my uncle took me to work with him at one of the power plants in the flats. showed me the whole plant, tunnels under downtown, lunch at jimmys and for dessert, drove over to watch the huletts up and close.one of the best effing days of my life. thanks for posting.
My father worked down the docks in Ashtabula shoveling iron ore out of the corner hulls of the iron ore boats so that the huletts could grab the load. When I was in grade school, on 2 occasions, my dad allowed me to get into the very tight cab with the operator who ran the hulett. Good thing both of us were skinny! It was exciting and terrifying, getting onto those iron ore boats by climbing up a vertical ladder on the side of the boat to see the deep cargo hulls. Thought they would always be there.
Me too! Mt dad would take me to the flats on a Sunday afternoon and he'd park the car and we would watch all the activity at the steel mills, ore docks and freight yards. Never a dull moment, something going on everywhere you looked. Today... a ghost town. Thanks for commenting!
I remember those running at night unloading the boats fishing with my dad at night I always thought they were cool video brought back great memories thanks
Yes, so sad and true. I had always hoped that they could be reassembled next to the William Mather Museum ore ship and positioned over her holds but we know that will never happen thanks to the economy, political wrangling and a disregard for our history and industrial heritage. Thanks for commenting!
Both happy and sad that this era came to an end. Happy that this and other video's captured the history that would have been lost and sad that continued operations were curtailed by environmental concerns and foreign competition. (Remember, we rebuilt the economies of Japan, Germany and Indo-China). Our children may not know Cleveland's contribution to the growth of industrialization before, during and after WW2 with companies like Cleveland Cliffs (Mather Ore Transport), Standard Oil (SOHIO), Warner & Swayze, Park Drop-Forge, Brush Industries (Beryllium), Parker-Hannifin (Jet Engine and Hydraulic Components), Lubrizol (Lubricants). Lincoln Electric (Welding), Cleveland Pneumatic Tube (Landing Gear), Bailey Meter, Jack & Heinz, Sherwin-Williams (Chemicals & Coatings), General Electric (Communication Components), GM Fisher Body (Jeeps and Trucks), Ford Motors (Engines & Stampings), Cleveland Tank Plant (IX Center) and MANY others large and small. Lucky for me and my sister Valerie Jean that our father, Raymond Steve and our mother, Elvira Cecelia (both born "teachers") instilled in us a sense of curiousity and dedication that helped us to appreciate the History and Achievement of past times and the evelotion of ideas into today's world. We are thankful for them and regret their short lives. RIP. Ray Allan, posted 4-19-2021
Sadly I didn't know of the demise of these wonderful machines, I learned of them from Railfan and Railroad magazine around the eighties in and at the time these incredible beasts had been in operation since the first decade of the 1900's. Could imagine trying to get a product of this size and complexity okayed for operation today with all the unnecessary rules and regulations and attitudes that prevail. I just don't see much of a future for this country.
The Huletts weren’t killed by China or environmental concerns, they were killed by almost every ship being a self unloader making them redundant. American steel is even still a thing, Cleveland Cliffs just built a direct reduced iron facility in Toledo (basically a modern version of a blast furnace.)
I wish that I would win the lottery...I would send my sons to college and buy a 1995 Taurus SHO, but I would like to provide the funds to restore the Hulett ore unloaders, and allow a new generation to marvel at our industrial history. My friends and I used to watch them all the time. We live a five minute walk to Edgewater beach, and I will never forget the beauty of those magnificent machines...like stately, noble dinosaurs, going down and up in a mechanical ballet. I pray that they do not get scrapped before some kind soul donates to their restoration.
A lot of the yard switches were setup to throw over when you ran through them... this is one of 'em! Saved a lot of foot work. Good eye- Thanks for commenting!
Neat! Thanks for sharing that. The Library of Congress has some good photos of the machine shop. I've never found photos of the interior of the power house.
if you go down there now all the builings by the hulletts are gone, two of the hulletts are still there. They have been dismantled and neatly placed on the opposite side of the yard from were they stood. You cant even tell that those building ever existed because a large stone pile is there now. everything is gone.
Thanks ACL Tony - Sorry for the grammatic errors in the posting, but I am glad you appreciated it. I am hopeful that we can turn it around, and make it work again. There's still a chance.
