LTV Steel Hullers, Chicago 12/03 – the Chicago LTV Coke Plant along the Calumet River was supplied with its coal by barge that can come up from downstate Illinois over a system of rivers and canals. Both this facility and the one in the background – Acme Steel – closed in the Big Steel Recession of 2001 when 50 large American steel firms went into bankruptcy.
There’s a lot of talk about the Cleveland Hulltrs on Lake Erie as being the last Hullets in operation. This is false. The Chicago Hullets were fully active until the end of 2001 and the Cleveland Hullets shut down in 1996.
The Cleveland machines date back to 1911 and there were four which were the largest made. Curiously the Chicago Hullets were installed in 1943 utilizing almost the identical design as the earlier models.
One of the Chicago Hullets in action in 1981. Notice the operator sits inside a cab just above the clamshell that dives into the barges. LTV took over Republic Steel in a 1986 bankruptcy and this is five years before that when there was also a blast furnace, ore docks and further south a complete wire mill. Today there are no steel mills at all within the city of Chicago that, at one time, was a major steel-making center.
Hulett Unloader, Chicago – LTV Steel. Built 1943, closed 2001, demolished 2010. Shot in 2004, 3:00 am, one hour exposure on film.
One of the Chicago Hullets in action in 1981. Notice the operator sits inside a cab just above the clamshell that dives into the barges. LTV took over Republic Steel in a 1986 bankruptcy and this is five years before that.
Operator’s cab, 2003.
Coal is being deposited in the coal yard by an ore bridge, To the right a single hulett begins its dive into a coal barge to remove a 17 ton chunk of coal. These huletts survived so long because it was the best way to unload the barges on a river, that otherwisie utilize excavators or other mobile unloaders that take forever to unload barges.
(above) The Chicago Huletts looking north. In the background is the LTV coke plant and another steel mill, Aceme Steel, in the distance in 2003. The machines ran along the river on steel wheels and tracks. The machines, themselves were run on electricity.
3:00 am, January, 2004 – the machines are framed by the ore bridge. The last shot and view of the huletts, while walking out of the location, it was the last time i would see them. They were the last huletts in existence and survived until 2004.
At the corner of E. 71st St. and Central Avenue still stands the original Hewitt manufacturing facility, the McDowell Wellman company.
This plant, after the demise of the Huletts, continued to be used as an industrial facilty until a railroad track fabricator, shut the plant in 2019. At the time of its closing it was completely operational and profitable as a manufacturing facility
The McDowell-Wellman company would manufacture and fabricate all the parts for the Huletts at this location, then trains would come in and be loaded with the Huletts and their parts, then head out on a trunk line going east and west, right outside the door.
Obviously, these cabooses, obsolete technology, are just being stored here, but these are the same trestles that used to be loaded by the shop cranes on to rail cars with all the parts to be assembled as a Hulett. Today, we commonly marvel, over our technology and devices. I don’t think 110 years ago they were much different, and the fact that McDowell-Wellman Corporation could fabricate some of the biggest machinery in the world and then ship it out from their main plant, must’ve been the same sort of experience as far as new technology is concerned, as we have today.