Boatnerd Discussion Forum

The American Courage is loading pellets in Ashtabula for a Cleveland shuttle, so it looks like they are not going to Middletown after all.

Is there a train loader in Ashtabula? Or will each car be filled via a front end loader?

U S Steel owns the Conneaut docks.

In Ashtabula the Pinney docks are owned by a large corporation named Kinder Morgan.
The rail connection is Norfolk & Southern.

US Steel’s facility would be in Conneaut, not Ashtabula.

Pretty sure Nippon owns US Steel's train loading facilities in Ohio.
Hence Cliffs who owns AK Steel would need somebodies help to get ore into rail cars, no?

Cliffs bought AK Steel (Armco) several years ago.

Rail from Ashtabula to Middleton? Cliffs calling in a favor from Nippon Steel?

My guess is this ore will be delivered by rail to Cleveland Cliffs mill in Middletown OH.

Aside from blast furnaces running in Pittsburgh, Cleveland , and Northern Indiana where else are boats going to go?
Torco is down. Coal is gone. Too early for the northern stone quarry's (yes?) Maybe a few salt cargoes

Indeed I did notice that her destination was changed from Toledo to Ashtabula. However, the Block has delivered ore to Ashtabula before. I recall in 1998, both her and the Sykes made a few at that time very rare trips to Ashtabula with ore pellets. If I’m correct, I think back then, they were carrying those loads from Escanaba.

Anyone else notice she is currently carrying ore to Ashtabula? Seems like an odd destination for her.