by shipping company age of the vessel and how many refit she has undergone.
Man oh man. I grew up in the Toledo area, and was a cop at Cedar Point in 2003. I know the area and those waters really well - spent a lot of time out there. Great drone footage and wonderfully narrated - excellent job!
Thank you very much.
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.
Well done!😊😊😊
I used this video and part one for homeschool today:) Very happy to have found your channel.
That's wonderful!
Thank you for sharing that with me.
Absolutely awesome! An amazing video! Kudos!
Thank you very much.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you very much for this very informative video, Really enjoyed, it. Have a Blessed Night.
Thank you. I'm very glad you enjoyed it.
Your video was great, maybe, just maybe, the best filmed industrial video i have ever seen, quad copter skills are incredible, and makes for a great video as well, narration is exceptional as well, going looking for other videos you have made now.
Thank you very much.
I really do appreciate it.
dude, what a fabulous education on how this works. loved all the dubbed in info, and definitely the 4k footage. SO GOOD!
Thanks, Mike.
I really do appreciate it.
Great video. If you want to get into a rabbit hole, look into tours of the laker ships. They show much of the ships including the conveyers, estate rooms, engine rooms & etc..
We had fun watching your drone coverage! A fantastic and informative video! We’ve been watching these ships coming and going for quite some time. Now we know what they haul and how their ships are loaded! Thank You !!!! Wishing you and yours a “Merry Christmas” ahead of time! 😁😁
Thank you very much.
I'm very glad you enjoyed the video.
A very merry Christmas to you and your family.
I grew up in Erie PA and my dad would take me down to the coal docks to watch the same machine that you show here. I think he did that to show me that the thunder like noise from the coal dumping onto the shute was not something to be afraid of. We lived 2 1/2 miles south of the docks and when the wind was right it sounded like the coal was being dumped in our yard. That was nearly 80 years ago. Thanks for the memories.
Thanks for sharing.
That had to be pretty neat to see as a kid and learn where the sound was coming from.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Very cool.
Shorty Parker built a working model of this coal dumper in HO Scale. It's just as impressive as the real one. :)
The legendary Shorty Parker.
YT suggested this video to me, but I almost skipped it. I'm glad that I watched it, as it was very interesting and very well done 👍
It was interesting to see where Cedar Point is situated. All of it's steel supports for their amazing 'coasters and rides looks industrial from the distance, making it fit right in with it's neighbors. I have now subscribed to this channel.
Thank you very much.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I agree about seeing Cedar Point from a distance and more of an industrial point of view.
Outstanding video. Very enjoyable to watch!
Thank you. I'm very glad you enjoyed it.
That’s what I love about the internet. A few clicks and you can be transported to a completely different location and see the most interesting things that you may have never experienced!
A Coal Car can weigh 100 to 120 ton fully loaded with a load of up to 25 tons dependent on size/height/length/design of car. Remember not all coal weighs the same. So it could be off by a few tons. I lived there and had relatives that worked here. I explored this extensively in my youth. Even worked here for a summer job. So I hope this helps. Also cars have become lighter using thinner materials so therefor allowing larger capacity.
Thanks for the great information!
I do appreciate it.
I bet this was quite a place to explore.
What type of work did you do during the summer?
Open style hoppers like this weight in around 25 tons empty and loaded weight up to 100 tons.
Most modern coal carrying cars have a capacity of 100 tons, yes give or take a few tons depending on coal type and purity.
@nkyrailfan this is correct. They used to be able to run 30 cars per hour, or 3000tph, and another 7000 tons per hour on the conveyor belt into the pan that catches the coal coming from the silos. However, due to NS and their PSR model, a significant number of talented and motivated workers have since found employment elsewhere, taking a ton of knowledge with them. One can only imagine the significance of working on such machine and being able to train the next generation, which again with NS' management methods took a direct hit to the performance of the facility.
Last time I saw the cars go up the hill they moved as fast as your 8x video. There's a spring switch on that hill that takes the barney, the cable driven part that pushes on the cars, and moves it to a separate section of track to go down in the hole for the next car to be indexed above it.
This video is like watching paint dry in comparison to how she used to run just a few years ago.
Great shots of the dock loading operation! Been at that dock and on that vessel, and that loader is probably the most interesting on the Great Lakes! If someone hasn't already commented, the ships' crew moves it via their mooring whiches forward and aft; no engines required. The crew onboard of either end of the boat is operating the winches and vessel shifting. This particular boat has 5 cargo holds and 24 hatches (4-5 hatches per cargo hold) and uses the "2 belt" method to squeeze and bring material to its boom. The CSX coal loading dock in Toledo is also a interesting rail dock... you could also capture ship's loading from rail cars and unloading there, too.
Thank you very much.
I really enjoy recording this dock.
