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Preserved 869 KKK a Duple Britannia' bodied AEC Reliance 2MU3RA looked the business as it stood on display at the White Cliffs Bus Rally, Dover Transport Museum, Whitfield on August 11th 1996. New to Ayers Luxury Coaches, Union Road, Dover in May 1960 I believe this vehicle spent its entire working life with Ayers.
This old maple is so beautiful, you can't miss it as you drive by the end of my road it just pops out at you. This is on South Road in Candia, NH, USA
This one is from back in June. I was looking through the archives looking for something to do. Boredom resolved. :-)
Cathedral Gorge State Park, NV
This card I made for the craftorij summer challenge day 33.
The themed for that day was Emoticons.
Also I added to the July challenge of the lovegroup, "tag you're it".
Franktown, CO - This is the remains of the Castlewood Canyon Dam. It was built in 1890 and was around 600 feet long and 70 feet high. After several days of heavy rain in August of 1933 the dam breached sending waves of water into farmland and eventually into parts of Denver.
With all the damage it was amazing that only two people died during the event. One was a girl from Kansas; she was on her horse observing the swirling flood waters below when apparently her horse she was riding freaked out, kicked her off and she fell in. That almost sounds like a country song.
Hiking out here in Castlewood Canyon State Park had it's unique challenges. The trails at times were icy, muddy, dry and rocky. It wasn't necessarily difficult but traversing down an icy trail on the edge of a hill without poles can be unnerving. What made it even more entertaining is my naturally hilarious lack of balance.
Commentary.
This beach, popular with me since the 1970’s,
shot to fame as the archetypal West Coast gem in the 1983 film, “Local Hero.”
Like so many others its shell-sand glistens white against a turquoise and azure sea.
The dune path to it from the old main road is like a mini-gorge through the marram grass-clad sand hills.
Then this view is revealed as we tip-toe across the stream to the main beach, fascinating vistas to Skye and Rum.
The highest peak, Sgurr Alasdair, one of my favourite viewing platforms, that I have happily climbed three times.
Amazingly in this telephoto image, it is nearly 25 miles away, across the Sound of Sleat, the Sleat Peninsula, Loch Slapin, the Strathaird Peninsula, Loch Scavaig and the ten-mile horseshoe of delectable peaks that make up this glorious mountain range.
The rocky headlands smothered in rock-pools thronging with life and the pure unspoilt nature of this Morar Bay.
There is a fantasy magic in these views of beach, ocean, cliff, hill, mountain and island that simply mesmerises.
A total delight to those souls who venture this far,
a Shangri-La……………….reward indeed!
This is a shot taken during a walk through the Wiental, in Vienna, testing the Olympus 12-100 f4 lens.
This is my test block in my colors. I love how it turned out and can't wait to make everyone else's!
This morning, I have added a few photos taken on 3 July 2020, on the way home after a drive to Forgetmenot Pond, west of Calgary. The Pond was my main destination.
The weather forecast was for several rainy days in a row, so I wanted to make the most of a sunny day. The past week, I have had to be careful about how many kilometres I drove, before getting a service after the maintenance light came on a week ago, as I didn't want to mess up my car warranty.
On 3 July, however, I decided to drive west of the city, just into the eastern edge of the mountains. It's not a long drive and I was hoping to find some wildflowers before they all go to seed. I almost gave up trying to photograph wildflowers, as it was too windy to keep the flowers in the viewfinder.
What a nightmare few hours, as I think half of Calgary decided to do this trip. So many cars and so many people. Parking lots were overflowing and the main highway was lined with parked cars in many places.
My first stop was at a forested area to have a quick look for wildflowers and to see if there were any fungi that had started growing yet. Very little variety in wildflowers, and I only came across one single mushroom plus a little group of a different species.
From there, I kept driving till I reached Forgetmenot Pond. This is actually a man-made pond, left over from the excavation of a gravel pit. The water is crystal clear. It's just a short walk around the pond, but enjoyable to do. The main road this far into Kananaskis only opens in June each year, as a winter gate at Elbow Falls closes in December for the winter months, to protect the wildlife in the area. This day, though, the path around the pond had so many people on it, and some people (families?) had actually set up various tents near the path. I had to keep walking through the trees to avoid everyone. As for Elbow Falls, there were so many cars there that there was no way I was going to even try and call in briefly. This was a Friday, not even a busy weekend day. I guess this is what it is going to be like the whole of the summer - yikes!
