M/V D&R Boney

This morning I was checking the locations of some of the boats AEP sold to ACBL a while back. I noticed the AEP Leader and the Mike Weisend were on the Illinois River, and that set off a train of thought about boats I used to see all the time are no longer to be found here around Mile 308.

Some have been scrapped, like the old Valvoline and the Lelia C. Shearer. Some have been sold to South America, like the Allied Ashland, the Aetna Louisville, the Ashland, the Robert P. Tibolt and others. I think the Solvay is down there, too, now.

And some have been sent by their new owners to other parts of the western rivers. The Tri-State has been gone for a while. It's been years since I've seen the Marge McFarlin or the Omega, now known as the Erna E. Honeycutt.

With the decline in coal traffic, there's not as much need for boats up this way, and I was wondering if the AEP Leader or the Mike Weisend would be back here for a while. Then I noticed the D&R Boney was at the mouth of the Big Sandy River, so I drove down there to get a look at what she looks like now, assuming ACBL had repainted her. Which, it turns out, ACBL had.

I'n not getting sentimental about this, but I had seen the D&R Boney off and on for about forty years, beginning when it ran the red-and-white color scheme and the oval stack logo of AEP under the name G.L. Furr. Maybe it will be a frequent visitor to his area. Maybe not. We'll see.