PRR Conway Yard

[bud the bargeman]

At one time, it appears that PRR unloaded coal, from barges on the Ohio River, at Conway Yard.  I used to survey barges at the river terminal, which operated at the site of that coal unloading operation, but never could determine when it had been operated by PRR.  The facility I used to visit, to survey barges, has since closed and been dismantled.  I assume that the remains of the old PRR coal dock was also dismantled at that time, although I have never had occasion to go back and look.

Can anyone shed any light on the history of that coal dock?

[zstripe]

Bud the Bargeman,

A lot of info here,with pic's and maps:

http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railroads/companies/PRR/PRR%20Inspection%20Trip%2010-1957.pdf

Frank

[BRAKIE]

According to what I read in that document the coal was unloaded from barges to hopper cars..To my mind that doesn't sound quite right since its usually from rail to barge.

Anybody?

[dehusman]

Since its a Board of Directors inspection special brochure, I would think it would be correct.  There are a lot of transfer facilites along the Ohio River, While counter-intuitive, having the ability to go from barge to rail would give customers a lot more options.

[bud the bargeman]

Thanks, Frank.  That's great information.  I had suspected (incorrectly, it appears) that the river terminal had been built for the purpose of supplying fuel for locomotives at Conway Yard.

As far as loading coal from barge to hopper car being unusual, I can assure you that it's not.  For years, Eastman Kodak's coal needs (they seem to have operated their own coal-fired power plant, at Rochester, NY) were supplied via coal going from mine to barge, on the Green River, in KY.  From there, the barges would move to the mouth of the Green River at Henderson, KY. and be moved up the Ohio River to a river terminal called General Materials Terminal, which occupied the old PRR site I was asking about, adjacent to Conway Yard.  There, beneath the still-standing (at least, back in the 90s) remains of PRR's overhead crane, as well as with whirly-cranes at two other locations at the same river-front facility, the coal was transferred to rail cars for the final leg of the movement to Rochester.  This move alone used to average about 20 barge loads a week (@ 1700 tons per barge) all year around.  Of course, at the same time, the terminal also handled pipe, steel coils, wire rod coils and several other commodities I can't name, right now (it was a long time ago) going from barge to rail, rail to barge and even truck to barge.

Ultimately, the cost of that barge to rail transloading was made redundant through the realignment of some rail lines (due to the sale of Conrail to CSX and NS) and the coal went by rail from mine to Kodak without interuption.

Thanks, again, Frank, for helping me fill in the blanks.

[BRAKIE]

bud the bargeman

As far as loading coal from barge to hopper car being unusual, I can assure you that it's not. For years, Eastman Kodak's coal needs (they seem to have operated their own coal-fired power plant, at Rochester, NY) were supplied via coal going from mine to barge, on the Green River, in KY. From there, the barges would move to the mouth of the Green River at Henderson, KY. and be moved up the Ohio River to a river terminal called General Materials Terminal, which occupied the old PRR site I was asking about, adjacent to Conway Yard.

Very interesting..Thank you.

The reason I thought it odd I fished the Ohio River for about 3 years after ready freddy stole my brakeman's job.I never seen a upbound barge loaded with coal and seen several rail to barge transload terminals along the Ohio.

Thanks again for sharing that.

[bud the bargeman]

Oh, yeah, LOTS of up-bound coal movements into the Pittsburgh area.  Of course, with today's War on Coal taking it's toll on traffic, there have been some pretty drastic cut-backs.  Still, there is a lot of coal moving upstream to supply USX's Clairton coke works and most of that comes off the Big Sandy River, or loads onto the Ohio at Huntington, WV and Cattletsburg, Ky.  Still more up-bound coal moves from the Huntington/Cattletsburgh area to the Cardinal, Sammis and Bruce Mansfield power plants, all located on the Ohio between Pittsburgh and Wheeling.