Ford rouge had Huletts. Didn't look like that. Apparently its a brand name. Must have sold the classic ore unloaders before I got there in the 70's. These things had bridge booms that dropped down over the ship with buckets that went down inside. You had to be real good operator to not bang the hatch.
Back in the 1980's, a near tornado came to the Ford Rouge Plant. The sky was light green in color, and the three bridge cranes along the ore boat slip were parked together to strengthen and stabilize the cranes during this wild storm. Welp, every worker in every plant building in the Rouge had to shelter in the sub-basements of the plants. When the sky cleared, those 3 ore boat bridge cranes were on the ground. Draped all over the mountains of ore pellets, coal, and limestone. It took over 6 months to build new ore unloaders to service the Ford ships.
Look at all dead scrap metal laying around the deserted whiskey island property. Lot's of money could be made by shipping that scrap metal to China, so they can build more nuclear missiles to send to bomb the USA.
@@rickprusak9326 i cut up the ore bridge that blew over..not all by my self. There was only one that came down. The clamps to secure the bridge to the rails were held up by chain falls and inoperative.this was the summer of 1980.
@@christophergetts4729 I could swear all 3 came down, but how long did it take to completely cut and haul away the metal? Did the destroyed crane metal just go to the blast furnace area to be melted down?
@@rickprusak9326 months it was cut into 5 ft pieces and put in Ford's electric arc furnaces. The Blast furnaces are designex to smelt ore...although they did start using high grade conpressed scrap. this Scrap looked lile large twinkes and hockey pucks. Blast furnace was an amazing place. Hard work but they treated you well.
The unloaders are obsolete. The boats are all self unloaders..Ford Rouge's Huletts were like container bridge's with buckets. Never saw those other unloaders before..bizarre.
There were some yard switches that would flip when you ran them like that. The target would turn to show the correct route and the lever would stay latched. Better than a spring switch cause you could stop and back without worrying about splitting the points. GOOD eye! Thanks for watching
Question from England - The Hullets look as if they can unload from the ships to as far back as the last rail track but not beyond. How were the huge mound of ore in the centre of the balloon track built as the Hullets can't drop into that area?
Hello. Hulett is excellent in design. The Leg can drop into the hull or hold of ship and manouver in there to lift most of ore out of hold. Front-end loaders are lowered into hold to "clean" out corners. Bucket at end of leg can dump ore into "Larry Car" which weighs ore. Larry car can dump ore into discharge hopper which then dumps into rail cars OR can traverse to far-rear of machine and dump ore into stock pile where huge travelling bucket can mound ore into big piles. More information here: www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.oh0121.sheet?st=gallery Thank you.
Interesting run. Do you know what type(s) of locomotive(s) you were riding with? Looks/sounds like EMD hood units in the fading light. Sad to hear the Huletts are gone, but glad to hear railroad is still picking up ore loads from offshore boats.
Good question! As I recall they were a pair of GP-40-2s but I will see if I can find my original vid and see if I got an exterior shot. Thanks for asking, sorry for the delay...
+thomasabramson100 Yes. Running the engines and the camera at the same time. Before FRA electronic devices regulations. Part of why the camera work is a bit shaky.
so sad whats become of such amazing pieces of engineering history. hopefully the two left slowly rotting away up there will be resurrected someday as an ode to Mr. Hulett.
Interesting how the powerhouse is not that unattractive. Even though it really didn't need to be pleasing to the eye since it was mostly out of the public eye they still spent extra money to make it look decent. Compared to today's factories and warehouses and even regular housing is just put together as cheaply as possible. I also notice in this video, there are only 3 sets of tracks going under the huletts even though I know there were 4 in operation. And it looks like the 3rd rail for the shunt cars has been removed as well.
@@gmpullman That's really sad. I was visiting the Marquette ore docks in 2018. For a foreigner, it's a lovely town and an interesting piece of technology to visit.
@@gmpullman If you can't explain it, it's probably a dumb reason... Do you cry over the lack of steam locomotives, too? What about the telegraph? You emotionally distraught over its demise, as well?
