Model Train Journal

Hi Roger,

I don't know if I ever posted this, but take a look.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/dow ... neil-young

George

So... how did the tow boat captain get his ship up there?

Wayne,

That is one helluva question, isn't it?

Impaired driving? Bad day on the river?

George

Some great shots, George.
I think the boat is in a dry dock of sorts but I don't know how it got there.
Probably lucky to catch the NS train. And it is hard to realize that this area used to have @ 50 trains a day.
And that is not counting steel mill traffic.

G3750 wrote:Wayne,

That is one helluva question, isn't it?

Impaired driving? Bad day on the river?

George

You don't suppose Weirton Steel used the most common method on the river, a crane on a barge, do you?

Entirely possible. Pretty sure the river didn't get that high and deposit it there.

In its day, Weirton Steel engineered a lot of things. Most of the stuff in that mill was home-grown.

George

George, do you have any interest in towboats and barges?

The towboat on the ledge is Mountaineer #0568900
Length 62 feet - Breadth 22 feet - Twin screw towboat
Built 1975 by Barbour Metal Boat Works, St. Louis, MO.
GM 16V-71 diesels, 920 hp. Twin Disc red. 5.17:1.
Operated by Weirton Steel Co.
Out of service 2010.

What use does a steel mill have for a tow boat?

Excerpted from an article found in The Weirton Daily Times, May 7, 1966, Page 12.

For instance, the Wheeling Steel Co. unloads approximately 100,000 tons of coal a month at Its dock behind the Coke Plant ai Follansbee, and the Weirton Steel Co. not only unloads thousands of tons of coal but uses its docks to load Its finished steel products, such as galvanized, cold rolled sheet products and tin destined for the Gulf of Mexico. Weirton Steel also ships Its bulk cargo such as bulk cargo such as ammonium sulphate; liquids, such a tar, fuel oil and light oil and uses its docks for unloading scrap steel, iron ore, limestone, dolomite, and flux destined for the Open Hearth Department. Wheeling Steel has a fleet of two diesel-powered boats and 88 barges, while Weirton Steel operates one diesel boat and has a fleet of 94 Barges.

Reference: https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/49045130/

All gone now, just memories now. I think.

Wayne - that was a great find! Very interesting!

I'm always curious about stuff like that, Wayne. Back in the 1980s, I worked for Digital Equipment Corporation. A bunch of us programmers were sub-contracted to Dravo Corporation to help them build a steel mill for Timken. Dravo was an engineering company that also designed and built towboats and barges. I believe they invented the Kort nozzle.

So yes, river traffic has always been of interest to me.







George

I left my home area 30 miles south of Steubenville in 1952. Up til that time it was a great place to watch train and river traffic.
Trains of all types on both sides of the river with boats in between. It was interesting, at least to me, to watch boats do the
curves in the river. If there were two boats sometimes one would need to wait for one to make the turn. Sort of like when
two trains meet on one track.

George,
I'm sure you know that the traffic on the river route south of Steubenville was mostly coal trains, empties south, loads north 3-4 a day each way.
There were also peddler freights usually i but some days 2 each way. They were not loads one way and empties the other. There were other
industries besides coal mines. Some coal would continue north on the river route past Steubenville along with more mixed freight . There may also have been a passenger train. My point is you can run just about anything on the river route.

rogruth wrote:George,
I'm sure you know that the traffic on the river route south of Steubenville was mostly coal trains, empties south, loads north 3-4 a day each way.
There were also peddler freights usually i but some days 2 each way. They were not loads one way and empties the other. There were other
industries besides coal mines. Some coal would continue north on the river route past Steubenville along with more mixed freight . There may also have been a passenger train. My point is you can run just about anything on the river route.

That is very good information - thank you!

I do plan to run just about anything on it. When the kids are here, we'll run any of the conventional locomotives and trains via a TPC-400. These are a Beep, a Marx #666, and a Lionel New Haven EP-5. Trains (mixed freight, Christmas, space & defense) will be made from the small number of postwar cars I have.

When the kids are not visiting their grandparents, we'll run coal trains and peddler freights under command control. Curves are limited to O42 on this branch, but we should be fine with K4's and the stray L1s.

Thanks again for the information!

George

We would see in the steam era 2-8-0s, 2-8-2s and 2-10-0s, Not as many 2-8-2s as the others.
Often the coal trains were the Decapods, sometimes double headed. Usually the peddler freights had Consols.
Almost any type of Diesel road switcher would show up.