Guys;



There is another interesting shot of a bulk "dry" container being unloaded
you might find interesting; this one directly onto an industry floor, in the
nice Rich Burg article on containers in The Keystone. That one is, however,
one of the Youngstown drop bottom containers you can get from Westerfield and
Walthers, also for dry powdered materials. Who offers these early NYC System
bulk containers? Wasn't there a brass flat offered with these? The one with
the short side gates?



This covered barge was also meant for the same type of materials, and were
found less and less as more options became available (covered hoppers).
McCrady had a fleet of barges, as did many other local companies, as a
cheaper alternative to railroad transport. They could only go where the lock
and dam system allowed them, though, hence many barge-to-rail (or vice versa)
transfers like this one. I am not sure if this one is loading cement (there
were a number of cement plants on-line), or a powdered additive for the steel
industry, but I suspect the former, as this guy is clearly loading up at
Colona, and I think the additives would have been delivered in much smaller
quantities, and due to their widely-distributed origins, probably delivered
mostly in boxcars, before covered hoppers became more widely available. Back
in this timeframe, the P&LE had a more diverse traffic base.



The crane arrangement is interesting, and if you look closely, you can see
that there are two sets of cables being used from the overhead crane; four
cables emanating from the hook; one to each corner loop, plus two cables to a
ring centered at each end of the container, probably to keep it from swinging
in a circle. There is also that keeper running off to the left.



For a really good shot of a diverse mix of barge contents, look for the Luke
Swank photo entitled "Industry - Steel Mill and Barges". I love the large
quarried stone block load! As a bonus, that shot also contains two of the
J&L triple-dome tank cars so often argued about on this list, at least one of
them in light paint, in the background. The yard is up behind the J&L
SouthSide (Pittsburgh) Works. Have fun arguing about that one!



Does anyone know of anyone modeling this sort of operation?



BTW, the barge slide was not on the site until recently; nice find, guys!



Elden Gatwood



________________________________

From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...] On Behalf Of Tim
O'Connor
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2007 12:36 AM
To: STMFC@...
Subject: [STMFC] Re: P&LE archive (was What kind of SFRD car is this?)




Here's another interesting shot -- this one shows unloading a bulk
material container into a barge. First time I've seen a photo of one
of these containers being unloaded.

Tim

http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/image-idx?sid=dbb4a472c27fffa6
482cea0107fdd399;g=imls;med=1;c=rr;q1=rr;rgn1=rr_all;evl=full-image;quality=2
;view=entry;subview=detail;lasttype=boolean;cc=rr;entryid=x-8223.5566.rr;view
id=5566RR.TIF;start=181;resnum=197
<http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/image-idx?sid=dbb4a472c27fffa
6482cea0107fdd399;g=imls;med=1;c=rr;q1=rr;rgn1=rr_all;evl=full-image;quality=
2;view=entry;subview=detail;lasttype=boolean;cc=rr;entryid=x-8223.5566.rr;vie
wid=5566RR.TIF;start=181;resnum=197>

At 4/8/2007 09:02 PM Sunday, you wrote:

This shot shows the team tracks at Monessen, PA in 1953.

http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/image-idx?sid=d63d5aee3c821f4

de56faaf344d6574c;xc=1;g=imls;c=rr;q1=freight;rgn1=ic_all;evl=full-image;qual
ity=2;view=entry;subview=detail;lasttype=boolean;cc=rr;entryid=x-8223.3507.rr
;viewid=3507RR.TIF;start=1;resnum=91
<http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/image-idx?sid=d63d5aee3c821f4
de56faaf344d6574c;xc=1;g=imls;c=rr;q1=freight;rgn1=ic_all;evl=full-image;qual
ity=2;view=entry;subview=detail;lasttype=boolean;cc=rr;entryid=x-8223.3507.rr
;viewid=3507RR.TIF;start=1;resnum=91>

The car on the right is SFRD 3250 or 9250, the one on the left looks to be

SFRD 15080.

TIA,
KL