I found the following 4-minute video on YouTube, taken by Kenneth Lori using a DJI Phantom 3 Professional quadcopter and taken on 16 June 2016. It travels over Forgetmenot Pond and the surrounding river and mountains. So beautiful.
Later, it was such a contrast to drive a few of my favourite roads closer to home. A few cyclists and a few cars, but, in between them, it was so quiet and peaceful. Felt so good. There was even one Snipe on a fence post to make this extra bit of driving worthwhile. Not that I need any more Snipe photos to post : ) You might be glad to see a Snipe photo as, soon, it will be back to (oh, no!) American White Pelican photos. Just had to get out for a while on 5 July, partly because my place was feeling much too warm. The drive to and from Frank Lake was roughly 145 kilometers.
On 3 July, I found that two of the Mountain Bluebird families had vacated their nest boxes. I had a feeling that I was going to miss their fledging - this is what usually happens each year! However, I was so happy to spot a tiny Bluebird fledgling huddled right against the top of a fence post. Just trying to keep safe. And then, suddenly, it was no longer there. I didn't see it fly and I thought it may have dropped down into the grass. However, when I turned my car around to the other side of the road, I found a fledgling (same one?) down in the field, in an area of dried mud rather than tall grass. SO cute.
To help support a small pub/restaurant in the area, I called in and got take-out. One of the young women who works in the cafe was excited to tell me that they now have homemade chili on the menu again. The minestrone soup is also good.
There was still time, after taking a few photos of some of the usual birds, to drive on a road that I have driven so many times before, but not for a while. Happy to see a beautiful Swainson's Hawk perched on a fence post.
Finally reached home around 5:00 pm, after driving roughly 185 km since 9:30 am. So, not a really long drive, and one that still left me with more spare distance before my car had to go in for service yesterday. Hopefully, that will be that, for the rest of the year, as far as my vehicle is concerned!!
Yesterday, 9 July 2020, I gave my car a good test when I did a long drive to one of my favourite places. I stopped and started the car so many times, feeling nervous that it might not start, but all worked out well. Lots of beautiful sightings that I will start posting in the next few days. I haven't even downloaded my photos from yesterday, which is most unusual for me - I was exhausted after driving somewhere around 460 km!
This photo was taken the evening that followed the clear night captured here
Dramatically different!
[Prague, Czech Republic]
This is Ahira.
Ahira's dream is to go to a university and be a computer scientist or doctor or whatever her parents want.
Ahira is currently at the Batu Caves in Malaysia, just outside of Kuala Lumpur, walking up the hundreds of steps. She and her family are making the traditional Hindu pilgrimage to the peak, where she will light incense to Lord Murugan and other Hindu deities whose shrines lay at the top inside the cave network. While she talks to me telling me about doing whatever her parents want, her parents look on and nod approvingly.
This comes from my Portraits Portfolio here: www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/sets/721575942039392...
This television camera landed on the moon as part of Surveyor 3 on April 20, 1967 and was retrieved by the crew of Apollo 12 on November 24, 1969.
Seen at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
This working took me by surprise and the camera was not quite ready. Here we see Rail Cargo Hungaria (part of OBB) Taurus locomotive 1116 045 working the 12:35 service from Budapest-Keleti to Wien Hbf on the very hot afternoon of the 28/8/23. The train was captured passing through Szoney, Hungary.
Nikon D7000, Sigma 10-20mm, Lee 0.6& 0.9 NDGS
I've been passed the reamins of this pipe many times but I've never seen the tide high enough to try and get a shot of it but this morning I managed to.
You can buy prints of my photos from my RedBubble page:
www.redbubble.com/people/russellcram/works/13616953-this-...
After a month of editing and being lazy I will finally post my photos from Paris over the next days or probably weeks as there are a lot.
Took this from the plane window and seeing that now I'm glad the winter's over.
