See that barge?
While it was still dark this morning, the Captain had a little problem with this three barge wide train. He ran it into the bank of that island or ran aground on the rocks lining it. Not sure which. The end result was the same–that barge was stuck.
I watched for an hour as the Captain piloted the Tug back and forth between either end trying to push, then pull it. 
I observed some tricky maneuvering through that narrow channel.
He finally sent these hands to uncouple the innermost line of barges, 
which he then towed away, one by one. I believe he pulled them back to the lock upriver about a mile.
A couple of hours later, he pushed out the remaining two barge wide train then continued down river without retrieving the ones he’d uncoupled.
The name, ironically, of the tugboat?
The Black Belt.
I used to love to watch the tugboats work the locks in West Linn, back when my dad worked at the paper mill there.