Towns and Nature: Toledo, OH: Oregon, OH: B&O+NYC Coal and Iron Ore Docks Scene

CSX also exports coal from a dock in Baltimore, MD.

"CSX’s Toledo Docks is a modern coal terminal and pier facility serving the Great Lakes and overseas markets. The terminal handles vessel and rail transfers of coal and iron ore, and specializes in outbound NAPP and CAPP coals, as well as inbound iron ore. The terminal has also serviced PRB coal trains loading in lake vessels to domestic water-served utility destinations on the Great Lakes. The Toledo, Ohio facility has three docks, and features specialized equipment including a tandem car dumper and a thaw shed for winter loading. The dumper transfers coal to a traveling ship loader system through a series of conveyor belts. The entire coal flow path is equipped with a dust suppression system and the ship loader transfers coal into the holds of the vessel by a telescoping spoon to minimize dust and maintain favorable environmental conditions. Inbound iron ore is off loaded from the vessel and stored on the inventory pad until it is reclaimed and loaded into rail cars for unit train delivery to the customers. Ground storage is available for the iron ore, but not for coal." [CSX]

Bob Ciminel -> Railroads in Black and White
The Maumee River docks in Toledo, Ohio have a plethora of local railroad cars in this 1910 view. Railroads represented are: Hocking Valley, Toledo & Ohio Central, Kanawha and Michigan and the Zanesville & Western.

Dates of incorporation for these lines, which were eventually all related through mergers and acquisitions:
Hocking Valley - 1889
T&OC - 1885
K and M - 1890
Z&W - 1902

The primary cargo was coal from Hocking Valley mines in Ohio or coal from West Virginia. Portions of the HV and Z&W are operated today as scenic railways. Other portions such as the route through Fostoria, OH are owned by CSX because C&O bought HV.

Update: "CSX’s Toledo Docks is a modern coal terminal and pier facility serving the Great Lakes and overseas markets. The terminal handles vessel and rail transfers of coal and iron ore, and specializes in outbound NAPP and CAPP coals, as well as inbound iron ore. The terminal has also serviced PRB coal trains loading in lake vessels to domestic water-served utility destinations on the Great Lakes. The Toledo, Ohio facility has three docks, and features specialized equipment including a tandem car dumper and a thaw shed for winter loading. The dumper transfers coal to a traveling ship loader system through a series of conveyor belts. The entire coal flow path is equipped with a dust suppression system and the ship loader transfers coal into the holds of the vessel by a telescoping spoon to minimize dust and maintain favorable environmental conditions. Inbound iron ore is off loaded from the vessel and stored on the inventory pad until it is reclaimed and loaded into rail cars for unit train delivery to the customers. Ground storage is available for the iron ore, but not for coal." [CSX]

Marine Historical Societ of Detroit posted
Vessels laid up at the Lake Front Dock and Terminal Co. in Oregon (Toledo) OH in March 1973. At the left is the J.H. Hillman Jr. while the Armco is laid up at the coal dock to the right. Another Oglebay Norton boat is laid up behind the Huletts at the ore dock. A lone scale test car occupies the tracks serving the ore dock during the off season. Richard (Dick) Wicklund photo/MHSD collection.
The Lake Front Dock and Terminal Company was jointly owned and served by the New York Central (later Penn Central) and Baltimore and Ohio Railroads. It was built in the late 1940's on undeveloped land adjacent to the C&O docks, with Otter Creek separating them. Prior to the construction of this facility, both NYC and B&O had coal docks far upstream on the Maumee River. The B&O also served an ore dock upstream.
Dale Pohto: Two of the four Huletts at this dock were relocated from the B&O ore dock near Fasset St. (very near The Anderson's elevator on the east bank). Larger ore boats drew more water than what was available upriver, making it necessary to either move the dock or dredge the river extensively.
Ed Hughlett: Dale Pohto great historical information Dale. I remember the Fasset Street bridge: there one day and gone the next day. !
Marine Historical Societ of Detroit shared
Isaiah Cummings: Looks like Reserve is laid up next to Armco.

East Toledo Historical Society posted, cropped
Aerial photo from Maumee Bay showing part of the C&O Rresque Isle dpcks and the Lakefront Docks, beyond that is the Pure Oil and Standard Oil Refineries. c. 1955.

