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As we had done the previous day, we raced ahead to the Rakahuri Bridge over the Ashley River at Rangiora to wait for the DJ and DG to cross the river. Shortly after arriving, we were caught out by DXC5483 and DXR8007 heading north with 736 freight from Christchurch to Picton. KiwiRail operate a number of containerized freight services between Picton and Christchurch in both directions each day to meet the ferries and keep heavy trucks off the nations winding, narrow highways.

Savannah River

Talmadge Memorial Bridge

Factor's Row

Savannah, Georgia

 

5 Image Photomerge

 

This is probably one of my longest stitches ever but it was the only way to truly capture the size of the Savannah River, the Talmadge Bridge and I included the buildings along River Street as an afterthought and actually liked how it turned out. The boat you see in the near center of the image is one the largest I've ever seen, standing at around 14 stories, and the suspension bridge unbelievably high (17 stories tall or 185 ft) and long (1.9 miles). The bridge makes for an impressive structure in the background of the old buildings that line the riverside. Another impressive sight is watching the massive boats cruise up and down the river. The Port Of Savannah is the only second to Baltimore in the transhipment of containerized cargo of ports along the Atlantic.

Perennial peanut (Arachis glabrata) is a pretty groundcover with cheerful yellow flowers that bloom all summer long. It requires almost no maintenance and can be planted throughout Florida.

Perennial peanut needs full or partial sun to thrive. When planted from rhizomes or plugs, it’s best established in winter or early spring, but containerized perennial peanut can be planted year-round.

It tolerates mowing, and actually blooms more after it’s been cut.

  

Reverse Osmosis plant is considered as one of the most easy

method for desalinization of waters like sea water, Reverse

Osmosis Plant ground water, brackish water and so on. When

the saline solution comes in contact with the semipermeable

membrane the pure water is separated from the impurities.

The treatment of brackish water is more or less same as the

desalination Reverse Osmosis Plant process however there

is one major difference. In brackish water treatment,

additional pretreatment of water is done to increase the

shelf life of the reverse osmosis membrane. Reverse Osmosis

Plant In order to adjust the pH antiscalents, biocides,

detergents or other chemical additives are also added. Like

RO process here also the feedwater is divided into product

water and concentrated water. The product water is further

treated (post treatment) in order to adjust the pH, to

remove the odor and for degasification. Reverse Osmosis

Plant

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Watch this video on Vimeo. Video created by rotack.

A containerized shipping crane in the port of Oakland

4G01, the 0551 Seaforth - Ironbridge Power Station loaded Biomass, headed by GBRf 66 730 "Whitemoor", crosses Coalbrookdale Viaduct & passes the Museum Of Iron shortly before arriving at it's destination on July 23rd 2014.

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

Meatpacking District, Gansevoort Market Historic District, Manhattan

 

These buildings have had a complex construction history, made confusing by the existing records. In 1873, Aaron H. Wellington, proprietor of the Merchants' Print Works (located in 1870 at 69 Worth Street), purchased the property at No. 416-418, and in 1874 constructed a four-story, 50-foot-wide cotton print works factory and one-story stable to the design of S.W. Johnson. This is one of the earliest extant factory buildings in the historic district. In 1887, No. 414 was built as a five-story warehouse addition to Wellington's factory, on a lot he leased from William Astor (the Astors owned this property between 1819 and 1943). Architect Joseph M. Dunn apparently continued the earlier Italianate style design of Johnson. An 1889 commercial directory corroborates that Wellington used the entire site (Nos. 414-418) for his business. After 1906, when Wellington ceased using this property, No. 414 was leased by the Boley Mfg. Co., bottle dealers.

 

In 1906, August Silz purchased the property at No. 416-418. Silz (1 874-1921), born in Paris, immigrated to New York in 1898 and founded A. Silz, Inc., which the New York Times called in 1921 "one of the largest breeders and distributors of poultry and game in the United States," supplying to hotels, clubs, restaurants, steamships, and the military. A company advertisement in 1914 boasted of being the "largest distributing house in the world." The Times also credited Silz with popularizing the guinea hen with New York diners. No. 416-418 was altered for Silz, as shown on a surviving letterhead from 191 1: new storefront, metal canopy, iron balconies, and a bracketed, deeply overhanging cornice (all since removed); No. 414 received a similar cornice around this time (which survives). In 1908 (Alt. 1940-1908), the interior upper portion of No. 414 was altered for meat and poultry cold storage, apparently for Silz. No. 416-418 was connected in 191 1 to 419 West 13'Street [see], also used by Silz's firm. In 1917 (Alt. 1758-1917, George Dress), afifth-story "false front" wall was constructed on No. 416-418 (to raise it to match No. 414), with the c. 1906-07 cornice re-used (the cornice has since been removed and the fifth-story openings covered). At Silz's death in 1921, the Hotel Men's Assn. ordered flags at all hotels flown at half mast. The business continued as House of A. Silz by Raymond Silz. In 1928, however, the property (No. 416-418) was foreclosed by the County Trust Co. of N.Y. When the bank constructed a new building at the northeast corner of Eighth Avenue and West 1 4S~tre et, it gave. partial payment of their lease to the Estate of Bradish Johnson by transferring No. 416-418 in 1932 to the Johnson estate.

 

Most later tenants have been poultry and meat dealers. In 1949, No. 416-418 was acquired by Lomel Meats, Inc.1 Lomel Realty, Inc. (Louis Meilman); Meilman Bros. purchased No. 414 in 1987. For years, the facade of No. 416-418 was covered by a screen; a recent renovation has uncovered the original fenestration pattern.

 

No. 414 was constructed and altered during one of the major phases of development in the district, when buildings were developed for market-related and other industrial uses. It also housed one of the earliest industries in the district and a significant market-related business.

Commercial Tenants

No. 416-418 (and, after 1887, 414-418): Merchants' Print Works (Aaron H. Wellington), cotton

prints (1875-1906)

No. 414: [Benjamin] Boley Mfg. Co., bottle dealers (1906-12); A. Silz, Inc., poultry (1914); Hoffman & Mayer, Inc., poultry and game (1929-75); Food Traders & Vendors Ltd. (1980);

West Side Cooler Corp. (1993)

No. 416-418: A. Silz, Inc., poultry (1906-28); Hoffman & Mayer, Inc., poultry and game (1929-33);

Atlantic Hotel Supply Co. (Armour & Co.), meat (1928-38); Market &Business Men's Assn.

of Greenwich and Chelsea Districts (1929-33); Diplomat Products, Inc.1 Silz Packing Co.

(1936); Dumortier & Co., meat (1942); Great Western Distributors, Inc., eggs and poultry

(1942); BILFoodProducts, Inc. (1945-49); Sidney Katz, meat (1950); Louis Meilman, Inc.1

Meilman Bros., meat (1949-93); Alfred P. Seligman, meat (1950-70); M&M Veal Co.1

M&M Packing Co. (1950-86); Whitehall Packing Co. (1959); New York Ki Society (1993);

Technowild Electrosystems (1993); The Cooler (1993)

 

----About the district----

 

The Gansevoort Market Historic District - consisting of 104 buildings - is distinctive for its architectural character which reflects the area's long history of continuous, varied use as a place of dwelling, industry, and commerce, particularly as a marketplace, and its urban layout. The buildings, most dating from the 1840s through the 1940s, represent four major phases of development, and include both purpose-built structures, designed in then-fashionable styles, and those later adapted for market use.

 

The architecture of the district tells the story of an important era in New York City's history when it became the financial center of the country and when its markets were expanding to serve the metropolitan region and beyond. Visual cohesion is provided to the streetscapes by the predominance of brick as a facade material; the one- to six-story scale; the presence of buildings designed by the same architects, a number of them prominent, including specialists in market-related structures; the existence of metal canopies originally installed for market purposes; and the Belgian block paving still visible on most streets.

 

The street layout is shaped by the transition between the irregular pattern of northwestern Greenwich Village (as far north as Gansevoort Street) and the grid of the 1811 Commissioner's Plan. Unusually large and open intersections contribute to the area's unique quality, particularly where Ninth Avenue meets West 14'~S treet and Gansevoort Street (which was widened in l887), and provide sweeping vistas that showcase the unusual building typology and mixed-use quality of the district. Aside from Tribeca, the Gansevoort Market Historic District is the only remaining marketplace district that served the once-flourishing Hudson River commercial waterfront.

 

The earliest buildings in the historic district date from the period between 1840 and 1854, most built as rowhouses and town houses, several of which soon became very early working-class tenements (all eventually had stores on the ground floor). The area's early mixed use, however, is evident in the rare surviving early factory building (c. 1849-60), on a flatiron-shaped lot, for Col. Silas C. Herring, a nationally significant manufacturer of safes and locks, at 669-685 Hudson Street.

 

This mixed use, consisting of single-family houses, multiple dwellings, and industry was unusual for the period. The stretch of Ninth Avenue between Gansevoort and West 15' Streets, albeit altered and interrupted with later additions, offers the vista of a distinctive Manhattan streetscape featuring twenty buildings of the 1840s: the rowhouses at Nos. 3-7 (c. 1849) and Nos. 21-27 (c. 1844-46), the Herring factory, and culminating in the rare, picturesque ensemble of twelve rowhouses and town houses, Nos. 44-60 Ninth Avenue and 351-355 West 14th Street (c. 1841-46), at the wide, angled intersection with Hudson and West 14" Streets. Another business from this period was the woodworking factory of the prominent building firm of James C. Hoe & Co. (c. 1850-54) at 52-58 Gansevoort Street (later altered).

 

After the Civil War, the area began to flourish commercially as New York City solidified its position as the financial center of the country, and construction resumed in the district in 1870. Two major businesses located here were A.H. Wellington's Merchants' Print Works (1 874, S. W. Johnson), cotton printers at 416-418 West 14" Street (later altered); and the Italianate style Centennial Brewery (1876, John B. Snook) at 409-41 1 West 14' Street.

 

The bulk of the buildings in the district date from the 1880s through the 1920s and were designed in then-popular historical revival styles. Residential and commercial development, including a variety of building types, was particularly spurred in the 1880s by two major factors. The first was the creation of two nearby municipal markets: the open-air Farmers' or Gansevoort Market (1 879), for regional produce, at Gansevoort and Washington Streets (adjacent to the historic district), and the West Washington Market (1889), for meat, poultry, and dairy products, on the river side of West Street. From the 1880s until World War II, wholesale produce, fruit, groceries, dairy products, eggs, specialty foods, and liquor (until Prohibition) were among the dominant businesses within the district in response to the adjacent markets, particularly along Gansevoort, Little West 12', and Washington Streets. The first of the two-story, purpose-built market buildings in the district were erected in 1880.

 

These vernacular and neo-Grec style structures typified the low-rise market buildings constructed in the district over the next 90 years: produce (or, later, meat) handling on the ground story, shielded by a metal canopy over the sidewalk, and offices on the second story.

 

Commercial construction during this period, which represents the highest percentage of the district's varied yet distinctive building stock, included not only low-rise purpose-built market buildings, but also, in a variety of period styles, stables buildings, and five- and six-story store-and-loft buildings and warehouses were constructed to house and serve these businesses. The warehouses, in particular, are among the most monumental structures in the district.

 

The second factor spurring development within the historic district was the 1878 partition of real estate owned by the Astor family, which had remained underdeveloped since John Jacob Astor 1's acquisition in 1819. Of the 104 buildings in the district, over one-third of them were constructed by the Astors and related family members. Astor improvements included the market buildings at 823-833 Washington Street and 32-36 Little West 12" Street (1880, Joseph M. Dunn, James Stroud); the distinguished Queen Anne style French flats building (with stores) at 440 West 14" Street (1887, James W. Cole), the block-long Queen Anne style produce market building at 859- 877 Washington Street (1887, Cole), and the handsome Romanesque Revival style stables building (1893, Thomas R. Jackson) for the New York Biscuit Co. (later Nabisco), the world's largest supplier of crackers, at 439-445 West 14" Street.

