Eastern Railroad Discussion > New York Cross Harbor in the WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303448404577412180646908266.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_Top

JERSEY CITY, N.J.—It would have made sense to put New York City in New Jersey. But railroad trains weren't invented yet, so nobody got the idea.

When trains to New York started arriving on the East Coast from points west or south in the 1800s, New Jersey was as far as they could get. The Hudson River and New York Bay were in the way. A tunnel soon carried passengers under the Hudson to Manhattan, but freight bound for Manhattan and Brooklyn had to float across on barges. In the 1960s, "car floats" were still skating across the harbor like bugs on a pond.

Then came new superhighways and trucks, trucks, trucks: Now all but 2% of the stuff New York imports rolls into town on rubber wheels. And nine-tenths of it crosses the Hudson on the George Washington Bridge.

The city's floating railroads were gone by 1975. Except for one.

Can't tell for sure, but the end of the article
makes it sound like they can't float cars across
if the wind is enough to raise whitecaps. If so,
that must have always been true? How often did
cars end up in the harbor in the old days?

The article contained nothing I didn't already know about car float operations in New York. The Port Authority has rebuilt the old New Haven float bridge yard at 59th Street Brooklyn (again, second time in 25 years), but still can't find anyone to operate it since they're too busy fighting with NYNJ (which uses an old pontoon bridge at 53rd Street). The problem with carload freight to Brooklyn is, where does it go? Who has rail-served facilities any more? This is a fool's errand.

As for losing freight cars in rough weather, when I was at the New York City Transit Authority i 1985, Cross Harbor lost most of a year's order of fully heat-treated rail when their barge overturned. A magnet crane went fishing for the rail for several weeks in Gowanus Bay. They didn't recover much.

I'm afraid car float operations are an anachronism in 2012.

timz2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Can't tell for sure, but the end of the article
> makes it sound like they can't float cars across
> if the wind is enough to raise whitecaps. If so,
> that must have always been true? How often did
> cars end up in the harbor in the old days?

From having watched the operation a few times, it looks like the barges ride pretty high in the water when they're without rail cars or just have a few empty boxcars on board.

I don't know if there was an old time procedure for tying down the boxcars, but it sounds like the deep-sixing of the cocoa cargo killed that business for the railroad.

Thanks for posting this. During a recent visit to New York, I wondered about the status of this operation and the article and video clip provide a nice answer to my question.

RuleG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for posting this. During a recent visit to
> New York, I wondered about the status of this
> operation and the article and video clip provide a
> nice answer to my question.

I haven't been down there this year, but there used to be a nice berm just outside the property where you could watch the loading, unloading, etc. The Port Jersey Terminal would be shuffling cars about behind you and the ferry op would be in front of you.

shoretower Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The article contained nothing I didn't already
> know about car float operations in New York. The
> Port Authority has rebuilt the old New Haven float
> bridge yard at 59th Street Brooklyn (again, second
> time in 25 years), but still can't find anyone to
> operate it since they're too busy fighting with
> NYNJ (which uses an old pontoon bridge at 53rd
> Street). The problem with carload freight to
> Brooklyn is, where does it go? Who has
> rail-served facilities any more? This is a fool's
> errand.
>
> As for losing freight cars in rough weather, when
> I was at the New York City Transit Authority i
> 1985, Cross Harbor lost most of a year's order of
> fully heat-treated rail when their barge
> overturned. A magnet crane went fishing for the
> rail for several weeks in Gowanus Bay. They
> didn't recover much.
>
> I'm afraid car float operations are an anachronism
> in 2012.


Well, if you didnt learn anything, you might want to go back and re-read the article.

Port Authority did not rebuilt t he New Haven yard, the City did, as do they own it, It was finished in 1999 and they just redid all the ties in it.

No Port Authority/NYNJ fighting since they own the railroad. Its the EDC that has issues.

The Railroad still has quite a few customers in Brooklyn, as well as alot of Bridge traffic. Add to that the new Marine Terminal that just opened...

For what its worth, Carfloat 29 sank in 1987 at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, not the Gowanus Bay.

It was not just the float sinking that killed the Cocoa, it was other issues that made them move to Philly.

NY practice, the only tie downs were to chain the drawbars and tie down the brakes.

Things are finally looking up for this railroad. Alot of progress is being made. Last year all the old street track was relaid.