East Toledo Historical Society posted
Post Card view of C & O Presque Isle Coal Docks. Coal loaders and Ore unloaders.

Mike Lusher posted
Here is an aerial view of the Lakefront Docks at Toledo, Ohio. Opened on June 2, 1948, this facility was jointly built and operated by the Baltimore & Ohio and New York Central railroads. All of the coal and ore machines are long gone and ore is now unloaded and transferred to rail cars by conveyor belts.
I worked there as machinist in the Summer of 1977. I remember inspecting and working on several six-axle Conrail Alcos. They hauled coal in and iron ore out.
Daniel Decore: I have the same picture. My dad got it when he was working on the docks up there in Toledo for New York Central railroad.

Mike Lusher posted
Another photo taken at the former B&O-NYC Lakefront coal and iron ore docks at Toledo, Ohio. This photo shows two of the coal dumping machines. The ore unloading machines can be seen at the far right. This facility was opened on June 2, 1948. All of the coal and ore machines are long gone and all that remains is a system of conveyor belts that transfer iron ore from lake freighters to railroad cars.
Dale Pohto: The ore unloading machines are known as Huletts (named for their inventor). These particular machines were transplanted from the B&O ore dock much further upriver but were moved to accommodate larger freighters which require deeper water. For the same reason, the coal loaders were transplants from upriver as well.
David Allen: I have heard those coal unloaders in the photo called Mc Myler's . They use mostly gravity once hopper is spotted. Till the ramp up to the unloader.Then what I have heard called a Barney rises up between the rails engages at the coupler and pushes car up to machine.The machine lifts the whole car up to the shute ,turns it on its side and contents dump.
Fred Bultman: David Allen McMyler was a builder of coal dumpers, along with Heyl & Patterson.
Doug Egert: Was always fun climbing.up oñ the dumpers and knocking brake pins out when cars got hung up in machines

There were coal docks at several locations along the south shore of the Maumee River.

Barry Sell posted
Railroad yard, Toledo, Ohio [approximately 1940]. NYC Coal Loading Dock.
Christine-John Yontz: I believe that is the Cherry St bridge in he background and the elevated double track line is the PRR whose bridge over the Maumee was just north of the Cherry St bridge. All rails shows in this photo are now gone. Bores-Boyer way pretty much goes right down the middle of this and the PRR is now a bike/hike path. Taken from the Anthony Wayne bridge most likely.
Barry Sell: Christine-John Yontz Yes this orientation is looking NNW and Cherry is in the distance.

Jackie Hindall III posted
Edmund Fitzgerald docked right down the street from my house at the Toledo coal docks off of Bayshore road.
[Some comments confirm that the left dock is unloading while the right dock is loading. Note that we can barely see a second loader on the right.]
Dale Pohto: Huletts didn't unload coal... Ore exclusively.
Steve Hooton: There would be a bulldozer in the cargo hold pushing the last of the cargo together so it could be picked up. I witnessed the driver of the dozer look up after hearing the pitter pat on his hard hat, only to be hit in the face with piss. At 3am a drunk crew member came back and pissed in the cargo hold unknowingly or not hitting the dozer driver. Those on deck cleared out to avoid the storm climbing out of the cargo hold. The good ol days.
Bill Bird: If I remember when my Dad was sailing in the 60s there were 4 coal docks in Toledo. Now just one.
Mike Delaney: Toledo Lakefront dock. NYC & B&O.
Stef Abenakis: Use to be my best port Toledo when i was sailing the lakes....
Ken Howard: The Fitz would winter over in the slips next to I280.

Mike Harlan shared
Kevin Beale: Did she ever enter Buffalo Harbor ?
Mike Delaney: Kevin Beale Highly unlikely as she was contracted for hauling cargo for specific customers. She picked up some non-contract loads to Detroit, Cleveland, and a few other major unloading ports on Lake Erie and Southern lake Michigan. But again only her logbooks could say. She may have been to Lackawanna who knows as at the time was a major ore unloading port. We hauled pellets to Hamilton, Ontario on the Sparrows Point and took corn to Montreal so oddity loads were not too uncommon.

Barry Sell posted

Upper level view of a busy Port of Toledo

Collection part 
Toledo Area Chamber of Commerce Photograph Collection

A black and white photograph of cargo ships and railroad cars lined up on the Toledo Terminal docks. Coal and other commodities are waiting to be loaded for shipment. Photo was taken in October of 1966.

Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority

OCT 20 1966

Dutch Ferguson posted
James Evans Now known as TORCO CSXT (Toledo Ore Railroad Co) only handling inbound iron ore.

I added Oregon, OH, to the title because Oregon is across the Maumee River from Toledo. And that is where most of the docks still exist today.

East Toledo Historical Society posted, cropped
East Side coal docks shared by Nancy Geho McCoy
Marsha Dombi Gruhler: I believe the "machine" on the left was called "the pig"
Mark Stevens: the machine on the left is number one coal machine... the pig is a for wheeled machine that took the coal cars up to the coal machine to be dumped...

East Toledo Historical Society posted
The Edmund Fitzgerald at the Presque Isle (C&O) coal docks in Oregon in 1965. From the new book "East of the Maumee River"
Rex Ruby: My father was a tug captain and towed the Fitzgerald in and out of port many times. I was lucky enough to be on several tows with him. The tugs were docked at the c&o docks as well.

Marty Bernard posted two photos with the comment: "And What Are These -- Port of Toledo I pretty sure Duane Hall took these in Toledo in May 1968. I bet the model railroader in him was saying, 'I can build those.'"

2
[A flood loader on the CSX/(B&O+NYC) Lakefront Dock.]

Two photos posted by Mike Honeycutt.

I wish this had higher resolution, but you can read that red is iron, blue is coal and yellow is grain.

Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association added
Shipping routes for various cargoes on the Great Lakes circa 1950.
[I was amazed that so much of the coal was shipped from the Toledo docks. Does this mean that most of the coal was coming from the Illinois Basin rather than the Appalachian Mountains? And why would grain and coal be going down Lake Michigan? It would be interesting to see this diagram for today. Coal would be going in the opposite direction because of the Powder River Basin and it would be going to power plant docks. There would be more grain and none of it would use the Erie Canal because of the St. Lawrence Seaway. (China owns bit grain elevators in Chicago and Milwaukee.)]

Richard Wicklund
Looking good, the George A. Sloan docked in Toledo ready to load coal, Sept. 9, 1988.
[Is there another dock area, or was this loader in this area?]

Richard Stewart posted
CSX Toledo Docks, Toledo, Ohio. January 05, 2009. Photo credit: Michael Harding. https://www.railpictures.net/photo/266193/

Street View

Boats that need just minor repairs during the winter layover use regular docks, but they pack them in two or three abreast. St. Clair (boatnerd facts) was wintering at the CSX dock in Oregon, OH when a fire alarm was sounded around 8:45am 2/16/2019 [post]. There was no one on board, and firefighters are not boarding the vessel to fight the fire. So there have been no injuries. The fire was burning from the engine room up to the pilot house and the conveyor belts also caught on fire. There were four fire hydrants in the area, but only one was working. (We had a polar vortex in the Midwest last week.) They were using tank trucks to haul water from Bay Shore. But the goal has become saving the other assets in the dock. As you can see in this photo, there is a ship between it and the dock. In addition to the boom conveyor that we can see on fire, this self-unloading ship has two conveyors under its cargo hold that run the full length of the ship. I wonder how much oxygen those two belts are getting. The conveyor belt fires were so intense that they melted. The Coast Guard did a search Sunday morning and has found no signs of pollution. (Update: Marine Recycling Corporation (MRC) started scrapping it in 2022.)

Of course, the cause of the fire is not yet known. I now wish I had saved the comment from a welder that was working on the ship. He said it appeared the fire started a long ways from where they were working and that they stop welding a half-hour before they leave to make sure their work has cooled off before they leave.

Jeff Plante commented on a post

Myra DeCaire commented on a post

USCG Photo, Saturday Night
[It looks like the firetruck that we can see is focused on keeping the adjacent boat safe. I wonder how much water you can pump onto a ship before it starts to sink. Actually, a lot. These ships carry 10s of thousands of tons of cargo. Later, they will probably have to rent some serious pumps to get rid of all of that water. But a soggy ship has to be better than a melted ship.]

USCG Photo, Sunday Morning
[As of Monday, the fire is expected to burn for days [boatnerd-news] because the belts of both unloading conveyors are still on fire. [post]]

Joanne Crack posted a series of photos of the fire spreading on the boat.

