Several years ago MR magazine published an article on the principles and order of loading rail cars onto Ferries. I am unable to locate the article and was wondering if anyone new what year and edition it was. Additionally does anyone know of any prototypical books on railroad Ferry ops.
thanks guys!
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If one could roll back the hands of time... They would be waiting for the next train into the future. A. H. Francey 1921-2007
The only thing I remember like that was a side-blurb included in a layout feature where they discussed how insisiting on proper loading sequences made operations more "interesting."
It was a full page if I remember correctly, and included two or three diagrams.
You will not find this one by looking for a car ferry article since it was part of a larger feature.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
You load one side, then next loading is done on the opposite side. Final loading is the center. Off load in same order. This is to keep the ship from rolling over during the process. New York. CRoss harbor. And New Jersey centeral had extensive cross harbor ferry operations. Orr. To a lessor extent had ferry operations. I do believe b and o did too. You should find plenty of operation info under those roads.
shans
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
Fergmiester Additionally does anyone know of any prototypical books on railroad Ferry ops. thanks guys!
Additionally does anyone know of any prototypical books on railroad Ferry ops.
Walthers published a book "Railroading Along the Waterfront" -- now out of print but sometimes seen at train shows (model and railroadiana shows). It has info on car ferries / railroad barges and also had a sidebar article on how one modeler directed his model barge to be unloaded. It functioned like a staging yard
More on the topic of car ferries themselves, try to track down Karl Zimmermann's book "Lake Michigan's Railroad Car Ferries." It is a small book but loaded with great photos and info. And while it is no longer in railroad service, you can still ride the Badger a former C&O car ferry, between Mantitowoc WI and Ludington Michigan. There is plenty of C&O memoribilia on board, and ample evidence of the railroad origins of the route in both cities, and good pictures in the two ticket offices. Your automobile gets parked where the freight cars went. You can still see rails.
Dave Nelson
Still no way to search the archives like one used to. That sucks.
I thought maybe it would be "fixed" by now.
The little search box on the upper right of the archives pages only takes you to articles in Trains.
Mike.
My You Tube
Maintaining balance on a carfloat was critical. I did read an article somewhere, no idea where, which described a process that actually broke strings of cars in half when loading and unloading. I think it also described a sequence of interleaved unloads and loads so that a float would come in loaded and leave again loaded with different cars.
This implies something most modelers don't immediately think of: a carfloat needs a lot of on-layout storage. This requires some planning long in advance to your track plan.
My carfloat terminal was scrunched in a back corner of the trainroom. It was accessible, but barely, and storage tracks for loading and unloading were minimal. Even worse, I had some street running up to the float, and I used girder rail because it looked great, but that is really designed for trollies, not boxcars, so was derailment-prone. When I rebuild the terminal, it will be in the front of the layout and will use Code 83 rail for reliability, and will have a larger yard.
The current terminal has the carfloat itself mounted as a removable cassette which sits on a fold-down shelf for access to that corner. Ideally, I would like to set up two carfloats on teacarts so I could roll one out and roll a different one in.
I also use 3 short idler flats between the engine and the cars. This keeps the heavier engine off the float and the apron. It's not necessary to make the model work, but it's a bit of extra realism I could add. I think I used Tichy flat car kits and decals I made myself for this.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
I remember the sequence as half of an out side track, then all of the other outside track, followed by the rest of the first outside track and finally the center track. That is what I use on my layout and have not capsized a float yet.
The newsletter of the Potomac Division of the NMRA for Feb-Mer 2020 has a nice PDF containing what you're lookin for. I found it by googling.
The instruction sheet for the Walthers carfloat kit also has rudimentary instructions for loading and unloading. Those directions just say left-right-middle without discussing pulling half strings to maintain balance better.
dknelson Fergmiester Additionally does anyone know of any prototypical books on railroad Ferry ops. thanks guys! Walthers published a book "Railroading Along the Waterfront" -- now out of print but sometimes seen at train shows (model and railroadiana shows). It has info on car ferries / railroad barges and also had a sidebar article on how one modeler directed his model barge to be unloaded.
Walthers published a book "Railroading Along the Waterfront" -- now out of print but sometimes seen at train shows (model and railroadiana shows). It has info on car ferries / railroad barges and also had a sidebar article on how one modeler directed his model barge to be unloaded.
You can still order the book from Kalmbach: https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/digital-download/mrpdf044
Found an article about such a topic from the late Paul Dolkos:
https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/MR-Dolkos.pdf
Thanks everyone, again what you have provided me was spot on!!
Fergus