NS loading the Algoma Innovator at the Sandusky Coal Dock
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 พ.ย. 2022
- 11/9/22
Watch as the PRR-era coal unloader lifts and tips full hopper cars one at a time into the hold of the Algoma Innovator, before sending the cars down a ramp back into the dock's yard tracks. Pretty neat, huh?
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It’s easy to see how Sandusky got a head start on the roller coaster industry!
Nice!
Crude, clever, genious, dangerous. Call it what you want but I love it. You train guys are the best.
That's a fantastic bit of filming, thanks for sharing! Drones really have extended our hobby enjoyment haven't they?
I was comm tech for NS in this area from 77 thru 2013. I spent many hours at this dock, inside, under, on top, in offices and overall dock. The machine was one of three on this site. The other two were steam driven and were out of operation when I came. Later they were torn down for scrap.
This machine was built in 1898 and had been upgraded many times. I haven’t seen it for 10 years. I’m happy to see it still runs. It will likely out last me.
Over engineered, but still working 124 years later. That is how real engineers work.
I didn't know it was that old a system! I thought it was excessively complicated, but they were working with the engineering of the time. Today they simply dump two or three cars at a time and keep the train moving. I am surprised it hasn't been torn down, just for modernization's sake, so it must be very economical.
I would say it is more likely that the company’s don’t want to try and reestablish an unloading operation just to avoid the licensing and zoning connected to this. What you don’t see is to the west of the machine is a marina and some very expensive houses. There was an agency in the office building many years ago. Too often the claim agent would have to go over there and examine someone’s yacht that had gotten coal dust on it.
There are other videos of this dock and current superintendent tells of it being built in 1937. Old men there when I first arrived told that it had been converted to electricity around that time. Also it sets on a man made dock large enough to allow ships to turn around. The old steam docks required the ships to back out. A side note, the long building at the bottom of the pusher ramp was called the engine room. In the seventy’s there were three or four General Electric motor generators in this room that turned the ac mains into dc voltage to run the motors that operated the dock. They had to be 6-8 foot across and all of them running was deafening. The date on the motors, from GE in New York were in the 1920’s
@@williamakers7812 WoW!!! Thank you!
When I was but a wee lad, and my father would take me fishing on Black Tom behind Ellis Island, and the remains of the old coal dump piers were still there ( early ‘70s) and I always wondered how they worked. I used to call them “The “Rollercoasters”. It was a good fishing spot because the stray coal made for a clean bottom in a polluted New York Harbor. Very cool to actually see how they worked - THANK YOU!!!!
The way that the car goes up the incline and rolls back over a different track just by gravity, looks remarkably much like children's toys from the 1960s. Just a little bit bigger.
Seen models, heard stories, thought this was gone with the great railroad times. Awesome
Thanks for the video!! I live a mile away,,
About 60 years ago I was fortunate enough to
get to go up on the machinery, I'm 71 now.
Try to get a kid up on there now with today's liability!! I moved here less than 2 years ago.
I love Sandusky!!!
Used to play on the two older coal docks (removed years ago) as a kid.
Great video! I visited this facility years ago and watched the entire operation (on the ground). The drone video provides a whole new perspective. From memory, the “skinny locomotive” is called a shunter. The cable-operated machine that pushes the loaded cars up the slope is called a Barney haul. The rotary car dumper is a high-lift type.
Its amazing how the process and equipment for this job hasn't changed in decades, with some of it being well over a century old.
And will likely outlast modern tech even with very little maintenance
I live near the CSX coal pier in Curtis Bay, Maryland. It has silos conveyors and rotary bucket loader. The rail cars are dumped and coal is conveyed to the silos to form piles. The unloader in this video is completely different but a very interesting operation to watch. Nice aerial footage.
There's a storage area for coal to be stored on site here, until it's needed. There's a rotary bucket loader here too than can load it on a conveyor that leads to the silo's at the end of the pier. It's then put onto conveyors that drop it into the loading chute.
This is the coalest thing ever!
this is an awesome video of a really cool process. seems this 'old-school' method of unloading is painfully slow compared to a modern rotary dump. the elevator also seems very complicated and i'm sure is a maintenance nightmare. it's neat to see all of the automated pieces working together.
