An evening by the river

I took my camera down to the riverfront this evening. Too bad I didn't take a memory card, too. But I had my phone, so I got at least four images worth sharing here.

Good light for boat photography

 It's different having high water like this with green trees and warm weather. Here at 6:30 the light is good for photography.

Check out the roof

 Here's another view of the M/V Mike Sanders at Catlettsburg KY yesterday.

The river is up again. If he's heading northbound, he has four bridges (three highway, one railroad) in the next 20 miles. If he's southbound, he has three highway bridges in his first 10 to 15 miles. After that he has a highway bridge at the Greenup Locks and Dam and one railroad and two highway bridges in the Portsmouth OH area.

M/V Mike Sanders at Catlettsburg KY, 4/13/24

 

M/V Nashville plus 3

 The M/V Nashville came up to Catlettsburg KY yesterday evening. The river was running high, so I had to try to get a picture of it. Here it is passing the McGinnis boatyard at South Point, Ohio.

I believe the three boats are, from left, the John Vaughn, the Michael T. Somales and the Tom Frazier. The Tom Frazier was the one that had the problem at Portsmouth OH a few weeks ago.

M/V Porter J. Furlong, 4/4/24 ... with a tight fit

We got to see another former AEP boat pass through the area today, although this sighting was more of an accident. I was down at the river checking out how high the water had come up. At a previous stop I had seen a boat heading upriver. I didn't expect it to be passing my spot when I got to the boat ramp at the mouth of the Guyandotte River.

I was happy to see the Porter J. Furlong -- the former Mountain State of AEP. When it was owned by AEP, it was a frequent sight in these parts, pushing coal barges to and from AEP's plants in this area.

For this shot, I was tempted to get all artsy with it and see how far from reality I might want to take it. But when I looked at it, I thought, no, this is a nice shot of a beautiful boat. All I did to prepare it for this entry was to crop out some distracting elements and take the resolution down so it would load.

After I wrote that, I said to myself, let's take another view of this boat and get artsy. I tried by playing with noise levels and color saturation and all that, but when I got to this point, I couldn't do any more to it because I kind of liked it.

As I fiddled with this image, I zoomed in to see how parts of it looked. Then I saw these guys on the wheelhouse roof lowering the radar antennas. (Antennae for you language purists.)

The next shot in the sequence showed how tight things looked from the shore, what with the river being so high and the boat being so tall to begin with. Something happened between the shots and I accidentally turned off the autofocus, so that one came out pretty blurry zooned in. Becaise of that. I'm not doing anything with it for now.

But that's how an unplanned photo shoot came out.

M/V Mae Etta Hines, 3/31/24

 Every few minutes, some sun peeked through the rain clouds. It did long enough to allow me to get a photo of my youngest son's favorite boat as it passed Huntington WV today.

M/V Charleston is back on the river

 It was in the boatyard for a few weeks getting some work done, but the Charleston is back out on the Ohio pushing barges.

When all the painting is done, it will reclaim its spot as the prettiest classic towboat on the Ohio and Kanawha rivers. The O. Nelson Jones and the J.S. Lewis are contenders in that category, although the Lewis isn't really a working boat anymore, at least not for a while.

Three fave boats

 I saw the AEP Mariner was coming up the river, so I went to Ashland KY to see it and get a few pics. I was surprised to see it was deadheading in a tow being pushed by the Dan Elder. I got some shots, including this one ...

... and then went up to Catlettsburg where I got these two.

These are quick edits, with minor noise reduction done in the last one. Otherwise, they are straight out of camera except for cropping, lowering the resolution so I could post them here, and adding my watermark. I have several batches of river photos I need to edit and post. If you want to see some, let me know.

 

M/V J.S. Lewis

It's been a while since one of my favorite boats has been on the river, but she has a new owner. As this is written, the J.S. Lewis is on its way to Neale Island at Vienna WV, having been bought from Amherst Madison. Here the boat is being pushed by the M/V Alabama as they pass the John E. Amos Power Plant on the Kanawha River.

Here's one in black and white as seen from St. Albans WV.

I look forward to seeing how C.R. Neale III restores this classic after having saved her from the scrapper.

 

Three boats on a winter afternoon

 A cloudless sky and a bright sun made subfreezing temperatures bearable today I got these cold-hating bones down to the mouth of the Big Sandy River, where small pieces of ice came out into the Ohio and melted. And I got to see three boats.

First was the R.H. Beymer coming out of the Big Sandy before turning and heading up the Ohio.

Then came the Louisville. I had seen it was coming downriver, and I asked myself if it would stop and drop its barges at South Point, which it did.

And then there was the Stephen T, which also came out of the Big Sandy and headed up the Ohio.

I have a few other photos to process, but they might not be done before the snow melts and people lose interest in cold weather photos.

Rehearsal

 There's not been much to shoot down at the river lately -- meaning shots I haven't gotten a hundred times before. Maybe a boat that I've never photographed has come through, but other than that, it's been pretty normal here.

This evening as the day was ending I got this shot of the M/V Louisville.

This image has problems. The light wasn't great, and I shot it from inside my truck because the boat arrived at the park just as I got there and, frankly, I didn't want to spend a lot of time out in the cold.

I think of this as a practice run. Looking at the original image, I would have preferred to have more daylight. Having a late April or early May background with lots of green foliage would have helped. And I noticed some things to correct with where I place the camera and how to compensate for lens quirks that you don't notice until you look at the photo large.

This spring I'll go back and get a simlar picture in better conditions and with a little more planning, I hope.

Jennings Randolph Bridge re-opens

 I wanted to post this last night, but my internet service went down for a while.

This news release came from the West Virginia Division of Highways. My comments are below it.

(Photo courtesy West Virgiia Division of Highways)

CHARLESTON, WV – The Jennings Randolph Bridge, which carries US 30 across the Ohio River between Chester, West Virginia, and East Liverpool, Ohio, is scheduled to reopen to traffic this afternoon.   The bridge was closed on Monday, December 11, 2023, after a federally mandated inspection discovered cracking in two welds on the steel bridge structure. The cracks were not visible to the naked eye, but the WVDOH, in an abundance of caution, decided to close the bridge while repairs were completed.   The Jennings Randolph Bridge was built in 1977 using T-1 steel. At the time, welded T-1 steel was common in bridge construction, but it was later discovered that cracks could develop in the welds joining the beams. Cracks in T-1 steel welds led to the closure of the Interstate 64 Sherman Minton Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2011, and the Interstate 40 Hernando de Soto Bridge in Memphis in 2021.   Recently, the federal government required specialized testing on all bridges made with T-1 steel. Special testing on bridges made with T-1 steel has since been conducted on bridges all over the United States.   It was during one of those tests that a few cracks were identified in welds on the Jennings Randolph Bridge. Because the cracks could cause safety issues in the future, the WVDOH shut the bridge down to repair the cracks.   Bridge inspection consultant Modjeski & Masters identified 18 additional internal defects on welds on the bridge that needed to be repaired before reopening the bridge. Those defects on the bridge have since been repaired. All four lanes are opening this afternoon.  Intermittent closures of the outside lanes will be required at times as additional repairs are completed.  Those repairs can be completed with traffic present, allowing at least one lane in each direction to remain open.

With work continuing in all 55 counties across the state, the West Virginia Division of Highways and the West Virginia Department of Transportation remind the public of the importance of keeping everyone safe in work zones by keeping “Heads up; phones down!”

This reminded me of the Sherman Minton Bridge at Louisville, which was closed in 2012 for similar reasons. Some butt weld cracks had to be repaired. You don't know how hard it was for me to get those three words in the correct order.