 

A number of other prominent owners also invested in real estate here and began to develop their properties: the Goelet family constructed the unusual flatiron-shaped store-and-loft building at 53-61 Gansevoort Street (1887, Dunn), which housed E.S.

 

Burnham & Co., clam canners; James AlfredRoosevelt owned the warehouse at 400 West 14thS treet (1886, Dunn); and former New York Mayor Hugh J. Grant developed the neo-Romanesque style warehouses (1 899-1900, George P. Chappell) at 97-103 Horatio Street. The Astors and other owners gave several commissions to architects Joseph M. Dunn, who designed seven buildings in the district, and James W. Cole, who designed three buildings in the district. These multiple commissions in the then-fashionable neo-Grec or Queen Anne styles contribute to the district's visual cohesion.

 

Between 1897 and 1935, nearly the entire block bounded by Gansevoort, Horatio, Washington, and West Streets was developed with a handsome neo-Classical style ensemble in tan brick, by noted architects Lansing C. Holden, J. Graham Glover, and John B. Snook Sons, that included a power plant and nine cold storage warehouses for the Manhattan Refrigerating Co. (incorporated 1894).

 

The company was responsible for installing the system of underground pipes that carried refrigeration to market-related structures throughout the district by about 1906. This infrastructure, along with the completion by the N.Y.C. Dept. of Docks of the nearby Gansevoort Piers (1894-1902) and Chelsea Piers (1902-10, with Warren & Wetmore), docks for the great trans- Atlantic steamships (and the busiest section of New York's port), had profound impacts on the district. The distribution of wholesale meat, poultry, and seafood, particularly for hotels, restaurants, and steamships, emerged as an important business throughout the district, resulting in new construction as well as bringing new uses to existing buildings. Some companies were subsidiaries of major national meatpackers, while other independent firms were among the nation's largest.

 

The underground refrigeration system, the new piers, and the emergence of new uses relating to the burgeoning hotel and steamship industry further triggered the 20th-century construction and architectural change and flexibility that has shaped the character of the Gansevoort Market Historic District. Typically, commercial redevelopments of neighborhoods in New York City involved the demolition of earlier buildings for structures housing new uses. However, one of the district's unique qualities is that earlier buildings were retained and altered to market uses. Earlier examples include the Centennial Brewery (409-41 1 West 14" Street), converted to meat, produce, and dairy use in 1901, and 21-27 Ninth Avenue, rowhouses adapted in 1923-24 as meat market buildings.

 

Over the years, the Astors continued their policy of high-quality architectural commissions by hiring distinguished architects known for their significant public, commercial, and residential buildings, such as the neo-Classical style offices and printing plant (1901-02, Trowbridge & Livingston) of P.F. Collier & Son, publisher of books and the nationally-known magazine Collier's, at 416-424 West 13' Street; the neo-Romanesque style liquor warehouse at 29-35 Ninth Avenue (1902-03, Boring & Tilton); and the Arts and Crafts style warehouse building (1913, LaFarge, Morris & Cullen) at 5 Little West 1 2 '~S treet.

 

The completion of the Holland Tunnel (1927), the elevated Miller Highway (1931), and the New York Central Railroad's elevated freight railway (1934) providedeasier access between the area and the metropolitan region and spurred another major phase of new low-rise construction and the functional conversion of existing buildings for market use in the district. New structures included the earlyInternationa1 style General Electric Co. annex (1929-30, Lockwood Greene Engineers, Inc.) at 414 West 14' Street, and the Moderne style John Morrell & Co. meat market building (1936-37, H. Peter Henschien) at 446-448 West 14'~S treet.

 

The unusually wide Gansevoort Street assumed its distinctive character of low-rise market buildings with metal canopies at this time, through such new construction as the fruitlproduce market building (1938-39, Charles H. Stadler) at No. 46-50, and the Moderne style R&L Restaurant (1949), at No.69, and newly adapted structures, including No. 52-58 (formerly James C. Hoe & Co.), altered as a market building in 1937, and No. 60-68 (1880-81 tenements), reduced to a two-story market building in 1940.

 

By World War II, poultry- and meat- packing had consolidated as the main commercial activity within the district. Maritime commerce along the Hudson River waterfront declined by the 1960s, however, with the end of the ocean liner era and the rise of containerized shipping. Changes in the meat and poultry industries meant a lessening presence in this area. The Manhattan Refrigerating Co. closed in 1979 and its buildings were subsequently converted to apartments.

 

The completion of several more transportation and development projects (most located outside the historic district) in the 1930s spurred another major phase of new low-rise construction and functional conversion for market use of existing buildings within the historic district. Easier access was provided between the market area and the metropolitan region. The construction of the elevated Miller Highway (1929-3 1) necessitated the displacement of some produce and meat and poultry merchants in both the Gansevoort and West Washington Markets, including the demolition of several buildings at the latter. The Port of New York Authority built the Union Inland Terminal No. 1 (1931-32, Abbott, Merkt & Co.), a unified truck-rail terminal (modeled functionally after the Starrett-Lehigh Building), just northeast of the district and occupying the entire block at Ninth Avenue and West 15" Street.

 

The New York Central Railroad's elevated freight railway (193 1-34) passed through some thirty buildings on its route southward to the new St. John's Park Freight Terminal at West and Clarkson Streets. This railway also used part of the Gansevoort Market site, and additionally, the City constructed a meat processing plant on the market site (1939). The Lincoln Tunnel (1937) provided a second automotive route to New Jersey. The Ninth Avenue el, which ran through the district, was demolished (c. 1940); streetcar tracks located below the el had been taken up in 1936.

 

The first new purpose-built low-scale (one-story) market building in the historic district was 14-20 Little West 12" Street (1928, John B. Snook Sons), for the Wendel family and used initially by produce merchants. The P.F. Collier & Son building at 416-424 West 13" Street became a warehouse of the General Electric Co. in 1929; an early International style annex (1929-30, Lockwood Greene Engineers, Inc.) was constructed next door at 414 West 14" Street. Owned by Vincent Astor, this was the last of the Astor improvements within the district. 13 and 15 Little West 12' Street (1933, Martin Smith) were one-story fruit market buildings. Designed in the Moderne style were the John Morrell & Co. meat market building (1936-37, H. Peter Henschien) at 446-448 West 14th Street; the meat market building at 837-843 Washington Street (1938, David M. Oltarsh); and the fruitlproduce market building at 46-50 Gansevoort Street (1938-39, Charles H. Stadler).

 

Built at a time when the growing prevalence of the automobile resulted in the predominance of new market types throughout the U.S. (such as drive-in markets, chain grocery stores, and supermarkets), these buildings are rare and late examples of the older market building typology.34 Many of the buildings in the district that were architecturally adapted for market functions were properties acquired through foreclosure at the height of the Depression. Most of these buildings were functionally maximized at two stories (vacant, formerly residential, upper stories were no longer necessary): the lower story was refrigerated for produce or meat use and the upper story held offices. The unusually wide Gansevoort Street assumed its distinctive character of low-rise market buildings with metal canopies at this time, largely through such newly-adapted structures, including the vernacular style No. 52-58 (formerly James C. Hoe & Co.), altered as a fruit and produce market building in 1937 (S. Walter Katz); the neo-Grec style No. 60-68 (five 1880-81 tenements), reduced to a two-story market building in 1940 (Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith); and No. 7 1-73 (aka 8 17- 821 Washington Street) (three 1886-87 Queen Anne style French flats buildings), reduced to three stories in 1940 for use as a meat market building. The neo-Grec and utilitarian style 823-833 Washington Street and neo-Grec style 32-36 Little West 12" Street, 1880 two-story market buildings, were also altered in 1940-41 for meat merchants.

 

By World War II, poultry- and meat- packing had consolidated as the main commercial activity throughout the district. The opening of the Queens Live Poultry Terminal Market (1941) caused poultry dealers to move from the West Washington Market, replaced in part by produce merchants. The creation in 1950 of the Gansevoort Market Meat Center on the site of Gansevoort Market and the demolition of the remaining West Washington Market buildings, with the associated displacement of the businesses at both locations, hastened changes within the district. In 1959, the Gansevoort Market area was referred to in the New York Times as "the largest meat and poultry receiving market in the world. In the district, 408-412 West 13" Street (1941, Charles N. & Selig Whinston) was a new two-story market building used by hides/skins and meat businesses, while 36- 40 Gansevoort Street (aka 831-835 Greenwich Street) (1947-48, Horace Ginsbern & Assocs.), for poultry businesses, was the last new purpose-built market building in the district. The Moderne style R & L Restaurant (1949), 69 Gansevoort Street, resulted from the alteration of a three-story house.

 

Alterations associated with conversions to meat market uses included 809-813 Washington Street (aka 70-74 Gansevoort Street) (1940-42, Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith), a freight trucking depot altered in 1950; 402-404 and 406 West 13th Street (1840s rowhouses) altered in1950 and 1955 (Abraham L. Seiden); and 15 and 13 Little West 12" Street (c. 1961 and 1969 additions, bylattributed to Seiden).

 

Today, the Gansevoort Market Historic District is a vibrant neighborhood of remaining meatpackers, high-end retail commerce, restaurants, offices, clubs, galleries, and apartments, that retains, despite recent changes, a strong and integral sense of place as a market district, due to its distinctive streetscapes, metal canopies, notable buildings, both purpose-built and those adapted over the years for market use, and unusual street pattern with its Belgian block paving.

 

- From the 2003 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

October 31, 2011

JAXPORT CEO Paul Anderson today announced the port, with assistance from the City of Jacksonville and the State of Florida, is seeking $25 million from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grant of the U.S. Department of Transportation for construction of a $45 million Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) at the Dames Point Marine Terminal. The balance of the funding — $20 million — would come from the state.

 

The proposed ICTF would transport containerized cargo efficiently from ships to rail cars, increasing the port’s ability to move cargo quickly, reducing truck miles and decreasing exhaust emissions and highway maintenance costs. The project would also create employment and attract new business to the region.

 

“Adding an ICTF to JAXPORT’s already superior highway and rail connections will offer even more cost-effective solutions for shippers in an industry demanding efficiency and speed,” said JAXPORT CEO Paul Anderson. “By taking this opportunity to attract federal investment in North Florida, we can continue to expand our competitiveness and our economic significance to the region, state and nation.”

 

Anderson was joined for today’s announcement by Mayor Alvin Brown, State Rep. Lake Ray and CSX Vice President Clarence Gooden.

 

"In this economy, we must all work together to leverage greater returns from our scarce resources. JAXPORT is a proven economic engine that would put this investment to good use generating jobs in Northeast Florida while making Jacksonville a more attractive and competitive site for cargo,” said Mayor Brown. The U.S. DOT plans to award the TIGER Grants in early 2012. The JAXPORT ICTF has a target completion date at the end of 2014, contingent upon the awarding of funds.

 

Photo credit: JAXPORT, Meredith Fordham Hughes

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

Meatpacking District, Gansevoort Market Historic District, Manhattan

 

This six-story store-and-loft building was constructed in 1903-04 for Diedrich and George A. Fink, paper and woodware merchants. By 1909, both Finks were deceased and the property was transferred to John Jordan, its builder. Also in 1909, the building concern of John Jordan & Son went bankrupt. Adeline S. Fink, presumably the widow of one of the Finks, married Jordan in 1910. This structure appears initially to have been used mostly for storage, packing, and offices. It was owned briefly in 1919-21 by poultry dealer August Silz [see 414-418 West 14th Street and 419 West 13' Street].

