Two from Pittsburgh

Here are a couple photos of The Point as seen from the water on a day that could not decide if it was going to be overcast or sunny for more than five minutes at a time.

More later.

A day in Pittsburgh

Adam and I went to Pittsburgh yesterday to cover the christening ceremony of the M/V Tommy H for the Waterways Journal.

It was a long, tiring day. Tonight he had to be in his high school band to play music for graduation. Sometime this weekend, I might be able to post a little more about the trip. More will come after the WJ decides if it wants to use any of my photos.

Three Crounse boats

So tonight instead of going to bed at a realistic time I figured I would stay up a few minutes and play with some photos of Crounse boats that I have gotten the past month or so. So here goes.

From last month, the Mary Artie Brannon as the sun was low enough on the horizon to light her up real good.

Here is the Enid Dibert. I figured I would see what would happen if I got all artistic. Eh.

And here is the Yvonne Conway.

It's a good thing I like the design and color scheme of Crounse boats, because when I need a boat pushing 15 barges, there's usually one around.

Pledge drive

Tonight and tomorrow there's a pledge drive going on to raise money to help the ferry at Sistersville WV. To pledge you can call 304-771-8835, 304-771-1334, ...or 304-758-9007. You can stream the 24-hour event, lasting until 4 p.m. Saturday, and listen to Greg Goodfellow and Alex King at wrsgradio.com.

Sunset through the wheelhouse

A couple of days ago maybe I saw a photo on a Facebook river group and I got so envious, sort of. It was from an area that was flat -- no hills -- and someone got a sunset shot of the sun through the pilothouse glass. The boat was from ACBL, I think.

I figured I would never get a chance at that shot because of all the hills around here. However, yesterday evening the Coast Guard buoy tender Osage tied up at Harris Riverfront Park here in Huntington. I happened upon it and decided to get some pictures. Then I noticed I could shoot upward and get the sun through the pilothouse windows. Here are a couple of samples. The first is the sun unobstructed. In the second, I think there was a guy walking around inside the pilothouse because the size of the sun was changing.

As long as I was there, I figured I may as well get a photo of some buoys.

It doesn't surprise me the Osage was in the area. From what I have seen and heard, several buoys on the middle and upper Ohio are not where they should be.

Ironton bridge is down

The last remaining steel of the old Ironton-Russell Bridge came down yesterday. I couldn't be there because I had to work. But the Ironton Tribune was, and it wrote about the event.

Working on a coal barge

Russian interference with the Ohio River Blog

For some reason, this blog has gotten a lot of attention from Russia this week. Perhaps not by coincidence, some malware has been found on my computer. Several pieces of it, actually.

If anyone in Russia hacks me in hopes of stealing my fortune, they will be sorely disappointed.

M/V Enid Dibert

Sternwheel

I've been told this was the original sternwheel to the American Queen.

If so, cool. If not, it's still a big wheel.

Limestone

There's a lot of crushed stone that moves on the Ohio River. Some of it is used in construction. Some is used in power plant scrubbers.

Yesterday morning the M/V Eleanor of Crounse Corp. came through Huntington pushing 15 barges of stone. I went down to see it because I couldn't recall having a photo of the Eleanor in my archives. I got few shots, but not a good one.

Maybe next time.

M/V Pere Marquette

There hasn't been a lot of activity on here lately because I've been trying to earn a living, and that attempt has taken a lot of my time. But I can say I have worked on a couple of things that will make blog posts later. I just can't talk about them now because they have not been published.

Until then, how about something from the 1980s archives?

Here's the Pere Marquette of Steel City Marine Transport.

I don't know when the picture was taken except that it must have been sometime in the 1980s. The last I heard of this boat it was owned by ACBL and called the Joseph Hamilton.

As far as I know, Steel City Marine Transport is still in business, although I have not seen any of its boats in my area down here around Mile 308.