Press L to view this on black. Looks better, I guess. :)
This is a wild fox that found a chocolate coated treat as it wandered the trail. Seem to relish it. Wow. Near St. John's, NL, Canada.
This is the Nord 1500. Better known as a Griffon. This one is 02, aka F-ZWUI, the Griffon II. 01 didn't survive.
This has to be about the most gorgeous flower in my back garden, I love it - expect to see more of this through the next few weeks :-)
This is not what I wore today. It's what I am gonna wear tomorrow but my photographer is more readily available at this hour. I spent the whole day in sweat pants because I had a stomach flu :(
And incredibly I mustered up enough self confidence to post this picture without a stitch of makeup !!!
100% thifted
Jacket, thrifted Express
Olive shirt, thrifted
Belt, thifted
Necklace, thrifted
Jeans, thrifted H&M
Boots, thifted, (ever hear of Bally ??)
This photo is made for the "photography composing"-seminar at university.
Topic: Irritation through perspective, reflection etc.
By the way: This is my first flickr photo made with my new Canon EOS 7D ;-)
please see and comment my photography also on my personal homepage: Click
thank you!
Here's Rae, a wonderful person who's become one of my closest friends lately. We went on a little adventure this afternoon, taking photos on the beach before a cheeky Costa on the way home.
'Like' on Facebook! | RedBubble | I sell prints.
This was my first dedicated photo-trip out of the year, and I can say now that I really needed to get out and take some photos because I was getting sick of sitting doing schoolwork or playing Skyrim (despite how awesome it is).
Raymond Terrace.
This town is located at the confluence of the Hunter and Williams Rivers as they enter the estuary region of Newcastle. Not linked to the rivers is Lake Grahamstown which is really a water storage dam taking waters from the Williams River through a canal to the dam. It provides about 40% of the Hunter region water supply and the dam and lake was created between 1956 and 1965. The town of Raymond Terrace was named after Lieutenant Raymond who was in the party led by Lieutenant Shortland who discovered the Hunter River region in 1797 when looking for escaped convicts. The terrace name was meant to describe the terraced or layered appearance of the trees along the Hunter River where they camped. On a visit to this spot in 1818 Governor Macquarie named it Raymond Terrace. Australian cedar cutters were here from the early 1800s but the first land grants only date from the early 1820s and the town itself was established in 1837. In the 19th century Raymond Terrace was a bustling river port and some river barges and ships were constructed here. The area along the Hunter River soon had warehouses, ship yards etc. The town has many sandstone and heritage buildings. These include in King Street: the Richardson and Scully warehouse/action rooms from around 1854; the old commercial building from 1847 which is now marked the Masonic Lodge as it was from 1920 to 2013; and several 1880s hotels and general stores. Look for the Marriage Trees in King Street too. In Sturgeon Street is the sandstone Anglican Church built in 1862 and across the street from it facing Jacaranda Street is the former Anglican rectory. This fine colonial house built in 1844 is now a function centre. The Norfolk Island pines in the garden were planted in 1850.
An 1850 split slab cottage known as Sketchley Cottage, built for an ex-convict William Sketchley, is now the town museum. William Sketchley was assigned as a convict to work for John Richardson in 1830 on the Hunter River. John Richardson’s son later had auction rooms in King Street in Raymond Terrace. They were then purchased by his grandson James Richardson in 1902 when his grandfather retired. The business was then known as Richardson and Scully until he sold it in 1910. The old 1854 warehouse was owned by the University of Newcastle Rowing Club from 1969 to 2004. Now privately owned since 2016. Sketchley cottage is of slab construction built before 1850 and moved to this site some decades ago. It has an extensive historical collection.
