Eastern Railroad Discussion > its train... no, it's a boat.... no, its a trian.... o

Only two car float operations remain in the country. This location is on the longest route in the United States. With about 26 miles of open water to cover this tug has her work cut out.

C27A

---

Did not realize there were two, the only one I know of is the Alaska Marine Rail here in Alaska. I ferries weekly between Whitter, AK and Seattle, WA. As this is the only way (rail) to get back and forth to the lower 48.

Randycarnley

Where is this?

RuleG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Where is this?

I presume it is across the Chesapeake from Cape Charles to the Newport News side, I can't recall the name of the operation.

There also are carferries across New York Harbor and the aforementioned Alaska run. Hence, there are more than two such operations continuing in the United States.

There also is, in Canada, a carferry from Matane to Baie-Comeau, Quebec.

Eastern Shore Railroad?

Eastern Shore Railroad operates the car float operation bewteen Cape Charles, on Virginia's Eastern Shore, and Little Creek (near Norfolk). From Little Creek, the ESHR interchanges with NS at NS's Portlock Yard along with a connection with the Norfolk Portsmouth Beltline (with a NPBL connection to CSX).
On the Eastern Shore side, ESHR runs north to Pocomoke City, MD and a connection with NS.

There is a twice a week ferry service between Mobile, Alabama and Veracruz, Mex

Handle thru the CN web site.. you may check it out here..

http://www.cn.ca/productsservices/mexico/en_Mexico_service.shtml

Ac4400cwgevo
http://www.trainsondvd.biz

Tis' the Eastern Shore RR of Cape Charles, VA. I think '1 of only 2' is derived from the tug and barge method and that the opertion is entirely domestic. The Mexican ferry looks like quite an operation, I never knew it existed.

C27A

ChessieSystem Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tis' the Eastern Shore RR of Cape Charles, VA. I
> think '1 of only 2' is derived from the tug and
> barge method and that the opertion is entirely
> domestic. The Mexican ferry looks like quite an
> operation, I never knew it existed.
>
> C27A



Several years ago, I was sitting beside Chesapeake Bay, at the end of Highway Rt. 33 in Deltaville VA, just enjoying a sunny day at the beach with some friends. There were several boats out across the bay, and looking through a pair of binoculars I had with me, I saw something that I hadn't seen from Deltaville before that day: a tugboat towing a barge-load of freight cars! Yeap - the Eastern Shore RR was on a south-bound 'Bay run from Cape Charles toward Little Creek, with a boat-load of freight cars.

Sure enough, on the barge were several brown NS boxcars (both 50-footers and a couple of hi-cubes), at least one yellow "Railbox," some black NS coal cars, several covered hoppers and at least one tankcar.

Now, looking at a map, Cape Charles appears pretty far SOUTH of Deltaville VA, which is on the opposite side of Chesapeake Bay from Cape Charles, and to this day I still wonder just how close the barge really was that I could see the cars so clearly through the binoculars, or if they might have had to go around some fast current or something (??), on such a "round-about" routing across the Bay. (I would think they'd most likely take a more direct route across the 'Bay, but there it was!)

Man, sometimes it really pays to go to the beach instead of out railfanning. You just never know.....

When I last saw this operation first hand (1973) it was a part of Penn Central but I don't recall its heritage. I thought that it was NYC. Just like the C&O side of the Chessie, the railroad owned and operated their own tugs.

Chessie had given up of steam tugs just a year or two earlier, and they actually maintained a sail shop and employed a sailmaker. Of course he did not make any sails, but did make the most durable tool bags I have ever seen. I still have and use mine.

The Chessie's "Car Float" operation connected Newport News to Norfolk both at Sewell's Point and downtown. Chessie maintained a 70 tonner downtown to handle that operation. The Newport News transfer bridges were between old piers 6 and 8. Today that would be between Pier C and the Pier 9 Coal Loader.

Because the operation was in relitively sheltered water, Chessie would lash the tug to the side of the Car Float. The tug provided tha motive power but the guidance came from large steam powered rudders at either end of the Car Float. Unlike the scene above each Float had an elevated pilot house from which the rudder was controlled.

XMOP Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When I last saw this operation first hand (1973)
> it was a part of Penn Central but I don't recall
> its heritage. I thought that it was NYC. Just
> like the C&O side of the Chessie, the railroad
> owned and operated their own tugs.

