Car Float


Wastrel

Wastrel

Member
Here is my latest project. A car float for interchange with Alaska Rail. I am still debating adding an equipment rack amid ship that would span the tracks and allow for stacking of vehicles and containers above the rail cars. Something like in the second pic, only rotated to run parallel to the track. Also in consideration would be an elevated crew quarters since this is supposed to be a long distance barge. What do you think?
 
This would run from the seattle area to alaska and back? I think i saw something similar to this in something kalmbach published. It wasn't a modelrailroad done up, it was more of a prototype you can model thing.

Seems like a neat project for sure, and I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
 
Yeah, this is the one from Seattle to Whittier. Kinda hard to find proto pics, so I am using a combination of car and bulk barges as a modeling base. What brought this all on was the purchase of a loco for the grandkids. When I went to buy them an engine, the only thing available in the price range I was willing to part with for an engine destined to be destroyed happened to be an ARR gp40. Soooo, ARR interchange became a neccessity just to maintain the "flow" from one layout to the other. The upside, I am learning alot about an aspect of the hobby that I never anticipated, while at the same time being able to justify a small intermodal terminal with a single gantry type travelling crane.
 
Hey...take a look at the Milw Rd website.... http://www.mrcd.org/index.html ... between that and if you get the time to search google, you might find more information on TRAIN BARGES that have sailed Puget Sound and Alaska for decades. (I really find it interesting who/what/where the term "car float" came from...definitely NOT a west coast term while I was with the MILW rd..) Anyway, I've never known double stack barges while I was on the west coast, but hey, it's your layout and imagination! Secondly, even though the Pt Townsend/Seattle barges had "cabin towers" I think all personnel were restricted to the tugboat during travel....that could be due to Coast Guard regs...the other thing I wanted to clue you in, and this could be a contrast between west coast and barge operations out of NYC...but 99% of the time, the barge is FULL of cars...these barge operations are NOT cheap, and the rr's made bloody sure to ship as much as possible. The ONLY barge operation that did NOT adhere to this was the operation that MILW excercised between Tacoma and Shelton, possibly because of the close proximately between the two docks.
 
sledgehammer said:
Anyway, I've never known double stack barges while I was on the west coast, but hey, it's your layout and imagination! Secondly, even though the Pt Townsend/Seattle barges had "cabin towers" I think all personnel were restricted to the tugboat during travel....
Click to expand...

Double level barges are used on the Seattle to Alaska Hydro Train regularly:
http://www.railroadforums.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/31826/size/big/ppuser/4700 I saw them regularly growing up in Port Townsend.

The cabins on the Milwaukee barges that served the Seattle-Port Townsend were wheelhouses, and one of the barges, I think the second one, had a captain and deckhand. I'm not sure if this arrangement lasted until the end of service as I've heard elsewhere that the barges may have had their rudders replaced with simple skegs at somepoint, though I'm not sure how that would have worked.

- Chris
 
Thanks Hawkeye for the update...I'm certain things have changed since I left Pt Townsend in 1987...and the last time I was on that LINE was doing fire patrol for the MILW in 1979...so...my memory wasn't 100% certain about personnel on the barges...but I do recall the train barges going by for Alaska...as they've had a history of loosing cars in rough seas....winding up on the beaches of Whidbey Island!!!
 
yeah, the barge is scratch built. It is a simple 1x12 plank with the tracks routered out then back filled once in place. For the cleats I used old sections of model parts trees and shaped them to look like a proto cleat. Down the center of the barge is a mesh drain that runs the whole length, for that I used drywall sanding cloth. A pretty simple addition to the layout that took a grand total of 4 hours to build. I anticpate building the docks will take much longer.
 
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