Paddlewheel Coal Diggers on the Susquehanna River

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ntp71
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Post by ntp71 » Wed. Mar. 04, 2015 12:05 pm

Check this out...really cool....I want to build one!



Neal

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Wed. Mar. 04, 2015 12:51 pm

Outstanding post Neil. Thank you :)

 
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ntp71
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Post by ntp71 » Wed. Mar. 04, 2015 1:48 pm

You're Welcome...here is a bonus clip.

The guy who built the dredge in the previous video apparently used parts from this set up.



Neal

 
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Post by SWPaDon » Wed. Mar. 04, 2015 3:17 pm

Great video, thanks for posting.


 
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Post by franco b » Wed. Mar. 04, 2015 4:03 pm

I love it. So much work just because.

 
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ntp71
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Post by ntp71 » Fri. Mar. 06, 2015 7:38 am

Apparently this type of dredging continued up until 1997...the guy then retired and died 2 years later :-(

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Fri. Mar. 06, 2015 8:16 am

Yep, retiring will do that to a bunch of us Neil. My Dad crossed over 2 months after retiring from a 30 yr job--Love ya Dad:) KOOL, a cyber message to my Dad ;)

 
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Post by hotblast1357 » Fri. Mar. 06, 2015 8:30 am

What a great video! 10 tons just sittin there on the bank?! I'm goin at night with a shovel lol


 
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Post by McGiever » Fri. Mar. 06, 2015 9:11 am

Nice slice of history. :)

 
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Post by lowfog01 » Fri. Mar. 06, 2015 9:18 am

Great post - Thanks for sharing. I'm glad someone saved this piece of American History.

 
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ntp71
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Post by ntp71 » Sun. Mar. 08, 2015 10:40 am

I did a little more research on this and this was quite an industry back in the day. I am going to do a little field trip to the Susky this year and see how much of this river coal is washing up near where I live. I read in an old Popular MEchanics that it was estimated that there was over 500 million tons of raw coal dumped into the river.

 
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Post by freetown fred » Sun. Mar. 08, 2015 3:34 pm

Hell Neil, ya ought to be able to get at least a couple 5 gal. jugs out of that stash! ;)

 
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Post by Diggerdan » Sun. Mar. 08, 2015 3:48 pm

Great post that when men were men

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