Was about to comment. Clever use of gravity, but the elevator part seems overengineered as hell.
Was thinkin the same thing. Cool but slow and over engineered.
Dunno, with a rotary dump you'd still need to elevate the wagon or the coal to shoot it into the ship, really long conveyors to get the gradient reasonable seems to be the norm today and belts have their own maintenance headaches.
Nothing beats those ore docks on Michigan, there was a similar coal pier that burned down, I doubt any modern system comes close in matching them for speed but does speed even matter moving coal and ore?
@@turboconqueringmegaeagle9006 You dump cargo to the bunker beneath and then use conveyors/bucket lift to elevate it to the ship. The faster you are done - the faster you can have your freight cars back on the line earning money.
@@viacheslavzemlianski6739 straight into a ship or they tipping for storage? Tbh now I'm thinking of it this is the first loading set up I've seen without any pier/quayside storage.
THANK YOU for resisting the urge to add music to this fascinating footage.
Great drone footage. Have been to Duluth many times and it’s very interesting see the inner workings of loading no matter the location!
Duluth has a great ore loading system. They use the hill to there advantage
Seeing full-sized cars roll up an incline like that is just bizarre, this is a really cool piece of machinery and it's great to see that it is still being used.
I've seen this in operation up close. It's hypnotic. This view is incredible!
Ngl this really looks like a toy, the fact that this is not one is just mind blowing
I know right! I think Lionel made something similar but I've never seen something like this in real life
There was a coal dumping facility on the Delaware river just outside of Philly. We used to sit in a boat and watch. Every now and then a switch man would ride the high side of the hopper at the hand brake, which he would crank down on after the hopper went thru the switch.
I was out on the B+O's Fairport OH coal dock in the early 1960's. Friendly place, "Go ahead, just be careful." Rode engines on both the B+O and FP&E. At the time, there was a ship repair slip on the back side of the coal dumper land, no drydock, but could do quite a bit of repair. Both slips are still there, now a marina.
The dumper was a McMyler similar to this, but entirely steam powered. Every once in a while, they would park a coal hopper on the dumper and dump it into the loader's coal bunker. Instead of the gray pusher locomotive, the loaded yard was elevated and inclined. They would uncouple cars one at a time, and let them coast down the short grade until they were over the barney, then a worker placed a wedge on the end of a broomstick behind a car wheel. The barney would then shove the car up into the dumper like seen here, and bump the empty car out. However, they used riders on the empty cars over the kickback, so they could brake the cars gently onto the string in the empties yard. I remember the riders had gray T-shirts, which started out the day white.
I have photos of it somewhere.
You should publish them to the internet
@@fairportrails107 If I figure out where they're stored. B+W prints.
Wow, it’s amazing a former Pennsylvania Railroad coal unloading facility still seeing regular use I’ve seen HO scale models of this type of coal unloading facility. I love how special pushers individually push the the hopper up to the tipple against the coupler then a gravity type ramp/switch back, sends it back to the line of empties
Lorain Ohio had a similar deep water port set up until the early 80s used to watch the process for hours as a kid growing up wish the video had sound ...those rolling emptied cars
I put the banging of the cars in my mind from watching it in Lorain also. Unfortunately, it doesn't have it ending at the end of the pier like it would jump into the Harbor.
I can only imagine the ambient sound that yard has. Thank you for uploading this neat silent film.
I've been wanting to see one of these in action for 30 years! Thanks!!!
Incredible machines. Some one had to design all this old school years ago. Thx
Whoever designed this was a rollercoaster fan.
Very cool. Love this type of footage. Industrial, trains and ships. This video has it all 👍👍
Many years ago, my dad would take us down to watch the then Norfolk & Western 100 ton cars being dumped by the rotary unloader at Lambert's Point in Norfolk/
Great video - have always been fascinated with photos of these facilities, so being able to see exactly how it actually works is really neat. Thanks for filming and posting.
OMG !!! What an amazing video. Great day to be running a drone with a high res camera. I was glued to the screen and found myself wanting more when this one ended. What an amazing unloader/loader contraption. Thank you so much for putting up this awesome, informative and educational video.
