Look up some history on the big monsters and you will see how efficient they really are compared to the old way of unloading the bulk boats. Teams of men would shovel the material into a bottom drop bucket. It would take days to unload a lake boat. The Huletts emptied larger boats in hours. From 100 tons a day to 4,000 tons an hour. They were the driving force to make larger lake boats and could do more trips in the short seasons to traverse the lakes before the freeze. 1992 was the last year they worked. More than 100 years since they were invented. Self unloading ships were their downfall. Self unloaders do not need a dedicated dock for unloading. They can do coal, grain, salt, or iron ore at any time. The Huletts were dedicated to one commodity and took up a lot of dock space. But in their defense how many machines lasted 100 years in service and if there is a more efficient machine why was it not replaced earlier?
That was AWESOME!!! I first saw these machines on Trains Magazine’s video Making and Moving Steel on the Rails. Inland Steel had or has a coke plant on Chicago’s southside that used two of these to unload coal from barges but even they didn’t get as close to the machines as the youtube guy did. BTW the ones at Inland were still in operation when the video was shot in 1996 or 1997 so they were in operation after the Cleveland ones. Does any one know if the Chicago one are still being used?
By that time, it was no longer Inland but LTV, and all that was left was a coke plant. They operated 2 huletts until ~2002, then the coke plant was shut down. There was some effort to try to salvage one of the huletts but nobody could raise enough money.
Walthers had one of their models built-up and weathered at the National Train Show in Hartford. I took a couple of pictures. They didn’t come out too well, but this was the best of them:
It looked like you might be able to add some sort of motor drive, at least to tilt the big arm up and down.
You’re right it was LTV not Inland. Are the Hulett’s still there or were they scrapped? and where about was the plant? I was thinking you plug the location in to Google Earth and see if you can tell if they are still there or have been removed.
I scratch built one in N scale based on the RMC article. It took me three months and untold hours. It is a monster, If you take your time it really comes out great. In N scale it 10 inches long and 3 inches wide with room for 4 tracks.
I’m from the Cleveland Ohio area and have watched these same unloaders in operation over the years. My favorite was watching the McMyler coal dumper not far from these unloaders. The mills were not near the unloaders but located down the Cuyahoga river a couple of miles so the ore was transported by train to the mills.The Cuyahoga river has many sharp bends near the lake making it impossible for the ore boats to get down river. You will see what I mean if you went to Google earth and located the river near the unloaders. Cuyahoga is actually a Native American term for crooked river and yes this is the river that caught on fire in 1969.
The unloaders were scrapped but one was kept with the intention of reassembling it as a historical site. I believe if reassembled it will be non operational. Money seems to be an issue right now and as far as I know reassembly has not been scheduled. I hope it does get built and if so I will try to post information and some pictures.
I have no room on my layout right now for the model but will probably build one anyway. This might give me a reason to expand.