I'm hopeful to catch a CSX train unloading coal in Toledo and a ship loading.
I have a couple questions for you about a future video.
Any chance you could send your email to me?
nkyrailfan@gmail.com
Thanks either way.
The bays on the ship are 24' on center, this is because the loading chutes at the Iron Ore docks on Lake Superior are spaced at that distance because the Iron Ore cars are that length due to Iron Ore being much heavier than coal. Five separate holds is the most common on older ships, though the Lee A. Tregurtha might be different due to being lengthened a second time. The steel mill is located in Detroit, at Marquette, MI it will load Iron Ore pellets, probably for the same steel mill.
Thanks for the great information, John.
I'm hoping to head to Detroit and catch either a coal or iron ore train unloading.
I know it's a long way to go, but a visit to Marquette to watch the pocket dock in action loading iron ore onto these boats is impressive.
I've actually been looking at planning a trip there.
It's about a 12 hour drive depending on traffic, but I think I can make it work.
It'll have to wait until spring but I definitely plan on heading up there.
@nkyrailfan It's worth a go, for sure. Marquette and surrounding area is beautiful. I grew up about 100 miles northwest of there in Houghton County.
Great job making this video. 👍👍👍
One of the best videos explaining how the whole process works for loading coal onto the ships 🚢.
Also Great overview of the dock and the views of the transfer loading tower.
Most coal gons are weight rated at 286,000 pounds.
Load capacity 116 tons, or 232,000 pounds.
Thank you for the great information, Richard.
As you can tell, I have a lot to learn.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Damn geese, everyone’s a critic. Oh yep, gulls too heh. Great video though, thanks for posting this stuff goes from really cool to incredible when we see the massive intricacies actually working. 🤯👏🏻
I like Great Lake Freighters, and I Really Like Trains.
These are where the two come together.
Thanks!
Thank you so much, Scott!
I really do appreciate it!
In the "Know Your Ships" book (consider getting one) she is listed as a Self-Unloader (SU), which is also evidenced by the 250 foot long unloading boom.
All Self-Unloaders have an internal "hopper like" structure (vaguely V-shaped along the axis of the ship) to guide the load in the hold down to the central unloading belt, which pulls the bulk cargo back towards the base of the boom where other machinery lifts the bulk cargo up onto the boom to be expelled at the unloading destination.
Because all of the bulk load needs to be carried by the unloading belt at the bottom of the hold space, even if each loading hatch opened into a separate compartment they are all open to the bottom any way to allow Self-Unloading. Not all bulk carriers are self-unloaders, but that is the trend.
I am pretty sure that in this case that is all one big bulk cargo area.
The hartches are only big enough to fit the old "Hulett" style unloader, Hulett unloaders were high tech in their day but are now completely obsolete and you would be hard pressed to find even one still in operation.. The bigger you make the hatches, the weaker they get unless you made them very strong, which would add too much weight, so their size has been standardized
Not being an expert Boat Nerd (I am a junior boat nerd in training, a JeBNIT), I do not know all of the precise terms for all of these things, but I think I have explained the basic idea pretty well.
Nice video footage, thanks for posting.
If you like to learn about Great Lakes boats check ouy this channel: www.youtube.com/@authorwes
Thank you for all the great information!
I really do appreciate it and will check out the TH-cam channel.
This particular ship has four bulk compartments, and for each loading door on top has a small 4foot by 6 foot door on the bottom to let cargo onto the belt. I miss working on these boats and have been on alot of them in sturgeon bay
Great video. Very good job. Keep em coming. Love the ships and loading stuff.
Thank you.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Wow great video! A good friend of mine sails on the M/V Herbert C. Jackson of Interlake Steamship Co. and he has loaded in Sandusky a few times under his watch. It’s a slight pain as they have to move the ship and it takes along time. A lot of loaders on the lakes can move themselves to load the ship much faster but it is very cool they are still loading the ships like they did in the 1900s!
Adding to what you said about the pilot house placement in the 1970s it started to become too expensive to build vessels with a forward pilot house so they started building all accommodations aft.
Also the reason there is no smoke when they are moving is because the movement is fully controlled by the winches and usually the the propeller isn’t even used.
Thanks for the fantastic information!
I really do appreciate it.
That's very interesting about the pilot house cost and pushing them to the aft.
I should have figured it was a winch system and not a propeller moving the ship.
I do have a question I forgot to ask you.
I'm working on a video covering the CSX coal facility in Toledo.
Any chance you know someone who has loaded there?
I'd love to ask them a few questions.
Thanks either way.
My friend hasn’t loaded at Toledo that I’m aware of but the Toledo loader is very similar to the Sandusky loader when it comes to loading. They have to wait for train cars once in a while and takes a reasonably long time to load as they have to shift.