 

In 1921 (Alt. 2587-1921) the structure was converted into a cold storage warehouse for meatpackers. Edward Davis, Inc., supplier of meat and poultry for hotels, restaurants and steamships, was a long-term tenant. A painted sign advertising "Edward Davis, Inc." is still partially visible above the fourth story. Between 1966 and 1970, the building was owned and used by the New York Loin Corp. The next owner was Alfred P. Seligman, also owner of the Imperial Veal & Lamb Co., located here, and 426 West 14" Street [see], which becanie associated this building after its purchase by Seligman in 1977. In 1996-99, the upper stories were converted into offices.

 

This neo-Classical style building, which is largely intact, contributes to the historically mixed architecture and varied uses - including market-related functions - of the Gansevoort Market Historic District. Constructed in 1903-04, during one of the major phases of development of the district, when buildings were constructed for storage- and produce-related businesses and other market uses, this building further contributes to the visual cohesion of the district through its brick and stone facade, metal cornice, and metaI canopy.

 

Commercial Tenants Diedrich and George A. Fink, paper and woodware (1904-09); A. Silz, Inc., poultry (1906); William A. Vanwoert & Co., produce (1906); Edward Davis, Inc., meat and poultry for hotels, restaurants and steamships; Renid Sterilizing Corp (1929-65); Great Western Distributors (1939); Jiffy Foods, Inc. (1942); New York Loin Corp. (1966-70); Imperial Veal &Lamb Co. (1970-88); Heller Gallery (1999-2002)

 

----About the district----

 

The Gansevoort Market Historic District - consisting of 104 buildings - is distinctive for its architectural character which reflects the area's long history of continuous, varied use as a place of dwelling, industry, and commerce, particularly as a marketplace, and its urban layout. The buildings, most dating from the 1840s through the 1940s, represent four major phases of development, and include both purpose-built structures, designed in then-fashionable styles, and those later adapted for market use.

 

The architecture of the district tells the story of an important era in New York City's history when it became the financial center of the country and when its markets were expanding to serve the metropolitan region and beyond. Visual cohesion is provided to the streetscapes by the predominance of brick as a facade material; the one- to six-story scale; the presence of buildings designed by the same architects, a number of them prominent, including specialists in market-related structures; the existence of metal canopies originally installed for market purposes; and the Belgian block paving still visible on most streets.

 

The street layout is shaped by the transition between the irregular pattern of northwestern Greenwich Village (as far north as Gansevoort Street) and the grid of the 1811 Commissioner's Plan. Unusually large and open intersections contribute to the area's unique quality, particularly where Ninth Avenue meets West 14'~S treet and Gansevoort Street (which was widened in l887), and provide sweeping vistas that showcase the unusual building typology and mixed-use quality of the district. Aside from Tribeca, the Gansevoort Market Historic District is the only remaining marketplace district that served the once-flourishing Hudson River commercial waterfront.

 

The earliest buildings in the historic district date from the period between 1840 and 1854, most built as rowhouses and town houses, several of which soon became very early working-class tenements (all eventually had stores on the ground floor). The area's early mixed use, however, is evident in the rare surviving early factory building (c. 1849-60), on a flatiron-shaped lot, for Col. Silas C. Herring, a nationally significant manufacturer of safes and locks, at 669-685 Hudson Street.

 

This mixed use, consisting of single-family houses, multiple dwellings, and industry was unusual for the period. The stretch of Ninth Avenue between Gansevoort and West 15' Streets, albeit altered and interrupted with later additions, offers the vista of a distinctive Manhattan streetscape featuring twenty buildings of the 1840s: the rowhouses at Nos. 3-7 (c. 1849) and Nos. 21-27 (c. 1844-46), the Herring factory, and culminating in the rare, picturesque ensemble of twelve rowhouses and town houses, Nos. 44-60 Ninth Avenue and 351-355 West 14th Street (c. 1841-46), at the wide, angled intersection with Hudson and West 14" Streets. Another business from this period was the woodworking factory of the prominent building firm of James C. Hoe & Co. (c. 1850-54) at 52-58 Gansevoort Street (later altered).

 

After the Civil War, the area began to flourish commercially as New York City solidified its position as the financial center of the country, and construction resumed in the district in 1870. Two major businesses located here were A.H. Wellington's Merchants' Print Works (1 874, S. W. Johnson), cotton printers at 416-418 West 14" Street (later altered); and the Italianate style Centennial Brewery (1876, John B. Snook) at 409-41 1 West 14' Street.

 

The bulk of the buildings in the district date from the 1880s through the 1920s and were designed in then-popular historical revival styles. Residential and commercial development, including a variety of building types, was particularly spurred in the 1880s by two major factors. The first was the creation of two nearby municipal markets: the open-air Farmers' or Gansevoort Market (1 879), for regional produce, at Gansevoort and Washington Streets (adjacent to the historic district), and the West Washington Market (1889), for meat, poultry, and dairy products, on the river side of West Street. From the 1880s until World War II, wholesale produce, fruit, groceries, dairy products, eggs, specialty foods, and liquor (until Prohibition) were among the dominant businesses within the district in response to the adjacent markets, particularly along Gansevoort, Little West 12', and Washington Streets. The first of the two-story, purpose-built market buildings in the district were erected in 1880.

 

These vernacular and neo-Grec style structures typified the low-rise market buildings constructed in the district over the next 90 years: produce (or, later, meat) handling on the ground story, shielded by a metal canopy over the sidewalk, and offices on the second story.

 

Commercial construction during this period, which represents the highest percentage of the district's varied yet distinctive building stock, included not only low-rise purpose-built market buildings, but also, in a variety of period styles, stables buildings, and five- and six-story store-and-loft buildings and warehouses were constructed to house and serve these businesses. The warehouses, in particular, are among the most monumental structures in the district.

 

The second factor spurring development within the historic district was the 1878 partition of real estate owned by the Astor family, which had remained underdeveloped since John Jacob Astor 1's acquisition in 1819. Of the 104 buildings in the district, over one-third of them were constructed by the Astors and related family members. Astor improvements included the market buildings at 823-833 Washington Street and 32-36 Little West 12" Street (1880, Joseph M. Dunn, James Stroud); the distinguished Queen Anne style French flats building (with stores) at 440 West 14" Street (1887, James W. Cole), the block-long Queen Anne style produce market building at 859- 877 Washington Street (1887, Cole), and the handsome Romanesque Revival style stables building (1893, Thomas R. Jackson) for the New York Biscuit Co. (later Nabisco), the world's largest supplier of crackers, at 439-445 West 14" Street.

 

A number of other prominent owners also invested in real estate here and began to develop their properties: the Goelet family constructed the unusual flatiron-shaped store-and-loft building at 53-61 Gansevoort Street (1887, Dunn), which housed E.S.

 

Burnham & Co., clam canners; James AlfredRoosevelt owned the warehouse at 400 West 14thS treet (1886, Dunn); and former New York Mayor Hugh J. Grant developed the neo-Romanesque style warehouses (1 899-1900, George P. Chappell) at 97-103 Horatio Street. The Astors and other owners gave several commissions to architects Joseph M. Dunn, who designed seven buildings in the district, and James W. Cole, who designed three buildings in the district. These multiple commissions in the then-fashionable neo-Grec or Queen Anne styles contribute to the district's visual cohesion.

 

Between 1897 and 1935, nearly the entire block bounded by Gansevoort, Horatio, Washington, and West Streets was developed with a handsome neo-Classical style ensemble in tan brick, by noted architects Lansing C. Holden, J. Graham Glover, and John B. Snook Sons, that included a power plant and nine cold storage warehouses for the Manhattan Refrigerating Co. (incorporated 1894).

 

The company was responsible for installing the system of underground pipes that carried refrigeration to market-related structures throughout the district by about 1906. This infrastructure, along with the completion by the N.Y.C. Dept. of Docks of the nearby Gansevoort Piers (1894-1902) and Chelsea Piers (1902-10, with Warren & Wetmore), docks for the great trans- Atlantic steamships (and the busiest section of New York's port), had profound impacts on the district. The distribution of wholesale meat, poultry, and seafood, particularly for hotels, restaurants, and steamships, emerged as an important business throughout the district, resulting in new construction as well as bringing new uses to existing buildings. Some companies were subsidiaries of major national meatpackers, while other independent firms were among the nation's largest.

 

The underground refrigeration system, the new piers, and the emergence of new uses relating to the burgeoning hotel and steamship industry further triggered the 20th-century construction and architectural change and flexibility that has shaped the character of the Gansevoort Market Historic District. Typically, commercial redevelopments of neighborhoods in New York City involved the demolition of earlier buildings for structures housing new uses. However, one of the district's unique qualities is that earlier buildings were retained and altered to market uses. Earlier examples include the Centennial Brewery (409-41 1 West 14" Street), converted to meat, produce, and dairy use in 1901, and 21-27 Ninth Avenue, rowhouses adapted in 1923-24 as meat market buildings.

 

Over the years, the Astors continued their policy of high-quality architectural commissions by hiring distinguished architects known for their significant public, commercial, and residential buildings, such as the neo-Classical style offices and printing plant (1901-02, Trowbridge & Livingston) of P.F. Collier & Son, publisher of books and the nationally-known magazine Collier's, at 416-424 West 13' Street; the neo-Romanesque style liquor warehouse at 29-35 Ninth Avenue (1902-03, Boring & Tilton); and the Arts and Crafts style warehouse building (1913, LaFarge, Morris & Cullen) at 5 Little West 1 2 '~S treet.

 

The completion of the Holland Tunnel (1927), the elevated Miller Highway (1931), and the New York Central Railroad's elevated freight railway (1934) providedeasier access between the area and the metropolitan region and spurred another major phase of new low-rise construction and the functional conversion of existing buildings for market use in the district. New structures included the earlyInternationa1 style General Electric Co. annex (1929-30, Lockwood Greene Engineers, Inc.) at 414 West 14' Street, and the Moderne style John Morrell & Co. meat market building (1936-37, H. Peter Henschien) at 446-448 West 14'~S treet.

 

The unusually wide Gansevoort Street assumed its distinctive character of low-rise market buildings with metal canopies at this time, through such new construction as the fruitlproduce market building (1938-39, Charles H. Stadler) at No. 46-50, and the Moderne style R&L Restaurant (1949), at No.69, and newly adapted structures, including No. 52-58 (formerly James C. Hoe & Co.), altered as a market building in 1937, and No. 60-68 (1880-81 tenements), reduced to a two-story market building in 1940.

 

By World War II, poultry- and meat- packing had consolidated as the main commercial activity within the district. Maritime commerce along the Hudson River waterfront declined by the 1960s, however, with the end of the ocean liner era and the rise of containerized shipping. Changes in the meat and poultry industries meant a lessening presence in this area. The Manhattan Refrigerating Co. closed in 1979 and its buildings were subsequently converted to apartments.

 

The completion of several more transportation and development projects (most located outside the historic district) in the 1930s spurred another major phase of new low-rise construction and functional conversion for market use of existing buildings within the historic district. Easier access was provided between the market area and the metropolitan region. The construction of the elevated Miller Highway (1929-3 1) necessitated the displacement of some produce and meat and poultry merchants in both the Gansevoort and West Washington Markets, including the demolition of several buildings at the latter. The Port of New York Authority built the Union Inland Terminal No. 1 (1931-32, Abbott, Merkt & Co.), a unified truck-rail terminal (modeled functionally after the Starrett-Lehigh Building), just northeast of the district and occupying the entire block at Ninth Avenue and West 15" Street.

 

The New York Central Railroad's elevated freight railway (193 1-34) passed through some thirty buildings on its route southward to the new St. John's Park Freight Terminal at West and Clarkson Streets. This railway also used part of the Gansevoort Market site, and additionally, the City constructed a meat processing plant on the market site (1939). The Lincoln Tunnel (1937) provided a second automotive route to New Jersey. The Ninth Avenue el, which ran through the district, was demolished (c. 1940); streetcar tracks located below the el had been taken up in 1936.

