Hulett Ore unloaders at the C&P Dock in Cleveland, video from 1989 and 1992. These were the last of their breed to operate, replaced by self-unloading vessels with conveyor systems.
I used to work for McDowell-Wellman Engr. Co. in Cleveland in the early 70's. We had the licensing for these Huletts' and I used to have to make parts and rebuild many of the components of these monsters. The large main arm was rebuilt on one at our construction yard on the east side and came in on two pieces on 70' long flatbed railroad cars. Once rebuilt we had to use two 150-ton truck cranes to lift them back on the cars (about 264 tons). Delivery by permit load truck was not allowed because of this weight on the roads. They had to be returned to the Pittsburgh & Conneaut docks by lake barge. What a hoot that was.
+Bearclaw11000 My Dad retired from P&C. He ran Huletts for a long time. At one time or another he had done everything from Laborer and Pits to running the trains in the yard. He worked both on the Coal Dock and Ore Dock. What shame that that place was bought by CN and basically mothballed. The steel industry is what made this country!
They are like prehistoric dinosaurs. Have you ever seen dragline excavators, they are pretty impressive too. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IJQEDQtrXHQ.html
heh. That was my son's logon. Yep, watched them from the 24th floor of the Fed Bldg. Did not realize how truly huge they are/were for having all those moving parts, or that there was an operator at the loading end going into the freighter! Wow. what magnificent machines. A great video. ps - thanks for no dippy background music. The sound of the work was music enough.
You did a great job documenting the operation of these fascinating machines! Thanks for preserving it for future generations now that the machines themselves have been lost.
I worked there in the 70's part time making $5.25 an hour as a shoveler. My dad was. Hewlett operator. It was a cool place to work. At times I worked on the deck of the boat shoveling the ore that spilled onto the deck. We would shovel the ore either back into the hole or onto the dock trying not get any into the water. The sound of the Hewletts really brings back memories.
Awesome, and very well made. I once asked one of the operators "Did you ever..." he cut me off in a friendly way and said "anything you can imagine to do with this thing... We've done it"
@@CTK1201 I followed up with "But have you ever taken a bite out of the out of the bottom of an oar boat's hull?". He just gave me a look that said 'of course we have, what did I just tell you?'
I worked aboard the SS Paul H Carnahan on the Superior WI to Cleveland run. The Huletts were amazing - especially at night when they appeared to dance in the darkness. I feel lucky to have been aboard one of the last straight deckers. Sadly our last trip was to Cleveland. Hanna company execs came aboard in suits with brief cases and that was it - the Carnahan was sold for scrap. It was the mid 80's and I saw grown men shed tears not knowing what their future would be.
Probably the last machine to exist from the real engineering era, to come up with that in the 1890s and for it to work for 100 years, just incomprehensible
Got recommended this after seeing a video about their history and man are they amazing. I'm a fan of mechanical stuff and these are just absolute engineering marvels and beautiful pieces of art. Shame they aren't still up and functioning any more. I would have loved to see one operate in person.
It would be neat to have any remaining Hulett operators meet and sit down and go over their experiences with the Huletts, archive it and have it available to others like NPR does, Watching these operators and those working blooming mills is amazing. The operators were one with the machine.
Holy crap wasn’t expecting a wheel loader to be dropped in !!! And at night ? Whole new perspective! Bet those were sought after jobs . Damn cool video thanks !
No, they weren't sought after, at least not at Republic Steel. The whole rest of the company thought we were nuts for working there. We were outside all year long, after the boats stopped running in the winter, we were on repair duty. It was dirty, nasty and dangerous. Personally, I loved it. I learned so much there.
As others here have already said, this is GREAT stuff! It is amazing watching the guy in that small cab lower himself right down in there to operate that huge scoop. Amazing engineering!