Near Raymond Terrace the National Trust has a fine historic property called Tomago House which is now permanently closed. A young barrister named Richard Windeyer had the house built. He bought around 30,000 acres of land in the Hunter Valley and 850 acres of land at this then swampy site around 1838. He had the house site drained and had the acreage planted in grape vines, sugar cane and wheat. He also had some livestock here. He was especially interested in wine and planted 12 acres of vines in 1842 and imported a German vineyard worker from South Australia in 1844 and others from Germany. They produced their first wine in 1845 making Windeyer one of the first successful wine makers in the Hunter Valley. For his wheat he imported the first wheat reaping machine into NSW from South Australia in 1846. Work began on Tomago House in 1840. Richard Windeyer died in 1847 at just 41 years of age. Their only child William Charles Windeyer was just 13 years of age at that time. Richard Windeyer’s wife Maria retained the 850 acres of Tomago estate and she eventually designed the estate chapel in 1860-61. Three generations of the Windeyer family lived on Tomago estate until 1944 when the property was sold. In the 1980s the Tomago Aluminium Smelter bought the property as a buffer around the smelter. In 1988 the smelter company donated 5 hectares (twelve acres) of land and the mansion to the National Trust. Only the chapel is visible from the road.
This series (147 photos) of this beautiful model have been shot with the a7 IV running the old 1.0 Firmware with Eye-AF issues.
You can find more photos of her in the albums.
This special squirrel has been coming to my back porch for 18 months now. She still comes up to the door and begs standing on her hind legs. She often sits on the edge of a flower pot waiting and when I pull into the driveway she hops toward me wanting a peanut. I keep one in the car for just such an encounter. I often have one in a pocket when working in the yard. She's been a real distraction and something fun during the long lock down because of the pandemic. She's had three liters in that time frame. I hope her visits will continue. She's the featured squirrel in my Squirrel Album.
Click for a better view with B l a c k M a g i c, or Press L to view in the LightBox
Thanks for your visit and comments, I appreciate that very much!
Don't use this image without my explicit permission. © all rights reserved.
Regards, Bram (BraCom)
This park, which is named in honour of the former mayor of Madrid, Enrique Tierno Galvan (1979 - 1986), is one of the biggest in Madrid . It opened in 1986 and with its 45 hectares it includes a number of different zones and facilities, and a range of vegetation. It starts at the former railway station of Delicias (currently the Madrid Train Museum) and stretches as far as Avenida de ia Paz, the ring road M30.
This is HMS Nottingham (D91), a Batch 2 Type 42 destroyer of the Royal Navy, in the English Channel. She is seen conducting manoeuvres during the 1986 Staff College Sea Days. Having been passed by several warships, each providing a commentary on her capabilities, weapons and equipment to the students on the upper deck, she is turning sharply under the stern of the last in line, HMS Boxer, and accelerating off to the next evolution. The combination of an application of power to the propellers and a hard "left hand down a bit" is producing the heel as she begins crossing our wake.
Launched on 18 February 1980, and commissioned on 8 April 1983, she was the sixth ship to bear the name. "The Notty" was the last of the short Type 42s and suffered from the usual stressing of the flexible joint amidships (but structural strengthening was not fitted at the time of this photo).
She was eventually decommissioned in February 2010 and sent to Turkey for scrapping in 2011.
This English country house was built by the honorable Mary Isabel Portman from London in 1913, who was an independent 36 year old lady with a big fondness for classical music. She herself was a passionate violin player.
The house was built based on the plans of Detmar Blow and Ferdinand Billerey, two English architects who were inspired by the Arts & Crafts Movement of the era.
Unfortunately Mary Portman have never been able to enjoy staying at this house, due to the outbreak of the 1st World War.
In 2007 the house was carefully renovated and turned into a luxury hotel. There is an attached flat wooden building with a spa and wellness area.
It is recommended that guests do not bring children.
The house is located not far from Mittenwald in a valley. The backdrop is the massive Wetterstein Range that is not visible on my photos due to the gloomy weather.
I understand that people come here to have peace and quiet, and it is also a very lucrative business for the hotel owners.
I myself, however, prefer to go to such places on my feet, take my kid with me, and sleep in a simple wooden hut with simple meals. I think it makes you respect and appreciate the beauty of the place more if you walk there, instead of driving there. It is more natural, if you respect the way of life people have in the area and adjust to them.
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This picture is part of a series shot on Kodak ColorPlus 200 film and a Kiev 4A (1963) camera.
Settings for this shot were not recorded (I started doing this later).
