CMT and Another Feat

This is the second of three digressions I’m making from the GWA series, and what a digression it is.

How can one postpone posting these photos of the largest ever single unit transported by barge down the Hudson!  And with outstanding photos like these.  By the way, the first two, by Glenn Raymo are available to purchase here.

I post about this cargo, which has been covered extensively on FB, because not everyone enters the labyrinth called FB.

Two of the same tugs made the high profile tow to Rochester via the Erie Canal earlier this year as seen here.

When this tow entered the Kills, many hours later, the passed the salt pile,  where Brian DeForest took these shots.

Click on the photo below to read the banner, part of which says “union built in the USA.”

Hats off to all involved.  Many thanks to Glenn and Brian for photos I couldn’t chase.

Click here for more prints by Glenn.

Previous photos of Mister Jim here, CMT Otter here, and Helen Laraway here.

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GWA2: Hudson River

I took these photos over a two-day period in late July, traveling the entire 130 miles of the Hudson from the Battery to Troy while on the trip from Narragansett Bay to the “source” of the Chicago River.  RV Shearwater here surveys the river/bay;  that’s Willy Wall on the horizon left, so the Battery is behind us.

The Tappan Zee nears completion:  the gap on the left side is all that needs to be bridged.  The Left Coast Lifter will then become the “left coast lowerer,” I assume.

Infrastructure materials come out of the ground here in Haverstraw,

Viking passes below Osborn Castle,

summer play happens in the Hudson,

Buchanan 12 pushes more raw materials for infrastructure,

a tribe paddles over to Bannerman’s,

a truck lifts three vessels in imitation of Combi-Dock III,

Vane’s Delaware pushes DoubleSkin 50 upriver,

Spring Sunshine offloads aggregates at Caymans, where

a 400-ton 12-story structure awaits (then) its float down to NJ [more on that soon],

yacht named Summer heads south for Key West,

raw materials that once rolled on roads await the trip back to the blast furnace,

a horde does sun salutations on shore,

the American goddess Columbia trumpets at the top of a needing-to-be-updated soldiers/sailors monument in Troy,

 

and an oracle wearing a sea creature hat and using an old-school device taps out verbiage suggesting I’m headed for Ithaca and not Chicago, although I’m pleased with that too.

All photos and observations by Will Van Dorp, who is grateful to the oracle.

Somewhat related:  Click here for a CNN Travel clip called “Liquid City” and starts out with the sentence “most people think NYC has five boros, but there’s really a sixth one;  it’s the largest one and it connects all the others.”  I heard it while waiting at the airport in Indianapolis the other day and was stunned.  Do you suppose Justin Davidson reads tugster?

For blog posts written by folks going first northbound and then southbound on a LNV tug, click here and here.

 

More Cargoes 19 b

More than a week ago, these tanks entered the Erie Canal system at lock E-2 in Waterford.  Sunday afternoon they tied up for the night in Lyons below E-27.  Let’s call the first nine photos here Batch 1.

 

This morning early, they made their way through E-27 and then on to E-28A.

Here’s a view back toward E-27 and the village of Lyons . . . around the bend.

The forward most barge gets pushed in, unmade from the second barge, and then CMT Otter reverses out with that second barge.

The unaccompanied barge is moved out the upper gates by means of the capstan, a machine as old as the Barge Canal and very infrequently used.

After this barge is moved forward and secured to the wall, the gates close, the lock is drained, the lower gates opened, and the rest of the tow enters to be raised to the level of the forward barge.

These next photos taken west of Newark . . . E-28 B . . . show just how narrow this part of the Canal is, and

silt that’s lain on the bottom gets stirred up.

Here’s an article from the NYTimes, but I wish the author had spoken with a wider range of informants.

Many thanks to Bob Stopper (1,2, 6, 7) , Jason Ladue (8, 9) , and John Van Dorp (3, 4, 5) for these photos.

Now Batch 2, thanks to Bob Stopper.  Bob took this batch this morning very near my “upstate home,”  between Newark and Widewaters.  Note that this batch is moved by HR Pike.  

For a long tow, this part of the Canal  (same as here) is very narrow.

It’s mind-boggling that these inland waters are directly connected to the Pacific Ocean and China, but it’s the case.

The school bus here is crossing the Whitbeck Road Bridge, a span I’ve crossed probably a thousand times . . .

Many thanks to all, especially to Bob Stopper, who was unstoppable in getting these photos just this morning.

