Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: ore dock

Dock One, on the right, is a pure gravity dock, where trains drop the ore (Taconite pellets, nowadays) into big containers (pockets) and the ships are loaded by opening chutes and letting gravity pull the ore into the boat. Dock Two is a gravity dock on the near side, but a conveyor-driven shiploader on the far side. The thousand foot ships necessarily load at the shiploader, as the gravity docks aren't able to properly balance the loads on the wider vessels. Taken from the lighthouse parking lot. ====================== Although this photograph's fairly sharp, it's unexpectedly grainy, perhaps because of the weather. Looks kinda like I scanned a postcard....

The long-abandoned Soo Line dock, built for the (original) Wisconsin Central, at Ashland, Wisconsin. Ashland was the nearest port to the Gogebic (or Penokee; what you call it depends more on where you live than any objective reality) Range in Wisconsin and Michigan so the Gogebic iron mines generally shipped through this town. The last mine closed in 1965, and the last shipment occurred at that time; since then, this dock's been just sitting there. The wooden trestle approach still stands but is obviously unsafe. I was expecting they'd have torn it down by now. For the first half of the twentieth century, this town generally had three ore docks; this is the only survivor because the others were built of wood.

By the mid-1950s, ore supplier Pickands-Mather had extensive experience with iron ore shipping. Since they were building a new facility at the top of the lakes, they applied all that experience and built the perfect ore dock. This is it. Right at the moment it's not in use, but that is apparently just a temporary situation--perfect or no, the dock's worthless without something to ship. The trains came down from the Erie Mining Taconite plant and followed an oval trestle over the dock, rather than waiting while cars were shuffled on and off the deck. The operation was sufficiently automated that the train would never completely stop moving, and the enormous switching effort required atop a more conventional dock was no longer essential. More recent docks have addressed the same problem with conveyors , and the Missabe Road has converted two of its conventional docks into conveyor shiploaders . BNSF's Dock Five, mentioned in my previous writeup , has always struck me as a compromise solution.

NP's dock is/was right next to the Great Northern's ore dock complex at Allouez (Superior), Wisconsin. GN's Dock Three, which was wooden, has been removed and the only dock which is currently in use is Dock Five, which is newer and which was built to move ore with conveyors, not trains. The others in the set, including this one, are no longer attached to the tracks. The GN dock is now a BNSF facility, of course. Shot from the parking lot of a gas station. I didn't know you could get this close to the dock, or I'd have photographed it before....

Interlake 's thousand foot laker James R. Barker takes on a pelletized iron ore load at Taconite Harbor , Minnesota, August of 1996. The big structure's LTV's ore dock. The railroad runs in a big loop atop the trestle . The smokestacks behind Barker are atop a power plant. This photo reminds me that I haven't been in Minnesota since that vacation. Need to do something about that. Camera: Chinon Genesis III. Scanned from a grainy slide, which explains the peculiar sky.

Think I took this in August of 1990, likely with my Chinon Genesis III. Never really liked that camera, but it took some good photographs for me. All that gear in the background is the Escanaba ore dock's shiploader. In the distance, you can sort of see Lake Michigan.

Duluth Harbor Tour circa 1990. Now known as by Manitowoc; I showed you this ship as Earl W just a about a month back.

With a train overhead. I just love the long stair up to this dock.

Since the long boom tends to interfere with the loading chutes, Thayer gets hers out of the way. And we get a close look.... Another photo from that tour I took of Duluth harbor around 1990. (Dunno who the people are.)

Been playing with m' scanner again this afternoon. This is Interlake's Elton Hoyt 2nd at the Lake Superior and Ishpeming dock in Marquette, Michigan. Photo was taken on August 19, 1989 with a Minolta point'n'shoot camera (one of the Freedom series, but I've forgotten which). The lousy quality is mostly because I liked (still like) to shoot with fast film. Some things just never change, by the way. The boat's now called Michipicoten; Marjorie O'Brien shot a picture of her at the same location just yesterday. ============================== Reposted: A cleaned-up version, 11/24/2008.

Missabe Railroad's tug, Edna G, docked in retirement next to the ore dock she long helped service at Two Harbors, Minnesota. The Two Harbors Lighthouse is barely visible out near the end of the spit of land. Posted for Bulldog1 . Hi, Suzy! Taken in 1990 with my Minolta Freedom 100. Further proof that it's possible to take fine photographs with inexpensive cameras. This photo used to be on another site. New, far better, scan posted May 20, 2006.

Here's a better illustration of the layout of the Marquette upper harbor coal dock. The ship Presque Isle is snugged up against the ore dock, and has run its unloader to the coal dock. The whole thing's conveyors and similar transport mechanisms. The really neat thing about the Marquette upper harbor is how close you can get to the boats. This photo shows that well.

August 1990: The ship named Presque Isle beside the ore dock called Presque Isle in Marquette, Michigan. Beyond the dock is Marquette's Presque Isle Park, which may explain something. But the ship's probably named after Erie's Presque Isle. I posted another photo of this ship some time ago, with a comment on the mixed paint job the ship would be sporting a couple years hence. This photo shows the original paint scheme. The ship is unloading coal into the conveyor system known as the Presque Isle Coal Dock. A piece of that facility clips the upper right corner of the photo. The conveyor moves the coal to piles around Wisconsin Electric Power's generating plant (still another facility named Presque Isle). Strangely, the (ship) Presque Isle is too wide for the ore dock to reach the hold's center, so she'll head elsewhere for an ore load. Properly speaking, Presque Isle is not a ship at all; she's a barge with a tug boat built into her stern. If you study the details in this photo, you'll see how they fit together.

LS&I Dock, Marquette. The ship in the background is Lee A. Tregurtha. 1990, I believe. Camera: Minolta 110 Zoom SLR

Marquette has two ore docks; the long-abandoned downtown dock and the Upper Harbor (commonly called Presque Isle, or LS&I) dock pictured here. This is a grainy picture, but it shows good detail about the operation of this old gravity dock. As you can see, there are excellent vantages for watching that labor at this dock. The photo dates from around 1990. When the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad built the Presque Isle dock in 1912, this was a state-of-the-art structure. It's now well past its prime, but it's a great place to watch ships. And trains. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100

Missabe Railroad's Duluth Docks. Now Kaye E. Barker. (Thanks, NIN) I love Duluth. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100