Not sure where this belongs, but.....

[MadMike1024]

Take a look at the wooden transfer car in the foreground. It has three archbar trucks under it! I'd guess it was limited to the dock and mill area..

[artimrj]

What are they doing going from one hopper to another?

[Bananarama]

I don't think the ore is being transferred from one car to the other, but rather from a boat (out of frame) to the car.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

That looks like a homemade wooden side dump gondola.
The lading seems to be of a light colour, I suppose limestone. Not slag or klinker, as that tends to be hot and would burn the car.

The photo seems to emphasize the change from bucket/skip onloading to steam powered mechanical unloading by those conveyors in the background. Timeframe, 1890's 1910's, before the more efficient electric Hulett unloaders became the norm at the Pennsylvania and Ohio ore docks.

The caption says Cleveland, Ohio, on the Erie coal and ore docks. Where were these located exactly? The lakefront, Whiskey Island or along the Cuyahoga River?

[MadMike1024]

That looks like a homemade wooden side dump gondola.
The lading seems to be of a light colour, I suppose limestone. Not slag or klinker, as that tends to be hot and would burn the car.

The photo seems to emphasize the change from bucket/skip onloading to steam powered mechanical unloading by those conveyors in the background. Timeframe, 1890's 1910's, before the more efficient electric Hulett unloaders became the norm at the Pennsylvania and Ohio ore docks.

The caption says Cleveland, Ohio, on the Erie coal and ore docks. Where were these located exactly? The lakefront, Whiskey Island or along the Cuyahoga River?

My googlefu puts them on Whiskey Island - Look what was the switcher there -

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

My googlefu puts them on Whiskey Island - Look what was the switcher there -

Haha, that Wooten Camelback Mallet would go nicely alongside the "skull and bones" 4-4-0 DTG is producing for the annual Halloween pack.

That's one gothic looking steam engine.

[philmoberg]

It's possible that three-truck gondola was still in main line service at that point, although it wouldn't be for very long. The unloader in the foreground appears to be a travelling gantry and bucket, basically the same idea as today's container cranes; while the machinery behind the lake boat (which may actually have been a towed barge), in the background, appears to be either an early form or of an immediate predecessor design to the Hulett unloaders (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulett) that became very popular on the lakes. Last I checked, there were one or two sets of them standing derelict, and none in service that I'm aware of. My guess is that this scene is probably not earlier than 1906, since both cars appear to comply with the Safety Appliance Act of that year; and probably not later than 1916, when cars such as that three-truck gondola became too uneconomic to run.

[Chacal]

Unless the central truck can slide laterally, I don't see how it can negociate a curve.

[MadMike1024]

A point of interest;

Do you know why the camelback design came to be? It had to do with high slate content coal, which had to have a far larger grate area to generate enough heat to run a steam loco. Look at the size of the firebox, and it becomes obvious why the cab had to be somewhere other than over the firebox.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

A point of interest;

Do you know why the camelback design came to be? It had to do with high slate content coal, which had to have a far larger grate area to generate enough heat to run a steam loco. Look at the size of the firebox, and it becomes obvious why the cab had to be somewhere other than over the firebox.

Wikipedia knows:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelback_locomotive
http://www.steamlocomotive.com/camelback/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wootten_firebox