Tom, you are having too much fun. Looks great and keep us posted on more progress and stories. LOL Joe
I hadn't been aware of the rebuilding before this. It's unfortunate that it didn't pan out for them, resulting in a little of the Ann Arbor left, a lot of mileage operated by the Great Lakes Central and miles of abandoned right-of-way. I did visit Frankfort while the yard, roundhouse and ferry were still there. Sad to see the whole thing gone.
Thanks Joe and everyone for the "likes". This car ferry is interesting for me. As I am closer to the pacific thank any great lake, I am a dry land kind of modeler. My first exposure to car ferry's was that RR Alaska show. After spending a few minutes on Google I saw at least one Ferry that I counted 40 cars, and I am talking 50-60ft cars so it was pretty good sized it looks to me. So yous guys in the know. Is this typical? How big is the biggest car ferry? I mean are the 800ft or longer? I find this a most interesting and fascinating aspect, I would think every car has to be tied to the ferry in a most robust manner to account for heavy seas. Tri-levels and other long cars going from ship to shore would even be more interesting as the transition in height and coupler offsets could be a challenge I bet.
The Badger, one of the most modern single enders, is listed as being 410 feet long, while the number 360 feet sticks in my mind for most earlier Lake Michigan ferries. The Contra Costa is listed as the largest ever double ended ferry at 433 feet (I was mistaken the first time. The older Solano was 420 feet.) I remember reading an article that stated a "boat train" on the GB&W was 33 cars. I don't know offhand about the lengths of barges. They may be larger. As to the height differences, I watched the St. Clair River barges being loaded at Port Huron a few times (never counted the cars) and was struck by the fact that the switch crew did not pay nearly as much attention to keeping them stable as model railroaders do. They would pull an entire track at a time. The amount of list created was a little scary, but the cars seemed to have no trouble dealing with it. That whole operation was discontinued in the 90's due to of the completion of the new tunnel under the river, which will handle excess height cars. As far as cars being restrained, yes, that is given a great deal of attention. I think there may have been some hard lessons in the early days.
Looks like about 50 cars is the most, I don't think they are that long but six tracks wide and about 500' long. See the attached for more information. I lived in Alaska and we received a lot of stuff via barge etc. Our company received two Cat D8L's via barge and flat car to Fairbanks. Not only are the cars restrained they are also jacked up off the trucks so they won't sway in heavy seas. https://www.alaskarails.org/industries/aquatrain.html http://www.trainweb.org/ultradomes/features/bargeloading.html The first is CN Aquatrain and the second is Alaska Railroad's barge service. Anchorage also receives trailers and containers via Sea Land and TOTE (Totem Ocean Trailer Express - RORO). Rick Jesionowski
Ann Arbor #4 sank when they loaded the outboard track with a cut of loaded ore cars, which is why they are supposed to load track 2 and 3 first then 1 and 4. The Viking and Arthur K Atkinson were 362 and 384 feet in length. Rick Jesionowski