Andrew Haenish shared...
Clayton Healey Fortunately, the ship was not underway at the time. However, the crew, having been trained for such emergencies & being on top of it early, might have put the initial hot spot out quickly.

Not to be a speculative spectator here but if it was a welders' issue, a proper fire watch is the protocol long after welding has finished for the day. Being a Saturday, no doubt everyone was eager to get home.

The investigation will no doubt be interesting indeed!

...a post.
Bill Shaver its happened to many others in port... they just flooded the tunnel to put it out... surprised they have not done this ... my my, this might condem the ship now... structural weakening on account of this.
Marine Historical Society of Detroit No welding crew was aboard the vessel on Saturday. Just regular work crews according to local news sources.
Mark Robinson Bill Shaver it has not been said if her tunnel belts were on fire. I am sure nobody is able to get down there to see. They likely are as they are all pretty much connected together. And flood her tunnel to put out the fire. Well you need to be able to have pumps on to flood her tunnel. Nobody is going to get into her engine control room to be able to do so. And also she is all pumped out for the winter so I am unsure how much in feet of a rake she has on her but with her likely 8 feet plus by the stern all the water would stay aft on her as they pumped it into her tunnel. With the water staying aft and more weight there her draft aft would increase and the water would continue to just stay there...Unless she was even keel it would not work out well...
Jessica Scott Burns Mark Robinson plus I'm sure if she had a halon suppressant system on board, it wasn't active either due to being laid up. Or at least no one aboard to active it.
Mark Robinson Jessica Scott Burns she should have had it for her engine room. But none of us know all that went on etc. There will be opinions galore but until an investigation and report is done and released none of us will know. A belt fire is a bad one as it burns so hot. Hard to put out. The main thing is nobody was hurt...
Nat Park This is so sad.....so much work and expense went into her refit at Donjohn Shipbuilding and Repair during the winter of 2017-2018 in Erie, PA.
Julian English http://www.businessnorth.com/.../article_0896bb02-33a3...

Julian English At the Torco docks in Oregon, Ohio. I wonder what was burning.
https://www.13abc.com/.../Firefighters-battle-ship-fire...

I've read a post about how a ship in layup is staffed by one person. The post was emphasizing the loneliness of the job. But if it takes a human before any of the fire fighting equipment will work, I now understand why some ships use a skeleton staff during winter layover. Since some comments indicate that repair work was being done on the ship, I 'm even more surprised that a company representative wasn't living on board. After all, these ships do have beds, a kitchen, and a lounge.

Summerstown Seaway LookOut posted eleven photos of the aftermath.
Sheri Miller doesnt look too bad considering.
Mark Robinson Sheri Miller its bad...
Jim Hoffman Major damage on the inside of the vessel.

Boatnerd has moved their "news" photos to a permanent photo gallery.
2/20 - Investigators remain on scene in Toledo for what will likely be a lengthy investigation. Tuesday the St. Clair was reported to be listing and required to be pumped out. It is unclear if the water was from fire fighting or another source.

An album with 70 photos of the aftermath (source)

Only Cleveland handles more tonnage.

GreatLakesSeaway

Robert Campbell posted
Tin Stackers are shown in winter lay up. This may possibly be Milwaukee but I'm not sure. The time frame could be late 1930's or early 40's. The Robert Fulton is shown and I see the B.F. Affleck and Simon J. Murphy among the boats.
[The comments identify it as Toledo in the late 1930s. Note the two Huletts in the background to the left of a smokestack.]

Some photos and their comments in a collection identify this as the Hocking Valley Dock.

Satellite

Andrew Dean Detroit posted

"Toledo Layup" Over 3000 Feet of ship in one shot! 3 Footers and 2 articulated Tug and Barges, all down for winter layup in Toledo, Ohio. 

5 total ships starting top Left - Tug Dorothy Ann with Barge Pathfinder , Edgar B. Speer, Edwin H. Gott, American Integrity, Tug Laura L. VanEnkevort with Barge Joseph H. Thompson

Andrew Russell shared
Janey Anderson: That is the record right there!! Wow!! And what an AMAZING picture it is! How many feet in that shot Andrew Russell ?
Andrew Russell: Janey Anderson I was lazy now I’ll math it out … according to my quick calculations- it’s 4,568 ft or 1,392 meters of ship in one shot lol