Huletts in operation. Noisy?

[Guest]

Sometimes the mate yelling at the hulett operator was nosier than the hullet lol!

[Guest]

.............

After an unload by the Huletts in Ashtabula (1972) we hooked up two tugs to take us (SS George Seedhouse) to the nearby coal dock. Using two tugs allowed us to go without ballast. However, being so high out of the water, the bow swung into the dock and toppled one of the Huletts, destroying the Hulett and crushing a number of train cars. The ship had minor damage.

What does the captain say when this happens? Calls the main office and says, " Uh, we sort of bumped a Hulett and it tipped over crushing some train cars. I'm not sure what to do now. Please advise."

Or would there be expletives used? :)

[Jon Paul]

For whatever reason unknown to me some were louder than others. The ones in Conneaut and at Cleveland Lakefront seemed louder than the ones at S Chicago Republic Steel or Huron.

[intermodalres]

night.

After an unload by the Huletts in Ashtabula (1972) we hooked up two tugs to take us (SS George Seedhouse) to the nearby coal dock. Using two tugs allowed us to go without ballast. However, being so high out of the water, the bow swung into the dock and toppled one of the Huletts, destroying the Hulett and crushing a number of train cars. The ship had minor damage.

My brother has a picture of that hulett lying on its side. He started sailing in 72 and we used to go to Ashtabula and visit with him when the boat was unloading.

[jeffbenson]

When the Huletts were running in Conneaut I could here them from several blocks away before getting to work on the dock. Most of the noise came from the cables running through the sheaves for the walking beam.

[geysir]

I was a deckhand, cleaning cargo holds, when the Huletts were used. I never minded the Huletts since they were well controlled. Far worse were the clamshell buckets lowered from a bridge. They would swing around, hit the side tanks, and LOUDLY smash down onto the cargo hold steel deck while we we working in the cargo hold. Combined with a bulldozer running around in the hold this was certain recipe to cause nightmares in bed that night.

After an unload by the Huletts in Ashtabula (1972) we hooked up two tugs to take us (SS George Seedhouse) to the nearby coal dock. Using two tugs allowed us to go without ballast. However, being so high out of the water, the bow swung into the dock and toppled one of the Huletts, destroying the Hulett and crushing a number of train cars. The ship had minor damage.

[garbear]

When I first started sailing Conneaut unloaded into rail cars like the C & P dock in Cleveland. They put in a conveyor the ore was unloaded onto and then to a stockpile. At Gary they used the whole dock where you could unload in a trough, but about mid-dock there was a conveyor where we usually unloaded, on both the Clarke and Watson.

[Guest]

The Huletts installed at Bethlehem Steel's plant in Lackawanna had a conveyor for stacking the iron ore in the ore trough behind the machine.

[Ohio Bob]

just curious if there every were variations on the Hullett design. For instance, did any hullets use more of a conveyor/bucket system or even an auger design to limit the times in and out of the hold.

[William Lafferty]

I was told that the Huletts were only rented or leased to the operators and Hulett never sold the machines.

I find this on the surface hard to believe, at least for the early period when most Huletts were built. I cannot see a firm like United States Steel not owning outright its physical plant, especially since the rise of the Hulett coincided with the rise of accepted accounting methods for the depreciation of capital investment, a large tax savings for any corporation especially after the imposition of the first corporate income tax in 1909. What happens when the lease expires? Would, or could, Wellman-Seaver-Morgan take back the installations if a new lease could not be settled? As tax law has progressed, there have arisen certain financial advantages corporations can realize from leasing capital equipment and real estate which are prevalent today probably beginning with the railroad industry. That said, then, railroads had W-S-M build many Huletts, and railroads had been into leasing trackage and rolling stock since the late nineteenth century, at least, to conserve capital, so perhaps many, if not all, of the Huletts were leased at the railroads' insistence initially.

[hugh3]

I worked on the Lakes from 1956 thru 1970 and then went with the Corps of Engineers on their Sea-going dredges out of Jacksonville Fl and New Orleans La I was told that the Huletts were only rented or leased to the operators and Hulett never sold the machines.

Any verification either way on this?

[Guest]

As the video shows not terrible noise from their operation except lots of banging the side tanks, scrapping of the bottom of the hold and raining of pellets coming down on the spar deck. On some of the older boats, after the unload, it was not uncommon to do a little welding on the side tanks.

[Guest]

I have seen video without sound of a hulett operating and it looks so graceful and well coordinated.
I assume they were electrically operated so no engine noise but I wonder about other noise? Lots of banging and clanging and creaks and groans?

Or quiet and graceful?

Is there a video with sound somewhere?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K67zfRDdAbU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RJfnk2S330

This one shows active Huletts starting at about 6:00:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JErREoMOdDc

[RCRVRP]

I have seen video without sound of a hulett operating and it looks so graceful and well coordinated.
I assume they were electrically operated so no engine noise but I wonder about other noise? Lots of banging and clanging and creaks and groans?

Or quiet and graceful?

Is there a video with sound somewhere?