Thursday, January 29, 2026

1 farmer killed and another severely injured in partially empty soybean grain bin

(Satellite)

Facebook Reel

"One person was killed and another was injured in a grain bin accident in Illinois. First responders were called Monday afternoon to a farm in Putnam County, according to a release from the Hennepin and Granville fire departments. One man was found trapped up to his chest in soybeans. Authorities said the man was rescued using a rescue tube, an auger and a rescue grain vacuum system. He was airlifted to a Peoria hospital, but information about his condition was not available. Rescue crews worked in shifts to remove soybeans. After searching for more than two hours, first responders found the second person dead at the bottom of the grain bin. The victim has not been publicly identified." [Jan 28, 2026, kxii]

This is the fire department release.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Grain Bin Rescue, 01-26-2026
Granville Illinois
At approximately 2:18pm the Granville Fire Department along with PC EMS were dispatched for a male who had collapsed and was possibly trapped in a Grain Bin partially filled with soybeans at a farm on 950 North Ave, just south of Granville, IL. Initial reports indicated that a subject may or may not have been trapped inside and another subject may be in the bin as well. As crews were en-route, additional information revealed that a subject was inside the bin and there may be another person in the bin and family was attempting to locate the second subject. Due to the additional information relayed prior to units arriving on scene, a Lifeflight helicopter was requested to the scene as well as additional resources from Hennepin Fire, Standard Fire and the MABAS 25 Technical Rescue Team. Upon arrival on scene, through a side access door, a male subject was found to be in the grain bin in soybeans up to his chest. That subject was able to communicate that another subject had been taking soybeans out of the bin and may or may not have gone in and that they went in to attempt to find the person who had not been seen for some time, but had become trapped and was not sure if there was another person in the bin or not. Based on this information additional resources were requested from Princeton Fire, Cedar Point Fire, Oglesby Fire, 10/33 Ambulance, an additional Lifeflight helicopter to the scene as well as the MABAS 25 Chaplain.
As rescue operations continued, the first subject was rescued from the grain bin using a grain bin rescue tube and auger system as well as a rescue grain vacuum system. The first subject was assisted out of the grain bin and to an ambulance where he was evaluated by the Lifeflight crew and then airlifted at approximately 3:52pm to Peoria for further evaluation and treatment. Currently, we have no information on his condition. After the first subject had been cleared from the bin, an assessment was made and the grain vacuum was deployed for a methodical search of the bin. Shortly after the search for the second subject began, subject was located near the bottom of the bin and operations shifted to a recovery effort. Rescue crews worked in shifts to remove the soybeans from the bin and recover the second subject. At approximately 4:46pm, the deceased was located and removed from the bin and turned over to the coroner.
Our sympathies go out to the family of the deceased.
All responding personnel were clear of the scene at 5:44pm and we note that no responding personnel were injured during the rescue and recovery operations. We thank all the responders that came to assist the Granville Hennepin Fire District for their hard work and efforts in the response. Thank you to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and the telecommunicators for all their hard work and effort in assisting us with the operation. And thank you as well as to Granville Casey's for donating pizza and The Corner Store in Granville for donating coffee for the responders.
Further investigation of the incident will be conducted by the PC Death Investigator.
[Hennepin Fire Department post]

Wednesday, January 28, 2026

1931+1999 US-54 Bridges over Niangua River Arm of Lake of the Ozarks

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Missouri had to build some long truss bridges when the 1931 Bagnell Dam was built. The Grand Glaize Bridge was another one.

Missouri's Historic Highways posted
US 54 Niangua Bridge Lake of the Ozarks 1952
Carl E. Dry: That bridge and the old Grand Glaize Bridge were rough on big truck mirrors! You could see broken glass and mirror parts laying next to the curbs on both bridges.
Brian Deck: That was almost an antique car even in 1952!
Brian Humphrey: 1920s car

This 1229' (375m) long bridge had a main span of 343' (105m). [BridgeHunter]

1953 photo by Don Wooldridge via Missouri State Archives, RG103 Department of Conservation Photograph Collection via BridgeHunter

This bridge is far upstream from the dam so it would be sensitive to the lake levels. Don's photo shows that the lake level was low enough that the riverbed was dry at the bridge. Consequently, none of the marinas here would be able to dock boats.
Satellite

Postcard via BridgeHunter

The replacement is a steel-girder bridge.
Street View, Jun 2023

1931+1984+1995 US-54 Grand Glaize Bridges over Lake of the Ozarks

1931: (Archived Bridge HunterBridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; HAER)
1984+1995: (Satellite)

Missouri had to build some long truss bridges when the 1931 Bagnell Dam was built. The bridge over the Niangua River Arm of Lake Ozarks was another one.

Ken Safran posted
1930 & 1950s - OSAGE BEACH, MO... The Grand Glaize Bridge over the Lake of the Ozarks opened in '31 in coordination with construction of the Bagnell Dam. Designers wanted to make sure the structure wouldn't impede the view so the trusses were built beneath what was often called the “Upside Down Bridge.” A new westbound bridge was opened in '84, with this original bridge being dismantled and replaced in '95.

