To catch up, this image was posted back on February 8. Your comments established that this was E-10, not E-9. Comment was also made that the boy was covering his ears because of a loud noise, likely the tugboat inside the lock. This information brought me back to the archives.

Here is a detail of the next photo in the sequence, which I’d never thoiught of as the next in a sequence, but this is clearly the same woman and boy as above.

I can’t make out the name of the Conners tug pushing Agnes Conners barge, but from tugster blog, here are photos of quite a few Conners tug. Maybe someone has better analysis skills than I do. Two of the three crew on the tug, on the stern, appear to be catching a line from some of the upper mitre gate of the lock. To the lower right, clearly there is a barge in the lock.

Matching details of the front of the barge with those posted on February 8, the barge appears to be Bernie Jr. Way in the background upper left, that’s clearly Adirondack Power and Light, as seen here. In my opinion, it is one of the most beautiful ruins along the canal.

Here are some closer ups of the tug,

The next shot in the sequence shows a quite unusual towing configuration; the tug is pushing AND towing twin large barges, The second in the sequence appears to have a very deep notch, if I’m seeing this right. Page 6 of the paper in this paper has great diagram showing a deep notch.

Anyone know anything about barge Marion?

I’d guess that barge Marion is following Bernie Jr., from that February 8 post.

My take then is that this unusual tow is westbound, heading for Amsterdam and lock E-11. There has to be much more to this story. Any help?

Don’t forget to sign up for the Canal Society Winter Symposium on March 7 in Rochester. More info here. See you there.