 

 

 

More Cargoes 19

Here are previous posts with this title.  Another unusual cargo that passed through here were these barged US, British, and Russian jets five years ago also in May.

I owe all these shots to Mike Pelletier and other folks who were at E2 in Waterford yesterday, as the Erie Canal opened for its 200th consecutive season.  It’s cause for celebration that Day 1 brings significant commercial cargo into the Canal.

The job will entail moving a total of 12 identical tanks from the Hudson River level to the Rochester level. At the end of this post, I share a photo I took at the Rochester area a few years ago in the fall.  Can you imagine what that part of the Canal looks like?  But I digress.

If you don’t know the story, let me highlight some details, although you can read more here.  The cargo here consists of three tanks, each 20′ x 60′ and fabricated of stainless steel.  If each tank holds 2000 barrels, or 661,000 cans, and if I drink an average of two six-packs a month, one tank holds a 4,500 year supply of Genesee for me….  Another way to think of it . . . if a party was held and each guest had three beers, all twelve tanks would contain enough beer for 2,644,000 guests!  That would be enough beer @ two or three beers each for every 21+ person in Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, and Alaska . .  and quite a bit more left over.  But I’ve really digressed.

Here the tow lies alongside the wall below E2. #Toast the tanks is the tag Genesee wishes “social media makers” to use to group-document this journey.

Here CMT Otter pushes the tow into the opened lower gates of E2.  Here is a previous post featuring Otter and fleet mates.

So, here the tow is inside and the lower gates closed. The shot above was shot from midpoint on the catwalk over the gates beyond the stern of the tug.   The lock chamber valves are now set to fill. The two crew lower photo are radioing distances to the captain.

 

Now the camera is back to that same catwalk.  What else do you see?   I missed it the first times I looked at this photo….

See the drone?  It’s between the catwalk rail and the portside stern of CMT Otter.  I’m guessing this is CMT’s camera team.

Believe it or not, this is the Canal through which these tanks will travel near the end of their journey to Gates . . . Rochester, beyond E33.   From the Canal, Rochester is mostly invisible.

Now some speculation . . . I believe the tanks arrived in the US aboard Wladyslaw Orkan on a voyage that began in Shanghai around March 13.  My guess would be that the manufacturer is Lehui, possibly in Xiangshan Ningbo.  If all this is true, I’m curious about this stated goal on the Lehui site:  “During a two-decade-plus journey, Lehui exercises “European Quality, Chinese Price” philosophy, which won Lehui “the most outstanding beer/beverage equipment manufacturer” in China.”  Where were previous Genesee tanks fabricated?  With concerted several decades effort, a 21st century plan to return more manufacturing to the US might be held on course with a mantra something like ““European Quality, Chinese Price, US Essence, ”    . . . concerted effort . . .

Click here to see the tentative schedule.

Thanks again to Mike Pelletier.

 

Random Tugs 200

First, thanks to Peter Eagleton, Philip T Feeney in the 1970s.  I haven’t the heart to go see her in her current condition.

Next, Miss Ila, resplendent as a springtime cardinal!

Haggerty Girls nudging RTC 107 out of the Kills,

 

Helen Laraway passing TS Kennedy over by ConHook,

James William leaving Mister Jim over by the scows,

James E. Brown taking some rail cars past a wall of containers . . .

and finally . . . is that Durham setting up Willy Wall?  Is that what it’s still called?

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, except that first one supplied by Peter, whom I thank.

Random Tugs 198

Random is  . . . well the word comes from French which comes from German which comes from some extinct language describing the galloping horses,  going just going without a pattern.  I might assemble in patterns, but they’re not really there.

So, first up it’s Helen Laraway, based in the burgeoning port of Coeymans.

Next, it’s the fairly new Crystal Cutler pushing Patricia E. Poling.

 

Color scheme give this away?

It’s Quenames . . .

 

And finally, as Quenames heads away from us, it’s Bering Sea (once known as Cougar and later Stacy Moran) on the approach

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who wouldn’t remember any of this if not for Birk’s site.  Thx, Birk.

 

On Turning 86

The 1931 bridge has been so prominent on this blog over the past decade plus that the past few years of construction and now deconstruction mesmerize me.  Just look at the header photo I’ve not changed since 2006.  I’ll never change it now.

