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(erielack) EL Mail List Digest V3 #3318 STEEL

Anybody KNOW where and how, iron ore came from the lakers (boats) from 
 the waterfront into Abbott Road? We do know where the coal and coke 
 came from, or do we? Taber "forgot" the area
at the west end out of Buffalo; or most likely he just didn't have any 
 data.


Charlie & List,

The DL&W in Buffalo had their own ore docks on the Erie Basin, right next to their coal trestle, from 1883 to about 1912. After the hoppers and gons dumped their coal into lake vessels, they would return east with iron ore. The DL&W had vintage 1886 Thornburg ore unloaders. By 1912 several other ore docks were operating in Buffalo and were more "modern". The DL&W didn't have the space to upgrade its ore docks so they closed.

From 1887 to 1899 the DL&W had their own fleet of lake freighters which brought ore and other freight to their Buffalo docks in their own boats.

There were a couple years in the 1930's when some convoluted ICC rules made it more profitable to bring coal into the East Buffalo yards and then take it to the DL&W coal dumper on the Buffalo River, dump it into a lake freighter, and haul it two miles back up the Buffalo River to Republic Steel, instead of just hauling it the 2 miles from E Buffalo Yard to Republic. So you never know.

I think Taber lacked the data "at the west end out of Buffalo". Taber stated the DL&W did not have their own fleet of lake freighters, as did the Erie, LV, NYC, PRR, etc. But they did have a good size fleet. The DL&W interests (Sloan, Blair, etc) owned several railroads in Wisconsin & Minesota, of which Sloan was president for 15 years. The DL&W started the Great Lakes car ferries across Lake Michigan and attempted to take control of the Ann Arbor in order to connect with Buffalo by rail. (the DL&W fleet connected Buffalo to Green Bay)  Sloan and Blair were building a road to Omaha to connect with their Wisconsin roads. The story west of Buffalo has never been told. In the late 1800's, Buffalo was the mid-point on the DL&W system. Winona, Minn. was the western-most point.

Ron Dukarm

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