TRRS 505: LS&I Marquette Ore Dock - 2017 Spring Opener w/ Kaye E Barker
Вставка
- Опубліковано 6 чер 2017
- 25 March 2017 - Marquette, Michigan
The LS&I's storied ore dock, towering above and out into the waters of Marquette's Upper Harbor, stood largely silent from January until this day, the 25th of March, during the wintertime shutdown.
March 25th brings the unofficial beginning of a new shipping season on the Great Lakes. Like Memorial day is to summer, on the 25th the Army Corps of Engineers opens the SOO Locks, connecting Lake Superior to the lower lakes, hailing the start of the new season, including at Marquette.
The first ship of the year is the Kaye E Barker of the Interlake Steamship Company, one of the Lake's foremost transportation companies since 1913. She was the second upbound transit at the locks in the morning, and we first catch her through the lens as she's still several miles off of port.
While this video contains no trains, as viewers of this channel may be accustomed, the ore dock operation is an interesting one and directly tied to the LS&I, whose ore jennies we can see high above on the top deck.
After the KE Barker has come in and the lines have secured her to the dock, the ship's crew begins removing the hatch covers, and the LS&I dock crew begins their first loading ritual of the season: something they'll do approximately 300 times this season.
The loading process itself is rather simple. An operator lowers one of the mammoth chutes down into the hatch covers. When ready, they open the gate to spill the entire pocket into the hold of the ship. Gravity does all of the work, a key feature of these old docks.
Once the pocket is nearly empty, another crewmember jumps one more ore jennie into the pocket to spill into the waiting freighter. This because as ship hold size increased, the dock's pockets did not.
Once fully empty, the operator closes the chute hatch and raises up the chute.
For most freighters, they'll unload every other chute, which aligns with the hatch covers on the vessel, then slide the whole ship up or back one chute, to repeat the process with the other pockets. Many will even be slid farther back, to load still more ore towards the end of the dock.
All told, the Kaye E Barker will load about 26,000 tons of ore, all of it Hematite Flux from the Tilden Mine on the other end of the LS&I, bound for the blast furnaces of the AK Steel Plant in Dearborn, MI. The Kaye E Barker is 767' long and was constructed in 1951.
Kaye E Barker at Marquette
Consist:
- Interlake Steamship Company’s Kaye E Barker arriving and loading the first ore of the season at the LS&I Marquette Ore Dock
Location/Time:
- Marquette, MI, LS&I Ore Dock / Upper Harbor, on 3-25-17 from 16:00 to 18:34 EDT
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Videography Equipment:
-Primary: Sony FDR-AX53 4K Camcorder
-Edited with: Cyberlink PowerDirector 13
Copyright 2017 Thornapple River Rail Series by Alex Christmas, All Rights Reserved
Great. Thank you for no crazy music or talking over the natural sounds!
Enjoyed just watching and listening to the real sounds and background. Relaxing at the same time. Thanks for not adding a voice track (and spoiling it, IMO). It's perfect in the way it was captured.
দদদদদ
real people doing real jobs.great vid.
Worked on the "boats" as a kid in 1952! Yup - - > Good to see basic gravity @ work! T'was a Great experience. Never loaded in Marquette but cargo went to Inland Steel in Indiana Harbor, Ind. Hutchenson Steamship Company. RMS
The Kaye E. Barker is a mighty vessel. Glad to see railroading and Great Laker ships mixed into one video.
Beautifully engineered. These ships and iron ore is what helped us win the WW2. Wonderful sounds...thank you for no background music!!! Well done!!!
Why go through the hassle of adding background music, when it just ruins the ambiance? We definitely agree there!
I really love how you can see how much weight that thing actually can take. At the beginning where the iron ore ship pulled in. The water marking on the front was way below the number 16 and when it was loaded the water was right under the 16 marking. Absolutely amazing
That was a fascinating process. Looks like there's a lot of history behind the equipment and the process. Thanks for your excellent camera and post work!
Great shots. Great descriptions. Thanks!
Very nice video and the perfect sound, picture perfect also. A real pleasure.
