Air 2 From railroad to ship, Coal loading on the Great Lakes

[Narsh]

Here are a couple of videos showing the process of loading coal from rail cars onto lake freighters. The coal is transported from Kentucky, West Virginia, and southern Ohio via rail to Sandusky, Ohio, to then be distributed to various ports on the Great Lakes.

Note: There is no sound on these videos. This is my first attempt to share videos.

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The first video highlights the Canada Steamship Lines “Ret. Hon. Paul J Martin”. It is a 740-foot self-unloading vessel. You will see the unloading conveyor on the (Aft) of the ship. It is extended outward to get it out of the way when loading. More info about this ship, go here… Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin, H.M. Griffith

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The second video (which is in 1.5 speed to save time) concentrates specifically on the dumping process. You will notice when there are delays, the ship is actually slowly being moved fore & aft in order to more evenly load it. You will see a carrier, called a Barney from the left, pushes the full rail car, one at a time, up a ramp into the unloader. The unloader then lifts the car and then inverts it upside down dumping the coal into a hopper placing it into the hull of the ship. The empty car gets set back on the tracks and gets pushed away by the next incoming car. The empty car then goes off the platform to the right to a ramp with a switchback where it then travels by gravity all the way to be re-coupled with the empty train.

I am told it takes approx. 300 coal cars to fill a ship, with 100 tons +/- per coal car. The larger ships can hold up to 32-33,000 tons. It takes 14-16 hours to fill the biggest freighter by rail car alone. At times, they can also fill from the three silos via the conveyors. When loading a ship they can do up to a four coal blend utilizing the three silos plus train cars. They do this in order to create a specific recipe utilizing different coal qualities. These silos are filled from the piles you can see in the background. These piles can have as much as 100,000 tons on them.

Some smaller ships can be loaded in as little as four hours when they blend, larger ships take 6 to 8 hours. Some ships can be loaded, offloaded at the mill, and return back to Sandusky within 24 hours. Most all go to steel plants on the Great Lakes.

Built in 1939. At one time there were five operations like this, this is the last to remain, so uptime is crucial.

Thanks for watching. Hope you enjoy.

 

[Blairsville]

Very interesting. Thank you!

 

[Twocalf]

Narsh, indeed I found the whole process very interesting, particularly because of your explanation of what we were seeing and the history of the place but I doubt most folks spent much time with a silent, slow film. The obvious thing would be to edit the content down to a reasonable length, add some music and possibly a voice over explaining the process or add some captions. But you said this was your first upload so you may be new to the game. There are a bunch of free video editing solutions that are available and I'd encourage you to check them out because it seems that you are very capable of capturing interesting subject matter so now you just need a way to package it!

I'm curious, they must have some type of "vacuum" or ventilation system because I would have expected a lot of dust generated when a 100 ton rail car is dumped upside down. It almost appears that the observable dust is being pulled down with the coal.

 

[Narsh]

Yes, I agree. I hope I didn't lose anyone. My wife helped me, and she used some kind of editor she already had on here computer. After I uploaded, she did mention she could've added music. In the future, she and I will be experimenting with DaVinci Resolve and/or maybe others. We have a lot on our plate right now and we need time to dive into that, as I understand there can be a learning curve.

As for the dust control, there is a water spray they use when dumping. You can see the mist if you look closely. I would imagine there is a way to let the water run through to the ships bilge then pump it out. This ship as a self-unloader, has an internal conveyor system underneath the hoppers. The internal hoppers are visible in the video at 5:52 & 6:31-6:38 where you can see all the way to the bottom of the holds that are not yet filled.

They use water for dust control on the ground as well for the piles in the background, they periodically spray those with water cannons to keep dust under control. Folks at the local marina with their expensive yachts & sailboats make sure they do not overlook this step.

Interesting side note, if the late fall, or early spring, these coal cars with their open tops, see precipitation on the trip north, and will often freeze. There is a long building to the left called a "thaw shed". The cars pass through it slowly and are super-heated to melt. Otherwise, when dumped, the coal comes out like an ice cube and plugs up the hopper. When this happens, it creates quite a mess. The whole operation closes from late December-late March (give or take) when there is too much ice on Sandusky Bay and the Great Lakes to continue.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[retiredNH]

Agree with twocalf's suggestion. No offense, since all too many videos posted here show one continuous clip - not by any means an ideal way to hold a viewer's attention.
With yours, there's a lot of "footage" where not much is happening. You could cut that out. Same with languid approaches.
But please, keep stuff like this coming!

 

[wheelski80]

Here are a couple of videos showing the process of loading coal from rail cars onto lake freighters. The coal is transported from Kentucky, West Virginia, and southern Ohio via rail to Sandusky, Ohio, to then be distributed to various ports on the Great Lakes.

Note: There is no sound on these videos. This is my first attempt to share videos.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

The first video highlights the Canada Steamship Lines “Ret. Hon. Paul J Martin”. It is a 740-foot self-unloading vessel. You will see the unloading conveyor on the (Aft) of the ship. It is extended outward to get it out of the way when loading. More info about this ship, go here… Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin, H.M. Griffith

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

The second video (which is in 1.5 speed to save time) concentrates specifically on the dumping process. You will notice when there are delays, the ship is actually slowly being moved fore & aft in order to more evenly load it. You will see a carrier, called a Barney from the left, pushes the full rail car, one at a time, up a ramp into the unloader. The unloader then lifts the car and then inverts it upside down dumping the coal into a hopper placing it into the hull of the ship. The empty car gets set back on the tracks and gets pushed away by the next incoming car. The empty car then goes off the platform to the right to a ramp with a switchback where it then travels by gravity all the way to be re-coupled with the empty train.

I am told it takes approx. 300 coal cars to fill a ship, with 100 tons +/- per coal car. The larger ships can hold up to 32-33,000 tons. It takes 14-16 hours to fill the biggest freighter by rail car alone. At times, they can also fill from the three silos via the conveyors. When loading a ship they can do up to a four coal blend utilizing the three silos plus train cars. They do this in order to create a specific recipe utilizing different coal qualities. These silos are filled from the piles you can see in the background. These piles can have as much as 100,000 tons on them.

Some smaller ships can be loaded in as little as four hours when they blend, larger ships take 6 to 8 hours. Some ships can be loaded, offloaded at the mill, and return back to Sandusky within 24 hours. Most all go to steel plants on the Great Lakes.

Built in 1939. At one time there were five operations like this, this is the last to remain, so uptime is crucial.

Thanks for watching. Hope you enjoy.

Thanks - I live on lake Ontario/Genesee River. In the 'old days' the coal went to Canada from here. Two boats were used on alternate days. Each vessel would hold a number of filled RR coal cars plus passengers, mostly on for a day trip. A real fun time with class mates, when 13 yrs old.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Nice video, very interesting. I thought the accelerations of those coal cars on the slope was quite scarey.
Just curious, when they move the ship is it moved with winches or the ship's propeller/s?

 

[G.O.D.]

Now that was Cool. Where I Retired from Coal could not be Dumped in the Open.

 

[Narsh]

Nice video, very interesting. I thought the accelerations of those coal cars on the slope was quite scarey.
Just curious, when they move the ship is it moved with winches or the ship's propeller/s?

The second video was played in 1.5 speed, to shorten the video. so cars are much slower in real life. However, even at real speeds, they can get moving quickly by gravity and that is a safety concern because they sneak up on you quietly.

The ships are winched fore & aft for jockeying between hoppers for even loading.

I think if if get another opportunity, I’ll try time lapse settings.
Thanks