Lorain, OH: Former B&O Coal and US Steel/National Tube Ore Docks

(see below for satellite)

George Siss III posted
Lorain, Ohio.  Aerial view of the Port of Lorain, showing the Black River. Ore docks and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad coal docks. 1949-1950
(historical picture is courtesy of the Lorain Carnegie Historical Center collection).
John Janner: Pre sewage plant when the bathing beach was there. Great times.
Dennis Gabrie: Used to love fishing at the end of the long pier (that is no longer long)....You can almost always catch fish at the end!
Larry Kopa: You can also see the shipyards dry docks just north of the bridge.

Mark Duskey shared
Ok, I am always amazed at how some of you can ID a boat by a hatch cover, whistle, steering pole, captain’s spittoon etc… here is a birds eye challenge for you… two boats at the coal dock in Lorain. Any ideas?
Fred Bultman: The first boat by the bridge is a sandsucker unloading. Joseph S Scobell I think. The boat behind it is a Hutchinson boat. The boat at the ore dock is a canaller, maybe Forestdale. Share it to the Historic Great Lakes Unidentified Vessels group and you can nail them.
William Lafferty: The sandboat is at the Kelley Island Lime & Transport Company dock. Judging by the funnel, I'm going with Kelley Island. It can't be Hydro and the funnel is too squat for Rockwood.
Fred Bultman: William Lafferty my first thought was McKerchey, but I have pics of the Scobell unloading there, so I went with her.

Doug Majka commented on George's post as part of a discussion about a smokestack

Michael Lackore commented on Mark's share
S.S. Carle C. Conway I believe....judging by the dog house atop the after deckhouse and winch covers ( or whatever those were) visible amidships.
I thought about the first Fink and I compared it. I thought it was more likely the Conway because of where those little covered things were on the deck in relation to the billboard lettering. The Finks are more aligned with the "C" in "Corporation" whereas the Conways appeared to be more aligned with "L" in "Steel"
Fred Bultman: Michael Lackore those are the deck winches for the hatches.

William commented on his "sandboat" comment
The McKerchey had a weird little funnel set far back.

 

Corey Brown posted
B&O Coal and Ore docks in Lorain
Cory T. Branham: Interesting photo. Two of the three boats are self unloaders. However, the third boat is not and is docked in front a set of Hulett unloaders. Taken at a time when the transition was just beginning.
Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park shared

 

Mike Delaney
J.R. Sensibar loading coal at Lorain.  Empty coal car caught in mid-flight on the roll back ramp.  1976.  Delaney Photo.

Fred Bultman posted
A little rework on Tommy, an image taken at Lorain during the Browning era, about 1956, Jim Hoffman.
James Torgeson shared
Republic Steel's 604' Tom M. Girdler (1951) at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad docks in Lorain, OH. The Girdler was built as the C4 freighter Louis McH. Howe in 1946, and went into the mothball fleet during the postwar downsizing of the Navy and merchant marine. The Howe was converted into a laker in 1951 to meet the the increased ore needs of the Korean War, and was scrapped in 1980.

Al Miller posted
Sunday Sidelights: A Hulett unloader operator at Lorain, Ohio, brings a load of iron ore out of a Tin Stacker in this photo that appeared in the July 1953 edition of Pittsburgh Sidelights.
Timothy M. Krafft: I got to ride in a hulett when I was a kid while transiting with my father who worked for USS for 32 years. Still remember how awesome it was to hit and scoop up that iron ore!!!
John Woodward: I worked along side of those and a dozer they put in the hold. We used metal rakes and ore shovels to clean up the holds for the next load usually grain. After we were out on the lake we lowered 3 inch hoses down and rinsed the holds. Then we hauled up what was left using buckets pulling heaving line hand over hand and dumping it over the side. It was a work out. There was often many an expletive yelled back and forth about too much in the buckets.