Too bad Cleveland turned into such a dump over the last 75 years. Truly the "Armpit of America". There are only 2 places worse off than Cleveland, Detroit and Baltimore. St.Louis is getting there also.
@@theoldbigmoose now, the Healthcare Industry ( Cleve. Clinic and University Hospitals ) and the reknown Case - Western Univ. are leading the way for a rebirth.
my uncle took me to work with him at one of the power plants in the flats. showed me the whole plant, tunnels under downtown, lunch at jimmys and for dessert, drove over to watch the huletts up and close.one of the best effing days of my life. thanks for posting.
My father worked down the docks in Ashtabula shoveling iron ore out of the corner hulls of the iron ore boats so that the huletts could grab the load. When I was in grade school, on 2 occasions, my dad allowed me to get into the very tight cab with the operator who ran the hulett. Good thing both of us were skinny! It was exciting and terrifying, getting onto those iron ore boats by climbing up a vertical ladder on the side of the boat to see the deep cargo hulls. Thought they would always be there.
Me too! Mt dad would take me to the flats on a Sunday afternoon and he'd park the car and we would watch all the activity at the steel mills, ore docks and freight yards. Never a dull moment, something going on everywhere you looked. Today... a ghost town.
Thanks for commenting!
I have simular memories of Bridgeport, Connecticut.
I remember those running at night unloading the boats fishing with my dad at night I always thought they were cool video brought back great memories thanks
wow awesome video.
Thanks for having the foresight to document such a thing at the time and then share it. Cool industrial stuff.
Yes, so sad and true. I had always hoped that they could be reassembled next to the William Mather Museum ore ship and positioned over her holds but we know that will never happen thanks to the economy, political wrangling and a disregard for our history and industrial heritage.
Thanks for commenting!
Both happy and sad that this era came to an end. Happy that this and other video's captured the history that would have been lost and sad that continued operations were curtailed by environmental concerns and foreign competition. (Remember, we rebuilt the economies of Japan, Germany and Indo-China). Our children may not know Cleveland's contribution to the growth of industrialization before, during and after WW2 with companies like Cleveland Cliffs (Mather Ore Transport), Standard Oil (SOHIO), Warner & Swayze, Park Drop-Forge, Brush Industries (Beryllium), Parker-Hannifin (Jet Engine and Hydraulic Components), Lubrizol (Lubricants). Lincoln Electric (Welding), Cleveland Pneumatic Tube (Landing Gear), Bailey Meter, Jack & Heinz, Sherwin-Williams (Chemicals & Coatings), General Electric (Communication Components), GM Fisher Body (Jeeps and Trucks), Ford Motors (Engines & Stampings), Cleveland Tank Plant (IX Center) and MANY others large and small. Lucky for me and my sister Valerie Jean that our father, Raymond Steve and our mother, Elvira Cecelia (both born "teachers") instilled in us a sense of curiousity and dedication that helped us to appreciate the History and Achievement of past times and the evelotion of ideas into today's world. We are thankful for them and regret their short lives. RIP. Ray Allan, posted 4-19-2021
Left out Republic Steel, Jones & Laughlin, (Otis Iron & Cleve. Strip Mill), Cleveland Twist Drill. Others, please add to this list.
Sadly I didn't know of the demise of these wonderful machines, I learned of them from Railfan and Railroad magazine around the eighties in and at the time these incredible beasts had been in operation since the first decade of the 1900's. Could imagine trying to get a product of this size and complexity okayed for operation today with all the unnecessary rules and regulations and attitudes that prevail. I just don't see much of a future for this country.
The Huletts weren’t killed by China or environmental concerns, they were killed by almost every ship being a self unloader making them redundant.
American steel is even still a thing, Cleveland Cliffs just built a direct reduced iron facility in Toledo (basically a modern version of a blast furnace.)
@@GigaG11come now, we can’t be *reasonable* here. We’re supposed to be glamorizing a bygone era and vaguely whining about regulations
I wish that I would win the lottery...I would send my sons to college and buy a 1995 Taurus SHO, but I would like to provide the funds to restore the Hulett ore unloaders, and allow a new generation to marvel at our industrial history. My friends and I used to watch them all the time. We live a five minute walk to Edgewater beach, and I will never forget the beauty of those magnificent machines...like stately, noble dinosaurs, going down and up in a mechanical ballet. I pray that they do not get scrapped before some kind soul donates to their restoration.
