[AT] new album on the ATIS Image Depot

[Brian VanDragt]

I think you're right about the different railroad gauges.  I don't think
there were any across ocean carferries.  I think someone on the list said
that anything that doesn't fit in a shipping container has to be driven
onboard.  It would be a waste of space and weight to ship the railroad cars
all that distance too.

Riding the Badger across the lake won't save you any time, but for me it's a
lot more fun than driving through Chicago.  It's also an interesting piece
of old iron that has been saved from being scrapped by taking on a new life
as a tourist transporter.

Brian

----- Original Message -----
From: "Cecil E Monson" <cmonson at hvc.rr.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2004 9:32 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] new album on the ATIS Image Depot


> Very interesting, Brian. Growing up in the Midwest, we sometimes heard
> or read news stories about the effect of storms on Great Lakes shipping.
My
> first sight of any of the Great Lakes was a trip to Chicago in 1947. The
next
> was around 1950 when a friend and I took a cab-over truck from Mason
City,Iowa
> to Duluth, MN to pick up a load of furniture for someone. We had time when
we
> got to Duluth and spent quite a bit of it watching the big ore carriers go
thru.
> Lake Superior and Lake Michigan are so large they are really inland seas
and
> have storms to go with their size. I understand many large ships have gone
down
> in violent storms and that there are shiploads of automobiles, among other
> things, resting on the bottom of those two lakes.
>
> When I was putting those photos in an album for Ernie, I wondered if
> the rail cars were going to be unloaded in Washington and re-loaded into
ships.
> I had it in my head that Chinese railroads were a narrower gauge than
ours. I
> imagine one of you railroad buffs would know the answer to that question.
>
> As to the ferries from Michigan to Wisconsin, being as I have traveled
> between New York and Minnesota for years, I have checked out the ferries
in the
> past to see if there was a time saving by taking them across instead of
going
> around Chicago but there wasn't so I never took that trip. With the
Interstates
> now, it is a no-brainer for me to just drive around instead of taking the
ferry.
>
> Cecil
>
> > It seems entirely possible to fit all of those cars on one ship.  One of
my
> > other interests is railroads and railroad carferries.  Carferries are
ships
> > built with railroad tracks right on the deck.  There is a sea gate in
the
> > stern of the ship which opens and the cars are pushed right onboard.  I
> > don't know anything about whether any ocean going ships have tracks in
them,
> > but I live in Michigan where these ships used to haul railroad cars
across
> > Lake Michigan to Wisconsin all the time.  The Ann Arbor Railroad Company
> > started doing this in 1892 and various railroads operated carferries on
Lake
> > Michigan until 1990.  In 1953 the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad put the
last
> > two ferries into service, the Badger and Spartan.  These ships are 410'
long
> > and were designed to carry 32 40' cars each.  The Badger has been
restored
> > and carries passengers with their automobiles and even buses and semis
> > across the lake now.  Depending on their size, it can carry up to 180
> > vehicles and 620 passengers.  It is now the last coal fired ship
operating
> > on the Great Lakes.  I have a book on the Badger which has a picture of
> > carloads of Allis Chalmers tractors on the ship and more cars full of
Massey
> > Harris tractors being loaded in Wisconsin.
>
>
> --
> The nicest thing about telling the truth is you never have to wonder
> what you said.
>
> Cecil E Monson
> Lucille Hand-Monson
> Mountainville, New York   Just a little east of the North Pole
>
> Allis Chalmers tractors and equipment
>
> Free advice
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at