 

The first new purpose-built low-scale (one-story) market building in the historic district was 14-20 Little West 12" Street (1928, John B. Snook Sons), for the Wendel family and used initially by produce merchants. The P.F. Collier & Son building at 416-424 West 13" Street became a warehouse of the General Electric Co. in 1929; an early International style annex (1929-30, Lockwood Greene Engineers, Inc.) was constructed next door at 414 West 14" Street. Owned by Vincent Astor, this was the last of the Astor improvements within the district. 13 and 15 Little West 12' Street (1933, Martin Smith) were one-story fruit market buildings. Designed in the Moderne style were the John Morrell & Co. meat market building (1936-37, H. Peter Henschien) at 446-448 West 14th Street; the meat market building at 837-843 Washington Street (1938, David M. Oltarsh); and the fruitlproduce market building at 46-50 Gansevoort Street (1938-39, Charles H. Stadler).

 

Built at a time when the growing prevalence of the automobile resulted in the predominance of new market types throughout the U.S. (such as drive-in markets, chain grocery stores, and supermarkets), these buildings are rare and late examples of the older market building typology.34 Many of the buildings in the district that were architecturally adapted for market functions were properties acquired through foreclosure at the height of the Depression. Most of these buildings were functionally maximized at two stories (vacant, formerly residential, upper stories were no longer necessary): the lower story was refrigerated for produce or meat use and the upper story held offices. The unusually wide Gansevoort Street assumed its distinctive character of low-rise market buildings with metal canopies at this time, largely through such newly-adapted structures, including the vernacular style No. 52-58 (formerly James C. Hoe & Co.), altered as a fruit and produce market building in 1937 (S. Walter Katz); the neo-Grec style No. 60-68 (five 1880-81 tenements), reduced to a two-story market building in 1940 (Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith); and No. 7 1-73 (aka 8 17- 821 Washington Street) (three 1886-87 Queen Anne style French flats buildings), reduced to three stories in 1940 for use as a meat market building. The neo-Grec and utilitarian style 823-833 Washington Street and neo-Grec style 32-36 Little West 12" Street, 1880 two-story market buildings, were also altered in 1940-41 for meat merchants.

 

By World War II, poultry- and meat- packing had consolidated as the main commercial activity throughout the district. The opening of the Queens Live Poultry Terminal Market (1941) caused poultry dealers to move from the West Washington Market, replaced in part by produce merchants. The creation in 1950 of the Gansevoort Market Meat Center on the site of Gansevoort Market and the demolition of the remaining West Washington Market buildings, with the associated displacement of the businesses at both locations, hastened changes within the district. In 1959, the Gansevoort Market area was referred to in the New York Times as "the largest meat and poultry receiving market in the world. In the district, 408-412 West 13" Street (1941, Charles N. & Selig Whinston) was a new two-story market building used by hides/skins and meat businesses, while 36- 40 Gansevoort Street (aka 831-835 Greenwich Street) (1947-48, Horace Ginsbern & Assocs.), for poultry businesses, was the last new purpose-built market building in the district. The Moderne style R & L Restaurant (1949), 69 Gansevoort Street, resulted from the alteration of a three-story house.

 

Alterations associated with conversions to meat market uses included 809-813 Washington Street (aka 70-74 Gansevoort Street) (1940-42, Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith), a freight trucking depot altered in 1950; 402-404 and 406 West 13th Street (1840s rowhouses) altered in1950 and 1955 (Abraham L. Seiden); and 15 and 13 Little West 12" Street (c. 1961 and 1969 additions, bylattributed to Seiden).

 

Today, the Gansevoort Market Historic District is a vibrant neighborhood of remaining meatpackers, high-end retail commerce, restaurants, offices, clubs, galleries, and apartments, that retains, despite recent changes, a strong and integral sense of place as a market district, due to its distinctive streetscapes, metal canopies, notable buildings, both purpose-built and those adapted over the years for market use, and unusual street pattern with its Belgian block paving.

 

- From the 2003 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Another view of aging machinery once used for containerizing processed asbestos into weighed bags, checked using the Toledo scale. Undoubtedly a job that created significant exposures of airborne asbestos dust to the workers.

A freight train or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (UIC) hauled by one or more locomotives on a railway, ultimately transporting cargo between two points as part of the logistics chain. Trains may haul bulk material, intermodal containers, general freight or specialized freight in purpose-designed cars.

 

When considered in terms of ton-miles (tonne-kilometers) hauled per unit of consumed energy, rail transport is more efficient than other means of transportation. Additional economies are often realized with bulk commodities (e.g., coal), especially when hauled over long distances. However, rail freight is often subject to transshipment costs, which may exceed that of operating the train itself, a factor that practices such as containerization aim to minimize. Bulk shipments are less affected by transshipment costs, with distances as short as 30 kilometers (18.6 mi) sufficient to make rail transport economically viable. However, shipment by rail is not as flexible as by highway, which has resulted in much freight being hauled by truck, even over long distances.

 

The main disadvantage of rail freight is its lack of flexibility. For this reason, rail has lost much of the freight business to road transport. Many governments are now trying to encourage more freight onto trains, because of the environmental benefits that it would bring; rail transport is very energy efficient.

 

Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. These cargo are usually dropped or poured, with a spout or shovel bucket, as a liquid or solid, into a bulk carrier's hold, railroad car, or tanker truck/trailer/semi-trailer body. Bulk cargoes are classified as liquid or dry, but only the latter are normally transported as bulk on rail, the former being freighted in tank cars.

 

Hopper cars are freight cars used to transport loose bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain, track ballast, and the like. This type of car is distinguished from a gondola car (US) or open wagon (UIC) in that it has opening doors on the underside or on the sides to discharge its cargo. The development of the hopper car went along with the development of automated handling of such commodities, with automated loading and unloading facilities. There are two main types of hopper car: open and covered; Covered hopper cars are used for cargo that must be protected from the elements (chiefly rain) such as grain, sugar, and fertilizer. Open cars are used for commodities such as coal, which can get wet and dry out with less harmful effect. Hopper cars have been used by railways worldwide whenever automated cargo handling has been desired. Rotary car dumpers simply invert the car to unload it, and have become the preferred unloading technology, especially in North America; they permit the use of simpler, tougher, and more compact (because sloping ends are not required) gondola cars instead of hoppers.

Another of the ships coming into Baltimore for the 200th anniversary of our national anthem.

 

This is an amazing craft. It's capable of a speed of 35 knots compared to 27 for our little 30' 10,000 lb boat. This thing can outrun us!!

 

USNS Choctaw County (JHSV-2) is one of the U.S. Navy’s nine joint high-speed vessels (JHSV) designed for rapid intra-theater transport of troops and equipment. Operated by Military Sealift Command (MSC), she is crewed by civil service mariners.

An aluminum catamaran, Choctaw County is designed to be fast, flexible and maneuverable, even in shallow waters. She was built to a modular design, allowing her to be rapidly refitted with various equipment in her 20,000 square feet bay, depending on the mission at hand. For instance, she could carry containerized portable hospitals for disaster relief or transport tanks and troops. She can transport approximately 600 tons of troops, vehicles and supplies 1,200 nautical miles at an average speed of 35 knots. Her aviation flight deck can support day and night flight operations for a variety of aircraft, including CH-53 Super Stallions.

   

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

Cruising alongside a westbound containerized freight train, 611 crosses over the Roanoke River through Salem.

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

Meatpacking District, Gansevoort Market Historic District, Manhattan

 

From 1837, when they were acquired from John Jacob Astor I, until 1943, these properties were owned by Astor colleague John Gottlieb Mathias Wendel and his wife, nee Elizabeth Astor (sister of John Jacob I), their descendants, and the Wendel Foundation.

 

These buildings were constructed as rowhouses c. 1849 by James Conknght, who was listed as paying the taxes. James Conknght & Son operated a turpentine distillery nearby on Little West 12th Street, prior to 1852.

 

The 1851 Doggett's New York City Street Directory lists A.S. Crosby, Aaron Marsh, and Patrick Dunn, liquor dealer, as residents of Nos. 3-7. In 1887, when Gansevoort Street was widened, No. 3 was reduced in width by one bay on the south end, and received a storefront. By the 1890 census, No. 3 was still a single-family residence (Fred Hanefel), while the other two buildings were multiple dwellings. Felix Larlun and his family lived in No. 7, where he had operated a saloon since 1873. No. 7 was converted into a hotel in 1897.

 

There have been several fruit and produce businesses, as well as restaurants and others commercial uses, located here. Since 1943, these buildings and 8-12 and 14-20 Little West 12th Street and 51 Gansevoort Street have

been in common ownership.

 

These altered Greek Revival style rowhouses, which still have significant portions of their historic fabric, contribute to the historically-mixed architectural character and varied use -including residences and market-related functions -- of the Gansevoort Market Historic District. The buildings

were originally constructed c. 1849, during the first major phase of development, when parts of the area were being developed with residences.

 

They were altered in the late-19th century, when buildings in the district were constructed for produce-related businesses and other market uses.

 

----About the district----

 

The Gansevoort Market Historic District - consisting of 104 buildings - is distinctive for its architectural character which reflects the area's long history of continuous, varied use as a place of dwelling, industry, and commerce, particularly as a marketplace, and its urban layout. The buildings, most dating from the 1840s through the 1940s, represent four major phases of development, and include both purpose-built structures, designed in then-fashionable styles, and those later adapted for market use.

 

The architecture of the district tells the story of an important era in New York City's history when it became the financial center of the country and when its markets were expanding to serve the metropolitan region and beyond. Visual cohesion is provided to the streetscapes by the predominance of brick as a facade material; the one- to six-story scale; the presence of buildings designed by the same architects, a number of them prominent, including specialists in market-related structures; the existence of metal canopies originally installed for market purposes; and the Belgian block paving still visible on most streets.

 

The street layout is shaped by the transition between the irregular pattern of northwestern Greenwich Village (as far north as Gansevoort Street) and the grid of the 1811 Commissioner's Plan. Unusually large and open intersections contribute to the area's unique quality, particularly where Ninth Avenue meets West 14'~S treet and Gansevoort Street (which was widened in l887), and provide sweeping vistas that showcase the unusual building typology and mixed-use quality of the district. Aside from Tribeca, the Gansevoort Market Historic District is the only remaining marketplace district that served the once-flourishing Hudson River commercial waterfront.

 

The earliest buildings in the historic district date from the period between 1840 and 1854, most built as rowhouses and town houses, several of which soon became very early working-class tenements (all eventually had stores on the ground floor). The area's early mixed use, however, is evident in the rare surviving early factory building (c. 1849-60), on a flatiron-shaped lot, for Col. Silas C. Herring, a nationally significant manufacturer of safes and locks, at 669-685 Hudson Street.

 

This mixed use, consisting of single-family houses, multiple dwellings, and industry was unusual for the period. The stretch of Ninth Avenue between Gansevoort and West 15' Streets, albeit altered and interrupted with later additions, offers the vista of a distinctive Manhattan streetscape featuring twenty buildings of the 1840s: the rowhouses at Nos. 3-7 (c. 1849) and Nos. 21-27 (c. 1844-46), the Herring factory, and culminating in the rare, picturesque ensemble of twelve rowhouses and town houses, Nos. 44-60 Ninth Avenue and 351-355 West 14th Street (c. 1841-46), at the wide, angled intersection with Hudson and West 14" Streets. Another business from this period was the woodworking factory of the prominent building firm of James C. Hoe & Co. (c. 1850-54) at 52-58 Gansevoort Street (later altered).

 

After the Civil War, the area began to flourish commercially as New York City solidified its position as the financial center of the country, and construction resumed in the district in 1870. Two major businesses located here were A.H. Wellington's Merchants' Print Works (1 874, S. W. Johnson), cotton printers at 416-418 West 14" Street (later altered); and the Italianate style Centennial Brewery (1876, John B. Snook) at 409-41 1 West 14' Street.