Wow, a big winner, going to buy a Tauras. 😅 😂 🤣
Never saw them this close. That was a real treat. Thanks.
Whoever made this video, way ahead of their time.
I sure hope that was a spring switch around the 7:10 point. In any case, thanks for preserving the memory of the truly amazing Hulett loader.
A lot of the yard switches were setup to throw over when you ran through them... this is one of 'em! Saved a lot of foot work. Good eye- Thanks for commenting!
Very sobering comments and realistic. Saddening and frustrating that basically, we did it to ourselves.
The power house dates from 1890s.You had a good run boys.
sadly, you all know we will NEVER see a hulett standing tall ever again :(
The building @ 3:20 was my old shop on the breakwater side of Whiskey Island. Brings back memories.
Neat! Thanks for sharing that. The Library of Congress has some good photos of the machine shop. I've never found photos of the interior of the power house.
Nice seeing a bit of history that's most likely gone forever.
Fascinating.
Please carry on!
if you go down there now all the builings by the hulletts are gone, two of the hulletts are still there. They have been dismantled and neatly placed on the opposite side of the yard from were they stood. You cant even tell that those building ever existed because a large stone pile is there now. everything is gone.
Thanks ACL Tony - Sorry for the grammatic errors in the posting, but I am glad you appreciated it. I am hopeful that we can turn it around, and make it work again. There's still a chance.
Very cool to see from this perspective.
Love The Tower. It was my "night light" as a child.
Ford rouge had Huletts. Didn't look like that. Apparently its a brand name. Must have sold the classic ore unloaders before I got there in the 70's. These things had bridge booms that dropped down over the ship with buckets that went down inside. You had to be real good operator to not bang the hatch.
Back in the 1980's, a near tornado came to the Ford Rouge Plant. The sky was light green in color, and the three bridge cranes along the ore boat slip were parked together to strengthen and stabilize the cranes during this wild storm. Welp, every worker in every plant building in the Rouge had to shelter in the sub-basements of the plants. When the sky cleared, those 3 ore boat bridge cranes were on the ground. Draped all over the mountains of ore pellets, coal, and limestone. It took over 6 months to build new ore unloaders to service the Ford ships.
Look at all dead scrap metal laying around the deserted whiskey island property. Lot's of money could be made by shipping that scrap metal to China, so they can build more nuclear missiles to send to bomb the USA.
@@rickprusak9326 i cut up the ore bridge that blew over..not all by my self. There was only one that came down. The clamps to secure the bridge to the rails were held up by chain falls and inoperative.this was the summer of 1980.
@@christophergetts4729 I could swear all 3 came down, but how long did it take to completely cut and haul away the metal? Did the destroyed crane metal just go to the blast furnace area to be melted down?
@@rickprusak9326 months it was cut into 5 ft pieces and put in Ford's electric arc furnaces. The Blast furnaces are designex to smelt ore...although they did start using high grade conpressed scrap. this
Scrap looked lile large twinkes and hockey pucks. Blast furnace was an amazing place. Hard work but they treated you well.
Instead of sinking money into that Joke of a football team, why don't they restore the last two remaining Huletts?
Huh, I didn't know Jimmy Haslam also owned the Huletts.
calvinthedestroyer Absolutely.
The unloaders are obsolete. The boats are all self unloaders..Ford Rouge's Huletts were like container bridge's with buckets. Never saw those other unloaders before..bizarre.
Echoes of greatness, now shadows of the past.
that was cool thanks for the ride
At 7:00 did he run through a switch? Hard to tell if it was a spring switch.
There were some yard switches that would flip when you ran them like that. The target would turn to show the correct route and the lever would stay latched. Better than a spring switch cause you could stop and back without worrying about splitting the points. GOOD eye! Thanks for watching
Question from England - The Hullets look as if they can unload from the ships to as far back as the last rail track but not beyond. How were the huge mound of ore in the centre of the balloon track built as the Hullets can't drop into that area?
Hello.
Hulett is excellent in design. The Leg can drop into the hull or hold of ship and manouver in there to lift most of ore out of hold. Front-end loaders are lowered into hold to "clean" out corners.