 

Jim Huber posted
LORAIN STEEL DOCKS CIRCA 1898
Michael Tomlin-Brenner: In 1894 Johnson moved his Steel Street Railway Company from Johnstown PA to Lorain; by 1900 he sold his prosperous company to US Steel.
Mike Virant Bail: It was a rail mill too.
Andrew Haenisch shared

Justin Minnich posted
B&O coal dock #1 in early 1900s in lorain ohio
Jeffrey Alexander-Kennedy Trains to this coal dock ran a block from my house in the 60's and 70's in Bellaire Ohio...line taken out of service along with Benwood to Columbus in the 80's...sad!

Al Miller posted
Horace Johnson unloads at Lorain with a fuel barge alongside to bunker. This photo appeared in the Sept. -Oct. 1961 issue of the The Bulletin, published by the Lake Carriers' Association.

Judging from the curve of the bank, this was located up the Black River. A 1952 aerial photo shows the yard to the left still existed, but the dock facilities were gone. However, there were dock facilities on the west side of the mouth of the river. Specifically, the two prongs into the lake and the now unused land was the location of the dock facilities.

Satellite

Satellite

The tracks still come north of 13th Street. I guess that is because they need a long lead to serve the Republic Steel and  US Steel plants.

1960 Lorain Quadrangle, 1:24000

Docks are still used for a steel plant a little further up the river. And there are three stone docks downstream of the OH-611 bridge.

Satellite

Andrew Haenisch posted two photos with the comment: "The Laura L Vanenkevort unloading Monday April 6th at the Port of Lorain."
Dennis DeBruler Judging by the truss bridge in the background, that would be here:
https://www.google.com/.../@41.4551371,-82.../data=!3m1!1e3
Does CSX (former B&O) still service this dock?

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John Gajdos posted five photos with the comment:

This was entertainment when I was a kid. My dad would pile us into the car, we would stop by McDonald's for Burgers Fries & shakes, and then it was off to hot Waters to watch the giant machine pick up the train cars and dump them over. Every time one of the cars was released toward the return ramp, there was something inside all of us that wanted to see it go over the edge. Yep. That was entertainment in Lorain.

Denise Wilson Yup. That was cool. I lived half a block from the tracks. It was also LOUD!

Thomas Riegel The coal car got stuck at the top of the ramp ones day. My Grandpa Smith had to put the coal car back on the tracks by lifting it up using a crane And setting it back on the tracks. 

Mary Mielcarek-Clark I believe we all did this .I know my family did. Those rail cars came close to going over the edge..

Scott Britvec shared

Sandra Garstenshlager As a child we would watch the hullets unload ships waiting for my dad's boat to dock. Then when he had to be on board while they were loading coal we watched the giant machine pick up a whole coal car and flip it so the coal would go down a big metal shut that put the coal in the ships hold. Loved watching both of them living in Conneaut Ohio. We were also known as the fastest unload ore dock on the great lakes. Four hours per ship. That was back in the 50s.

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[I could not find "Doug Lilly" to change the photo into a link.]

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Mike Delaney posted
J.R Sensibar at Lorain, Ohio. What dates this pic is the triple bay hopper car which weren't around much longer.

Tim Grimm commented on a post
I sailed on her [Joseph S Young] in 1969 when she was renamed H. Lee White.

James Anders shared a post of five photos with the comment: "Found these photos in my grandfathers collection. They say Lorain Ohio Sept '46 to (Blank) on the back. His diaries show that he worked there on and off as the lead surveyor until September 1947. The diaries also state that he laid out the new piers and set the grades for all the infrastructure of the coal dock including the layout for the tracks."

[Comments provided the term fly-back tracks and fly shunt for the "skateboard" and "ski jump."]

Måne Skyggens

Jim Pabst https://youtu.be/LEAUFP3bPjU [Coal unloading starts at 2:05.  I think this dock is using the fly-back track for loaded hoppers instead of empty.]

Jon Davis Sr.

So interesting I had to look it up...

https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/35314

Bennie Briscoe shared

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Jon Davis Sr. commented on Jim's post

Jon Davis Sr. commented on Jim's post

Bill Kloss posted
One more of Crispin Oglebay (1) from the Chuck Drumm folder. This time it's an undated image of her laid up in Lorain, OH.
Fred Bultman: She has steam up, I’m thinking spring fit out.

Because of the bridge in the background, I knew the boat was turning here.

