car float

With my old Westport I've had a barge.

Barge and apron were made following an article in RMC 1993 by Doug Geiger: "The Making of Union Bay". This barge worked as live interchange!

Wolfgang

Wolfgang, Was your Westport

Wolfgang,

Was your Westport car float removable to allow for another car float to replace it? It looks as if it is because of the splice line in the plywood below it.

I think this would work out great for you, Irv. That does free up an operating aisle right next to your yard. Having two such car floats would allow you to stage one while the other is in use. Perhaps you might put them on a cart (with large diameter wheels) to be able to move them without tipping over the cars.

Riley

Car floats and tugboats

That's a nice photo, Wolfgang. How many cars did the car float carry? I am looking at 15 50 footers as the optimum number though one of my model railroad club said that 24" is much to long for an N Scale car float. That same buddy doesn't like the idea of doing doing such things with car floats since historically they carried 40 footers only.

I need to use the car floats like cassettes to remove, store and bring back cars onto the layout as if they were a hidden staging yard because I don't have a place for such a yard if I want to do something other than run trains around in a large circle.

And thanks for giving me the issue of RMC to look for (assuming I don't have it.)

Irv

Car floats and tugboats 2

That is exactly what my thinking is. But i am more inclined to think I'll need at least 4 car floats since tugboats can handle them two at a time. This way I can gave cars coming onto the layout and going off the layout as if they were actually coming from somewhere or going somewhere else. THis is the same function a staging would provide but without having to build one.

Car float operations are going take a significant amount of my modelling real estate, so I want to make it not only interesting to do but also fun to watch once it put into operation.

So cars are going to come from a place off the layout known as Greenville Yard in New Jersey and go to various points between Bay Ridge, New York and New Haven, Connecticut. In addition to this there will be freight trains comng from New Haven and going to the car floats bound for Greenville and all points beyond that.

I'll also run passenger trains that will come form Pennsylvania Station (not on the layout, but Sunnyside Yard will be) via Sunnyside Junction and bound for New Haven, Connecticut  and elsewhere.  The trains will also run in the opposite direction as well.

There will also be some local industrial pickups and deliveries along the way for the freights.

Irv

barge

I've had only one barge, removable:

The barge had only two tracks and could hold up to eight cars, 50' and 40' mixed. Don't forget, I'm in H0!

I've had just below the Westport apron another staging apron. There I could change the cars easy.

You see my left thumb as safety block.

Wolfgang

Car floats and Tugboats 2

I see. Sylvan models produces an N-Scale two trackl car float that holds 8 cars. It's two small for what I want because  I need a bogger capacity. The prototype I am working with had car floats that held 17 cars an three tracks (7-5-7) so what I was looking for is a modern day equivalent an that how I got the dimensions I came up with. It's also based on the fcat that there just two remaining working car floats in New York Harbor. One of them is 290 feet long and the other is 360 feet long. So my dimensions of 324' x 54' aren't that far off. But I still have to build one to see what is workable. As for safety blocks, I intend to use colored push pins. I know it's not prototypical but it sure is workable in N-Scale.

Irv

What is your Prototype?

Irv,

What prototype are you modeling?

And Wolfgang: you must have steady seas where you walk...err...sail that car float! I assume that you are the only one allowed to pilot the tug on your layout. My feeling is that if you want to have it be more secure for your equipment, a cart with some open water surrounding the float to catch knocked over cars would be much safer, especially if you have visiting crews. Anything to make stuff easier not to break!

Riley

pilot the tug

This was no problem. My "staging" harbor was only 5' to the right and 1' deeper. There was no turn!

Wolfgang

Car float cart

I saw a layout either in an old MRR or on the web a few months back where the car float was mounted on a rolling cart. The cart had a key that fit into a notch in the layout "just so". It was a nifty idea and allowed the car float to safely navigate the layout room..

I wish I could find it again to provide a more specific look up, this is the second time I have referred to it in a post in the last few months.

Chris

The New York Connecting Railroad plus

I am modelling a line that had no locomotives of rolling stock of it's own bu was jointly owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New Haven. I am also goin to model car float operations at Bay Ridge, New York (that's in Brooklyn) and the line that runs from there to New Haven. However this is going to be a 1990s operation that assumes that Conrail didn't do away with that car float operation in 1976 and instead expanded what little was left by then into a modern and successful operation.

Here is the map showing the line to Oak Point Yard in the Bronx. I found it in a book about this line that I obtained this past summer.

Car float update

I have been thinking my carfloat design after reading a Morning Sun book on the waterfront railroads in NYC and New Jersey. I might be able to make it 3" wide insted of 4" since that is closer to what was the most common size of these things. I've also learned thru Internet searches that only two car floats remain in service in New York waters. One of those is 290 feet in leangth and the other is 360 feet long and both seem to have been used in revenue service for a long time and are not in the best of condition. I have yet to find exact pictures of them but everydays seems to turn up new information. And some of that information is amazing.

Bay Rdge was not the only place that had aprons for car floats as there were car float aprons all along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront but inly one of them is still in operation. Most of the car floats have been allowed to rot or have been removed but there are still some in existence and capable of being used. Examples of those that remain are located in Bay Ridge and in Long Island City. Neither is used. However, the Long Island City aprons are now part of a waterfront park whose main feature are the two remaining aprons. I have to visit them one of these days and I'll try to do before the water gets cold.

There are two aprons in Bay Ridge. These were reconstructed in the 1980s when it was contemplated that all car float operation would be moved there. This never happened yet the two aprons and the related trackage remains. These two aprons replace the four that were originally there. One can't really get close to them as there is no access without trespassing on the property of the railroad that took over operation of the Bay Ridge facility when teh Long Island Railroad transfered all its freight operations to them back when the LIRR passenger operations were taken over by MTA. I have Googled this area and it seems that most of the trackage is still used for various commodities that come down from Connecticut for distribution to Long Ialand and other areas along the line I am modelling.

I will have to produce my own carfloats since I got a reply from Walthers saying that they had no plans to produce their carfloat in N-Scale. So there is a niche here could be filled by anyone with the skill to produce a believeable N-Scale car float with a capapcity for 12 or more 50 foot rail cars. Who knows but this could be a new line of business for me.

It won't be the first time tried to make money by selling this kind of thing.

Irv

Sylvan makes one, but its too small

Hi,

Sylvan makes a two track 8 car float for N. It looked nice on one layout I have seen a picture of it on. Unfortunately, it won't do quite enough cars for what you want.

Chris

Sylvan car float

I am aware of the Sylvan car float. It's nice but it isn't what I need. While they did use some car floats similar to this one, they weren't the most common kind and their usage was directed more towards sites that had limited space and car capacities such as the small yards that were accessable only by water that used to be found in certain areas of lower Manhattan.

I need larger floats because they will be used as both as a staging yard and to provide access to the unmodeled interchange with the rest of the Conrail system that did lie along the Northeast Corridor.

That's why I need a 15 car (or greater) capacity.

Irv