Friday, January 17, 2020

Owen Sound, ON: Great Lakes Elevator

(Satellite)

Barry commented on his post
Here is Saginaw off loading at Owen Sound - Oct 4, 2018.
Dennis DeBruler This shows what I noticed in the satellite image, the elevator is very wide: seven silos.
https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4...

Crystal Rydall Hogg posted, cropped
Saginaw unloading at Owen Sound grain dock.
[According to some comments, it used to take two days to unload with the marine leg. Now, with self-unloaders, it takes just 12 hours.]

Good Noise posted
"Toy Grain Elevators" - I think the tilt-shift effect works better in this one.

John Fearnall shared

Barry Westhouse posted
Great Lakes Elevator Company at Owen Sound, Ontario. - Aug 9, 2019.
Chris Evie Evans The water is very high this year [2019]
Bob Summers Is this facility still active? Do not see spouts to load the ships.
Barry Westhouse Ships come to unload / Trucks come to ship out & deliver.
Bob Summers Understand - Ship in, truck out. Appreciate seeing waterfront view. Any rail?
Barry Westhouse Rails have been gone 25 yrs.
Bob Summers Kinda like in the US, Barry Westhouse Railroads are very particular about the business they are willing to do.
It appears that the railroad has not only abandoned the elevator; it has abandoned the entire region.
AJ Grigg Aban RR Map

Master IoqY, Oct 2017

Keith Ruhl posted
Owen Sound Harbour 1952
The Norgoma was still steam powered with the taller smokestack.
What is the name of the first ship right in the front?
It's the Norgoma. It was in the Owen Sound harbor July 10 this year. It was having work done. They are/were owned by N. M. Paterson and Sons. They used to have a big letter P on their stack, but now you can spot them by the bear inside a red circle.
Yep...when we were kids, soooo many boats in the harbor eh!!! 
Keith Ruhl
[I didn't realize there was that much shipping on the Great Lakes before the Seaway was opened in 1959.]

Chris Evie Evans shared

A reflection off of the sound seems to be rather common.
Chris Evie Evans commented on Barry's post

Chris Evie Evans posted three photos with the comment: "Owen Sound Ontario Canada on a cold winter day."
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Chris Evie Evans shared
Jack Daw That is a classic-looking lake freighter!

Chris commented on Jack's comment
Yes it is one of the older classic lakers.
Here is a picture of one of my Grandfather's ships back in the 70's. It's not the Owen Sound Grain elevators in the background. I'm not sure where the pic was taken. The ships name is The Parker Evans

Larry Broadbent posted
CN 4526 ready to leave Owen Sound. The Howard F Andrews in it's winter berth in the background. March 1982
Jim Griffin Is that a MoPac box behind the second unit? I remember taking photos of box car logos in Owen Sound and was amazed at the variety of American roads that turned up there.
Eric Potter It is a Detroit Toledo & Ironton boxcar behind the second locomotive. Now part of the CN system.
Leslie Reading I do not remember the Howard F. Andrews but I do remembers the Oakglen and Spruceglen. Those ships had class.. Oh, sorry. I forgot this was a train page, not a ship page. I am just an overall transportation guy.
Chris Evie Evans shared

Chris Evie Evans posted three photos with the comment: "Owen Sound Ontario, Canada today."
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The Miller Cement Terminal is on the right.
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Tee Kathy I guess all the other ships have left.

Chris Evie Evans commented on Tee's comment on a post
 We only had 3 ships this year over winter. My family owned a shipping Company back in the 60, 70 and 80's. Here is a picture from the late 70's.

Chris Evie Evans commented on Tee's comment on a post
Early 70's

Chris Evie Evans posted
Road salt delivered today in Owen Sound Ontario.
Bob Summers Salt production is a major industry here [I think Bob is from Kansas.], but the salt they produce here is white. Looks like the grain elevator is for ships?Chris Evie Evans Bob Summers yes, the grain elevators are still being used for ships. I believe it's only running at 50% capacity.Brenda Jim Winans Why is it green?Bob Summers Rust inhibitor added
Tee Kathy also, is the silo active?


Chris Evie Evans commented on Tee's comment
Yes, the elevators are still being used. Not as busy as back in the day when my Grandparents owned a Great Lake Shipping Company, Hindman Transportation
Barry Westhouse commented on Chris' post
I was in Owen Sound today and saw the Mississagi off loading her cargo of treated road salt.