I’ve heard the now just recently retired Algoma Transport had to wait 4-5 for a coal train to arrive.
@@GreatLakesStateProductions6708 gotcha.
It is an interesting operation.
The cars are rotary dumped and the coal is then sent to the ship.
The facility isn't able to store any coal, only what's dumped from the cars.
It doesn't make sense to me why it would not have a storage option (even a small amount) to keep the process flowing.
I was up there a month or two ago and it seemed everything came to a halt several times.
It was interesting to watch but raised a lot of questions too.
Let me know if you ever come across anyone who has loaded there.
@@nkyrailfanyeah they really should. Sounds good!
i came here out of curiosity, i stayed bc it was so well made.
Thank you very much.
I really do appreciate it.
Nice video. I would love to see any other industry served by the railroad that you can get your drone over for this type of coverage. Papermill. Steel mill. Automotive plant, shingle plant, etc. great video thx for sharing.
Thank you very much.
I'm hopeful to get to more industries.
The Lee Tregurtha is (obviously!) an old-style laker, with the bridge and wheelhouse at the bow. It also has a "steering pole"" at the point of the bow - whose function is also obvious! From the '70's (I think) laker design was changed, withe bridge, wheelhouse and accommodation all being located at the stern - and the ""steering pole"" being removed. Although this ship is 80+ years old, I suspect it has had several changes of motive power - marine diesel engines do not last forever, even in fresh water. I visited Cedar Point in 2017, but the season had finished and everything was closed. I missed the coal dock - I did not realise it was there - but i had a wonderful lakeside lunch at Port Clinton. Thanks for the video.
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the video.
And thanks for all the great information!
I do appreciate it.
I understand the bridge, wheelhouse and accommodation were moved to the stern because of costs. I don't know much about these ships, so I'm curious why it was more costly when these were on the bow. This is a learning moment for me. Thank you!
My guess is since the rudders are at the rear of the ship, a mechanically-linked steering wheel would be a lot more complex and costly to put at the front instead of in the rear as well.
Just a guess though.
If you look at the stern of the ship you will notices how it comes to a point or nose. All lakers need a stern anchor. So when it was converted from a war time vessel an anchor would have hit the rudder if drop. So a nose pice was added to extend the anchor so as to drop further out.
Originally it was built as a ocean going tanker and had a steam turbine engine. It used that engine until 2006 when it was replaced with a diesel.
Just a plain thank you for doing this video for us the viewers...
Thank you very much
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Really liked this vid - tons of info, not much fluff and you FF at just the right places and didn't overuse the FF. Well done!
Thank you very much.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Very interesting, well commentated video, thanks.
Cool video! Great footage!
Great video. Very interesting. Thank You!
Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Forward pilothouse ships are not common any more. The spear like projection helps the caption steer as it shows the angle of the ship. He/she lines it up with something in the distance.
Don't they have GPS for that?
@@Manigo1743 GPS can fail. And considering the ship was built in the 80s, GPS wasn't really a thing at the time.
@@Manigo1743 Sorry, the sister ship was built in the 80s. This one is a refit of a WWII tanker.
First-class production! I learned a lot. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Fred.
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the video.
The sister ship, MV Paul R. Tregurtha, I believe operates in the same way. That ship was featured in the series Mighty Ships Season 1 Episode 5 - should answer a lot of the questions about how these ships work.
Thank you. I'll try to catch the episode.
This is the first video of yours that I have watched. Very well thought out, and professionally done! I will definitely be back for more!
I am sure you will find that each compartment (hold) is separate; it is the job of the load master to ensure the order in which they are filled in order to evenly distribute the load and to avoid straining the ship.
A great improvenet on the old days of coaling a ship
That ship is huge!
What a ship!!!
Just watched this for the second or third time. This has to be one of your best videos. Great drone work as usual, lots of good information and highly educational. What a feat of engineering, I would love to see it in person. Thanks to this video I feel like I’m really there. Thanks as always for a great post Christian.
Thanks, Terry.
I hope you know, it makes my day to hear that you enjoy the videos.
This is really cool... and a lot cleaner than I thought it would be.
Fascinating! Thank you! I enjoy watching this ship come and go from the port at Duluth, MN.
Great loading video and always a treat to see the ole USS Chiwawa in her modern role.
Thanks for the video! I am a boat nerd and spend a lot of time watching the freighters. It was great watching this perspective, and your video and commentary was great!
Thank you very much.
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the video.
Very informative. Grand scale of operations. Thank you!!
Roji
Thank you very much.
I am glad you enjoyed the video.
A most enjoyable watch, thank you for your efforts.
Thank you.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Awesome video of some pretty awesome materials handling, designed and built decades ago.
Most informative, so thanks . .
This was great!! Thanks!👍👍👍
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you for making this video.
