More Steam for Century Three

With single-digit temperatures in the canal corridor of NYS this morning, we could throw on some wood and create heat and steam. Metaphorically speaking, time is right to start working up the steam power for the new year. The approaching tug is churning the waters for the next lock. Maybe an astute canal enthusiast can…

will van dorp

January 3, 2025

1–2 minutes

The approaching tug is churning the waters for the next lock.

Maybe an astute canal enthusiast can identify the lock just beyond the approaching unnamed tug. Might it be 18?

Since I believe you enjoy departing a blog post with some info gained, that’s the 1915 steam tug Philip Mago, 48′ x 15” and built in Tonawanda. Mago was named to honor–as the obituary states–“a well-known local marine man,” who lived on Fletcher Street paralleling the Niagara River. The lead barge is Dundee of Rondout NY. Might the location be just east of lock 23?

Got some images of life on the canal to research? Group sourcing leads to success, sometimes.

One response to “More Steam for Century Three”

Lee Rust

January 5, 2025 at 1:56 pm

There’s a reason that those big pickup truck guys use “rolling coal” as a way to draw attention to themselves, because there’s rarely any doubt when a coal or wood-fired conveyance is passing. Those massive clouds of smoke are some of the many past realities that we moderns tend to forget in our diesel-powered age.

Lee Rust

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