Panama Canal Followup

I’ve been holding on to these photos until my article came out online, which happened yesterday.  You can read it here. For sixth boro watchers or astute followers of this blog, what do you notice about the vessel–Maria Energy–centered as it enters the chamber at Cocoli?  Answer follows.

 

 

What Cerro Ancon is doing above, and Cerro Grande below would be done by locomotives, aka “mules” here and here in the 1914 parts of the Canal, still functioning of course.  Originally these locomotives were made–where else?–in Schenectady.  Here’s a then-and-now look at Canal locomotives.  The current mules come from Japan.  Here’s more.

 

The switch to tugs only involves, as you might guess, some familiarization, which is the topic of my next article, not yet out online.

The photos above and below show more differences between the 1914 locks and the ones that opened in 2016, referred to as the “third set.”  The new gates roll and the water saving basins do just that . . .  saving 60% of the water for each lockage.

In the distance beyond Maria Energy, you can see ships in the Miraflores locks.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.  And the connection with the sixth boro?  Maria Energy is part of the TEN fleet . . . which includes the handymax tanker Afrodite.

 

 

Gallivanting to Troy

As we progress toward winter as well, the daylight hours shorten, making less to photograph, but I was happy we passed lock E8 in daylight to capture the crane GE uses to transship large cargos, like the rotor of a few weeks ago.

The changing leaves complement the colors of the vintage floating plant,

locks,

and even Thruway vessels.

Venerable Frances is a tug for all seasons as is

the Eriemax freighter built in Duluth,

both based near the city of the original Uncle Sam, which splashes its wall

 

with additional color and info.

Once this Eriemax passenger vessel raises its pilot house, we’ll continue our way to the sixth boro.

Will Van Dorp took all these photos in about a 12 hour period.