PENNSLVANIA RAILROAD ran the Eastern Shore line until the Penn Central era. A former employee (I think) acquired several artifacts, including a LARGE brown-and-white "PRR" sign from Cape Charles, along w/ some PRR grade-crossing signs and switch-stands, and has them set up along Rt. 14 in Mathews VA, at his house a block from one of that town's schools. They look nice, although a bit out-of-time, and out-of-place (the nearest RR is in West Point, almost 1 hour west of Mathews).



> The Chessie's "Car Float" operation connected
> Newport News to Norfolk both at Sewell's Point and
> downtown. Chessie maintained a 70 tonner downtown
> to handle that operation. The Newport News
> transfer bridges were between old piers 6 and 8.
> Today that would be between Pier C and the Pier 9
> Coal Loader.
>
> Because the operation was in relitively sheltered
> water, Chessie would lash the tug to the side of
> the Car Float. The tug provided tha motive power
> but the guidance came from large steam powered
> rudders at either end of the Car Float. Unlike
> the scene above each Float had an elevated pilot
> house from which the rudder was controlled.


Having been around Chessie System before the CSX era (the 1970s were my high-school years when I learned to drive a car and began railfanning in Williamsburg), I remember Chessie System car-float operation out of Newport News VA as well. It stopped running when they began operating the 890/891 freight train from Fulton Yard in Richmond to Portsmouth, using C&O and SCL crews. They had a LOT of grain and auto parts, including the older auto-racks and many piggy-back flatcar loads of truck-trailers, traveling the C&O Peninsula line during the 1970s, and the trains would be sent via car-float over to Norfolk before the 1980s and "CSX." That was also when C&O/Chessie still had a hump yard in operation in Newport News, just across from the ship yard area, and the entire mainline to Richmond was still double tracked. (Boy, those were the days!)

I understand, also, that ESHR has been experiencing "trouble" with their car-floats, and may be keeping an eye out for replacement barges that don't require so much work. Their's are now getting a bit old.....

I've always liked car floats. I didn't know about this eastern one, but t looks pretty cool. But I thought there was also one out of Washington State as well.

Dave
-DPD Productions - Featuring the NEW TrainTenna LP Directional RR Radio Monitoring Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/

DaveD Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've always liked car floats. I didn't know about
> this eastern one, but t looks pretty cool. But I
> thought there was also one out of Washington State
> as well.


There are/were two operations that I know of for Washington State. One was discussed earlier here and runs from Seattle to Whitter, Alaska. In the mid 90s the Seattle operation was located at the north end of Harbor Island. That may have been relocated by now.

The other operation was located south of the Coast Guard Pier on Alaska Way and across from the BNSF Intermodal Terminal. See Terraserver Photo below. THis operation went from Seattle to Port Townsend, WA I am told. When I worked in the area I also found a transfer facility over on the other side of the Duwamish Waterway. From the air photo the approach seems to go through a nice park area at the north end of the APL Rail Facility. I will mark up an air photo and post it in a few moments.

Ron Zimmer

---

Here is a location view of the three rail transfer bridge structures that I know of in the Seattle harbor area.

Ron Zimmer

---

Here is a close-up of the facility at the north end of Harbor Island.

Ron Zimmer

---

And finally the facility on the West Side. Does anyone have any information on the original use of this facility?

Ron Zimmer

---

This one really got me going. For those who might still be interested try this site on the history of car float operations at Cape Charles and the Eastern Shore.

http://www.nrhs.com/spot/eastern_shore_rr/

Ron Zimmer

One more. Check out this web site. Scroll past half way down for a photo of what I believe is the Erie Lakawana Ferry Terminal at Hoboken, New Jersey. If I am correct on the facility, it can still be seen today from the web camera on the south side of the Empire State Building.

http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/railmarn.html

Ron Zimmer

We're working on a 720 foot tug/barge unit for a Mobile, AL or Gulfport, MS to Mexico run to compete with the current ship operation there, which carries less cars than the barge will. The barge capacity will be 120 cars.

There is a carfloat that currently runs chemicals on railcars, to Puerto Rico, that operates out of Mobile as well.

We've also been in discussions with two other potential float operations for the 720 foot design. One from Charleston, SC to central Mexico, and one from BC down the west coast to Mexico.

Bob