Beautiful video work and a fascinating look at the loading process.
That was interesting as well as educational. Excellent video Alex.
Another great video. You make some of the best on UA-cam.
Thanks!
Very well done video of the loading of an Ore Carrier, a rare sight for me. Thank you for doing this. :o)
As always this was yet another great video from you . ALWAYS educational in some way
Thanks!
Nicely done...very neat to see where these big ships are loaded...have seen this very ship going up and down Lake Michigan.... thanks.
Have always been intriqued by these lake boats
You really make some of the BEST videos out there. Thanks for doing "The Mitten" proud.
Thanks!
Very nice video and its perfect, picture perfect also. A real pleasure.
Thanks!
Well made clip. The visuals tell a great story.
That was a really neat video thanks
i have watched the ships load years ago a nice trip on memory lane
Very well done. Almost hypnotic.
Awesome video!
Very well made video!
Wonderful pictures, very Informatif, Thanks. From Germany
Great videos!
This is just such a smooth operation with such old machinery!!
No need to innovate, odd ball industries like this are stuck in the past because there has been no new technology developed in the specific field, and the saying “if it’s broke don’t fix it” apply as well as “the old ways are the best ways”. I work for a pretty oddball business and our technology hasn’t made it past the 1970s we’ve added some CCTV camera that has made it easier but a lot of our big machinery is dated in the 1920s and up and the electrical equipment is still 1970s tech, no microprocessors or intelligent computers here
SUPERB ~ thank you!
Great videos. I saw many of these while in USAF at K.I. Sawyer AFB in the 60s. Interesting and a good way to while away some spare time. I'd like to see a vid showing how the self-unloader works. Thanks for the great work!
another nice video for the shipspotting community
I grew up by Escanaba, Michigan on Lake Michigan. They used to have 2 ore docks there. Land was taken by the U.S. Government to build the dock for WorldWar II purposes. Both docks have been shut down. I used to enjoy watching the ships when they would round the Water Treatment Plant Point in Escanaba. They were so close to shore it seemed you could reach out and touch them. I never realized the comparative size of the ore carriers until a battleship came to town. It was unimpressive by size but was mighty intimidating weaponry-wise. Thanks for the video. It was fun to watch.
Interesting - I wanted to catch a ship coming into Esky but never got the chance. I've got a video on the end of the Empire Mine ore trains and the end of the dock. Feel free to check it out!
Will do.
Ummmmm... What battleship has ever come on the great lakes? That's a new one on me. The largest warship I have ever heard of was the US navy heavy cruiser USS Macon in 1959 celebrating the opening of the St Lawrence seaway and a visit by Queen Elizabeth.
The noise must be excrutiating for the deckhands.
Sweet stuff, man.
Excellent video production, the scene selection kept it interesting. You're making me really wish I had a 4K camera now, stunning how detailed and sharp everything looks.
Funny enough, I actually shoot only in 1080p60p, even though my camera will do 4K30p. I prefer the smoothness of 60p, plus what you're really getting is the great sensor. It's an okay 4K but as you see, a really sharp 1080p sensor. And sharp 1080p will always look great!
@@ThornappleRiverRailSeries Thanks for the reply and great info. 1080p60p I would guess is easier to edit too.
this is really interesting how the make it work so smoothly
They've only been doing it for a century!
THANK YOU
Great clip
Finally got my credentials, so I'm hoping to be on the lakes soon
Good luck and calm seas for you!
Very impressive. Makes me homesick for Michigan. Thanks for posting.
awesome video :) it looks like the Kaye E. Barker has its own unloading conveyer, it would be interesting to see how the inside of that ship works :)
The holds are sloped with a conveyor belt running the length of the holds. a reclaimer system moves the cargo up to the unloading boom conveyor. The unloading system can handle roughly 4,000 tons per hour. The boat has an ore capacity of about 30,000 tons
thanks for the reply :) I think it might make for an informative video but I'm weird like that :)
Hey, you'll like this guy's series of videos then, touring the Queen of the Lakes, the Paul R Tregurtha (also an Interlake Vessel). This link is to the first video in the series that takes you through the unloading tunnel in the bowels of the ship - he's also got an engine room tour. ua-cam.com/video/j3Rup3aadnc/v-deo.html
thank you that is exactly what I wanted to see :)
The self-unloading ore boats were a bittersweet arrival to me. They made ore unloading far more efficient, but they displaced the famous Hulett Unloaders (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulett), which (owing to their power-clamshell design) couldn't hope to keep up with a continuous conveyor system. The Huletts were one of the last steam-era pieces of railroad equipment still operating, but now they're all scrap metal.