I used to haul gci cranes for international chimney, so we were all kinds of plants..steel. power..i had the priveledge to ride in one of these. as my dad was a merchant marine years ago, and was fascinated by ships...the crane operator that worked for us knew one of the operators of the hulett...I got to ride.. one of the coolest experiences of my life!! god I miss working!! got hurt 6 years ago. 7 knee surgerys, so I cant get around much...great life if you don't weaken!! an old man told me that when I was 13
Really neat story! Those GCI cranes were something else. Sketchy, scary are two words the operator could decribe them as.? Use to see them around a fair bit. They have long since been "retired".
@@larrydunlop378 I hauled and repaired the GCI cranes, we had 2 , but for the life of me, i cant understand how more didnt fall over!!.. but the ride in the hulett was the thrill of a lifetime!
@@buzzsaw5475 WoW! That is a great gift you were given. I can see how that would be a life memorable experience. Thanks for the great story and you take care of yourself.
They were like giant aliens transported here from space. Very mantis like in their appearance and their movements. When I did see the remaining two on the dock, there were a couple of people there agitating for the Hulett's preservation. Again, fantastic footage!
Wow, that was impressive, I did wonder where the operator sat and how much of the load could be removed, but then in they come with a 'toy' loader followed up with men and their brooms. If I had not seen it I would not have believed that, thanks for this highly informative video, Jim :)
That and/or the greatest Rube Goldberg invention ever. They had their issues, notably that they could not be used in salt water ports. Ultimately, self unloading freighters made them obsolete. They did make visible the work of industry, what it took to move ore, etc. . .
Great video! So glad to see the operation from so many vantage points. Living in Michigan all my 68 years and having seen freighters all my life I can now better appreciate what occurs at the end of their journeys. Thanks!!!
Thanks, Hovermotion.... After a career of flying airplanes, where everything (all systems) is/are as light as possible, it's REALLY a treat to watch "heavy equipment" design and in use.... A REAL TREAT!!! Thanks again- it's appreciated... Gordon.
Terrific. I used to see these all along the lakes taking boat trips with my dad, who was a captain for US Steel, and in my home town of Conneaut Ohio where the first huletts were built. Got a ride in one in Gary Ind. when I was about 13. Really miss these machines.
I'm 40 and I remember driving to Lakewood from the east side to see family on the shoreway and always seeing the huletts meant we were close. This video was awesome.
I just watched a video that introduced these machines to me last night! Today, I get to see them operating. The other video showed what was left of the Huletts as a pile of scrap. Fantastic machines. I hope that there is more to come!
fmnut, You have no idea how many memories this video has brought back to me! My dad worked on the boats the whole time I was growing up and we used to visit him every time the boat came in. He usually went to Huron, OH, but many times he went to Cleveland and Conneaut also. I was in my early teens and would usually hang out with whoever had ladder watch. I love watching the Huletts.....they had such a graceful dance and I never tired of it. Thanks so much for the great video!!!!
Thanks for this footage. I went to see the Huletts in Cleveland around 1993 or 1994. There were only 2 standing and were slated for demo. I didn't see them in action, but thanks to your footage I can. Thanks again.
Robert Tuss yeah the last two were left up while they decided what to do with them. eventually they were taken apart and saved nearby. nobody knows what to do with them, but obviously the idea is to reassemble them in a park some day.
@@meesalikeu Thanks to the youtube rabbit hole, i learned there's a couple museum plans to reassemble them in whole or in parts, but no funding for it.
They were the greatest Rube Goldberg machine ever, which is to say: if someone had come up with the self-unloading freighter first, these fantastic beasts would have never seen the light of day.
GOD - Hot and Nasty work in the summer - and freezing cold during the winter - a WHOLE NEW APPRECIATION to the men who worked these jobs year in and year out. The pay must have been extraordinary.
I currently own a 1960 Clark Michigan 35A wheel loader that started when new doing just what you see here in this video. Two of them were bought by a rock quarry in Indiana and I ended up with one. Almost thought that the loader in the video was one but these are four wheel steer and the one in the video is articulated. Great video though. Lost forever, but we can experience it here. Thanks for posting it.
