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Commuting
Janet D, a 1320 HP tug belonging to Construction and Marine Equipment of Elizabeth, has been making trips up to the Yonkers sugar plant from her base on the Arthur Kill with a deck barge, presumably for some work happening up there.
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Engineers
The Army Corps of Engineers boat Hocking visited the North River last week.
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Nostalgia
A Metro North P32AC pulled a “MaxiBomb” consist (7 Bombardier passenger cars) through Riverdale on the Hudson Division in Sunday morning fog. The engine wears a heritage wrap commemorating the days when Conrail ran commuter service here between 1976 and 1982. The blue and yellow New York State colors which once adorned Conrail’s old FL9 locomotives on this route to signal the service was run under contract with the state/MTA were introduced pre-Conrail by PennCentral with a darker blue when the ex-New Haven Railroad FL9s were brought to these old New York Central routes in the early 1970s.
Sunday on the Hudson Line The P32’s paint scheme is part of a nationwide appeal to nostalgia for “fallen flag” railroads, but those who actually commuted on Conrail probably don’t have fond memories—service was terrible and the badly maintained FL9s broke down frequently, though the 1950s era engines at the time were no older then the P32ACs are today. The old FL9s also rarely (or never?) looked so well painted—often the old PennCentral logo could be seen showing through the Conrail paint as in my old photos from the early Metro North era below show. Conrail continues to exist as a track owning joint venture of CSX and Norfolk Southern but does not have any locomotives of its own. Probably some younger commuters see the logo and get confused.
Harmon Yard in the mid 1980s 
FL9 in the mid 1980s -
After a long icy winter
Centerline Logistics big 6,140 HP tug Hawsepiper and the 350-foot barge Flaco (NOT named after the famous owl) have been regulars on the Hudson River route this winter and now into spring. On Friday the pair headed north again with a cargo. On Sunday, they were anchored off 72nd Street with the barge paint clearly showing the ravages of a tough icy winter.
Hawespiper and Flaco heading north on Friday 
At anchor on Sunday
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Arriving from down south
Thomas Dann arrived on the North River from offshore on Saturday with the deck barge CBC Savanah on the wire. Thomas had come up the coast from Charleston and was heading for the Port of Coeymans, perhaps to pick up some project cargo there.
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Spuyten Duyvil
The Reinauer Twins/RTC 104 ATB (4,000 HP tug with a 413’ barge) passed the Henry Hudson Bridge and the Amtrak swing bridge over Spuyten Duyvil on a hazy Sunday aftteroon, leaving what I consider the upper limits North River (though the name is applied by some to the entire length of the Hudson to Albany and by others as far up as Tappan Zee). The Twins spent a foggy overnight with their products cargo off Buchanan and were still there by 8 a.m. Monday, perhaps waiting for the fog to lift before continuing north.
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Newburgh bound
Boston Marine Transport’s 4,200 HP tug Pinuccia had the company’s New York 30 barge loaded with product and headed or Newburgh on Thursday. They were passing NY Waterway’s Weehawken maintenance area.
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Chilean Salt with Chinese flag
The 620-foot bulk ship Sheng Ping Hai was headed for sea Friday afternoon after discharging a cargo of Chilean road salt at the Port of Coeymans earlier in the week. The administration has a proposal under consideration to levy significant port fees on Chinese flagged and operated vessels like this one which could change logistics equations for shipments like this.
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Going out like a lamb
A clear and windy Thursday saw Morgan Reinauer with RTC 103 and Saint Emilion with tank barge A87 anchored in the North River about 1/2 mile apart from each other and about 4 miles south of the GW Bridge. They both stopped here on the way back to the harbor from products deliveries in Albany. Morgan is a 3900 HP tug launched in 1981, while the Saint is 4800 HP and launched in 2008.
Earlier in the week, the Barney Turecamo/Georgia ATB, a big one with 5,100 HP on the tug and 427-foot barge, left anchorage off Yonkers on Monday and passed Port Imperial en route to the Upper Bay.
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On the hip in heavy winds
Dann’s Coral Coast had a light cement barge on the hip in heavy winds on the North River on Saturday. Coral was bringing the barge back to the Holcim plant in Ravenna NY for more product after unloading at terminals in NY Harbor. The Ravenna plant is the only cement plant still operating on the Hudson, though a former plant in Cementon NY has been converted into an import terminal served by foreign flag bulk ships.
Observations on the Hudson River as it passes through New York City. The section of the Hudson which passes through New York is historically known as the North River, called this by the Dutch to distinguish it from the Delaware River, which they knew as the South River. This stretch of the Hudson is still often referred to as the North River by local mariners today. All photos copyright Daniel Katzive unless otherwise attributed. For more frequent updates, please follow northriverblog on Facebook or Instagram.
North River Notes 