 

The bulk of the buildings in the district date from the 1880s through the 1920s and were designed in then-popular historical revival styles. Residential and commercial development, including a variety of building types, was particularly spurred in the 1880s by two major factors. The first was the creation of two nearby municipal markets: the open-air Farmers' or Gansevoort Market (1 879), for regional produce, at Gansevoort and Washington Streets (adjacent to the historic district), and the West Washington Market (1889), for meat, poultry, and dairy products, on the river side of West Street. From the 1880s until World War II, wholesale produce, fruit, groceries, dairy products, eggs, specialty foods, and liquor (until Prohibition) were among the dominant businesses within the district in response to the adjacent markets, particularly along Gansevoort, Little West 12', and Washington Streets. The first of the two-story, purpose-built market buildings in the district were erected in 1880.

 

These vernacular and neo-Grec style structures typified the low-rise market buildings constructed in the district over the next 90 years: produce (or, later, meat) handling on the ground story, shielded by a metal canopy over the sidewalk, and offices on the second story.

 

Commercial construction during this period, which represents the highest percentage of the district's varied yet distinctive building stock, included not only low-rise purpose-built market buildings, but also, in a variety of period styles, stables buildings, and five- and six-story store-and-loft buildings and warehouses were constructed to house and serve these businesses. The warehouses, in particular, are among the most monumental structures in the district.

 

The second factor spurring development within the historic district was the 1878 partition of real estate owned by the Astor family, which had remained underdeveloped since John Jacob Astor 1's acquisition in 1819. Of the 104 buildings in the district, over one-third of them were constructed by the Astors and related family members. Astor improvements included the market buildings at 823-833 Washington Street and 32-36 Little West 12" Street (1880, Joseph M. Dunn, James Stroud); the distinguished Queen Anne style French flats building (with stores) at 440 West 14" Street (1887, James W. Cole), the block-long Queen Anne style produce market building at 859- 877 Washington Street (1887, Cole), and the handsome Romanesque Revival style stables building (1893, Thomas R. Jackson) for the New York Biscuit Co. (later Nabisco), the world's largest supplier of crackers, at 439-445 West 14" Street.

 

A number of other prominent owners also invested in real estate here and began to develop their properties: the Goelet family constructed the unusual flatiron-shaped store-and-loft building at 53-61 Gansevoort Street (1887, Dunn), which housed E.S.

 

Burnham & Co., clam canners; James AlfredRoosevelt owned the warehouse at 400 West 14thS treet (1886, Dunn); and former New York Mayor Hugh J. Grant developed the neo-Romanesque style warehouses (1 899-1900, George P. Chappell) at 97-103 Horatio Street. The Astors and other owners gave several commissions to architects Joseph M. Dunn, who designed seven buildings in the district, and James W. Cole, who designed three buildings in the district. These multiple commissions in the then-fashionable neo-Grec or Queen Anne styles contribute to the district's visual cohesion.

 

Between 1897 and 1935, nearly the entire block bounded by Gansevoort, Horatio, Washington, and West Streets was developed with a handsome neo-Classical style ensemble in tan brick, by noted architects Lansing C. Holden, J. Graham Glover, and John B. Snook Sons, that included a power plant and nine cold storage warehouses for the Manhattan Refrigerating Co. (incorporated 1894).

 

The company was responsible for installing the system of underground pipes that carried refrigeration to market-related structures throughout the district by about 1906. This infrastructure, along with the completion by the N.Y.C. Dept. of Docks of the nearby Gansevoort Piers (1894-1902) and Chelsea Piers (1902-10, with Warren & Wetmore), docks for the great trans- Atlantic steamships (and the busiest section of New York's port), had profound impacts on the district. The distribution of wholesale meat, poultry, and seafood, particularly for hotels, restaurants, and steamships, emerged as an important business throughout the district, resulting in new construction as well as bringing new uses to existing buildings. Some companies were subsidiaries of major national meatpackers, while other independent firms were among the nation's largest.

 

The underground refrigeration system, the new piers, and the emergence of new uses relating to the burgeoning hotel and steamship industry further triggered the 20th-century construction and architectural change and flexibility that has shaped the character of the Gansevoort Market Historic District. Typically, commercial redevelopments of neighborhoods in New York City involved the demolition of earlier buildings for structures housing new uses. However, one of the district's unique qualities is that earlier buildings were retained and altered to market uses. Earlier examples include the Centennial Brewery (409-41 1 West 14" Street), converted to meat, produce, and dairy use in 1901, and 21-27 Ninth Avenue, rowhouses adapted in 1923-24 as meat market buildings.

 

Over the years, the Astors continued their policy of high-quality architectural commissions by hiring distinguished architects known for their significant public, commercial, and residential buildings, such as the neo-Classical style offices and printing plant (1901-02, Trowbridge & Livingston) of P.F. Collier & Son, publisher of books and the nationally-known magazine Collier's, at 416-424 West 13' Street; the neo-Romanesque style liquor warehouse at 29-35 Ninth Avenue (1902-03, Boring & Tilton); and the Arts and Crafts style warehouse building (1913, LaFarge, Morris & Cullen) at 5 Little West 1 2 '~S treet.

 

The completion of the Holland Tunnel (1927), the elevated Miller Highway (1931), and the New York Central Railroad's elevated freight railway (1934) providedeasier access between the area and the metropolitan region and spurred another major phase of new low-rise construction and the functional conversion of existing buildings for market use in the district. New structures included the earlyInternationa1 style General Electric Co. annex (1929-30, Lockwood Greene Engineers, Inc.) at 414 West 14' Street, and the Moderne style John Morrell & Co. meat market building (1936-37, H. Peter Henschien) at 446-448 West 14'~S treet.

 

The unusually wide Gansevoort Street assumed its distinctive character of low-rise market buildings with metal canopies at this time, through such new construction as the fruitlproduce market building (1938-39, Charles H. Stadler) at No. 46-50, and the Moderne style R&L Restaurant (1949), at No.69, and newly adapted structures, including No. 52-58 (formerly James C. Hoe & Co.), altered as a market building in 1937, and No. 60-68 (1880-81 tenements), reduced to a two-story market building in 1940.

 

By World War II, poultry- and meat- packing had consolidated as the main commercial activity within the district. Maritime commerce along the Hudson River waterfront declined by the 1960s, however, with the end of the ocean liner era and the rise of containerized shipping. Changes in the meat and poultry industries meant a lessening presence in this area. The Manhattan Refrigerating Co. closed in 1979 and its buildings were subsequently converted to apartments.

 

The completion of several more transportation and development projects (most located outside the historic district) in the 1930s spurred another major phase of new low-rise construction and functional conversion for market use of existing buildings within the historic district. Easier access was provided between the market area and the metropolitan region. The construction of the elevated Miller Highway (1929-3 1) necessitated the displacement of some produce and meat and poultry merchants in both the Gansevoort and West Washington Markets, including the demolition of several buildings at the latter. The Port of New York Authority built the Union Inland Terminal No. 1 (1931-32, Abbott, Merkt & Co.), a unified truck-rail terminal (modeled functionally after the Starrett-Lehigh Building), just northeast of the district and occupying the entire block at Ninth Avenue and West 15" Street.

 

The New York Central Railroad's elevated freight railway (193 1-34) passed through some thirty buildings on its route southward to the new St. John's Park Freight Terminal at West and Clarkson Streets. This railway also used part of the Gansevoort Market site, and additionally, the City constructed a meat processing plant on the market site (1939). The Lincoln Tunnel (1937) provided a second automotive route to New Jersey. The Ninth Avenue el, which ran through the district, was demolished (c. 1940); streetcar tracks located below the el had been taken up in 1936.

 

The first new purpose-built low-scale (one-story) market building in the historic district was 14-20 Little West 12" Street (1928, John B. Snook Sons), for the Wendel family and used initially by produce merchants. The P.F. Collier & Son building at 416-424 West 13" Street became a warehouse of the General Electric Co. in 1929; an early International style annex (1929-30, Lockwood Greene Engineers, Inc.) was constructed next door at 414 West 14" Street. Owned by Vincent Astor, this was the last of the Astor improvements within the district. 13 and 15 Little West 12' Street (1933, Martin Smith) were one-story fruit market buildings. Designed in the Moderne style were the John Morrell & Co. meat market building (1936-37, H. Peter Henschien) at 446-448 West 14th Street; the meat market building at 837-843 Washington Street (1938, David M. Oltarsh); and the fruitlproduce market building at 46-50 Gansevoort Street (1938-39, Charles H. Stadler).

 

Built at a time when the growing prevalence of the automobile resulted in the predominance of new market types throughout the U.S. (such as drive-in markets, chain grocery stores, and supermarkets), these buildings are rare and late examples of the older market building typology.34 Many of the buildings in the district that were architecturally adapted for market functions were properties acquired through foreclosure at the height of the Depression. Most of these buildings were functionally maximized at two stories (vacant, formerly residential, upper stories were no longer necessary): the lower story was refrigerated for produce or meat use and the upper story held offices. The unusually wide Gansevoort Street assumed its distinctive character of low-rise market buildings with metal canopies at this time, largely through such newly-adapted structures, including the vernacular style No. 52-58 (formerly James C. Hoe & Co.), altered as a fruit and produce market building in 1937 (S. Walter Katz); the neo-Grec style No. 60-68 (five 1880-81 tenements), reduced to a two-story market building in 1940 (Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith); and No. 7 1-73 (aka 8 17- 821 Washington Street) (three 1886-87 Queen Anne style French flats buildings), reduced to three stories in 1940 for use as a meat market building. The neo-Grec and utilitarian style 823-833 Washington Street and neo-Grec style 32-36 Little West 12" Street, 1880 two-story market buildings, were also altered in 1940-41 for meat merchants.

 

By World War II, poultry- and meat- packing had consolidated as the main commercial activity throughout the district. The opening of the Queens Live Poultry Terminal Market (1941) caused poultry dealers to move from the West Washington Market, replaced in part by produce merchants. The creation in 1950 of the Gansevoort Market Meat Center on the site of Gansevoort Market and the demolition of the remaining West Washington Market buildings, with the associated displacement of the businesses at both locations, hastened changes within the district. In 1959, the Gansevoort Market area was referred to in the New York Times as "the largest meat and poultry receiving market in the world. In the district, 408-412 West 13" Street (1941, Charles N. & Selig Whinston) was a new two-story market building used by hides/skins and meat businesses, while 36- 40 Gansevoort Street (aka 831-835 Greenwich Street) (1947-48, Horace Ginsbern & Assocs.), for poultry businesses, was the last new purpose-built market building in the district. The Moderne style R & L Restaurant (1949), 69 Gansevoort Street, resulted from the alteration of a three-story house.

 

Alterations associated with conversions to meat market uses included 809-813 Washington Street (aka 70-74 Gansevoort Street) (1940-42, Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith), a freight trucking depot altered in 1950; 402-404 and 406 West 13th Street (1840s rowhouses) altered in1950 and 1955 (Abraham L. Seiden); and 15 and 13 Little West 12" Street (c. 1961 and 1969 additions, bylattributed to Seiden).

 

Today, the Gansevoort Market Historic District is a vibrant neighborhood of remaining meatpackers, high-end retail commerce, restaurants, offices, clubs, galleries, and apartments, that retains, despite recent changes, a strong and integral sense of place as a market district, due to its distinctive streetscapes, metal canopies, notable buildings, both purpose-built and those adapted over the years for market use, and unusual street pattern with its Belgian block paving.

 

- From the 2003 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Talleyrand Marine Terminal

10.18.2012

 

The Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT) and its maritime partners handle dry and liquid bulk, breakbulk, vehicle (Ro/Ro) and containerized cargo, as well as over-sized and specialty cargoes. The Port Authority has 18 container cranes, on-dock refrigerated & freezer warehousing and Foreign Trade Zone status.