I call her Ma Barker, she comes into Grand Haven MI all the time during the summer months.
I like the clean white window shades on a coal barge.
First run of the season...I'd say after a three month winter hiatus they better be "ship-shape"!
Sailed on here for many years, met the creepiest person in my entire life on this one,
All the lake freighters have"creeeepy"people,😂😂😂😂😂😂
Oh my goodness, what a pre historick loading system?! Didn’t know these existed anymore.
It works so great it isn't worth replacing, at least in this case. The BN dock in Superior is a prime example of how easy access to mechanization allowed for the end of gravity-drop pocket docks.
I like train videos on UA-cam 👍
my home town :)
Very cool video, nicely done. What is the power source for pulling up the chutes? Seems like they use those blue cylinders to open the gates on the chutes once the chutes are down and those look like they are air-powered.
The chutes are raised and lowered using a center power source type system. That's what those levers they're manipulating are: engaging and disengaging that rotating shaft from the chute spool. They also have a brake. Very simple system. The chute doors are as you guess, and I do believe that they're pneumatic but I don't know for sure. Back in the old days they actually kicked open the chutes manually with workers on those platforms. They opened like the bottom of freight cars, I'm told. Stupid dangerous work!
Interesting how a process that looks ancient is still useful and effective.
M3 Pilot - Steve Smart with the exuberant price of ore and the declining North America market it is very prohibitive to build new more efficient terminals so old proven methods for trans loading from train to ship remains.
Did cadet time on the Kaye about 18 years ago. She was a good ship. Looks like nothing has changed.
Can't hate the classic lakers. Pretty much timeless it seems
Who was the Captain and the Chief back then??
Nice to have a ship name after us.......... steven Barker
Like to see a time lapse of a ship settling down in the water, as it takes on a load.
Very educational. Fun and interesting to watch. Great video job. About how long does it take to load one of these ships?
I've never stayed for a whole loading cycle, but I'd place it around 4-6 hours.
Great video. How do they know the number of tons they are buying? Water displacement?
The boat crews have a real good idea based on their displacement, and just general experience. The cars are weighed before being dumped, but I've heard they lose so much ore off the side of the train that sometimes the captains have a better idea than the dock crew.
Genius arrangement. Loved the vid. 1951 is a good age for a vessel. Is it diesel or steam? The classic format Laker - like this one - looks the finest to my eye. So much more BEAUTIFUL than today's cruise liners which look awful.
Built as a steamer, now runs on diesel. If you look up her name on google the "boatnerd" website has a great write-up on her history - as well as for all of the Great Lakes Ships.
There was a creep on their with a metal plate in his head that would stock an engineer named Erin
Awesome video.I like to learn new things,fantastic, and great job on no music or bullshit talk,just sayin'
Mild winter, wasn't it? Usually there are still vignettes of ice from the annual coverage on the lakes.
Not really. By late March it isn't uncommon to be nearly ice-free. Granted there are some years that are the opposite. Last winter was cold and snowy but in Feb and March there were several strings of warm-ups which prevented the ice form holding on in any significant fashion outside sheltered, shallow areas from hanging on into late March
Just a great vid, to bad YOU can't capture the unreal noise that comes from the loading of one of these monsters. Its deafining sound is hard to handle half a mile a way.
On line
I wouldn't want to breath in that dust....
I was thinking where's the respirators? I mean I'm not a snowflake or anything I'm all about breathing a toxic chemical or two, but day in and day out? You could get mesothelioma WTF?