The pictures that compose this series are:
1 - Morning glow (flic.kr/p/2qv3ZGi)
2 - I'm spiderman (flic.kr/p/2quWXTt)
3 - Carousel (flic.kr/p/2quWXSS)
4 - Montevideo (flic.kr/p/2quWXSG)
5 - New roads (Nuevos Caminos) is the actual name of the statue by José Belloni (flic.kr/p/2qv3ZFX)
6 - Backlit building (flic.kr/p/2qv4ETF)
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credit to beck for the shaded rails
a SCAR-H fused with a semi-auto 30mm airburst grenade launcher. the scar simply slides into the body of the OICW, so you can always take it out. it has a heavy barrel. the GL has a targeting computer build into the scope to judge distance and so you can use the airburst function
This is a color version of a study I made time ago in B/W. Done on iPad4 with Inspire Pro 2.0 (beta). The update to this version is available now.-New and amazing features coming along with this new Inspire Pro.
Also, I´ll be painting live and giving advices on ipad art in Kiwipixel booth at MacWorld (San Francisco) next weekend. I´ll be so happy if any of you come to visit
Keep painting!! ;)
I saw this on TJ's photostream. First though? I have to build this....
I dunno why, but it's very emotional. Once I get my hands on the new 501 trooper, I'm gonna get building! Thoughts?
Thirteen images from Iceland... just for fun! Made with Flickrtoys. You should look at this image LARGE on BLACK!!
This B-52C Stratofortress crashed on January 24, 1963 with nine crew members on board due to a structural failure (two survived). Pieces of the aircraft scattered in a huge area on the side of Elephant Mountain, Maine. 54 years later, nature has taken over the memorial site, but thousands of pieces of the aircraft are still visible.
This shot was taken at a friend's house on Britain's Isle of Wight. The garden was located on a slight hill not too far from the bluff that overlooks the Soylent (the body of water separating the island from the English mainland). I chose this image to remind us that greenness is soon coming, even in Wisconsin. There's hope!
Roseberry Topping - 10/04/10
Took a trip to Roseberry Topping with Paul this morning. No bluebells just yet but scouted out a few spots to go back to in a few weeks time. Thanks for the great company Paul.
1/100 sec - f/11 - 17 mm - ISO 200 - B+W Circular Polariser
This is a macro shot of a dainty bess rose.
To all my flickr friends what a wonderful week I have had.
Some photographer friends of mine came to visit for a week from the Netherlands.
What fun we had.
We did photo shoots everyday!!
Exhausted but so much fun and tons of shots we took.
Cannot wait to share them with you.
This is one taken this past week.
This photo was taken along the same Autobahn (and from the same bridge), but in the opposite direction.
View On Black (large)
This tiger was in pride of place at Zoo Miami. Such a beautiful animal.
www.facebook.com/pages/Simple-Elegance-By-Laura/132391823...
This photo was taken on the coastal cliffs of Banffshire, a county now absorbed by its larger neighbours, Aberdeenshire and Morayshire. It looks out northwards over the Moray Firth, from a point a mile and three quarters east of Cullen and three miles west of Portsoy. The walls perched on the sides of the promontary belong to Findlater Castle - once a place of great strength - before the age of artillery, which would have completely dominated it from up here.
Although quite a remote spot, it is easy enough to access. Parking is provided at the farm of Barnyards of Findlater after which a good path leads to the cliff edge.
There's a lot going on in this shot. Let's start with the small, yellow craft docked alongside the ore boat, J.L. Mauthe. That little yellow boat is the Marine Trader that was built in Superior, Wisconsin in 1939 with hull number 238999. The boat was originally 50 feet 7 inches long but was lengthened 10 feet in 1965. It sported many different paint jobs and color schemes over the years and was available day or night to help keep sailors supplied with nearly anything they wanted to buy. It was a floating ship's store, if not a mini-department store. The craft worked throughout the Duluth-Superior harbor for the first 66 years it was operational. As I understand it, owners Franz and Bruce VonRiedel owned this craft and two others, Marine Supplier and Kaner I, that were owned previously by Al and Bernie Kaner, respectively. All three boats were mothballed for a time when VonRiedel's business—Acme Marine Services—was closed in 2000. The boats were eventually sold to different parties between 2000 and 2005. The Marine Trader left the Ports for good in October 2005 and that was apparently the first time the craft ever sailed across Lake Superior for points east. If you would like to do more research on the Trader and see more pictures too then please visit www.boatnerd.com/ for lots more material on this—and every other vessel on the Great Lakes.
