Pretty cool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynjSgkwDL8c
Another video shot from above:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voz3JN8CPBE
Third video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgsf0nLuZ68
Material handling on the Great Lakes is always interesting, from car dumpers such as this to the Hulett unloaders, to today's self unloaders.
There are a great many lakers, handling taconite, limestone, coal, aggregates, grain, and a number of other commodities. And then there are the salties, with myriad cargos.
Ship watching can be as fun as train watching, especially when you see those "footers" (1,000 feet and more) making tight turns on some of the shipping lanes.
There are sites to watch where the ships are. I'm in Syracuse for the train show, so I'm going to miss the Tim S Dool as it transits the St Lawrence River enroute to Montreal from Duluth.
It's not that she's anything particularly unique, but I saw video of her leaving Duluth the other day and have been tracking her since.
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She's somewhat unique these days given her early appearance when traditional lakers were still the norm (Just the 2nd Great Lakes bulk carrier built with the pilothouse and all accomodations at the stern) and her age.
At a time when most 1970's and 1980's era Canadian ships are retired or have received new forebodies to extend their life (retaining the stern section of the old ship while replacing the bow and cargo section), she's one of four late 1960's vessels still out there sailing thanks to major hull work back in 1996 and a new engine back in 2007.
In more recent years with the lifting of import duties, Canadian fleets have stopped such major rebuildings and instead are buying newly built replacements from overseas builders when older vessels are reaching the end of their life.
Even with those two major rebuilds she enjoyed, the clock is fast ticking down on her. The 1996 hull work was viewed to have a 30 year lifespan. Hopefully she ends up like many a rebuilt Geep that has far outlasted the estimated 15 years of life after leaving a rebuild program at somewhere like Paducah, but only time will tell.
Just looked up the Tim S Dool - she just cleared the Welland Canal into Lake Ontario.
Leo_AmesShe's somewhat unique these days given her early appearance when traditional lakers were still the norm (Just the 2nd Great Lakes bulk carrier built with the pilothouse and all accomodations at the stern) and her age. At a time when most 1970's and 1980's era Canadian ships are retired or have received new forebodies to extend their life (retaining the stern section of the old ship while replacing the bow and cargo section), she's one of four late 1960's vessels still out there sailing thanks to major hull work back in 1996 and a new engine back in 2007. In more recent years with the lifting of import duties, Canadian fleets have stopped such major rebuildings and instead are buying newly built replacements from overseas builders when older vessels are reaching the end of their life. Even with those two major rebuilds she enjoyed, the clock is fast ticking down on her. The 1996 hull work was viewed to have a 30 year lifespan. Hopefully she ends up like many a rebuilt Geep that has far outlasted the estimated 15 years of life after leaving a rebuild program at somewhere like Paducah, but only time will tell.
It is hard to sail the lakers to Bangladesh for scrapping!
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Prior to the early 1970's and the onset of containerization, Lake Calumet Harbor in Chicago was fairly busy in season despite the tug-assisted routing on the Calumet River from Lake Michigan. Maneuvering around the curve just south of 106th Street was difficult but the champ was getting through the NKP/N&W swing bridge just west of Torrence Avenue and the Ford assembly plant. The river ran NE/SW at that point but the bridge pointed due east/west in the open position. Needless to say, getting the stern moved around to line up properly was quite the chore.
The swing bridge was replace by a vertical lift span in 1969.
Not all lake boats get scrapped in South Asia. In Port Colborne, Ontario just West of Buffalo is a scrapyard that cuts them up. I've seen the operation, they get dragged onto land on huge inflatable rubber rollers and are then cut up starting at the bow. A lot of them have the forward superstructure removed as a unit and those are then sold off to use as a house or cottage, similar to that Ford boats superstructure that is now a house on a cliff in Ohio overlooking Lake Erie. If you are familiar with the old "Captain John's Boat" restaurant in Toronto at the foot of Yonge Street, it was cut up there a few years ago.
Most of the overseas scrap tows in the past 10-15 years seem to almost always head to Aliaga in Turkey (Here's the scrapyard on Google Maps). Some with ocean going capability like the Birchglen of Canada Steamship Lines have even gone there under their own power.
IMS at Port Colborne has been getting a lot more of the scrap jobs in recent years. Even for Canada Steamship Lines and Algoma Central, they've been the winning bid on several Seawaymax vessels in recent times.
Even as recently as 2015-2018, that would've been rare for those two fleets. But thanks I suppose to high fuel prices working against long distance towing and scrap prices, IMS seems to have become tough to beat at the moment. I believe they've also became more efficent at the job, increasing their capacity (Such as the innovation that 54light15 mentioned).
Works for me. I'd rather see a ship that spent her entire life on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway meet her demise here at home while paying Canadian workers to do the job in a safe and environmentally proper manner, with hopefully her steel going to a US or Canadian steel plant to be melted down and be turned into something for a domestic manufacturer.
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