Self Loading Barge

Log Barge with Travelling crane

What we see here is quite impressive even to those use to seeing impressive things. While the perspective doesn't show the whole story what we are looking at here is a barge docked to a wharf in the lower Columbia River at Rainier, Oregon. The crane is mounted on a custom undercarriage that travels down the sides of the barge.

The barge will carry about 600 truck loads of logs. Here the 'truck loads' were banded, and the crane was setting the bundles off the barge, where 2 log stackers were hustling the logs away. The first stacker was working in the 'hot zone' (the danger area that the crane could reach) grabbing the bundles as the crane set them on skids and moving them to another set of skids out of the 'hot zone'. There a second stacker was grabbing the bundles and moving them to a deck for storage. The unloading process is said to take 12-14 hours. As this unloading was going on, the tug boat was standing by ready to take the barge on its way as soon as the unloading was completed.

I believe the fellow in the white hat on the crane is the 'oiler' (or assistant). During the unloading process there isn't much for him to do so mostly he sat on the blue plastic bucket on the catwalk outside the the crane house. He would have work to do if something became a problem.

There is no manufacturers name on the crane, but the styling suggests to me that it is a Bucuyrus-Erie.

- - Updated 04/10/2008

- - Updated 4/21/2006

- - Updated 03/27/2008