Next, if we look closely we'll see a sailor about to embark on a personal shopping expedition. He's climbing down the ladder to Marine Trader from the working deck of the Mauthe. Then, just beyond him are half a dozen men actively engaged in loading natural ore into the Mauthe's hold. Deck hatches are wide open and spouts from Missabe Dock 5 will be lowered and raised in concert by men on top of the dock who will operate those chutes one or two at a time. Then in turn, corresponding ore pocket doors will be opened to allow the staged iron ore to slide right into the big boat with a loud, almost-prehistoric "whooshing" sound.
Then, pay careful attention to the ore cars on top of Dock 5. This will take considerable explanation.
Each ore dock in Duluth and Superior (Two Harbors and Ashland too) was much more than a staging area where ore was simply dumped into the dock. The ore was actually partially blended in each dock pocket. Then when the ore was dumped into a boat it was further blended as it was directed into the near, middle, or far side of each hold. This wasn't simply a matter of blending different iron content either. Individual vessel size and that vessel's loading characteristics played into it nearly as much as both the iron and silica content of that ore.
Silica content was especially important during unloading of the ore dock as ore with higher silica ran faster out of the dock pockets and allowed for more precise loading to the far side of the vessel. By adjusting the angle of the chutes this fast running ore would slide out of the pocket faster and thereby reach the far side of the vessel to make the loading much more even.
While each pocket on Dock 5 held four car loads of ore, dumping into these pockets was not an even-steven kind of operation. Each ore dock had four tracks on top of it. Two tracks fed the pockets on the north side of the dock while the second pair of tracks fed the south side pockets. So each side of the dock had just two tracks used to fill the pockets, that were in turn used to load vessels on opposite sides of the ore dock. Fast running ores and slow running ores each had their own dumping order with 3/4 of the ore going into each pocket via the two inner tracks. The two outer tracks were used to top of the load or to put stickier ore on top of the fast running ore so that it would slide right out behind the fast ore. If the sticky ore went in first, then the load might not release at all.
So during the modern era of blended ores 75% of the dock was filled via the two inner tracks while just 25% was dumped from the two outer tracks. The whole idea was to make each 4-car load in each pocket to be both a proper chemical content and also the most-free-running consistency to make dock unloading quick and easy. Filling a boat necessitated moving the vessel during loading. Deck hatches were generally spaced for every 2nd or 3rd pocket and chute. So a vessel might make 3 or more passes back and forth to get all of the ore contained in the dock for a given load, from a series of 3-4 adjacent pockets. On a good day things went like this but on a bad day when the ore being dumped was sticky or had a high moisture content then the work was much more difficult. You can read about that here: www.flickr.com/photos/jeff_lemke/29092814325/in/album-721...
There are a couple more things worth pointing out from this shot too. Notice how both tracks above the pockets have many more ore cars parked there. Those loads aren't for the next vessel. They are for this vessel. After each pocket is emptied of its contents the final phases of loading this boat will occur. That will be what they called "speed loading" or "topping off" the load that's already inside of the boat. Ore inside of those cars will be dumped directly into the boat through the pocket while the gate is open and the cute is lowered. The ore will fall directly from the car into the boat. Getting the last bit of ore into each boat in this manner became necessary as the boats became larger and sometimes as loads became stickier and harder to dump. Railroads found that the sticky ores became much more sticky when left in the dock for any time and as each car was dumped on top of the previous load, the problem became even worse.
Other times the pockets simply didn't hold enough ore to satisfy the larger holds in those boats. This was true in the taconite era too. I was invited to ride along on just such a train in Superior at Allouez Dock 2 where we were loading pellets directly from the cars through the pockets to top off a load of taconite. The larger BN Dock 5 at Allouez brought about an end to this practice and the balance of Allouez ore docks were abandoned after Dock 5 was up and running at full capacity.
