Friday, August 16, 2013

Columbia River fantasy

One of these days I'm going to make it out to the Pacific Northwest again, but this time I'll visit the Columbia River. Things are different there. The barges draft 16 feet and they're of a different width than Ohio River barges. And the covers are different, too.

Because of that, the towboat pilothouses are raised higher than ones on Ohio River boats. And the exhaust or air intake stacks are a sight to behold, too.

I've never seen them in person. I have to do it through the Flickr photostream of captaintimb.

Maybe I need a Kickstarter campaign to raise a few hundred dollars to pay for the trip. I already know of some real news items I could write about some issues and controversies involving Columbia River navigation, mainly how a lot of folks out there don't want to see coal on their river at all.

But check out captaintimb's pictures. If you watch Ohio River boats, you might find these interesting, too.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Several of these towboats used on the Columbia River are former Mississippi River towboats that heeded statement: Go West young man!

I have been following these for quite awhile and they are quite interesting and the the dams are truly High lift.
Barry