 

To help rush goods to market, shippers can take advantage of Jacksonville's location at the crossroads of three major railroads (CSX, Norfolk Southern and Florida East Coast Railway) and three interstate highways (I-95, I-10 and 1-75).

 

Photo credit: JAXPORT, Meredith Fordham Hughes

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

Emergency medical personnel and simulated patients inside the Containerized Biocontainment System onboard a 747 aircraft as they participate in the Tranquil Shift exercise.

Meatpacking District, Gansevoort Market Historic District, Manhattan

 

These buildings have a complex and fascinating history. When John Jacob Astor I died in 1848, his will specified that his executors were to provide for his "insane" son, John Jacob Astor, Jr. A residence was constructed for him (c. 1848-52) on the western portion of this site (then No. 237 West 14" Street), where he lived until his death in 1869. Leased from 1869 to 1875 by the Samaritan Home for the Aged, it was described by Rev. J.F. Richmond in 1871 as "a large double house, fifty feet front, constructed of brick, with three stories and basement." In 1875, James Stewart and his son-in-law, Philip Herrman, both builders, acquired this residence and the two lots to the east. The Scottish-born Stewart was the head of the firm of James Stewart & Son, 82 Horatio Street, and was the superintendent of construction of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church (1 873-75, Carl Pfeiffer), 705 Fifth Avenue. Herrman [see Architects Appendix] owned and built his carpenter shop next door at 405 West 14th Street [see] in 1878. Stewart and Herrman started altering the Astor residence in 1875-76 (Alts. 1179-, 1181-1875), but Buildings Department records indicate that the project was abandoned.

 

Stewart died in 1876 and his portion of this property was sold to Patrick Skelly and Patrick A. Fogarty. Patrick Skelly was a brewer and distiller who later (1886) acquired 21-25 Ninth Avenue and operated a wine and liquor business there; it was continued by his son, Hugh P. Skelly, until the 1910s. Patrick A. Fogarty was also a brewer and distiller, at five locations according to an 1880 directory. They were joined by business partner Hugh O'Reilly. The existing Astor structure was altered and expanded into an ale brewery and a flats building in 1876 (Alt. 820-1876), with a unified four-story facade by eminent commercial architect John B. Snook. The brewery building appears on an 1879 map as O'Reilly, Skelly & Fogarty's Centennial Brewery.

 

By 1899, O'Reilly, Skelly & Fogarty were in financial difficulty and their properties were sold at public auction in 1901. The brewery building reverted to James Stewart Hermann, Philip's son who also owned the flats portion after his father's death. In 1900-01 (Alts. 575-1900,35-1901), interior alterations were made "for stores, light storage and manufacturing," and anew storefront was installed. A party wall was removed, replaced by steel framing, in 1917 (Alt. 524-1917). A rear extension was constructed, and a metal canopy added to the front, in 1926 (Alt. 1417-1926). Until the 1970s, tenants have been primarily meat, poultry, and dairy merchants, with longer durations by Darling Bros. Co., Korner & Schwabeland Co.1 H. Schwabeland & Sons, and Nathan Schweitzer Co., a subsidiary of Amour & Co.

 

This wide Italianate style brewery and similar French flats building contribute to the historically-mixed architecture and varied uses - including industrial and market-related functions- of the Gansevoort Market Historic District. Constructed in 1876, during the second phase of development of the district, these buildings further contribute to the visual cohesion of West 14" Street through their Italianate details by an eminent commercial architect, metal cornice, cast-iron storefronts, and, in particular, as one of the district's earliest intact industrial structures.

 

----About the district----

 

The Gansevoort Market Historic District - consisting of 104 buildings - is distinctive for its architectural character which reflects the area's long history of continuous, varied use as a place of dwelling, industry, and commerce, particularly as a marketplace, and its urban layout. The buildings, most dating from the 1840s through the 1940s, represent four major phases of development, and include both purpose-built structures, designed in then-fashionable styles, and those later adapted for market use.

 

The architecture of the district tells the story of an important era in New York City's history when it became the financial center of the country and when its markets were expanding to serve the metropolitan region and beyond. Visual cohesion is provided to the streetscapes by the predominance of brick as a facade material; the one- to six-story scale; the presence of buildings designed by the same architects, a number of them prominent, including specialists in market-related structures; the existence of metal canopies originally installed for market purposes; and the Belgian block paving still visible on most streets.

 

The street layout is shaped by the transition between the irregular pattern of northwestern Greenwich Village (as far north as Gansevoort Street) and the grid of the 1811 Commissioner's Plan. Unusually large and open intersections contribute to the area's unique quality, particularly where Ninth Avenue meets West 14'~S treet and Gansevoort Street (which was widened in l887), and provide sweeping vistas that showcase the unusual building typology and mixed-use quality of the district. Aside from Tribeca, the Gansevoort Market Historic District is the only remaining marketplace district that served the once-flourishing Hudson River commercial waterfront.

 

The earliest buildings in the historic district date from the period between 1840 and 1854, most built as rowhouses and town houses, several of which soon became very early working-class tenements (all eventually had stores on the ground floor). The area's early mixed use, however, is evident in the rare surviving early factory building (c. 1849-60), on a flatiron-shaped lot, for Col. Silas C. Herring, a nationally significant manufacturer of safes and locks, at 669-685 Hudson Street.

 

This mixed use, consisting of single-family houses, multiple dwellings, and industry was unusual for the period. The stretch of Ninth Avenue between Gansevoort and West 15' Streets, albeit altered and interrupted with later additions, offers the vista of a distinctive Manhattan streetscape featuring twenty buildings of the 1840s: the rowhouses at Nos. 3-7 (c. 1849) and Nos. 21-27 (c. 1844-46), the Herring factory, and culminating in the rare, picturesque ensemble of twelve rowhouses and town houses, Nos. 44-60 Ninth Avenue and 351-355 West 14th Street (c. 1841-46), at the wide, angled intersection with Hudson and West 14" Streets. Another business from this period was the woodworking factory of the prominent building firm of James C. Hoe & Co. (c. 1850-54) at 52-58 Gansevoort Street (later altered).

 

After the Civil War, the area began to flourish commercially as New York City solidified its position as the financial center of the country, and construction resumed in the district in 1870. Two major businesses located here were A.H. Wellington's Merchants' Print Works (1 874, S. W. Johnson), cotton printers at 416-418 West 14" Street (later altered); and the Italianate style Centennial Brewery (1876, John B. Snook) at 409-41 1 West 14' Street.

 

The bulk of the buildings in the district date from the 1880s through the 1920s and were designed in then-popular historical revival styles. Residential and commercial development, including a variety of building types, was particularly spurred in the 1880s by two major factors. The first was the creation of two nearby municipal markets: the open-air Farmers' or Gansevoort Market (1 879), for regional produce, at Gansevoort and Washington Streets (adjacent to the historic district), and the West Washington Market (1889), for meat, poultry, and dairy products, on the river side of West Street. From the 1880s until World War II, wholesale produce, fruit, groceries, dairy products, eggs, specialty foods, and liquor (until Prohibition) were among the dominant businesses within the district in response to the adjacent markets, particularly along Gansevoort, Little West 12', and Washington Streets. The first of the two-story, purpose-built market buildings in the district were erected in 1880.

 

These vernacular and neo-Grec style structures typified the low-rise market buildings constructed in the district over the next 90 years: produce (or, later, meat) handling on the ground story, shielded by a metal canopy over the sidewalk, and offices on the second story.

 

Commercial construction during this period, which represents the highest percentage of the district's varied yet distinctive building stock, included not only low-rise purpose-built market buildings, but also, in a variety of period styles, stables buildings, and five- and six-story store-and-loft buildings and warehouses were constructed to house and serve these businesses. The warehouses, in particular, are among the most monumental structures in the district.

 

The second factor spurring development within the historic district was the 1878 partition of real estate owned by the Astor family, which had remained underdeveloped since John Jacob Astor 1's acquisition in 1819. Of the 104 buildings in the district, over one-third of them were constructed by the Astors and related family members. Astor improvements included the market buildings at 823-833 Washington Street and 32-36 Little West 12" Street (1880, Joseph M. Dunn, James Stroud); the distinguished Queen Anne style French flats building (with stores) at 440 West 14" Street (1887, James W. Cole), the block-long Queen Anne style produce market building at 859- 877 Washington Street (1887, Cole), and the handsome Romanesque Revival style stables building (1893, Thomas R. Jackson) for the New York Biscuit Co. (later Nabisco), the world's largest supplier of crackers, at 439-445 West 14" Street.

 

A number of other prominent owners also invested in real estate here and began to develop their properties: the Goelet family constructed the unusual flatiron-shaped store-and-loft building at 53-61 Gansevoort Street (1887, Dunn), which housed E.S.

 

Burnham & Co., clam canners; James AlfredRoosevelt owned the warehouse at 400 West 14thS treet (1886, Dunn); and former New York Mayor Hugh J. Grant developed the neo-Romanesque style warehouses (1 899-1900, George P. Chappell) at 97-103 Horatio Street. The Astors and other owners gave several commissions to architects Joseph M. Dunn, who designed seven buildings in the district, and James W. Cole, who designed three buildings in the district. These multiple commissions in the then-fashionable neo-Grec or Queen Anne styles contribute to the district's visual cohesion.

 

Between 1897 and 1935, nearly the entire block bounded by Gansevoort, Horatio, Washington, and West Streets was developed with a handsome neo-Classical style ensemble in tan brick, by noted architects Lansing C. Holden, J. Graham Glover, and John B. Snook Sons, that included a power plant and nine cold storage warehouses for the Manhattan Refrigerating Co. (incorporated 1894).

 

The company was responsible for installing the system of underground pipes that carried refrigeration to market-related structures throughout the district by about 1906. This infrastructure, along with the completion by the N.Y.C. Dept. of Docks of the nearby Gansevoort Piers (1894-1902) and Chelsea Piers (1902-10, with Warren & Wetmore), docks for the great trans- Atlantic steamships (and the busiest section of New York's port), had profound impacts on the district. The distribution of wholesale meat, poultry, and seafood, particularly for hotels, restaurants, and steamships, emerged as an important business throughout the district, resulting in new construction as well as bringing new uses to existing buildings. Some companies were subsidiaries of major national meatpackers, while other independent firms were among the nation's largest.

 

The underground refrigeration system, the new piers, and the emergence of new uses relating to the burgeoning hotel and steamship industry further triggered the 20th-century construction and architectural change and flexibility that has shaped the character of the Gansevoort Market Historic District. Typically, commercial redevelopments of neighborhoods in New York City involved the demolition of earlier buildings for structures housing new uses. However, one of the district's unique qualities is that earlier buildings were retained and altered to market uses. Earlier examples include the Centennial Brewery (409-41 1 West 14" Street), converted to meat, produce, and dairy use in 1901, and 21-27 Ninth Avenue, rowhouses adapted in 1923-24 as meat market buildings.

 

Over the years, the Astors continued their policy of high-quality architectural commissions by hiring distinguished architects known for their significant public, commercial, and residential buildings, such as the neo-Classical style offices and printing plant (1901-02, Trowbridge & Livingston) of P.F. Collier & Son, publisher of books and the nationally-known magazine Collier's, at 416-424 West 13' Street; the neo-Romanesque style liquor warehouse at 29-35 Ninth Avenue (1902-03, Boring & Tilton); and the Arts and Crafts style warehouse building (1913, LaFarge, Morris & Cullen) at 5 Little West 1 2 '~S treet.

 

The completion of the Holland Tunnel (1927), the elevated Miller Highway (1931), and the New York Central Railroad's elevated freight railway (1934) providedeasier access between the area and the metropolitan region and spurred another major phase of new low-rise construction and the functional conversion of existing buildings for market use in the district. New structures included the earlyInternationa1 style General Electric Co. annex (1929-30, Lockwood Greene Engineers, Inc.) at 414 West 14' Street, and the Moderne style John Morrell & Co. meat market building (1936-37, H. Peter Henschien) at 446-448 West 14'~S treet.