Also, the traffic patterns change, constantly, as X btu coal is needed at y location to be blended with z btu coal before being loaded back onto barges (or rail cars) for movement to the end user.

The recent sale of several Consol Energy mines, as well as ALL of Consol's river transportation assets, to Murray Energy, will likely produce some different barge traffic patterns.

There's really a wealth of modeling subjects out there on the rivers.  I'd be glad to do some photographing for some of you guys, if you need some prototype examples to model.

[tcwright973]

There is a transload facility (barge to rail - rail to barge) east of Conway Yard in Leetsdale that I believe still does a lot of barge to rail  coal loads these days.

[bud the bargeman]

Yes, you are correct.  It's called Mol-Dok, Inc. although it may hve been changed to Leetsdale Logistics.  I haven't been in there in a while, so I'm not sure how active they are, anymore.  They used to do a huge volume of barge to rail transloading.  That facility would have been a good one for a modern era guy to model.  The one at Baden (old PRR dock @ Conway Yd.) was a real time capsule.  Besides the old PRR overhead crane, there were two Dravo whirly cranes, dating from the 1930s, or possibly as recent as WW II era, as well as an old "stiff-leg" crane, which was probably built in the late teens or 20s, as well as a couple of fairly recent Manitowoc crawler cranes.

Most river terminals started out with minimal capital backing, so the old cranes would be correct even in the modern era, actually.  Anything built by Dravo was extremely well-engineered and over-built and the cranes could (and were) be up-dated/modernized with modern air-control systems and operating machinery, as the terminal continued to make money.  The big, overhead crane arrangements (like the PRR facility had) were quite expensive to purchase and install, so only the big, high-dollar operations could afford to start out with such "exotic" cranes.

Barge handling equipment could be as elaborate as having a dedicated winch & pulley system, on specially constructed cells/walls, or it could be as simple as a long rope tied to a big Carterpillar.  I know of one incident in which the terminal crew left for the night, feeling secure that their partly-loaded barge was tied to the biggest dozer Caterpillar ever made, in anticipation of a rising river.  However, when they came in the next morning, both Caterpillar and barge were no where to be found.  The barge was found several miles downstream, but the last trace of the big Cat was the skid marks left on the bank, where it had been dragged into the river by the barge.  It was never seen again.

[tcwright973]

Keeping in mind that I'm there railfanning only about 2 hours each week, it seems to me that they are not quite as busy as they were 2 or 3 years ago. Sometimes the storage tracks up along side the NS main line are full as well as the storage tracks behind the industrial park. Then there are times, like today, when there isn't a hopper to be seen.

[bud the bargeman]

I haven't been in there since........well, I can't recall, exactly.  I think it was in the late 90s.  I was out on a salvage operation, on the other side of the river, a few years ago and it didn't look like anything was going on there.  The terminal was still showing an active listing in the 2007 Inland River Guide (the latest one I have here at home), so they were apparently still active at that time.  The owner of the terminal would be getting quite elderly, by now and I haven't heard anything about it changing hands.  He was a very sharp guy, but also a real decent sort of person.  I guess I really should call him or stop by his office (in Baden) to see him.  I'm really lax about keeping in touch with people, when business calls me to other locations.

Did you notice whether or not the terminal still had their desert khaki GP9?  It would be sitting outside, somewhere, if they still have it.  They bought it, originally, to handle all the hoppers needed for the Eastman Kodak coal transloading and it was kept pretty busy, for a few years.  Last time I was in there, it was still operational, but not being used on a daily basis.

[tcwright973]

I've never seen a GP9 there. What I think is an SW8 has worked the facility since at least 2008, when I first started railfanning around here.

 

[bud the bargeman]

Oh, yeah....that's the one that has been working at Mol-Dok since I can remember.  I was thinking of the GP9 that General Materials had, at the old PRR Conway Yard river terminal.

[Curt Webb]

zstripe- Thanks for the link to the PRR document. I have some new reading to do