Screenshot
A time lapse of my favorite John D Leitch making the turn to dock in the Port of Lorain. Happy Saturday everyone!
Torin Swartout when was this ?
Andrew Haenisch Torin Swartout this morning. [Apr 11, 2020]

James Torgeson shared two photos posted by Bill Kloss with the comment: "Republic Steel's 604' Tom M. Girdler unloads at the B&O Ore Dock in Lorain, OH. Equipped with a 9000 hp steam turbine, she was one of the fastest freighters ever to sail on the Great Lakes. She was built by Kaiser as a C4 freighter in 1946, converted to a Great Lakes ore carrier in 1951, and scrapped in 1980."

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One of 23 photos posted by Jim Huber
Lorain Harbor circa 1877. From Geoege Siss III: shows the first coal docks established in the Village of Lorain in 1876 by the Lake Shore & Tuscarawas Valley Railroad - the precursor to the CL&W Railroad, which later became the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The coal docks were located at the mouth of the Black River.

One of 23 photos posted by Jim Huber
Circa 1909 Lorain lighthouse in background.
[B&O dock is along the left shore.]

One of 23 photos posted by Jim Huber
Circa 1909.

One of 23 photos posted by Jim Huber
Circa 1937...Lorain Lighthouse in background.

Bill Kloss posted
From the Chuck Drumm folder, an undated photo of Detroit Edison loading coal at the B&O dock in Lorain, OH.
[The comments indicate that it ran aground on Grays Reef in Lake Michigan. After setting for a few years in Sturgeon Bay, it was shipped to Brownsville, TX, for scrapping. Its sister ship, John J Boland is still running as the Saginaw.]
Bill Kloss: The coal from Wisconsin goes to power plants in Michigan. West Virginia and Kentucky coal still gets shipped up north from Sandusky. To Sault Ste. Marie and Hamilton, Ontario.

Mike Harlan shared a Marcin Olexsy post
Thomas Nather: We would sit at hot waters and watch the coal cars get tipped upside down. And Bam, chug chug, Bam back into the yard. Life was so simple then...

Was this unloading bridge in the docks by the mouth or was it upriver by the steel plant?

Association for Great Lakes Maritime History posted
An undated image of the tugs Tennessee and Arizona of the Great Lakes Towing Co. at Lorain, Ohio (Image Source: Lorain Historical Society photograph posted by Mark Duskey to the tugboats of the Great Lakes Facebook page). Based on the history of the vessels and their propulsion systems (see below), the image is circa 1931 to 1955.
[The description continues with a history of each tug.]

Later the dock was rebuilt to transfer iron ore pellets from footers (freighters that were at least 1000' long) to smaller freighters.

Marine Historical Society of Detroit posted

Aerial view of the Lorain Pellet Terminal, Lorain OH.  Date not noted. George Ryan collection/MHSD.

The Lorain Pellet Terminal was opened in 1980 for Republic Steel.  It was used to transload iron ore from 1000 foot (and other large) vessels into smaller vessels that could transit the Cuyahoga River to reach Cleveland's blast furnaces.  The facility was closed after LTV Steel's bankruptcy in 2001.  Later most of the machinery was re-located to Whiskey Island in Cleveland where it serves the same transloading function. The original Lorain site is now owned by the city, waiting re-development, likely into commercial and residential uses. 

A history of the terminal can be read in the online March-April edition of Freighters newsletter: https://glshipnews.files.wordpress.com/.../68-freighters...

Jody Aho: Pre-1987 for the date, since the P-M logo is still on the bow of the Interlake boat.

Jim Bills: William J Delancy/Paul R Tregurtha and I think the other is the Gott.

Kevin Olsen: Jim Bills pre boom?

Jim Bills: Kevin it’s either her or the Speer. But yes

James Torgeson shared

The Republic Steel Lorain Pellet Terminal.

Doug Majka: Once it went to city ownership the mayor of Lorraine proclaimed it would be redeveloped in a few short years. What’s it been? Like 15 to 20 years now?

Witter Witt posted
SS Homer D Williams coming into Lorain Ohio 1975