The M/V Findlay passes Huntington again

But this time I was on the other side of the river as I attempted to get a few shots.

Part of the time I was almost shooting into the sun, which is not good, but these are results after some brief editing.

A boat, some barges and a bridge. What more would I need, except maybe for a dam? But that would require me to be at, what, McAlpine, Markland, Greenup, Hannibal or wherever. But today I was stuck in Huntington, so three out of four would have to do.

Meanwhile, back at Racine

If you want to see pictures of the barge recovery efforts at the Racine Locks and Dam, check out this Facebook page.

The 1985 archives

I found a couple of packages of old photo negatives the other night. They were in a place where I didn't think I had them stored, so it was a bit of a surprise to find them. I scanned about two dozen of them, and these are a few of them.

Based on other images in the same packages, I would say these pictures would not have been taken any later than 1985. That's just an educated guess, so if you know for a fact you were on one of these boats in the Greenup pool and it wasn't 1985 ... eh, I've been wrong before. I think it was in 1996, but I'm not sure.

First, here is the H.R. LeBar of M/G Transport Services. I don't know who thought a white boat with dark blue pilothouses and nameboards that could barely be read from shore was a good idea, but it was M/G's theme up until the end.

And here's the Ole Miss at the Gallipolis Locks and Dam back before construction on the new locks began.

Here are a couple more. As for the first one, I don't have the name of the boat, but the sign under the pilothouse says "WKN", which I assume means Western Kentucky Navigation. The insignia looks similar to the old Dravo Mechling logo.

This one is included because it was so typical of what I saw below the Gallipolis locks in the 1980s.

Finally, here's the Delta Queen approaching the locks.

And, and that's about it.

Oh, one more. The H.R. LaBar and the Ole Miss side by side at the Gallipolis.

Actually, that might not be the H.R. LeBar because I just found another picture taken that day. There were two M/G boats. I couldn't read the nameboard of either, but one -- which I'm pretty sure was not the LeBar, had a pilothouse that was not all blue. I think it is the M/G boat in this picture. So scrap my previous comment on this picture.

Now, that's it.

Catch Up Week, Day 4: Two more boats

Here are three photos from April 21, when Adam and I headed up the river to attend the introduction ceremony for the new, larger pilothouse simulator at the Point Pleasant River Museum and Learning Center. More on that later, after a publication that I wrote the story for prints it.

First, we got to the Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam just after the Donna Rushing had exited it southbound.

Now whenever we see an AEP boat, we look for the "Port of" designation on the back to see if it's part of the operation that AEP is thinking about selling. As this one said it was registered to St. Louis instead of Lakin, we figured it's part of the fleet that's up for sale.

Then at the mouth of the Kanawha, we saw the Judith Ellen of Florida Marine sitting there.

We didn't know why it was there, and when we came out of the museum after the ceremony, the boat was gone.

That about does it for Catch Up Week. I've decided the other stuff I was going to post wasn't that interesting to begin with, so ...

I found some negatives of scenes I shot around the Gallipolis Locks and Dam in the mid 1980s. I'll probably run a few of those. If you remember the H.E. LeBarr, the Ole Miss and the Delta Queen, you might be interested.

Catch Up Week, Part 3: Ohio River traffic, first quarter, by the numbers

As I've often noted, there are fewer boats going up and down the Ohio River -- at least in my part of it -- than there were a few years ago. There are even fewer than last year. Here, based on numbers compiled on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers web site, are tonnage numbers for the twenty locks and dams on the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to Cairo.

Ohio River cargo movements, first quarter 2015
Tons in thousands
	TOTAL 1Q			Pct Change
	TOTAL	Coal	Petrol	TOTAL	Coal	Petrol
Emsworth	3717.59	2959.4	211.83	-8%	-9%	-4%
Dashields	3843.8	2931.1	383.94	-8%	-11%	19%
Montgomery	3930.2	2716.27	394.11	-15%	-19%	26%
New Cumberland	6296.02	3741.4	759.48	-14%	-28%	37%
Pike Island	7100.18	4181.3	969.4	-9%	-23%	36%
Hannibal	9980.4	6561.31	965.3	-3%	-13%	40%
Willow Island	9604	6143.01	980.3	0%	-10%	45%
Belleville	9954.38	6090.01	1049.34	-2%	-12%	22%
Racine	10443.74	6456.17	1079.51	-2%	-11%	22%
RCByrd	8800.53	3894.91	1439.52	-7%	-27%	20%
Greenup	9104.22	3262.69	1965.09	-8%	-28%	3%
Meldahl	9951.28	4052.48	1948.17	-10%	-28%	7%
Markland	11355.73	4582.39	1464.49	-16%	-28%	5%
McAlpine	15040.29	7651.68	1548.74	-14%	-17%	11%
Cannelton	15917.45	7694.03	1265.13	-8%	-17%	10%
Newburgh	17321.7	8096.52	1364.04	-13%	-23%	11%
JTMyers	15521.54	4074.06	1399.37	-7%	-25%	11%
Smithland	15796.97	4528.86	1359.95	-12%	-22%	8%
LD 52	19093.7	3631.33	1408.87	-12%	-27%	2%
LD 53	18889.23	2439.86	1394.52	-3%	-12%	-2%

I did an article a couple of weeks ago for The State Journal, the weekly newspaper in Charleston where I once worked full-time. In the article, I noted the increase in petroleum shipments and tried to get comment from Marathon Petroleum, unsuccessfully. The State Journal focuses on West Virginia, so my article did, too.

These numbers are the what, not the why, of course. But the federal Energy Information Administration is predicting a decrease nationally in coal production this year, and with coal being the major commodity moved on all but the lower part of the Ohio, it's no surprise that traffic numbers are down.