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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Dockside: Wharfs, Boats, Rigging, Cranes, Goods and more!

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
[Group 3]-DSC06527_DSC06532-12 images_0000.jpg


Asher Kelman: Untitled #1

Docks and Wharfs 2015

Sony A7R Leica Summilux 50mm 1.4

12 overlapping images stitched




Any boat with rigging should be shot with a single frame!

Next time, a super wide angle lens!

Asher
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
My favorite dockside machine is the Hulett ore unloader. Sadly, they are no longer in existence, and I have no photos of my own of them (they were a familiar sight to me as I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio), so I will have to draw upon a photo from the Internet (sadly I do not even know how to credit it):

clevelandhullette-amc.jpg


Hulett ore unloader, Cleveland, Ohio (fairly recent times)​

These stupendous machines were used to extract iron ore (taconite) from the holds of the gigantic vessels (always called "boats", never "ships", despite their size) that transported the iron ore from the mines near the upper great lakes to the steel manufacturing towns on the south shore of Lake Erie (prominently Cleveland but also several other towns).

The machines had a large scoop bucket at the bottom of a vertical "leg", which was supported by a counterweighted parallel-arm arrangement (so the leg could be raised and powered while remaining vertical) that was in turn mounted on a large wheeled carriage so it could move from left to right (as we see it in the photo) on an even larger carriage. This larger carriage could move parallel to the railroad tracks beneath.

The machine operator was in a cab in the leg just above the bucket (we can see him in the near machine, about halfway between the center of the bucket assembly and the large sprocket wheel).

The leg could also be rotated so as to rotate the bucket.

The bucket opened and closed not only in that its two members could swing open but also in that they separated by horizontal motion, thus given them an enormous "bite". The capacity of the bucket ranged from 15 to 20 tons of ore, depending on the version of the machine.

The operator would lower the bucket into the hold, close it to get a "bite" of ore, raise it, and then move the supporting carriage to our right until the bucket was just "on shore" (the position for the nearest machine in the photo). Then the bucket would open, dumping the ore into a hopper that could travel on rails to our right. It would be moved to just over the destination rail car and its bottom would open, allowing the ore to go into the car.

By the use of this intermediate hopper, the actual bucket and its gigantic carriage did not have to travel far enough to directly discharge into the rail car, and in any case the size of the bucket was such that it could not dump into the relatively-small rail car.

The hopper can in fact travel beyond the rail tracks to dump the ore into a storage area (to our far right), when appropriate.

We see a very narrow electric locomotive running on narrow-gauge rails between the third and fourth rail tracks (there is another set of such rails between the first and second main tracks). This "pusher" engine was used to position individual rail cars so they would in the proper position to receive the ore from the hopper, I believe by pushing them with a pole that ran between a pocket on the engine and a pocket on the car (all rail cars have these "pole pockets" to allow a similar maneuver, perhaps with a full-width engine, in marshaling yards). (I don't know nearly enough about the pusher engines.)

In my youth, the sight of dozens of these behemoths operating at the Cleveland ore docks was wondrous indeed. In fact, a popular form of weekend entertainment for my family in that era was to drive to near the docks so the Huletts could be watched fairly close-up.

The"modern" buildings seen in the distance suggest that this was a fairly recent photo (not sure just what that means), likely not long before the use of the Hulett unloaders was discontinued (about 1992). (In modern times, "self-unloading" ore boats came into use.)

There are many further fascinating aspects of Hulett unloader operation, but I need to go to breakfast now.

Best regards,

Doug
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
[Group 3]-DSC06527_DSC06532-12 images_0000.jpg


Asher Kelman: Untitled #1

Docks and Wharfs 2015

Sony A7R Leica Summilux 50mm 1.4

12 overlapping images stitched




Any boat with rigging should be short with a single frame!

Next time, a super wide angle lens!

Asher

Not necessarily Asher!
(provided that you wanted to write "shot" and not "short"!

_45R4200_SHIPMAN80_C1.jpg

But I agree, sometimes it's nice to see the complete rigging…

_45R4218_SHIPMAN80_C1.jpg

You did a nice shot BTW!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Art, physics and a fine lady come together!

_45R4218_SHIPMAN80_C1.jpg


This is magnificent, Nicolas! The demonstration of shear power and beauty. Women body builders try to do that but boats like this show what a lady can really do when she flexes her muscles and poses for us in the wind!