There's something majestic about these beasts. For the job the accomplish, they seem to move with grace and smoothness not often associated with large machines. I think that's really neat that the bucket operator is sat right on the boom. Makes sense to me, so he can see exactly where he's going to scoop from next. I'd love to know about these.
Just watched this two times in a row, and will again by sharing it with my dad & mom + friends. What an amazing time the past was... Wish I was born before!! I am completely fascinated with man's will to get things done efficiently. Marvelous!
And interestingly enough, the base Hulett idea - a boom-mounted unloader - lives on in its descendant, the Siwetell Unloaders (which use a rotary screw and conveyor system for continuous unloading). It's too bad the Siwetell can't really handle bulk items as heavy as taconite, or we might still be using a form of Hulett on the Great Lakes.
Wow. Fascinating and nightmarish at the same time. Looks incredibly dangerous! Especially with the guys working in the hold, or riding the outside the cab! Different times indeed.
Absolutely amazing, after seeing these from afar I always wondered where the operators were. I had no idea they were right at the working end! What a great movie, I hope you have more, longer versions you can upload ASAP? Thanks for the work it took to get this in here!!
Wow. Came here from a Maritime Horror video about the collision of the SS Cedarville. Had no idea these enormous machines existed, let alone how elegant and graceful they could be, while simultaneously being absolutely terrifying in their immense size and power.
PHENOMENAL footage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for posting and sharing. I would not have imagined the operator was at the clamshell and actually went down into the hold! I guess a payloader is nothing compared to the weight of the ore. While it is a job, it must be a hateful one having to sweep out the hold to get every drop of ore. again, PHENOMENAL!!!!!!!!!!!
The use of loaders to clean out the holds really began in the 1950's when mechanized rubber tired equipment for road building came into general use and was available for this application. Prior to that the cleanup was done almost entirely by hand, which took much longer and was labor intensive (more costly) than with the front end loaders. For vessels that were solely in the ore trade, the thorough cleaning of the hold was not necessary, It was only when the vessels were hauling other commodities such as coal or grain that cleaning was required. The steel company owned boats generally just hauled ore, with some coal as backhaul, while the common carrier fleets were the ones that hauled varied cargoes. Thanks for your comment
Incredible. I was remembering the unloaders on the lake front and thought I'd see what was on the web. This is a real gem. Thank you so much for posting!!!
That is just mind-blowing.... What in credible pile of iron and steel. And I can't believe the guy rides just above the bucket! Wow! And then the self-unloading systems!! Double wow!
We still do - ships, planes, many other things. We just build *different* big things now. The Huletts weren't killed off by a foreign power, after all. They were killed off by the ore boat companies discovering that self-unloading systems were *FAR* more efficient, rather like diesel engines were more efficient then steam locomotives. The comparison is more apt then you might think: Huletts dated back to pre-WWI, and their cab layouts reflected that! It is pretty sad that they went, but it was only a matter of time. That they lasted through a century of use was a miracle in itself, and a testament to how durable the technology was. (They even had one unloading garbage barges in NYC once!)
divisioneight Correct. Also changing shipping patterns. The shift in the Canadian grain trade from Europe and Russia to the Pacific Rim meant there were less boats hauling grain to the St Lawrence ports and hauling pellets back to Cleveland. The economies of loaded back hauls were what made the Hulett/straight decker viable in the era of self unloaders.
The better way is self-unloading boats. The ore just empties into a built-in hopper in the hold, and gets moved to an on-board conveyor, so it can unload continuously and with virtually no need for external equipment, even to get the last pellets of ore. I think I read that the self-unloaders can do in hours what Huletts took days to do.
I never got to see this end of the operation, but I still remember the trainloads of ore that came south from there, via Alliance, to the Ohio River below Wellsville. They then proceeded up the river to Conway Yard, where they were sent to the mills around Pittsburgh, Wheeling, and Youngstown, as well as the Monongahela valley. When Conrail took over, they transferred all their big ALCO Centuries to their yard at Mingo Junction, as those engines were ideal for lugging that kind of tonnage over the rolling hills of southeast Ohio. From Wellsville, the grades are pretty easy as the tracks follow the Ohio River to Conway Yard in Pennsylvania.