 

The unusually wide Gansevoort Street assumed its distinctive character of low-rise market buildings with metal canopies at this time, through such new construction as the fruitlproduce market building (1938-39, Charles H. Stadler) at No. 46-50, and the Moderne style R&L Restaurant (1949), at No.69, and newly adapted structures, including No. 52-58 (formerly James C. Hoe & Co.), altered as a market building in 1937, and No. 60-68 (1880-81 tenements), reduced to a two-story market building in 1940.

 

By World War II, poultry- and meat- packing had consolidated as the main commercial activity within the district. Maritime commerce along the Hudson River waterfront declined by the 1960s, however, with the end of the ocean liner era and the rise of containerized shipping. Changes in the meat and poultry industries meant a lessening presence in this area. The Manhattan Refrigerating Co. closed in 1979 and its buildings were subsequently converted to apartments.

 

The completion of several more transportation and development projects (most located outside the historic district) in the 1930s spurred another major phase of new low-rise construction and functional conversion for market use of existing buildings within the historic district. Easier access was provided between the market area and the metropolitan region. The construction of the elevated Miller Highway (1929-3 1) necessitated the displacement of some produce and meat and poultry merchants in both the Gansevoort and West Washington Markets, including the demolition of several buildings at the latter. The Port of New York Authority built the Union Inland Terminal No. 1 (1931-32, Abbott, Merkt & Co.), a unified truck-rail terminal (modeled functionally after the Starrett-Lehigh Building), just northeast of the district and occupying the entire block at Ninth Avenue and West 15" Street.

 

The New York Central Railroad's elevated freight railway (193 1-34) passed through some thirty buildings on its route southward to the new St. John's Park Freight Terminal at West and Clarkson Streets. This railway also used part of the Gansevoort Market site, and additionally, the City constructed a meat processing plant on the market site (1939). The Lincoln Tunnel (1937) provided a second automotive route to New Jersey. The Ninth Avenue el, which ran through the district, was demolished (c. 1940); streetcar tracks located below the el had been taken up in 1936.

 

The first new purpose-built low-scale (one-story) market building in the historic district was 14-20 Little West 12" Street (1928, John B. Snook Sons), for the Wendel family and used initially by produce merchants. The P.F. Collier & Son building at 416-424 West 13" Street became a warehouse of the General Electric Co. in 1929; an early International style annex (1929-30, Lockwood Greene Engineers, Inc.) was constructed next door at 414 West 14" Street. Owned by Vincent Astor, this was the last of the Astor improvements within the district. 13 and 15 Little West 12' Street (1933, Martin Smith) were one-story fruit market buildings. Designed in the Moderne style were the John Morrell & Co. meat market building (1936-37, H. Peter Henschien) at 446-448 West 14th Street; the meat market building at 837-843 Washington Street (1938, David M. Oltarsh); and the fruitlproduce market building at 46-50 Gansevoort Street (1938-39, Charles H. Stadler).

 

Built at a time when the growing prevalence of the automobile resulted in the predominance of new market types throughout the U.S. (such as drive-in markets, chain grocery stores, and supermarkets), these buildings are rare and late examples of the older market building typology.34 Many of the buildings in the district that were architecturally adapted for market functions were properties acquired through foreclosure at the height of the Depression. Most of these buildings were functionally maximized at two stories (vacant, formerly residential, upper stories were no longer necessary): the lower story was refrigerated for produce or meat use and the upper story held offices. The unusually wide Gansevoort Street assumed its distinctive character of low-rise market buildings with metal canopies at this time, largely through such newly-adapted structures, including the vernacular style No. 52-58 (formerly James C. Hoe & Co.), altered as a fruit and produce market building in 1937 (S. Walter Katz); the neo-Grec style No. 60-68 (five 1880-81 tenements), reduced to a two-story market building in 1940 (Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith); and No. 7 1-73 (aka 8 17- 821 Washington Street) (three 1886-87 Queen Anne style French flats buildings), reduced to three stories in 1940 for use as a meat market building. The neo-Grec and utilitarian style 823-833 Washington Street and neo-Grec style 32-36 Little West 12" Street, 1880 two-story market buildings, were also altered in 1940-41 for meat merchants.

 

By World War II, poultry- and meat- packing had consolidated as the main commercial activity throughout the district. The opening of the Queens Live Poultry Terminal Market (1941) caused poultry dealers to move from the West Washington Market, replaced in part by produce merchants. The creation in 1950 of the Gansevoort Market Meat Center on the site of Gansevoort Market and the demolition of the remaining West Washington Market buildings, with the associated displacement of the businesses at both locations, hastened changes within the district. In 1959, the Gansevoort Market area was referred to in the New York Times as "the largest meat and poultry receiving market in the world. In the district, 408-412 West 13" Street (1941, Charles N. & Selig Whinston) was a new two-story market building used by hides/skins and meat businesses, while 36- 40 Gansevoort Street (aka 831-835 Greenwich Street) (1947-48, Horace Ginsbern & Assocs.), for poultry businesses, was the last new purpose-built market building in the district. The Moderne style R & L Restaurant (1949), 69 Gansevoort Street, resulted from the alteration of a three-story house.

 

Alterations associated with conversions to meat market uses included 809-813 Washington Street (aka 70-74 Gansevoort Street) (1940-42, Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith), a freight trucking depot altered in 1950; 402-404 and 406 West 13th Street (1840s rowhouses) altered in1950 and 1955 (Abraham L. Seiden); and 15 and 13 Little West 12" Street (c. 1961 and 1969 additions, bylattributed to Seiden).

 

Today, the Gansevoort Market Historic District is a vibrant neighborhood of remaining meatpackers, high-end retail commerce, restaurants, offices, clubs, galleries, and apartments, that retains, despite recent changes, a strong and integral sense of place as a market district, due to its distinctive streetscapes, metal canopies, notable buildings, both purpose-built and those adapted over the years for market use, and unusual street pattern with its Belgian block paving.

 

- From the 2003 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Weight (kg/block):5~50 kg

 

Features: It can be directly eaten and completely conforms to food standards

 

Color: milky white

 

Usage mode: automatic

 

Water feeding way: automatic

 

Height restriction:≤2.8m

 

Turnkey solutions:

water tank

cold room

block ice crusher

water chiller (suitable for tropical areas)

containerized unit

 

Ice making principle:

 

Water will be added automatically to ice cans and directly exchange heat with refrigerant. After a certain ice making time, the water in the ice tank all becomes ice when the refrigeration system will change into ice doffing mode automatically. It doffs ice by fluorine gas and the ice blocks will fall down in 25 minutes. Aluminum evaporator adopts special technology ensuring the ice totally compliant with the food hygienic standards and can be eaten directly.

  

Workers weld aluminum tube evaporators extremely carefully in order to make high quality accessories.

  

Focusun homemade evaporators have more than 30 making processes with core technology which collects years’ experience in search and development from our technical engineers.

 

Aluminum evaporator adopts special alloy materials to guarantee high efficiency of heat exchange and long service time. Meanwhile , it’s antiseptic and antirust.

 

Features:

The aluminum parts in contact with water are rust resistance.

Doffing ice by hot fluorine gas is more energy-saving and reduces electricity consumption. The whole ice-doffing process only takes 25 minutes.

Ice making and doffing are fully-automatic, saving labor and time.

 

Focusun block ice machine can choose equip automatic ice moving device. The ice moving shelf keeps horizontal with the bottom of ice holding plate. It can be put into use when connecting to a power supply. Ice block will be put outside the machine automatically, making transport more convenient.

 

Integrated and modular design make transportation, movement, installation more convenient.

Every direct refrigeration block ice machine can be designed and built as your specific requirements.

Direct system block ice machine can be containerized: maximum capacity of 6 T/day in a 20' container and 18T/day in a 40' container.

 

Focusun will also provide matched ice crusher for customers. After crushing, block ice has a wider range of application.

  

Customers who have purchased block ice machines will usually consider how to store block ice. Focusun can provide corresponding block ice storage room which designed and built as per customers’ requirements. Our one-stop service is aimed at making customers convenient.

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

APM Terminals Mumbai was honoured to welcome, Freddy Svane, Danish Ambassador to India and Søren Nørrelund Kannik-Marquardsen, Minister Counsellor, Regional Coordinator South Asia and Head of Trade & Commercial Affairs as they passed through Mumbai this week (November 2021) on official business.

 

The visit took place at Maersk’s new landmark offices located at the Godrej Two development in Vikhroli, Mumbai. During the meeting, Vikash Agarwal - Area Managing Director for Maersk, Jakob Friis Sorensen - Managing Director of APM Terminals Pipavav, Girish Aggarwal - Chief Operating Officer, APM Terminals Mumbai and other company representatives were able to reinforce Maersk’s long-term commitment to India and provide a progress update on the company’s transformation towards becoming THE global integrator of Containerized freight and APM Terminals journey to becoming a world class terminal operator.

 

Since the start of this year, the company has brought its various business units together under one roof in Vikhroli, to allow the company to collaborate better and continue building constructively on its commitment towards India. The offices are now home to more than 1000 employees from Maersk’s various business units.

 

It was also an opportunity for the company to express the company’s gratitude to the Ambassador for his ongoing support in working with the various Indian authorities to promote ease of trade to and from India.

 

The Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT) is facilitating an "Elite" U.S. Army deployment operation this week at the port's Blount Island Marine Terminal. Elite moves are the Army's largest and most important cargo moves of the year.

 

The move of equipment from the 101st Airborne Division’s 101st Combat Aviation Brigade is being conducted by the Jacksonville Detachment at Blount Island under the command and control of the 832nd Transportation Battalion and in coordination with the 597th Transportation Brigade from Fort Eustis, Va.

 

Stevedores with port partner Portus are loading about 1,450 pieces, including UH-60 Blackhawk utility helicopters, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, wheeled vehicles and other containerized support equipment, aboard the US-flagged vehicle carrier ARC Endurance. The equipment is en route to Europe where it will be used for a training mission.

 

The pieces arrived at Blount Island from Fort Campbell, Ky., by truck and rail over the past two weeks.

 

"Support from JAXPORT, as well as our trucking and rail partners here in Jacksonville, has been phenomenal," said Lt. Col. Thomas Patterson III from the 832nd Transportation Battalion. "In large moves like this one, efficiency is key to ensuring the best use of taxpayer dollars. Jacksonville offers the strategic value, expertise and flexibility to seamlessly get it all done."

 

"JAXPORT is one of the nation's most diversified ports, and our ability to support the military is an important part of our diversification strategy," said JAXPORT CEO Eric Green. "We are proud to serve our community and country in this capacity."

 

Located at the crossroads of the nation’s rail and highway network, JAXPORT offers fast access to three major interstates, 40 daily trains and service from more than 100 trucking firms.

 

As one of the nation's 17 strategic seaports, JAXPORT is on call 24/7 to move U.S. Military cargo for national defense, foreign humanitarian aid and disaster relief, and the only port in Florida with this designation.

 

October 31, 2011

JAXPORT CEO Paul Anderson today announced the port, with assistance from the City of Jacksonville and the State of Florida, is seeking $25 million from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grant of the U.S. Department of Transportation for construction of a $45 million Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) at the Dames Point Marine Terminal. The balance of the funding — $20 million — would come from the state.

 

The proposed ICTF would transport containerized cargo efficiently from ships to rail cars, increasing the port’s ability to move cargo quickly, reducing truck miles and decreasing exhaust emissions and highway maintenance costs. The project would also create employment and attract new business to the region.

 

“Adding an ICTF to JAXPORT’s already superior highway and rail connections will offer even more cost-effective solutions for shippers in an industry demanding efficiency and speed,” said JAXPORT CEO Paul Anderson. “By taking this opportunity to attract federal investment in North Florida, we can continue to expand our competitiveness and our economic significance to the region, state and nation.”

