Used to watch them unload coal for hours while fishing with the kids when they were little, coal and some fertilizer is the main items off loaded in my area, then grain is loaded back on board before headed down river, quite an operation to watch being done. Around here they use the stationary clam setups to off load with, and conveyor belts to load grain back onto the barges.
Its been a lot of years since I was told but at one time each barges tote held around 90 semi loads of grain or 90,000 bushels of grain each, have no idea what size they are now, don't know what that translates into tons of coal, at one time I did know, but that's too many decades ago to recall.
Here they lower skid steers and wheel loaders down into the barge, the skid steers shove the coal to the wheel loader and the wheel loader loads the clam with the last of the coal, or that's how it was done a few decades ago, when we'd watch. From the clam the coal gets dumped into a hopper and then it goes up a conveyor and drops and a D8 shoves the pile around and further up still, quite the operation to watch. The coal feeds the electric plants in the area along the river, can't recall how many there are now off the top of my head, but if for some reason they can't get coal up or downstream to the plants, trains are then loaded and brought in during the winter to keep them fed and going, barges are far cheaper and faster is what I've been told in the past. I can't recall now how many coal cars on the railroad are in each barge tow but to do it barges are far faster to both load and unload, and also transport. I was thinking a coal car for the railroad held around 3500 bushels of grain rings a bell, so it would take about 25 rail cars to each barge tow, most tows are tied about 6-8 barges together and are pushed with a large tug.
At one time, the tug operators were independent and the captain owned his own tug or worked for the tug owner as a captain of it, and got hired to push a tow of barges both upstream and back down again, not sure if that's how its done anymore or not, one of the tug owners explained this to me years ago when my boat was in the shop being worked on. He also gave myself and my kids a tour of his tug and the tow of barges, quite a life, not for me, but interesting just the same, the kids loved it at the time, standing up in the pilot house and behind the wheel, not sure they even have a wheel anymore with the navigation equipment on board today with gps and autopilot and pretty intense computer controlled navigation equipment.
Not to hijack the thread, but another operation to watch is sand dredging the river bottom, and off loading the sand off the flat barges, we'd watch those for hours as well, its truly amazing how that its done when they suck it up and spit it onto the flat barge like a giant vacuum cleaner.
Life on the river is something different completely than I'm used to, can't say I'd want to live it, but its something to understand how they do it and watch them do what they do, gives an appreciation as to what it takes to get power for the electric plants they off load the coal at.
We were also on the river with the kids one day when a tug and tow of barges hit the bridge piling, talk about excitement and the kids telling me, we think he's doing to hit the bridge and me telling them, no, they know what their doing only to feel the jolt and hear the crash and the kids yelling we told you he was going to hit it, and then the alarms and whistles going off and police cars showing up to block traffic from going across the bridge while inspections were done. The whole time we're in a 14 foot boat and had been fishing off the back of the bridge piling they hit, not something I'd care to relive again either, I do believe I was glad I was wearing brown pants too. Every time I cross that bridge, it brings back memories of that day, kind of makes you squirm a little when your loaded heavy and wide in the semi and going across that same bridge 20 plus years later and remembering the chunk the barge knocked off and as it fell into the river, not something you see everyday. Sorry for the walk down memory lane, carry on, just having a near senior moment deep in thought remembering.
Been up in the ports on the great lakes and watch them offload stuff too, but about 100 times larger than the river barges, its truly amazing to watch being done, up in the ports they unload container ships and bulk hold ships. A friend of mine used to take containers to the port to offload, he only told me, whatever you do, don't tick off the loaders, or they'll take your load, semi, trailer and all and set them in the bottom of the ship, cost him a couple grand to get it back off one time and he said, it gives you a greater appreciation of humility to have to pay to get your semi back off the ship, not to mention seeing it being loaded and unloaded again. Not 100 percent sure that's true, but several have told me the same story, after watching them, I do believe its possible.