We used to play on the two older coal docks (no longer there) as kids. We were not the brightest kids.
That is so elaborate, I did not expect something like this to exist
Fascinating! Regards from Slovakia.
Very neat footage this is sure a long process rotary dump couplers and cars are the way of the future
Fantastic video! I've been aware of these kinds of facilities and read descriptions of there operation, but to actually see it is great. Thanks for posting!!
I think we can assume the switch in the switchback is a 'spring switch' ; car pushes its points over with its flanges then points spring back, directing car to outbound empties track..
Fascinating...!! Thanks for sharing and getting all the different video angles, good job!
The method of moving the cars away from the unloader reminds me of a number of interesting railroads at another facility in Sandusky, the roller coasters at Cedar Point.
Thank You for posting this. I always wanted to see one in operation again. Just wished it had the sounds of it working. I can still place the sounds in the video in my mind from watching the same kind of Loader formally in Lorain, Ohio. They tore it down in the late 1970s/early 1980s along with the Hulett unloaders. The one in Lorain, we always thought it would jump off the end and go into the Harbor.
Absolutely awesome drone video!!!!!!!! Have forgotten the times I stood out on the deck of the H Lee White or John Boland and counted the cars to estimate tonnage, but my view was nothing like this!!!
This is great! Nothing beats efficiency quite like good 'ole gravity. Although it wouldn't operate as realistically, I bet this would be fun to recreate on a model railroad.
Someone did and I think it is in the "Maritime Museum of Sandusky" in Sandusky, Ohio. th-cam.com/video/x6QR3lrzOo4/w-d-xo.html
@@rakkatoie1 simply incredible. Thanks for sharing that link!
Excellent video! Left no question unanswered as to the process!
I always wanted to see how this was done, I did think it was a faster process then what I saw, so glad you made this.
I'm very impressed😮, they had only told me about the maneuver, never seen it in action, thanks for sharing, kind regards from Mexico🤝
I was over at Cedar Point back in august and from my hotel room I could've sworn i kept seeing dust everywhere along the coastline. Glad to know I'm not insane.
Back when I was a kid the whole area was polluted to hell and back. It’s actually much cleaner that is was in the past.
I've been here before! Back in the mid-90s on the Calcite II, Myron C Taylor and Cason J Callaway.
Very nice video and brilliant engineering too. Thanks for posting this too.
Being a Pennsy Fan, this is my kind of footage. Old school stuff that still works.
The Pennsy had operations in Sandusky ? I thought it was prior NYC ? The NS yard there connects to Bellevue which is prior N&W.
Very nice video! Thanks for putting in the time to record and post it.
Cool !!!! As a railfan, this needs to be modeled.
There is a video of a working model here on TH-cam. I just can't remember who posted it.
@@Ghauster I did...it was made by Shorty Parker: th-cam.com/video/x6QR3lrzOo4/w-d-xo.html
@@robbennett1965 Thanks for letting us know and post the link. That is a real work of art.
Wow what a beautiful beast. As a Brit who models American Railroads this would became an absolute gem. Would become marathon task to achieve. Great video.
th-cam.com/video/x6QR3lrzOo4/w-d-xo.html
Like the Hullets, this needs to be modeled in scale!
It has been! Don't think I can track the video down now, but there's a gentleman in Michigan that's built a fully operation model of this in HO scale.
@@TedHaughawout Shorty Parker - th-cam.com/video/x6QR3lrzOo4/w-d-xo.html (filmed by Stephen Bennett)
Great video of a really cool operation! Thanks!
Very comprehensive! Thank you for this!
Interesante vídeo. Muy bueno. 👍👏👏👏👏Curiosa instalación industrial. Gracias y saludos. 👋👋
Thanks to the wonderful full coverage made possible by the drone footage this seemingly simple operation is shown to be quite sophisticated; and fascinating to watch. Thank you!
SUPER COOL MAN!!!! TY fer sharing!!!! Team NS!!!!!