 

Anderson was joined for today’s announcement by Mayor Alvin Brown, State Rep. Lake Ray and CSX Vice President Clarence Gooden.

 

"In this economy, we must all work together to leverage greater returns from our scarce resources. JAXPORT is a proven economic engine that would put this investment to good use generating jobs in Northeast Florida while making Jacksonville a more attractive and competitive site for cargo,” said Mayor Brown. The U.S. DOT plans to award the TIGER Grants in early 2012. The JAXPORT ICTF has a target completion date at the end of 2014, contingent upon the awarding of funds.

 

Photo credit: JAXPORT, Meredith Fordham Hughes

R.O.Tack Water Technology

Water Treatment sector is undergoing a rapid change on account of the entry barrier in the global market. In competitive and quality environment, international level recognition has become need for every company for the longer-term growth. Every component of the quality system in the plant that meets the National and International standards has become necessity for today. Therefore, every step of the project delivery from conceptualization, detailed engineering to documentation have to be prepared to comply with the stringent regulatory requirements.

   

The foundation stone of R.O. Tack Water Technology was laid in the year of 2009 in Karachi by a veteran Mr. Ayaz Attari and Mr. Azhar Frooqi is the main Director of the company who guided the company to touch the height of success. Due to the continuous efforts of the our director towards excellence, R.O.Tack Water Technology has become an unrivaled manufacturer & supplier of RO Water Systems; especially Reverse Osmosis Systems. Today, our Reverse Osmosis Filtration Systems are considered as the best in the market. Some of the attributes that play significant role in our uniqueness are as follows and we provide complete range of solution like packaged system ,turn key projects and also we offer you technical services.

   

Multi Grade Filter

 

Dual Media Filter

 

Micro filtration

 

Ultra Filtration

 

Nano Filtration

 

Reverse Osmosis

 

Water Softening System

 

Demineralization Plant

 

Mixed Bed Plant

 

Sea Water Desalination Plant

 

Waste Water Recovery Plant

 

Water Treatment Chemicals

 

Sewage treatment plant

 

Mineral Water Treatment Plant

 

Package Drinking Water Treatment Plant

 

Swimming Pool Filtration Systems

 

DM Plant

 

Effluent Minimization

 

Sterilization by Ultraviolet Systems

 

Ozonation.

 

Domestic RO system

 

Water filtration plant for residential projects

 

Chemicals,

  

Turn Key Projects

  

Complete Detail Design, Engineering, Procurement and construction provided at single finger only for complete End to End solution with high quality deliverables.

   

Our Deliverables.

     

1 Detail Proposal with Costing.

 

2 Basic Design and Engineering Packages.

 

3 Complete Engineering with all related standard norms.

 

4 Complete procurement.

 

5 Construction

 

6 Commissioning.

 

7 Operation and maintenance.

     

Tel: +92 (21) 5436228

 

Fax: +92 (21) 2621927

 

Cell: +92 (300) 2824299

 

Email:www.rotackwater@yahoo.ca

 

Website: www.rotackwater.com

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

Focusun offers ice plate in different sizes for the purpose of the convenience of the customer.

the plate ce is usually used for ice storage systems, concrete mixing plants, chemical plants, mine, fresh vegetables, fishing, etc.

en.focusun.com/plate-ice-machine.html

Get details: www.synerzip.com/webinar/microservices-containerization/

 

Presenter: Steven Mason, VP of Engineering, Synerzip. He is based in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

Dorena Genetic Resource Center's 50th anniversary celebration. Cottage Grove, Oregon.

 

Photo by: Richard Sniezko

Date: August 25, 2016

 

Credit: USDA Forest Service, Region 6, Umpqua National Forest, Dorena Genetic Resource Center.

Source: Richard Sniezko, Cottage Grove, Oregon.

 

From the news release for the event:

"The USDA Forest Service’s Dorena Genetic Resource Center is celebrating 50 years of serving as a regional service center for Pacific Northwest tree and plant genetics.

 

Dorena GRC houses disease-resistance breeding programs for five-needled pines and Port-Orford-cedar, a native plant development program, and a national tree climbing program for the Forest Service. Their program is known internationally as a world leader in development of populations of trees with genetic resistance to non-native diseases.

 

The public is invited to the 50th celebration on Thursday, August 25 at the Cottage Grove-based center located 34963 Shoreview Road. The Open House and public tours are scheduled from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Tours of the center will include:

 

Genetic Resistance Trials

Inoculation ‘Fog’ Chamber

Tree Improvement Activities of Grafting, Pollination, & Seed Production

Port-Orford-cedar Containerized Orchards

Native Species Plant Development

Seed and Pollen Processing

Tree Climbing

 

A special guest at the event will be Jerry Barnes, the first manager at Dorena when established in 1966. All guests will be able to enjoy viewing informative posters about the programs and activities at the Center. ..."

For more see: www.fs.usda.gov/detail/umpqua/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD513088

 

Image provided by USDA Forest Service, Region 6, State and Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection: www.fs.usda.gov/main/r6/forest-grasslandhealth

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

Focusun water chillers are distinct from ordinary cooling water equipment. They have completely independent refrigeration system without any effect of environment and temperature. Furthermore the water temperature can be adjusted and the water temperature can be controlled accurately and efficiently. The independent water circulation system inside water chillers can cycle the water continuously which results the conservation of much water.

  

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Electronic expansive liquid feeding can accurately control the water level according to the air return pressure and temperature.

 

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

 

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The Royal Victoria Dock is the largest of three docks in the Royal Docks of east London, now part of the redeveloped Docklands.

 

Opened in 1855 on a previously uninhabited area of the Plaistow Marshes, it was the first of the Royal Docks and the first London dock to be designed specifically to accommodate large steam ships. It was also the first to use hydraulic power to operate its machinery and the first to be connected to the national railway network via what is now the North London Line. It consisted of a main dock and a basin to the west, providing an entrance to the Thames on the western side of the complex. The dock was deeply indented with four solid piers, each 152 m long by 43 m wide, on which were constructed two-storey warehouses. Other warehouses, granaries, shed and storage buildings surrounded the dock, which had a total of 3.6 km of quays.

 

The dock was an immediate commercial success, as it could easily accommodate all but the very largest steamships. By 1860, it was already taking over 850,000 tons of shipping a year - double that of the London Docks, four times that of St Katharine Docks and 70% more than the West India Dock and East India Docks combined. It was badly damaged by German bombing in World War II but experienced a resurgence in trade following the war. However, from the 1960s onwards, the Royal Victoria experienced a steady decline - as did all of London's other docks - as the shipping industry adopted containerization, which effectively moved traffic downstream to Tilbury. It finally closed to commercial traffic along with the other Royal Docks in 1980.

 

The Royal Victoria Dock has experienced major redevelopment under the London Docklands Development Corporation. The dock itself still exists and is accessible to ships, although its western entrance has been filled in and it is now used chiefly for watersports. Its transport links have been greatly improved with new roads and Docklands Light Railway lines running along both its north and south side.

 

Most of the original warehouses have been demolished but the historic 19th century K-S and W Warehouses - both listed buildings - have survived.

 

The dock is dominated by the ExCeL Exhibition Centre, constructed on the north quayside and opened in November 2000, and by the adjacent high level Royal Victoria Dock Bridge. The waterside location of ExCel is used to its advantage when it hosts the annual London Boat Show, with visiting vessels moored alongside the exhibition centre.

 

On the south side of the Dock is Britannia Village. The award winning development, which included the high level footbridge, was commissioned by LDDC and carried out by Wimpey Homes, the Peabody Trust and the East Thames Housing Group between 1994 and 2000. Phase II of the project was left to the LDDC’s successors. This was a development around the Pontoon Dock to include a village centre with mixed development of business, retail and leisure facilities and up to 700 new homes. Now the responsibility of the London Development Agency, this development is now known as Silvertown Quays

SF Bay RR, 21 June 2018

 

The San Francisco Bay RR operates on the southeast side of San Francisco on and near the port. It uses two Alco S2 switchers that were built for the State Belt RR, later the San Francisco Belt RR, the line that served the piers of the Port of San Francisco for many years.

 

As shipping companies moved to containerization, the Port of Oakland became the big northern California container terminal and most of the piers of the Port of San Francisco were abandoned or converted to uses other than marine freight, so the SF Belt RR found itself out of a job. After 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Embarcadero Freeway, which had run over the SF Belt for most of its length, the freeway was removed, opening up San Francisco's waterfront and much of the Belt's trackage as converted for use by the Muni F line, which runs historic streetcars to Fishermen's Wharf, and the Muni lines that now server the Caltrain station.

 

Meanwhile, Pier 96, near Hunter's Point was converted to a container facility and the railroad's operations survived there. The line was renamed the San Francisco Bay RR and continued to use Alco S2s 23 and 25 to switch its customers.

 

Today, the railroad's main business is transloading dirty dirt from constructions and clean up sites in the Bay Area from trucks to railcars. It is owned by Waste Solutions Group, which also owns a fleet of hopper cars. The SF Bay and UP interchange on an as needed basis, with UP's South City job running into the SF Bay's yard on Cargo Way with empties and taking away loads.

 

A couple of railfans, Ryan and Ben, work for the railroad and Ryan invited me to come by for a visit. I had stopped by one afternoon a couple of years ago, and lucked out to see an S2 running around the yard a bit, but the railrroad usually goes on duty betweeen 4 and 5 am, switches cars for a few hours and then is done for the day. So, a visit to the SF Bay from Sacramento entailed a night in a hotel. It took a few tries for me to get time off from work scheduled on the same day the railroad was running.

 

Eventually, it all lined up and my alarm went off at 0315 at a hotel in Daly City, just south of the SF city limit.

 

I was at the yard by 4 and met Ben, who went out and started Alco 23. 25 is out of service with a bad bearing on the radiator fan drive shaft. Ryan explained that the SF Belt had done a jerry rigged repair of the shaft at some point and it was never documented, so nobody knew about the bearing until it failed. As a new low emission unit will be delivered in the next few months, there is no reason to repair 25. 25 will be put on display somewhere, perhaps near the Ferry Building, while 23 will be held as backup for the new unit.

 

But for now, an S2 built in 1944 is doing the job it was built to do. If you think about it, that is as though the Virginia and Truckee had still been using the Reno and Genoa during WW2.

 

Shorty after I got there, Ben went out and fired up the 23. It has a block heater, so it started easily with a puff of white smoke. He did an inspection of the engine, including checking the journal boxes. We then went back into the office and waited for Ryan, brakeman Johnny, and engineer Nick to arrive. The crew plotted their switching moves for the day. Ryan, who is yard operations manager, suggested that I get some blue hour photos from the ground as empties were switched and then we rode 23 while they switched loads.

 

Each car has dirt from one particular construction site and the dirt from sites cannot be mixed as different sites will have different contamination. UP ships it to a dump site in Nevada, where it is processed. Ryan explained that sometimes they can use dividers in a car to separate dirt from different projects if there is not that much.

 

Right now transshipping dirty dirt is the SF Bay's only business, but there a couple of other industries are interested in bringing new business. The line that crosses the Illinois St. bridge has been out of service for a couple of years as there currently no customers north of Islais Creek.

 

We rode the S2 for a while after the day brightened, then got down and Ryan drove me around in a company car to get some more angles as they switched. He then had other work to do and I shot the end of 23's work day as well as 25, some spare Alco parts and another project of Waste Solutions, goats that are leased out for natural weed control. Ryan said that since Waste Solutions got more cars, they can't use their goats as much for weed control in the yard as most of the yard tracks are occupied.

 

The crew called it a day for switching about 0800 and then would be doing other work in the yard for the rest of their work day.

 

All of these photos were taken with permission after signing a release and while wearing required PPE.

 

I want to than Ryan, Ben, Johnny and Nick for their hospitality. I had a great time.

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