(This photo was supposed to be further up in these notes. But a Google bug put it at the bottom of these notes. Instead of wasting my time working around a bug that I reported weeks ago, I leave the photo here as a monument to Google's bug.)
Good Noise posted
"Overflowing" - Another shot from Saturday evening's visit to the Saginaw unloading at the Owen Sound grain elevators, this time from my drone. At first, I didn't know what was going on, but then I realized that the section that the boat was filling was full, so the grain had nowhere else to go but down and out.
Funny that I've lived here all these years and had no idea those were chutes on the side of the elevators. Even funnier that I actually worked unloading the grain boats in the early 80's and 90's and didn't know.
My best friend's dad, Donny McMillan, was in charge of the crew that unloaded the boats so whenever I was available, I would help. But it was a very different experience than this.
Back then, the elevator's leg (you can see it inside the tall shaft on the left of the building) was lowered into the hold of the ship. The leg has rotating buckets inside of it that scoop up the grain. Once the leg got to the bottom of the hold and could no longer scoop the grain, our crew was called into action.
Our first job was to shovel off the walkways that ran down the side of each hold. Then we climbed down to the bottom of the hold, which could be 5 or 6 storeys tall.
At that point, we set up 2 pulley systems using some very thick ropes and giant shovels - 1 on each side of the leg. Donny and his father, Albert, sat above the hold and ran the shovels back and forth, pulling grain towards the leg. Our job was to grab the rope and pull the shovel into the corners, etc. until all the grain had been moved to the leg. At that point we would shovel the last of the grain into the leg. Then we moved onto the next hold.
Looking back, it was quite an amazing experience. But it was very hard work. We were given masks to wear, but they made it even hotter so we rarely wore them. This meant lots of grain dust in your lungs and nose for the next few weeks. The only other thing I remember was Donny telling us to stay away from the shovels and to NEVER step over the ropes as they could rip us in half.
At the time, we were paid about $140 for 2 long days of work, which I thought was great at the time. But remember, minimum wage was $3.15/hour.
Shortly after my working there, the crew was replaced with 2 small front loader machines that were lowered into the hold to scoop up the grain to the leg. I'm not sure if the leg is used at all anymore. But, again, perhaps someone with more knowledge than me can let us know.
Bob Elder Those hoppers on the side were added after 1999. They were installed to handle self unloaders. With the leg if you had an overfull bin it was an internal spill. The cement on the dock was poured just for this reason.Bob Elder At one time the 2 inch nylon ropes were 1 inch wire ropes. Can still remember Coy Currie teaching us how to splice both the wire and nylon ropes. The loaders never replaced the huge metal shovels, they were put in to cut down on the unloading times. These vessels operate on quick turnaround s to make as many trips in a season as they can. Used to take 40 some hours to unload, with the skid steers it came down into the 30's or high 20's. As the lady said 18 hours to unload this vessel.Bob Langlois I still remember falling off the top rung of the internal ladder after we had it down to the skin... landed flat on my feet some 40’ below (?) My teeth are still rattling.Mike David We were unloading grain screening pellets which are used for feed. It is pelletized dust and it is the worst product to handle/unload. They don’t flow so that’s why they kept backing up the hopper. If you zoom right in you’ll see me standing on the hatch cover 7 from the right haha. We also haven’t used the marine leg in quite a few years. When I started there we used the shovels with the ropes and once we got down to the “skin” we dropped in our 2 skid steers. Near the end of using it we didn’t use the shovels and lowered in an excavator. Once down to the skin we would drop in a backhoe and one skid steer. The excavator was key for those unloads. Much quicker and safer than those big steel shovels. Unloaded quite a few ships with Donny. Great guy. The “grain gang” were still around when I started. Anyway, this pic is a beauty shot. That was a long night.Todd Hillyer Mike David I remember going down there with you and moving the block and pulleys for the shovels. I could barely reach some of them. Then going down with our own brooms and shovels to clean up. Then I got to run the big shovels and was always a little scared sitting over the hold looking down. That was a long way down. LOLDave Brown That old elevator is still next to the fastest for unloading trucks. Under 15 mins for a set of B trains 44 ton and gone. Not many modern elevators are able to


Linda L. Baker commented on the above post
My nephew, Rowan Morris is the Second Mate aboard the MV Saginaw. We went over for a brief visit on Saturday as they were unloading and he explained the whole procedure to us....too complicated for my brain! He said it usually takes about 18 hours for the self unloaders to empty the hull but they were very efficient and were able to leave for Toledo earlier than scheduled.

Barry Westhouse posted
The Great Lakes Elevator Co. Ltd., Owen Sound, Ontario. - 02/03/2021
Dennis DeBruler: Since the ship does not have to go through the Soo Locks from here, is it still shipping? Or is it tied up here for the Winter?

Barry commented Dennis' comment
Algoma Innovator is there for winter layover.

Barry commented Dennis' comment
Owen Sound is a place for winter layover - Feb 2015 with Algomarine & Saginaw.

1 of 10 photos posted by Bruno Puntz Jones
Classic Laker Alert!!!
M/V Saginaw of the Lower Lakes Towing fleet in beautiful Owen Sound, ON, on a picture-perfect Sunday 23 October 2022. The last time I was here the Sydenham River it was frozen over and M/V Frontenac was the object of my desire that day. This day was better though, I had my ace co-pilot with me for the ride.
Saginaw [3] is a self-unloading bulk carrier that was built as hull #417 by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co., Manitowoc, WI for the American Steamship Co. (Boland & Cornelius, managers), Buffalo, NY. It was launched May 9th, 1953 as the John J. Boland (3) and is one of three near sister vessels built by this shipyard. The other two vessels are the John G. Munson built as hull #415 for the USS Great Lakes Fleet still actively sailing, and the Detroit Edison built as hull #418 also for the American Steamship Co. It is owned by Lower Lakes Towing Limited and is sailing under the flag of Canada with its homeport being Port Dover, ON - where I was one week ago today!
Its current draught is reported to be 6.8 meters. Its length overall (LOA) is 193.02 meters and its width is 21.95 meters. It is powered by a MaK 6M43C 6-cylinder 8,160 BHP diesel engine spinning a newly installed controllable-pitch propeller.


Melanie Hammond McArthur shared several drone shots posted by David Strutt of three ships in winter layover in 2021.

Chris Evie Evans posted three photos with the comment:
Owen Sound Ontario 🇨🇦
O.S. Fire Department testing the ladder truck water cannons.
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