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Santa Fe operated across San Francisco Bay.
Passengers arriving by train in Oakland were carried by bus transfer to San Francisco proper. Freight went by car ferry from Richmond to trackage in San Francisco.
Photo: San Francisco ATSF downtown bus terminal Warbonnet 1Q02 p.23
China Basin ferry landing, Prototype Modeler NovDec83 p.36
China Basin ferry dock, photo Railroad Model Craftsman Feb2001 p.50
Santa Fe car float in eqpt.shot ATSF Color Guide to Frt & Psgr Eqptp.43
Richmond, Cal. ATSF track map Warbonnet 1stQ 05 p.20
Richmond carfloat in backgrd of eqpt.shot ATSF Color Guide to Frt & Psgr Eqpt p.78; also p.113
Ferry Point scene with idler flats Santa Fe Work Eqpt.Cars p.127
Layout depicting Santa Fe carferry operations in Oakland: W.W.Childers HO 16'x 1.5' Warbonnet 3Q 2001 p.28, 34
Model Railroader magazine once ran an article on a layout representing isolated Santa Fe switching lines in San Francisco that connected to main railroad by carferry. Maybe I can find it on this site's index...
Santa Fe also had a ferry operation in the early part of 20th century from Port Bolivar to Galveston, Texas. There was a write up and pictures of ore car facilities in one of the Santa Fe magazines years ago, but I can't immediately find it in my reference files. And at mid-20th century, Galveston had a car ferry from the main island south of the port over to industries on Pelican Island north of the port. I found a reference to it on a Corps of Engineers document on port facilities at a government document depository at the Texas A&M University Corpus Christi library. I made copies of part of that document and may be able to find more info if I spend some time looking for it in my Galveston lose-leaf notebook.
Santa Fe had their own fleet of railroad tugboats in San Francisco Bay.
Trackplan FOUND (using trains.com article search)
The San Francisco Belt Line RR, around SF docks Model Railroader, April 1980 page 64 ( "NICKLE, BARBARA", "NICKLE, CHARLES", "ODEGARD, GORDON", RAILROAD, SFBL, TRACKPLAN, PROTOTYPE, HO, MR ) Trackplan is 15x22 - Irregular shape - Standard gauge - Switching - Harbor, dock, wharf - Based on prototype railroad - Includes large city scenery/operation
The only way I can describe this trackplan is GLORIOUS! Includes approach, one end of one of the big suspension bridges, urban scenery that backs up San Francisco's steep hills. What a layout this would be. It's been 27 years, wonder if anyone has ever attempted it.
Tangent: "The Railroad that Died at Sea", about the Florida East Coast's line from Miami to Key West FL. Other books about this line may include useful information.
In Model Railroad Planning 2006 (I think) there was an article about a layout built around the Ann Arbor RR ferrys across Lake Michigan. Some of this may help you. Aid to memory: the man who built the layout (Arnt Gerdson?) went near-blind as he was finishing it. His friends came in and completed the work, then re-equipped his locomotives with sound so he could hear the trains he could barely see.
GN-Rick wrote:Indeed I can-at least for my home region. The Milwaukee Road operated a carfloat service on Puget Sound in Washington State. This served to connect its mainline in Seattle/Tacoma with the disconnected trackage they operated both in Bellingham and near Port Angeles on Washington's peninsula. The old dock in Seattle's port area is still in place. A photo of it is in one of the Warren Wing "Northwest Rail Pictorial" books-I believe Vol.1. In fact, there is still an extensive carfloat operation even today on Puget Sound as that is how the Alaska Railroad is connected to the lower 48. Hope this helps.
Mr. John Crosby, a former Milwaukee Road employee, has a website (http://www.mrcd.org) that has a brief synopsis of Milwaukee Road Puget Sound carfloat operations and a few pictures from the late 1970's
I was going to reply that there were some stuff like this in the Puget Sound area but you beat me to it Rick. I have seen the pictures at one of the shops in the port of Seattle piers on the water front but I could not for the life of me remember what one, it has been about 7 years since I have taken the ferry over to Seattle for some shopping. Right now I am 4000 miles away so... I am not sure if I remember this right or not but I think I read some where about the Mosquito Fleet doing some rail ferry operations in the sound in the early 1900's till around the 1940's ish. You may try to research that a little. If you didnt know the Mosquito fleet was a collection of ferries, tugs and a few merchant ships that linked the east and west sides of the Puget Sound together. The Tacoma Narrows bridge pretty much put the fleet out of buisness. There are only 3 boats remaining (part of the Horlock Ferrys) and eventually the fleet became what is now known as the Washington State Ferry System. Looking up the history of those 2 entities may also bring about some rail ferry info as well. I hope this helps you in your search.
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Both the Wabash and the Pere Marquete ran car ferries across the Detroit River, between Detroit and Windsor, Canada. They had a large boatyard, almost under the Ambassador Bridge. The ferries ran 24/7. They now use a tunnel under the river.
The Ann Arbor Railroad ran car ferries across Lake Michigan, from Ludington, to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. One of the car ferries still runs today, as a passenger ferry, and also takes your auto, if you want.
The Grand Trunk ran car ferries across the St Clair River, between Port Huron, Michigan, and Sarnia, Ontario. The ferries were discontinued with completion of the tunnel under the St Clair River. The Port Huron car ferries were more modern, and actually had three huge outdrives on the back of the barge.
Photos here
http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/Ports-CarFerries/Ports/PortOfPortHuron-GTW.htm
More saltwater carfloats.
One service I believe is still running is the Alaska Railroad's Sea-train. There are, or used to be, two railcar ferry routes - Seattle to Seward AK, and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada to Seward. Perhaps someone in Alaska or on the West Coast could confirm if these two still operate.
I think there's also still railcar ferry service from Vancouver BC to Nanaimo, to connect to the Esquimault and Nanaimo Railway on Vancouver Island. This one is ex-Canadian Pacific.
Two that I know are defunct were in Canada - Canadian National's carferry operations between North Sydney, Nova Scotia and Port-au-Basques, Newfoundland, and between Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick and Borden, Prince Edward Island. These services ended when the railways in Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island were abandoned in the 1980s.
Jim
Ottawa, Canada
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Here's a pic of one in Superior on the Incan dock.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=171634
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Philip,
An interesting coincidence, as I've just started working on a harbor theme with car floats myself. My inspiration came from an artical by Bernie Kempinski in Model Railroad Planning 2002. He has developed an N scale layout based on the C&O's Brooke Ave Yard in Norfolk, VA. This yard's only connection to other rail systems is via car floats -- there are no land connections. As such, (nearly) the entire operation can be placed in a 6' x 8' footprint and it all fits on a single (cleverly cut) sheet of ply (or foam)! There are lots of interesting structures to model and the terminal seemed to handle just about all varieties of freight cars: gons, box, flat, tank, refers, hoppers, etc. By using a removable float (built to scale that can carry up to 28 cars), the operations of this layout are endless.
Dave