Nice video, thank you! Great format, great lenses, no music, just right!
Of course I now wonder… chucking the coal in is comparatively easy - getting it out must be messier :)
Thank you very much.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Loading a ship such as this is a complex and criticality important process. When arriving empty to be loaded the ship will often have some ballast water that was needed to maintain her stability when traveling light in open waters that will be released when she is being loaded with cargo.
When being loaded, especially a bulk carrier such as this, the loading must be specifically spread out thru the ship both in timing and amounts so as her structural integrity and stability not to be compromised. Too much in the mid ships section at one time could break her back. Too much at one end or other with center section still mostly empty could cause her to sag at bow or stern putting undue stress on her hull. Ocean going ships especially will have what is known as Plimsol markings on their hull to show how deep a ship can be loaded safely in all conditions (salt water, freshwater, winter, summer, and even a I believe a special "North Atlantic Winter" designation).
Thank you for the fantastic information!
Loading too much in the middle to quickly will cause the ship to bend with the midships drafting more than the bow and stern. Loading the bow and stern to much and too quickly caues them to draft more than the mishaps and is called "hogging". But you are right, extremes of either case can break the ships keel.
I had a brief career of the Lakes when I was a cadet at the GLMA. Therefore I am not an expert. Our boat(boats on the Great Lakes, not ships) was even older(1929) than this one(1942), but has since been broken up for scrap. So odd to see a boat with a pointed bow, not mant of those on the GL. We picked up coal in Huron, and Ashtabula and Conneaut, all Ohio coal ports. We picked up coal in Chicago on our way to Two Harbors, MN, where the coal was burned to power the mines in the area. A lot of coal is still unfortunately used to power electrical utilities.
The captain would likely not be overseeing the loading, on our boat that job was delegated to the first or second mate. The "workers" as you termed them are deckhands, and a dock is the water alongside a pier or wharf, not the structure. That smoke you saw coming from the funnel was steam, not smoke. The reason the boat fills various hatchways at different times is the mate in charge of loading is making sure the boat's trim is even - can't just dump it all in willy-nilly. Ballast water is NOT stored in the holds! There are tanks for such.
Our boat was not a self-unloader. There used to be huge clamshell shovels used to unload boats without self-unloaders, but I think they're all gone now. Then bulldozers are lowered into the hold to scrape the last remnants of coal together for removal. I remember being amazed I could sleep through that noise despite having the hold on the other side of the bulkhead from me:-)
ALL boats used to have their pilothouse at the front of the boat. Even the first thousand footer(M/V Stewart J. Court) was built that way. Since then all boats I'm aware of have been built like salties with the superstructure all at the stern.
If you move the mooing cables to a point farther up the boat and pull from there, the boat will move in the direction - providing the rear lines have been relaxed of course. It's all done with the capstan or winch that controls the lines. That water at the side of the boat is most likely from a stern thruster. Our boat only had a bow thruster but these are tubes through the boat contained propellers mounted transversely. They can operate in either direction and make tug boats superfluous. In this instance they are probably pushing a small amount of water between the pier and the boat so it doesn't scrape down the side.
I ran out of the time 3/4 of the way through, but I hope these comments helped. If you asked Cliffs you might get to ride along on boat on a run or two. They used to do that anyway. BTW there two Tregurthas on the Lakes now, the other is the largest boat on the Lakes.
Thanks for all the great and detailed information.
I really do appreciate it.
As someone who did not grow up on the Great Lakes or knowing about bulk cargo in general, this is all fascinating to me.
An interesting technology, there's no such ship-loading machine in the Eastern Hemisphere. It's an engineering marvel. Well done. I hope it will operate for another hundred years.
Great video, thanks.
Thank you very much.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Great video. Much detail. Excellent use of the drone.
Thank you very much, Jerry.
I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the video.
Glad I stumbled upon this show! Great job in presentation! Thanks!!
Dude. What a vid. Cheers.
Great content, thanks for sharing !
Thank you.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
What an amazing video. Ive always wondered how this all works. Thank you so much
Thank you very much, I do appreciate it.
Great video thank you.
Thank you very much.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I'd leave my desk job to work here. Always loved industry like this. Now I can only watch on my lunchbreak
This is fascinating, I just visited the decommissioned McMyler Coal Dumper in port reading NJ. It was amazing to explore up close. awesome ingenuity. Thanks for the video !
Thank you very much.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Front pilot house ships are old classics, my favorite. Rear pilot house are the newer. Bow thrusters keep the ship close to the dock. There is a round marking on the side of the ship to show where the are located. She is 826 feet long.
Bow thrusters are also used to maximize maneuvering in ports and river channels, such as on the Ohio River.
Shifting at the dock, you keep her up against just with the mooring wires. The Lee has Almon-Johnson electric winches (old school, but reliable).