Bucket at end of leg can dump ore into "Larry Car" which weighs ore. Larry car can dump ore into discharge hopper which then dumps into rail cars OR can traverse to far-rear of machine and dump ore into stock pile where huge travelling bucket can mound ore into big piles.
More information here:
www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.oh0121.sheet?st=gallery
Thank you.
Interesting run. Do you know what type(s) of locomotive(s) you were riding with? Looks/sounds like EMD hood units in the fading light. Sad to hear the Huletts are gone, but glad to hear railroad is still picking up ore loads from offshore boats.
Good question! As I recall they were a pair of GP-40-2s but I will see if I can find my original vid and see if I got an exterior shot. Thanks for asking, sorry for the delay...
+AlcoOneNote looks like he was driving the loco he is on the engineers side in the drivers seat
+thomasabramson100 Yes. Running the engines and the camera at the same time. Before FRA electronic devices regulations. Part of why the camera work is a bit shaky.
For industrial trackage that's in incredible condition that's main line quality
Great video thanks.
+PRR E-44 Glad you enjoyed it. E-44s are great, wish I had some in HO!
Used to do a lot of blow in those operator booths back in my day
A rugged industrial masterpiece theater 🎥 👌
Pretty neat to see all that stuff. Thanks for preserving and sharing this.
Thank you, glad you liked!
@alexander1485 Um, yes. From 1992-1995 Ford sold 1.4 million Taurus models. A few survived into 1999.
Thanks for commenting...
Yeah they tried to see the Taurus in Australia but it was never bought up in numbers like you say.Just never took off in Australia ....
Those crossings didn't work....how lovely
so sad whats become of such amazing pieces of engineering history. hopefully the two left slowly rotting away up there will be resurrected someday as an ode to Mr. Hulett.
Thank you for your comments.
i saw a 1994 or 1995 ford taurus...?
Very cool!
Is that someones Smart Beep pager going off that I hear?
Called an alerter. Engineer has to acknowledge in allotted time or the brakes will apply.
Interesting how the powerhouse is not that unattractive. Even though it really didn't need to be pleasing to the eye since it was mostly out of the public eye they still spent extra money to make it look decent. Compared to today's factories and warehouses and even regular housing is just put together as cheaply as possible. I also notice in this video, there are only 3 sets of tracks going under the huletts even though I know there were 4 in operation. And it looks like the 3rd rail for the shunt cars has been removed as well.
I see that the river was not on fire that night.
way cool, long live Conrail, and all the other fallen flags.
Thanks for commenting! Glad you like. Ditto on the fallen flags, I even miss Penn-Central LOL!
I sure miss Southern Pacific, Missouri Pacific and Santa Fe, I grew up with them.
1968Jayhawk Me also.
And the New Haven when I lived in Rhode Island
+Bill rouleau and i miss the Erie Lackawanna
Wasn't Conrail totally subsidized by the Federal government like AmTrak? A total taxpayer rip off?
The entire infrastructure new and old appears to be falling apart...
It seems nobody cares, aka no maintenance done.
Yes. This is true.
Of course there are only two remaining, lost in the weeds and little hope of ever being rescued.
@@gmpullman That's really sad.
I was visiting the Marquette ore docks in 2018. For a foreigner, it's a lovely town and an interesting piece of technology to visit.
Disgusting the fate of these things of beauty
Why are people so emotionally attached to these things?? It's just a tool of industry...
Hard to explain... Thanks.
@@gmpullman If you can't explain it, it's probably a dumb reason... Do you cry over the lack of steam locomotives, too? What about the telegraph? You emotionally distraught over its demise, as well?
Too bad Cleveland turned into such a dump over the last 75 years. Truly the "Armpit of America". There are only 2 places worse off than Cleveland, Detroit and Baltimore. St.Louis is getting there also.
I drive trucks and been to all of them and they are all run down ,worn out .
I still remember the sign at the Cleveland airport "Best Location In the Nation!" ...
@@theoldbigmoose now, the Healthcare Industry ( Cleve. Clinic and University Hospitals ) and the reknown Case - Western Univ. are leading the way for a rebirth.