tree68 CSSHEGEWISCH Those may be the last Hullett unloaders in service on the Great Lakes. Almost every ore boat now in service is a self-unloader. AFAIK, there are no Hulett's left standing. The last two were dismantled and stored, per the Cleveland Memory Project. Although all I've seen is videos, they were fascinating to watch.
CSSHEGEWISCH Those may be the last Hullett unloaders in service on the Great Lakes. Almost every ore boat now in service is a self-unloader.
Those may be the last Hullett unloaders in service on the Great Lakes. Almost every ore boat now in service is a self-unloader.
AFAIK, there are no Hulett's left standing. The last two were dismantled and stored, per the Cleveland Memory Project.
Although all I've seen is videos, they were fascinating to watch.
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Thank you, Balt! That was one of the best videos I've seen in a long while! Pure poetry in motion.
Not so long ago any Clevelander was familiar with the Huletts because not only did the C&P dock have them, but so did the nearby Erie; there may have been another set up the river ("Upper Republic"). Ore trains and the ubiqitous red dust & smoke characterized the Flats and industrial areas in Cleveland for a century.
Hulett (pronounced HEW-let) unloaders were invented by a Cleveland grocer (George Hulett 1846 - 1923).
Two scenes in this video stand out: First, I'm glad the photographer captured the Huletts working at night with their many lights, moving up & down, back & forth. Whether seen from the lake or from land these seemingly living brontosauruses moved with grace and, at night, charm. In their own ways at night they were nearly as beautiful as the old Rocket Ships at Euclid Beach Park, a few miles east of the Huletts. There were Huletts at Ashtabula and other ports on the lakes.
Second, at the end of the video, after the Huletts are done and even the front-end loaders have been removed we see a lone deckhand walking in the hold. What viewers don't see is that now, after the deckhands sweep the hold floor with push brooms, they will go back on deck and pull up 5-gallon buckets of iron ore using only their backs and a rope attached to the bucket. By this time the ship is underway once more and those buckets of heavy iron ore, now too late to be left on shore, will simply be emptied over the side into the lake.
Holds had to be swept clean after iron ore so that coal could be loaded next; iron ore mixed with coal is a no-no. Grain boats had to be even cleaner.
Working as a deckhand on the Str. Reiss Brothers in the summer of 1967 at $1.92 per hour was the hardest job I have ever had in my life. But the sights on the lakes, the opportunity to witness and study the synergies of ships and railroads, and the great, if plain, food made for a job and a summer never forgotten.
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Almost forgotten here is that the OP's question was about the Kinsman Road PRR yards!
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
The Hulett cranes working the PRR Ore Docks at Cleveland
Well, if wanswheel were still here he could fill your In box with photos.
However, if you Google the Cleveland Memory Project at Cleveland State University you will be able to find a number of photos of that area from about 1927 -1930. Also, the photo collection of The Cleveland Press is at CSU and I bet this would yield some other photos, as will the Cleveland Public Library.
You should also Google the subject in general (try PRR Cleveland and go to images) and go to the various PRR interest groups, but you probably know that.
Those PRR yards and the roundhouse by the Kinsman Avenue bridge were fascinating to me, too.
During the days preceeding the Bonus March of 1932, so many unemployed men were gathering daily in the Pennsy's Cleveland yard trying to bum a ride on a freight train headed toward Washington, DC that the PRR finally ran a special train for them from Cleveland because, among other things, the yards were in chaos from all the trespassers.
I'd enjoy seeing photos of the yards and roundhouse myself. It was quite a sight, wasn't it?
I wondered if anyone had pictures or Information of the PRR's Kinsman Ave. freight yards back in the 1960's as a kid I used to live near the then PRR's main line heading out of the city, sometimes I'd spend time watching the trains from the Kinsman Ave. bridge, it was a very large yard and from my bedroom window I could watch the trains go by slowing before arriving in the yard, any Info will be great.
Carl
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