The last thing that I'll mention is the second track in. Take a close look the the two cars farthest right on top of the dock. The black one is a Northern Pacific car while the ones next to it are Great Northern. This load will include interchange ore that was brought to Saunders, Wisconsin by the Burlington Northern. The Missabe's Interstate Job picked up that ore at Saunders then brought it to Proctor via Adolph, sorted it at Proctor, then the Hill Job brought it down for spotting on Missabe Dock 5. All of the ore roads that ran here cooperated to provide each other with the necessary ore to make a boat load the proper and required chemical consistency to fulfill orders from the steel companies. A large amount of ore loaded into the these massive docks actually came here from the non-owning roads. It was this interchange between the railroads of the various ores (that would then be sorted before being loaded into the docks) that really made the whole system work. Without this ore interchange between the various railroads the mining companies would have been limited to shipping in many cases, unusable or unwanted grades of ore. Without the interchange of ore cars that allowed better grades of ore to be created through yard sorting and dock and hull blending—the ore era as we once knew it would have ended decades earlier than it did.
Of course, way back when, when the ore docks were still very young and made mostly of wood, it was possible to load ore willy-nilly because the earliest ores mined were of a sufficiently high iron content that blending wasn't required or desired. But as those better-resources played out, the operation that I described here today is what quickly became the norm. It is the reason why railroads like the Missabe and Great Northern had such huge sorting yards at Proctor and Allouez. They had to be massive because the mix of cars needing to go down to any one track on the docks became a staggeringly complex project that changed by season. Every year there was a different supply of ores to blend.
It should be obvious by now that if you thought that the iron ore used to make steel went straight from the mine to the dock in solid strings of cars—generally speaking you'd be wrong about that. But as natural or direct shipping ores played out and taconite was developed during the mid-1960s, the dream of being able to load an entire train load of Minnesota ore into a Great Lakes vessel finally became a reality through the advent of the taconite pellet—though even that started out rather slowly. Believe it or not many boats ran with split loads containing half natural iron ore and half taconite pellets. That was until the pellet plants could produce enough pellets to load full vessels. Each taconite plant produced its own variety of product too. Ultimately, taconite production turned a difficult sorting and blending process into a relatively easy one by creating an easily transportable product with a consistent iron content.
After 1968, scenes like this one began to become more rare every day. By the time this shot was taken in 1981 natural ore shipments out of Duluth were practically a thing of the past. Just to contrast complex vs. simple processes, here's a nice view of the Duluth docks that I shot in the post-natural-ore taconite era where we can see two varieties of pellets on the ground that still fill boat holds in present day Duluth: www.flickr.com/photos/jeff_lemke/25449237413/in/album-721...
Of course if you visit either of the Twin Ports area "ore yards" today (that's BNSF's Allouez and CN's Proctor facilities) you'll find that those once-huge ore classification yards are truly conspicuous by their complete absence (Allouez) or nearly complete absence (Proctor). In the taconite era, railroad tracks simply store cars not being used at the moment. There's nothing much left to blend because other than the iron particles themselves that are mated with a binding clay and limestone to make the pellets in the first place—all that's left to do is dump them onto the ground for stockpile and then reload them into the dock when the boat gets near.
While the days of sorting ore are likely gone forever it sure is fun remembering just how complicated that process was and how many men and women earned their livings doing this important work for America. I'm glad that I found this picture of Duluth-Superior's most-recognized bumboat to share with you today. That little floating store provided the guys on the bigger boats with an opportunity to do something besides the everyday grind. The requisite climb up and down the ladder to be able to spend a little money had to be worth it, and I'm certain that when the Marine Trader pulled up alongside the ore boats it was truly a welcome sight for sore eyes. Long live the bumboats and their Captains!
This is the transition/separation to the café seating area, which was added to the front of the store in the first part of 2014, and was the former location of produce before the major remodel/expansion. Now we see it shrouded in mystery, and about to change yet again at the time of this photo. Out of 464 2014 remodel series photos, I apparently only got one closeup view of what it looked like just after that remodel: a half-wall with a case in front of it. I do have two or three more overview shots, which I may (or may not!) link to later on...
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Kroger, 2004-built, Goodman Rd. at Getwell Rd., Southaven, MS