1931 photo via Missouri State Archives via BridgeHunter

Postcard via Missouri State Archives via BridgeHunter

HAER MO,15-OSBE,1--1

"Significance: "The Grand Giaize Bridge, designed by Sverdrup and Parcel, Consulting Engineers of St. Louis, is one of three cantilevered deck trusses in Missouri. Built in preparation for the Lake of the Ozarks, a vast reservoir impounded behind Bagnell Dam, the Grand Giaize Bridge and a new section of U.S. Route 54 allowed this formerly remote region to open for tremendous tourist development." [HAER_data]

The replacement bridges look like steel-girder bridges.
Street View, Sep 2017

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Barge Canal Lock #28A and 1931 Lyons Dry Dock

Dry Dock: (Satellite)
Lock: (Satellite)

The lock on the left and the dry dock on the right.
Street View, Oct 2013

The lock on the left and the dry dock in the background.
Street View, Oct 2013

"Lift: 19.5 feet. Located alongside the lock, The Lyons Dry Dock is one of three NYS Canal Corporation dry docks. It has gates like those of a lock, boats float in and the water is drained out. At any given time, you can see work being done on tugboats, dredges, derrick boats, and many other vessels." [nycanalmap]

This is the primary maintenance facility for the New York State Canal System. In addition to repairing tugboats, etc., it provides winter storage.
Street View, Aug 2013

Over a decade later, it looks like the derrick barges haven't moved. It appears that these antiques are docked here.
Street View, Jun 2024

Indeed, those work boats are antiques.
hmdb
"The Lyons drydock, located just west of the village was the last drydock built on the New York State Canal System after nearly a century of improvements.
Drydocks like the one at Lyons were needed so that canal boats could be maintained and have a place to winter over. The original Barge Canal plan called for public drydocks at Schuylerville, Waterford, Little Falls, Baldwinsville, Rochester, and Lockport. Later, when the Baldwinsville site was dropped, the facility at Lyons was added.
The Lyons drydock was completed in 1931, with a storehouse and machine shop added the next year. Lyons became one of two principal drydock sites in the canal system (the other was Waterford).
Today, the Lyons shop repairs equipment still used on the canal. The drydock is used to berth tugs in the off season and stores Dipper Dredge No. 3, one of the original Barge Canal dredges."

Digitally Zoomed

Digitally Zoomed

whec 2:51 video
Inside the Erie Canal’s hidden dry dock: Keeping the 200-year-old waterway running

tug44

tug44, another of the many photos on this webpage

Jim DeNearing posted four photos with the comment: "A few pictures of the salvage operation in Lyons dry dock this morning [Jan 22, 2026]. The DB6 is being cut apart for scrap this week."
Dave Eldridge: It was a heavy lift 60 ton crane.
1, cropped

2, cropped

3, cropped

4, cropped

Gary Prodrick commented on Jim's post
Is this it?
Peter A. DeVito Jr.: Is this the DB that Bunky use to captain, back in the day???
Jim DeNearing: Peter A. DeVito Jr. Sad yes, but this one I can almost understand. The bottom of the barge was in terrible shape. The crane was years past inspection. It just wouldn't have made financial sense to try to fix it.
The real travisty is that there is nowhere designated to put these historic pieces on static display so that future generations can learn about how the canal was maintained after it was built. That's something that most people don't understand. They think that once the canal was opened, that was it. They don't even realize that it takes ongoing maintenance to keep it open.

Comments on Jim's post

I do hope they figure out how to make static displays of the work boats when they are retired.
Mark Jones posted
DB13  with breakdown scow  eastbound thru Hulberton in spring headed to rochester. About 15 yrs ago.
Dave Eldridge: There were many statewide, most of them if not all were freefall meaning no power down which is why they had clam buckets. But they did hook work from time to time.
Mark Jones: Ole 13 sure could lift , the bucket was good size. It sure mangled up submerged cars when we found them.

Dave Eldridge commented on Mark's post, cropped
I was the Captain on Db2a when n Lyons when i retired.


Hennepin Canal Aqueduct #7 and Lock #25 near Geneseo, IL

Aqueduct: (Bridge HunterSatellite)
Lock: (Satellite)


Hennepin Canal State Park posted
Today's Throwback Thursday photo features the Mixing and Hoisting Plant at Lock 25, west of Geneseo.

This is how I found the lock. It is further away from IL-82 than other maps implied.
1934/34 Geneseo Quad @ 62,500

The aqueduct is intact.
Satellite

Monday, January 26, 2026

1903 8.4mw Bulls Bridge Hydro Powerhouse and Covered Bridge over Housatonic River

Diversion Dam 1: (Satellite)
Diversion Dam 2: (Satellite)
Powerhouse: (Satellite)
Covered Bridge: (Satellite)