Asher
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
I have since learned that the "pusher" locomotives push the cars not with a pole but rather with an arm that extended out to the side of the engine (although what it contacted on the car was perhaps the pole socket or at least the area near it on the end bolster of the car). I think it actually had a "fork" on its end that embraced the end of the bolster so the car could not "coast" beyond the motion of the pusher.

We see that on this picture of a larger, diesel-powered pusher, also used on a dock:

csx-px-ads.jpg


CSX diesel-powered dock pusher (courtesy of Arnold LeBowski)​

This is not the best illustration, but it shows the poling pocket on the bolster of a caboose:

11393243_10153053595584794_5270715909701298601_n.jpg

The ore cars may have had a special bolster design to facilitate the "engagement" of the arm on the pushers.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Back to the safety of land! The work on lesser costly parts of the dock, where smaller cranes service tugboats and more modest loads.

DSC06542_DSC06551_800 pixels_Repaired.jpg


Asher Kelman: Untitled #2
Dock & Wharfs 2015
Sony A7R Leica Summilux 50mm 1.4
11 overlapping images stitched

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I have since learned that the "pusher" locomotives push the cars not with a pole but rather with an arm that extended out to the side of the engine (although what it contacted on the car was perhaps the pole socket or at least the area near it on the end bolster of the car). I think it actually had a "fork" on its end that embraced the end of the bolster so the car could not "coast" beyond the motion of the pusher...........


11393243_10153053595584794_5270715909701298601_n.jpg

The ore cars may have had a special bolster design to facilitate the "engagement" of the arm on the pushers.

Fascinating and practical engineering. Seems to be a foretaste of the issues of docking a capsule shuttle or cargo ship to the space station!

Asher
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Well, I see guys that I own you some more infos…

So the 1St shot is:
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - 24-70 mm @ 32 - 1/400 s; f/8; ISO 200
and the 2nd:
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - 24-70 mm @ 45 - 1/500 s; f/8; ISO 200

These are quite old shots, 7 years!
At this time civil drones where not flying around!

We do own a drone, but it can fly only a Ricoh GR, not a DSLR and even less a MF camera…
We use it mostly over ground, it is too tricky at sea with wind and movements on the chase boat for the drone "pilot"…
You may see some shots done with a drone on our yearly movie here (the video were shot with a Gopro Hero4 Black Edition:
http://www.claris.fr/agence_presentation_uk.php

Stitching objects in movement such as a boat on sea/waves, would be quite tricky!
But we do have a plan to do such with a 645Z, but it is very complicated to achieve… one day maybe with the help of Mr. Ricoh…
 
Peggy's Cove, NS

Hello fellow light lovers. I have not been around in ages and I promised Asher I would pop in so here I am once again. Life has sure taken some turns for Jennie and I in the past decade but most of it has been for the good. I am now living up in the Chicago suburbs and working hard to get to retire someday. I have not been shooting much at all but we recently took a quick one week holiday up to Nova Scotia to see what we could see and to eat tons of delicious seafood, and I came away with a few shots to remember it by. It is a delightful place that I hope to return to again someday.

These are two shots from our first morning, at Peggy's Cove, where we really started our journey. I really did not need to tell you I have not been shooting much as it really shows in these photos, but like I said, I promised Asher a visit. There are boats in one of the shots so I thought it fit this forum, but if these need to be moved somewhere else, feel free. I'm just glad to be back. I really was not even sure if I could remember how to post images. As you can see, I forgot how to center them properly.





 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Well, this is a superb and most welcome surprise! You're back and we have two new pictures to enjoy.





Handsome and well lit. That cloud mass is very impressive and makes the image. One can never have enough lighthouses. I hope each area gets to adopt their local heritage and look after them so they don't fall into disrepair and get swallowed up!

Asher​
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
This B&W image deserves its own focus.

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There is so much detail here and it could be made into a lithograph and then hand colored!

There is a lot of interest here, reminding me of coastal villages in Maine! There's a church, scattered d buildings, at least on pilings, but everything including the dock and boat in perfect repair

Hope you've more to show!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hmmmmm! I can almost smell the sardines!

You are right!

This place is like Bodrum in Turkey, very abundant fish and even the rarest of seafood! There's a giant indoor tiled market, lit to daylight where tens of thousands in Setubal and surrounding towns and villages come to sell fish or rlsecto buy and greet old friends. This timeless abundance must have been there for eons!

Asher
 
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