I spent a few hours watching the work yesterday and share some of the photos here today and tomorrow.  Photo 1 was taken at 06:49 before work began, from what I could tell;  I’m the observer only and speculate sometimes because I’m not privy to the communications.  NY is to the left and NJ to the right.

06:54 … NJ side.  A safety and planning meeting?

07:01.  Workers use various means to venture out to the severed transverse beam (?) to begin its removal.

07:30.  Similar activity starts on the NY side.

07:52

08:25.  Almost imperceptibly slow, the movement of the transverse progresses.

08:28.  And then it speeds up.

08:36.  A flatbed trailer has backed into place to receive the beam.

08:38.  Meanwhile, over on the NJ side, a similar evolution has begun.

08:39.

Meanwhile, at 08:43, a container vessel is rounding Bergen bend  and headed for sea, after “threading the needle,”  …  well, not really, it made it in with those beams in place . . .

08:43, and we’ll pick up the evolution here tomorrow with MSC Kolkata   . . .  Note the crewmen on the bow?

I’d like to give a hat tip to all the Bayonne Bridge workers who work with such skill and safety in this enormous project, one of at least six bridge projects happening simultaneously in the greater sixth boro.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Pairs in Springtime 6

I don’t care that it’s February, but the number of subsequent days with temperatures over 50 degrees in the sixth bor0 tells me it is spring–or has been.

Notice the difference between Severn and Fort Schuyler?  Here proximity highlights the difference in height of the upper wheelhouse,

but Severn is of the 4200 hp class and fort Schuyler, the 3000.

Ah, the line and boom boats.

Joan is one of the Moran “giraffe” boats and see HR Otter?

She reminds me of the long gone Odin.

 

Here’s a closer-up of the HR Otter, a name that immediately conjures up Kenneth Grahame.

 

Some different pairs are possible here, and they’d be the same.

See the pair there?

a pair of hands.  Is there a word for the painted design centered on the bow of some vessels, like figureheads but not?

Hope they clap for mardi gras!

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 191

I love the clear air of winter days, better to see details, like the horizontally mounted ladder and all the trucks in the background moving containers at the Global Terminal.  See how many trucks, i.e., tractors,  you count in this post.

And more trucks, as Erin McAllister stands by.

Again, see the trucks, as Scott Turecamo passes.  And you wonder why I don’t do even more truckster posts.

I happened to be down by South Street Seaport’s row of ships the other day and noticed W. O. Decker there alongside Wavertree.

And then lots more traffic passed on the East River, like Ruth and

Helen and 

James.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.  I counted around 18–20.

 

Trackster

You may recall that back in 2014, I often juxtaposed  canal&river/rail in photos like the one below.

This post was originally going to feature only photos of the river and canal from the rails, like the one below, but

then I decided to pair photos from the train toward the water with the opposite:  photos from the water toward roughly the same land area where the rails lay and the trains speed.

Train shots are difficult because of speed, coatings on the windows, trees and poles along the tracks . . .  but I’m quite sure a letter that begins “Dear Amtrak:  could you slow down, open windows, and otherwise accommodate the photographers” would not yield a positive response.

I hope you enjoy this attempt on my part.  And if you ever have a chance to ride Amtrak along the Hudson, Mohawk, and Lake Champlain . . . sit on the better side of the car; switch sides if necessary.

Here we’re on the Livingstone Avenue Bridge looking south and

here we are south of it, looking north.  Yes, that’s Crow, Empire, W. O. Decker, and Grand Erie passing through the open swivel.

Here’s the pedestrian bridge in Amsterdam

as seen from both vantage points.

The 1766 Guy Park Manor from a speeding train and

from the Mohawk River/Erie Canal, where post-Irene repair has been going on since 2011.   Here’s a photo taken soon after the unusual weather.

Schoharie Aqueduct from Amtrak,

a slow boat, and

the east bank of Schoharie Creek.

Little Falls onramp to I-90 from rail and

below.

The rail bridge at Lock 19 from the span and

from west of it at Lock 19.

And these all east of Utica I can’t pair, but decided to include here anyhow:  a dairy pasture,

a construction yard, and

a truck depot.

Maybe if I write that “Dear Amtrak” letter, I could just ask if the window could be cleaned a bit.  If you’re going to try this, take amtrak when the leaves are off the trees.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who embeds this post from “Good Morning Gloucester” to reveal a bit of my past . . . 1988.  Scroll all the way through to see a piece of shipwreck “treasure.”