John de Sousa posted three photos with the comment: "Bulls Bridge Hydro Powerhouse generators that were installed in 1903 and still running today on the Housatonic River in Connecticut. General Electric's 1,150V, 60 cycle, three-phase alternating current generators at 400 RPM, 1,000 KW capacity governed by Lombard governors. Transformers then up the voltage to 33.5KV to power to it's transmission line to Waterbury and New Britain. This was the largest hydroelectric powerhouse east of the Mississippi at it's time. The last picture shows Reddy Kilowatt still overlooking the generators."
Frank DeWitt: Great history but Niagara Falls Adams plant was Maximum Power Output: 37 Megawatts: 50,000 horsepower (1896)
Mechanicville Power Plant 1897
The world's oldest 3 phase power plant still in operation
Built by by C. P. Steinmetz, it was in the first generation of 3-phase AC power plants in the world
John Freitag: Frank DeWitt The Ames generating station near Ophir, Colorado went on line in 1891 using a 3 phase Westinghouse alternator. It is still in operation. It originally provided power for the Camp Bird Mine.
Sam Brown: 18 pole generators run at 400 rpm. Formula is speed = 120 x frequency/ poles.
Frank Furthur: My father worked building those back in the 1950's. He said they had a 100- years warranty. THAT was the GE Jack Welch destroyed.
1
Keith Osborne: Their original exciters are gone. 
Bob Adams: Solid state dc power for the rotor fields !! Less maintenance.
Jeff Follin: Keith Osborne We still have the water wheel driven exciters at LA Power Plant 1. Can black start units that way.

2
Ståle Randa: What are the chimneys for?
Ian Foster: Ståle Randa Surge towers perhaps.
VonFricken Kurt: Ian Foster What is a surge tower?
Hal Wright: Provides a pressure relief from sudden changes in water pressure that can cause water hammer, a pressure multiplying effect.
Robert Oppenheimer: VonFricken Kurt In a similar hydro plant I had seen in Potsdam, NY, plant was located downstream of a dam and fed by a large pipe. Valves between feed pipe and turbines were closed abruptly and caused high back pressure in pipe. Rather than burst pipe, water surge was allowed to overflow the stacks. [I did not realize that they were open at the top. I thought the water just compressed air like it does in a house.]
Samuel White: Wow. That plant runs off a very high head. Pelton wheels?

John de Sousa commented on Ian's comment
Correct and still being used.

3

Robby Valck commented on Photo 3

John de Sousa commented on John Freitag's comment
Connecticut also had several first generating plant. 1896 Oil City hydro with a 3 phase 11KV line from Windsor to Hartford for street lighting. Developed with the help from GE and Thomas Huston. Another interesting hydroelectric powerhouse was Tariffville, 1899 that was the first eastern transmission line using aluminum conductors to feed Hartford, CT. Oh, another one was Taffville, CT built by GE were the first power insulators developed by GE where used. If your interested in powerplants on the Farmington River, see my article in the March 2018 Crown Jewels magazine.

Street View, Aug 2018

I found this covered bridge while looking for the powerhouse.
Frank Minniti, Jan 2020

Misty Emery, Apr 2024

bob swezey, Mar 2022

 Neyda Hernandez, Jul 2022

I couldn't decide which barrel photo was better, so I used both of them.
Jens Petersen, Aug 2019

I'm glad they put up not only plenty of warning signs, but also a steel beam that will destroy a truck before the truck has a chance to destroy the bridge. And they stop the truck before the bridge where it still has a chance to turn around.
Street View, Aug 2022

Back to the powerhouse. I easily found Diversion Dam 1, but I could not find the powerhouse. I noticed this structure, which looks like a gate house and headrace.
John Sabo, Oct 2017

So I followed the headrace downstream and found the powerhouse.
Satellite

So, the headrace stays up on a bluff while the river goes down in a gorge. I got a topo map so that I could study the contour lines. The map marks the power canal.
1958 Kent and 1958 Dover Plains Quads @ 24,000

FirstLight
6 units generate 8.4mw

PowerMag
"Bulls Bridge delivers about 8.2 to 8.4 MW of generation at full capacity, with a discharge capability of 1,200 cubic feet per second. The plant annually generates about 30.8 GWh of power, ranking it third in hydroelectric output, and 38th overall among Connecticut power plants of all types....The plant today utilizes six horizontal double-runner Model F-1 Francis turbine units that were originally installed in 1903. Each unit is coupled to General Electric generators (one of those units has replaced the original equipment). The turbine-generator units are fed by water routed through a power canal that is just more than two miles long, with water carried through 420-foot-long penstocks that take the water under about 105 feet of hydraulic head down to the powerhouse."
[The mention of the horizontal shafts reminded me that the Kingsbury Thrust Bearing was not invented until 1904.]

This source specifies an annual production of 45gwh.
hydro, p5

This powerhouse was the first one built of several along the river.
hydro, p3

PowerMag
In 2025, the old downstream breakers were replaced.

PowerMag
The new breakers use a vacuum interrupter to quickly distinguish the arcs. And, of course, all the high-voltage components are now contained in cabinets for safety.

Ira Fink posted two photos with the comment: "Bulls Bridge Hydro Plant. Just upstream from the bridge."
Billy M Edwards: There's a video of it tripping and water coming out the surge tower.
1

2

hvatoday
In addition to hydropower, there were blast furnaces and marble & limestone quarries along the river.