OT- New Auto Freighters on Lake Erie and the Seaway in the 1950s?

[Anonymous]

I saw a pictiure of a boat that was used to haul new autopmobles in the great lakes...anyone know when GM quit doiing this?

[PBenham]

They stopped using lake boats around 1960, when tri-level auto racks were introduced, there was also an issue concerning the age of the boats and the need for expensive refits on them. Then, too they were limited to where they could deliver the autos. With only the ports of Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland and Superior WI to deliver to the effort to maintain them just was not worth it. NYCs ML-12 was an example of the ICC being asleep, and allowing reasonable tarriffs. GM was not as stupid as it now is.  Ford used to ship auto body stampings out of their old Buffalo stamping plant to River Rouge. When the 1955 (56?) Woodlawn plant opened and hi-cubes were made available by NYC, PRR Wabash et al. that was that. But Ford still shipped coal out of Toledo to their plants on the great lakes by laker until only recently.