A veteran EMD operated by Three Rivers Marine and Rail Co. pulls a pair of former Norfolk and Western Pullman Standard 4740 cuft covered hoppers up the Monessen Southwestern's former trestle in Belle Vernon. Meanwhile, down in the Monongahela River, the tug Lady Louise hustles a couple of barges around a coal loader. The covered hoppers loaded with rock salt are being dumped into a conveyor for transloading into trucks, which was installed under the trestle originally built to connect the Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel Monessen Plant to the Pittsburgh and West Virginia mainline a couple of miles to the east.
Some more info on the boat from E. Johnson...The boat, Lady Louise, was built in 1976 by Marine Builders of Clarksville, IN and is powered by Cummins engines. The original name of the boat was Chief Powhatan II being owned by North American Coal Co. and working at Powhatan Point, OH. In 1984 it was sold to Neale Towing Co. of Parkersburg, WV. and was again sold in 1998 to Three Rivers Marine & Rail who renamed it Lady Louise.
