Lehigh Valley RR Tugs

[rhsayre]

Looking for photos of the Lehigh Valley Tug R.H. Sayre circa 1896. It was written up in a NY Times article Feb. 2, 1896. It was involved in a collision with the steamer Maryland.

[Jeff Smith]

Moved/cross-posted (shadow left) from PA Railfan. Thought you might also get hits here.

Site Admin

[jaystreetcrr]

Today in lower Manhattan I saw the LV tug Cornell heading south on the Hudson, pushing a small barge named Black Diamond, with a yellow schoolbus on the barge deck. What a sight! Where's the Cornell going?

[scottychaos]

If a photo of the tugboat R.H. Sayre exists, it has been sitting in a box in an attic for 100 years, and no one knows where it is..a photo of that tug is not known to modern LV fans/historians..

I have been working on a "LV marine" webpage for a few years, not on-line yet..
the LV had a (known) total of 25 steam powered tugs..One in Buffalo, three at North Fair Haven on Lake Ontario,
and 21 at New York harbor..(and there could be more) the names of the three at north Fair Haven are known:

A.J. Hoole
E.P. Ross
Cortland

Of the 21 steam tugs for New York, only the names of four are currently known:

Aurora
Black Diamond
Powerful
Perth Amboy
and now we can add a fifth! the R.H. Sayre! (based on the NY times article, we can conclude she was a NY tug.)

Oh, and one known Buffalo tug, the Kathrine T. Wilbur.

Then of course the six diesel tugs, that are well known:
Cornell
Wilkes Barre
Hazleton
Lehigh
Capmoore
Bethlehem

So, RH Sayre is a mystery!
not only has no one ever seen a photo, no one even knew there was a tug with that name!
until now..so thanks for adding a name to the list!

Scot

[Nova55]

There was also a steam tug "Cornell", I was quite astonished to see the photo! Another steamer was the "Auburn" The diesel tugs "Cornell & Lehigh" replaced the "Auburn" and the "Black Diamond" as the Harlem River tugs.
So, other steam tugs were also the:
NY:
Auburn (may have been early diesel)
Bernice
Cornell
Cheektowaga
Genesee
Ganoga
Geneva
Genesee
Lehigh
Luzerne
Mahanoy
Manchester
Mahanoy
Neshanic
Neshanic
Powerful
Packerton
Shamokin
Superior
Slatington
Westmoreland
Wyoming
I have the specs on alot of these as well.

The Powerful was reefed in Florida in 1992.

Tugs for Buffalo:
Batava
Bethlehem
Mauch Chunk
Saranac
Tuscarora
Wilkesbarre (one word)

Only the Cornell and Bethlehem remain. This is what is left of the Capmoore in July.


Jaystreet:
It was a job for the 25th anniversary of the magic school bus of all things. The barge was named the Black Diamond after the tug the Cornell replaced. Ironically it is a former RR barge, but of unknown RR.

[joshuahouse]

There is a recent photo of the Cornell posted here. I didn't take it but I am the "photo_house" mentioned in the post. http://forum.fourthirdsphoto.com/showthread.php?t=69205