Some of those Lakers have steam whistles I think
Im confused why this video doesent have any ads. I dont mind. But i think you deserve some money. Its really good stuff.
It does...UA-cam probably didn't show you one if you had just been shown another one. Part of the profile it builds of your browsing habits are how many ads you tolerate - or don't. It probably thought you'd make the most money with fewer ads, because if you're frustrated and click off the site, well then there's no chance you'll be seeing any ads at all!
Can someone please tell me why the chutes are raised and lowered all the time - why are they not just left down until loading is complete?
The chutes are only lowered and raised once per loading cycle. The "second" time is once the boat has been adjusted slightly forward or back. Reason is only every other pocket lines up with the hatches. So they load every other, move slightly, and then do the remaining pockets.
Do they let you film near the top where the chute operators are?
Nope
The smoke stack at the bow is for a generator ?
Yeah it's the exhaust for the diesel motor on the bow thruster
Always think it’s weird that they dock the ships facing land, I would think it would be easier if they would turn the ship around and back it into the dock that way when the ship is loaded and heavy it would be a lot easier to get out of the dock, but I’m not a ship captain or a deck hand so I really don’t know, but as an observer it looks odd to me
How do you get so close to these things. Do you work for a rail company? I assume they don't just let the general public get this close to these operations.
There's a public park near the ore dock where you can watch from
Very cool video. It seems like an inefficient process, put ore in train, then into a loading dock, then into a ship, then unload it back onto a train, and then to the steel mill. Why not bring to the mill via train? Or, put the mill near the mines.
It isn't as inefficient as you might suspect. Because trains can only move around 8-12 thousand tons at a time, while boats are 25-60 thousand tons, the boats end up being significantly more efficient. The railroads don't have the capacity while the ships are still cheaper. Also you wouldn't want to put the mill near the mines because the mills need tons of people to work them, and additional infrastructure including huge amounts of power and gas. Because the mines are already in a rural area, that doesn't make much sense.
Plus the final product has to get moved also, and it is actually bulkier and harder to move than a bunch of pellets.
@@ThornappleRiverRailSeries : Thanks for the good & thorough reply.
After the Fitz !!!
I don't think I wanna be on a lake freighter.
Fitz went down over 40 years ago...and no major sinkings since. Sounds very safe to me!
how do they unload these ships??????
That long boom above the deck is an unloading conveyor. The ship's holds are giant hoppers which feed onto the belt. The boom allows them to deposit it right on the dock or into an onshore hopper such as the coal bin there in Marquette.
I've been wondering why Great Lakes freighters tend to be painted red oxide color instead of black or some other color. Is this tradition of is there a practical reason for this?
Not that I'm aware of. This particular color is definitely used by the Interlake Steamship Fleet. A couple companies use black, some others a Barn-like red, and a few grey. I do love this color however.
Some do it because of the red ore - reduces the paint/repainting from the discoloration of the ore and the rust from the lake water. Tradition also to some degree.
Doesn't look like it would take very long to load a ship in Marquette
Just a handful of hours
to bad the great lakes ain't like this really anymore with industry.
Busy still, but not as busy as they used to be. But really, it has more to do with an increased size in the boats over the year than less cargo.
i wonder what the amenities are like on those coal haulers
Pretty good, actually.
They feed them very good as the old saying goes a well fed crew is a happy crew but as far as quarters go I have been in better jail cells than some of the sleeping quarters on the older ships I worked at Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay Wl.
Plush!!
@@mattharper588 LOL, Like the old saying goes "I've been kicked out of better joints than this"
I used to work on there. There was this creepy guy who worked in the engine room and had a metal plate in his head. He is married with kids and he sneaked into a female engineers room while she was sleeping and woke her up with the sound of his own masturbation, we used to call him Creepy Kenny.
Not necessary Tom
Yeah, a little to much information.
mor like kupping kenny
Wear a mask wouldn't hurt? Miners lung!
It is less dusty when they get the chance to spray down the ore when it leaves the mine. The cold weather prevents this as the ore would freeze in the cars. So more dust just during the first and last months of the season
blowin chunks