Finally! A Buildable, Affordable Hulett Unloader

[pnolan48]

The new Hulett Unloader is built from 12 3D printed subassemblies that require no special modeling skills besides gluing together a few parts. Read below for the history of the Huletts on the Great Lakes.



Rather than hundreds of .015 styrene parts that had to be removed from a styrene sheet, laminated together, and then assembled into dozens of subassemblies, the new Hulett kit is composed of 12 subassemblies, many of them one or two pieces, such as the base and base tails (too long for the 3D printer) that used to be at least 40 parts and the single piece tower that used to be at least 20 parts.



The base is equipped with 4 “D” bogies or 16 wheels in total. These are Micro Trains Z scale wheelsets that snap into the 3D printed bogies, so the Huletts can travel parallel to the dock side on ready-to-run Z scale tracks (not supplied).



The tower assembly has two “A” bogies and two “C” bogies or eight wheels in total. These run on code 40 rails (supplied) that must be gauged for the wheelsets. A track gauge is supplied to make this easier for inexperienced modelers. The tower assembly moved forward so that the bucket extended over the ship’s hold, descended into the hold for a ten-ton load, then raised and moved backwards to drop the load into a weighing car, which then dropped the load into the Larry [sic] car which traveled over the loading tracks. A single Hulett could load up to eight tracks.

For more details, see https://nscaleships.com/n-z-scale-ship-index/hulett-automatic-unloader/

[sd45elect2000]

Fantastic !!!

[jereising]

Wow!  Almost makes me want to model an ore terminal.

Well done, Pete!

[pnolan48]

Of the 75 built, I think only five were not on the shores of Lake Erie. I think there were three in Chicago, and two somewhere else.

[sd45elect2000]

Wow!  Almost makes me want to model an ore terminal.

Well done, Pete!

A few of those and a whaleback ore boat !! now you're talking !

I think Wisconsin Steel in East Chicago had three of them. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Mark5]

Impressive!

[tehachapifan]

Good grief that thing looks cool!

[pnolan48]

A bit of history: I first built a Hulett back in 2015 or so. I used original drawings from the Library of Congress's "important engineering" archive. I've forgotten the exact site. I will leave the instructions for the kit on-line for my amusement. I never listed a price for a completed model because I didn't want to build it.

But I had a terrific customer who wanted two of them. I had built two of them from the kit and, while eminently buildable when following the instructions, they took forever. They were cut from .015 styrene because I couldn't get the details I wanted with .020 styrene. .015 styrene even when laminated to become .03 styrene was a bit flimsy. The kit took a whole day on my 18" wide cutter and it was very hard to find the correct cutting pressure and speed.

I had found that converting all my 2D drawings to 3D models was not very difficult unless I faced the multi-dimensional complex curves of a hull. For rectilinear pieces it was a relative snap. So I converted the Hulett into 3D and by trial and error found the best way to print it. I think it takes about 20 hours of printing time (perhaps even more) for the various assemblies. But it is now very buildable, like the big manufacturers' kits. The only finicky spots were fitting the eight bearings into the pre-made holes, laying the tracks on the top of the platform, and gluing on the railings and stairs. I will make a video soon about forming the stairways, which is made easier with an HVAC seamer (about $50 at a big box store but incredibly useful for many tasks) and very sharp long tweezers. I've included a track gauge (useful for laying rails on top of the plaform in the kit.)

[garethashenden]

Now we need to get DKS to animate it

[muktown128]

Wow - that looks really good Pete!

[Missaberoad]

Of the 75 built, I think only five were not on the shores of Lake Erie. I think there were three in Chicago, and two somewhere else.

Fort William Ontario on Lake Superior
They were used by Canadian Pacific to unload coal to supply their steam engines in NW Ontario/Manitoba

[thomasjmdavis]

The authors of the Wikipedia article found a few more outside of Lake Erie, including one in NYC.

By 1913, 54 Hulett machines were in service. Two were built at Lake Superior (unloading coal) and five at Gary, Indiana, but the vast majority were along the shores of Lake Erie. The additional unloading capacity they brought helped permit a greater than doubling of the ore traffic in the 1900–1912 period. A total of approximately 75 Huletts were built. One was installed in New York City to unload garbage.

The lake's Huletts were used until about 1992, when self-unloading boats were standard on the American side of the lake. All have since been dismantled. In 1999, only six remained, the group of four at Whiskey Island in Cleveland, the oldest. Another set was used unloading barges of coal in South Chicago until 2002 and were demolished in the spring of 2010.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulett

The ones at Gary and South Chicago give me an excuse.....but like the Pere Marquette ferry, new roof for the house comes first (hopefully in the spring).

[pedro]

Ford also had some at River Rouge.

[btrain]

Sweet! This gives me a reason to start making modules of the NKP's ore-unloaders in Huron, Ohio. One module of the loop track with Hulett and lake boat, and another of a small yard with a US 6 and NYC overpasses.

[pnolan48]

Ford also had some at River Rouge.

Thanks, Pedro, I'd forgotten about those. I guess I'm at that age when I can research a project in depth and then forget all about it once I start the next project.

These are fun to build in an Erector set way. You can adjust the geometry of the vertical beam by moving the pivot points very slightly fore and aft. Someone mentioned getting DLK to animate one. I've often considered that and it's one reason I used brass bushings rather than plastic ones. The telescoping brass tubes are a pain to cut and deburr but worth the effort. I'm just now learning about Arduino devices--something my twelve year old nieces and nephews have already mastered from their robotics programs in school.