Must be the strangest machines I've ever seen, something I'd expect to see in some crazy mixed up dream and there's an operator just above the clam shells!
I had a dream about these machines when I was 5 years old without ever knowing about them. They where digging for syrup in the field behind my house, Lol, mechanical dinosaurs my young mind thought, blown away when I found this video..
As a young historian interested in the steel industry, all I can say is that this footage is incredible. This is the closest I'll ever get to come to seeing these machines in action. While I knew how they operated, this answers many questions I've had about the details of Hulett operations. And, I have to say it again: That cab location is ridiculous. Great operator view, but I know I'd get sick from all the motion.
Thank you so much for this! I grew up seeing the Hullets on our shoreline. Watching them from Edgewater fishing as a kid. Have a soft spot for the Beast and feel they should be honored in Cleveland at some location. Really great video!!
As an engineer this is so fascinating, I watched another short video on here but that was just still photos. It left so many question unanswered as to HOW the bucket men got inside their cabins? I think it is disgraceful that they were put as listed historical machines THEN ripped up from the dock and dumped in a yard never to work again! They should at least restore and operate one to show future generations how they worked. That means many men lost their jobs when they tore out the Huletts, the bucket man, the truck loader underneath on the rail cars, the loader driver ad the broom men........that is such a shame. Thank You for such a detailed film. I shall watch this again on my big home TV when I can! It is lucky that SOMEONE preserved a little part of our history rather than cutting it up for scrap!🤬🤬
Awesome ! I have indeed enjoyed this video. These things looked like machines from a steampunk nightmare or from a film like "War of the worlds". Thanks for sharing this video. I would like to get one or two of these monsters for my H0 layout...
Thank you fmnut! I imagine then that the hopper on the gantry frame had a operable door to hold the pellets until the "larry car" could come underneath and offload the product. I noticed that the shovel arms rotated as well - that must be a huge roller bearing at the top of that arm to accommodate those loads. Thanks again.
These machines were marvels of the time It is sad to think that they’re all gone I guess there are still two that have been disassembled and are awaiting their Fate in Cleveland I do hope at least one example survives. Where it will be able to be seen
When I watch this, and I have a bunch of times, I always wonder what in the Sam Hill are we going to do the day the computer dies!!! Someone will say 'Do you remember way back when the Huletts were running'? Seems they were Ward-Leonard electrics. Amazing all the way. Even NOW! Maybe even MORE so now. What goes around comes around. Thanks Mr. Nut! You get the BIG A-PLUS!
Video was posted 14 years ago. I just don't remember video being so grainy in 2008, which doesn't seem like that long ago. Crazy how times (and our perception) have changed. Great video content though!
Woof. So those monsters unloaded one bucket at a time? Just how big is that bucket? Thank you so much, they really should be preserved. The stuff of nightmares, folks!
Like something out of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" (marching hammers?) ...huge scale, hypnotic, amazing, scary, dark and so fascinating. Thanks for posting this video of our valuable lake shipping heritage. I could watch this all day long!
I've seen a few videos on these, but never one so well documented. I didn't realize, until today, that the operator rode the arm down into the ship. Thanks for this!
This is really interesting I worked at Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay Wl.back in the 70s building new self unloading ships and converting the older ships to self unloaders and always wondered how they use to unload
@@randyvoss there are videos in youtube of that. Basically a long conveyor belt under the center of the hold, brings to vertical at one end, then long belt on a movable boom to dump on shore.
About 12 to 14 hours for a Seaway size (26,000 tons average capacity) vessel, using 3 machines with the 4th kept in reserve. In the old days they used all 4 machines with smaller vessels, then the time was about 6 to 8 hours.
Wow!! A very out of this world video..Well done my friend..Now i know how Hollywood got their ideas for the Star Wars props. such great machines these were..and they moved so graceful too.
Thanks. I was actually watching an Amazon program the other day that had these machines. Didn't really get into details about them. Cool to see, so thanks again
