Fascinating presentation.
I do have a ferry, which most of us on the forums refer to as a carfloat. I have one apron, and somewhere there's another carfloat kit waiting to be built. I planned these to use as cassettes, each holding 15 to 18 short cars, about 40 feet each. That's the capacity of the Walthers float. For access reasons, I built the apron up to a long, thin shelf that can fold down when the carfloat is not "in port."
I'm guessing a bit here, but I suppose a carfloat is a smaller vessel, unpowered like a barge, that requires a tug for propulsion, while a ferry has its own power. Do I have that right?
The carfloat and apron do have an alignment and locking mechanism built in, if you want to call it a mechanism. When I built my carfloat port, I arranged it to be perfectly level and line up exactly, so I didn't even have to worry about it. On a model railroad, being level is important. The Walthers carfloat comes with plastic rail, but I replaced mine with metal rail and I only use metal wheelsets to reduce rolling friction.
My focus is on scenery, so the terminal area is scenicked. Purely by coincidence, my main line engines are Milwaukee, and I have a couple of Ann Arbor boxcars, and even a pair of old boxcars marked Hide Service Only. I also use idler flat cars to keep the locomotives off the apron.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
This is one of the presentations from the "Virtural Trainfest" this year.
I know some of you are into car ferry operations, so I thought I'd pass it on.
Mike.
My You Tube