Every bit of praise logged so far TIMES TWO! Thanks, Chris
Fascinating, thanks for posting. There was a thing like that in philadelphia. I never happened to drive by when it was operating although it was obvious what it did
Right around Richmond and Allegheny? That one had a huge incline.
That is cool the drone works very well
WOW! What a neat video. Very informative!
Incredibly cool operation for sure.
Boy that’s was great 👍 brings back memories of me and grandpa watching the same operation in south amboy nj back in 50s but it was all steam
Very nice video. A true complex item to model. I presume that the switch on the out going side is a spring switch. Interesting set up!!!
Now that was cool to see, what a facility.
Never seen this before! Wild operation they have!
Excelente vídeo
Turbo 👌👏
impressive engineering
Wow, what a fantastic piece of film. While the wagons are gravity worked, I'm surprised they a lifted and tipped. I would have thought bottom discharge would have easier and more efficient. Nevertheless, a very interesting operation. Thanks for sharing 👍👍👍👍🇬🇧
Amazing video, thank you!
Absolutely fascinating. Great angles of view from the drone. Well filmed.
Odd but cool this showed up , and the one from Lackawanna. We ship to these facilities from where I work at the Rosebud,Lady Jane Prep plant in Penfield Pa. Thank You! 👍
Very interesting video. Thanks for sharing
I've been there 😎
Nice video !!! Thanks 🥰
Awesome video thanks for posting it
As if I'm looking at a model train! This should be listed and protected as industrial heritage.
pretty cool operation, fun to watch. thanks.
In Brazil, you turn the wagons in the lower part and waste energy just carrying coal on mats... conveyor belts
Brillient, well done
this is incredible
Awesome Job!
Great video!
Best use of a drone I've yet to see 👍
I'm sure the railroad feels differently.
Amazing that this contraption is real and not something in Mark Rober’s backyard!
I didn't know it was like an elevator! That's really cool
Awesome and Educational Video = Thanks!!
That is incredibly interesting.. More such videos please....
Tremendous video. Great perspective from the drone. Thank you for sharing. I am amazed at how inefficient the operation is in taking so long to empty each hopper. Why not a bottom dump that drops into the Shute in the same fashion? Still fun to watch and the automation is intriguing.
yeah. i was thinking the exact same thing. on all counts.
Even with the time it takes to lift and dump individual hoppers this is probably faster than bottom dump, which takes several minutes per car. Also you'll get a percentage of cars where the mechanisms that open the dumps are reluctant (through lack of lubrication or whatever, just the in general hard life of a railcar) and can take a couple minutes of banging and cussing with sledges and prybars. Plus it puts at least two people in harm's way doing a boring and potentially dangerous job (not a great combination) working in very close proximity to moving railcars. An elevated track long enough to run even a moderate string of hoppers behind a yard switcher will take a LOT of space and will need extremely long ramps - 3/4 to 1 mile - to get up to proper height. How big is your dock property?
Pretty neat video!
Awesome, I love to see electricity , gravity and diesel power working together, this place looks like it provides a fair number of mortgage paying jobs.
Wow! Imagine how it sounds.
Awesome video
Did the engineers have a Rube Goldberg contest to decide whats the most inefficient way with as many failure points as possible to accomplish a task? Really cool to watch though.
Obviously designed by a guy who loved him some match box/Hot Wheels car tracks as a kid.
That is really neat! Thanks!
Like a Cedar Point ride !😀
I first uses a "Tippler" UK name for these things, when I started in the electricity generation industry in 1965, they always were slooow and a real pain when the coal froze, glad to see the back of them. Good video however.
Cool first time I’ve seen a jump track in action
*hump
Fascinating; but at the same time, I do see all the coal eventually going into the atmosphere and I cannot refrain myself from thinking that extracting and burning coal is a very, very bad idea !
No doubt. Sometimes the cheapest short term method isn’t the best. But… you still have to appreciated the operation of this coal dock purely from a mechanical perspective.
@@thereisaplace... And this is precisely what I am doing. It is a marvelous piece of engineering, indeed !
This is awesome! Do you ever railfan the NS Chicago Line around there?
This is awesome I love it although I thought it was going to be a layout and I definitely wanted to see that 😅