Oops I think I just

Oops I think I just discovered the origin by way of 'google images'

http://frenchmanriver.com/Photo-Gallery-3_ep_49-1.html

Looks to be a Frenchman River product,...and made in sections such that it can be longer in some situations.

http://www.bronx-terminal.com

http://www.bronx-terminal.com/index.php?s=walthers+carfloat

I love car floats!

HO on the Just Trains in store layout I built many years ago.  Russ

Removable

Initially I had no plans (or very little) to include a carfloat on my layout. But I did have a Walthers one, and now I have a another one. I might be able to include a car float down at the tip of my peninsula, across from my waterfront scene that already has some tug boats. And that center peninsula was going to be primarily a number of port scenes.

And I would have it on the edge of that center peninsula deck, and make it a REMOVABLE piece somewhat similar to my waterfront scene. I recall seeing a 'removable installation' somewhere recently, but can't recall where at the moment.
 

......just across the aisle there is the cutout that my waterfront scene sets into,...with its tugs, lighthouse, and small coal barge

Metal rails vs Plastic

There are a ton of sites with info on carfloats, I just had never really explored them.

One item that caught my attention was the 'debate' over whether locos ever ventured onto car floats. Turns out some did, and in a model situation that would require electrical conductive tracks,....my Frenchman River carfloat has metal rails.

Loco on a float

There may be some huge floats with that capability but these little 6 car floats would never hold a loco.  Possibly a mini yard goat special built for a yard might but not a regular switcher or road engine.  In fact in some cases if there was a large tidal flow the ramps would be so long that they would use idler flats to put cars on the floats.  Russ

but these little 6 car floats would never hold a loco

https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/17443#comment-141849

Removable car floats and alignment

In the Rice Harbor series in Model Railroader, several videos dealt with car floats and docks.  I've got the Walthers car float, dock, and ramp, and planned to try a removable water section so a scratchbuilt car float could also be used.  My initial thoughts are to sandwich some plexiglass on top of luan plywood as a mounting plate/water surface underneath the car floats, and have it butt against the inside of a 90-degree corner at the ramp in a matching cutout in the harbor surface.  Since it's not going to be swapped out that frequently, I'm hoping that would provide precise enough alignment for the rails.  Frequent swapping would suggest the use of some sort of alignment pins between the car float's mounting surface and the edge of the harbor

That chunk of the railroad will probably take a year or two before I get to the area, so there's time to think about better methods.

Janet N.

There may be some huge floats

Even a small rail barge can carry a locomotive as long as it isn't heavier than the freight cars. The same is correct for Float bridges. New York has a tidal range of up to 10 ft. Even in 1910 locomotives entered the float bridge and rail barge: http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/transferbridges/fbfloatbridgetorsion.jpg

Or a photo of 1954. The locomotive was the lightst equipment on board the barge: http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/bedt/1552.jpg
/> Both pictures are from this website: http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/developmenttransferbridge.html

The website calls it a popular misconception, that locomotives were never placed on the float bridge and car float. There are no railroad rules that prohibit locomotives from car floats. That doesn't mean that there aren't locomotives that are too heavy for the float bridge and car float. 

Here is a photo of the SP barge slip at Tiburon in 1958. Though the GE 44 ton locomotive seems light enough to enter the float bridge idler cars are used. Why I don't know. https://www.railpictures.net/photo/171062/

Santa Fe used idler cars too at China Basin in San Francisco: https://www.psrm.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/83397atsf.jpg
/> But here the ALCO S-2 swicher wheighs 230,000 lbs.
Regards, Volker

Locomotives Riding on the Barge

In BC Canada many isolated branches have no locomotive.   They just load it on the barge with caboose and the freight cars and off they go.

https://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=404516&nseq=34

Split Rails on Carfloat

Something I never really noticed at first, but discovered when I was trying to fit this carfloat scene in place,....the rails on that side of the carfloat with two sidings are doubled up where the enter/exit the carfloat.

And that requires a different track arrangement on the apron feeding the carfloat. 

I had thought that was different than the Walthers kit, as I had not seen that little area were the 'switch' was made.

Of course it now makes sense to me that they could (or would) not have a turnout on the barge itself to make use of the 2 tracks.

On the prototype, is there a switch-like object located on the apron like the Walthers one, or something more like the Frenchman River's rendition where it appears those double rails are fully across the length of the apron??


At first I thought I was not going to be able to use the Walther's apron with my Frenchman's carport,..but now that I see both have similar rails on the carfloat itself I may just be able to?

"On the prototype, is there a

  The Walthers float and bridge are based on the typical New York Harbor carfloats. Most used that single switch on the left side of the float bridge(starboard side of car float) set up but some (DL&W  was one IIRC ) moved the switch onto land and used the twin rails on the full length of left side of the float bridge .....DaveB

Freight Car Types?

What sort of variety of freight cars might one see loaded on car-floats?

Are there some particularly heavy ones that might not be allowed, or products that would not be transported on a carfloat??

"What sort of variety of

  Those New York car floats  carried a typical mix of freight cars in their day. Pretty much anything that came to New York could come by car floats. The most common cars as on any railroad in the loose car era would have been boxcars, reefers,and coal cars. Gons of bulk materials such as scrap iron, or loads of finished machinery or boilers for example.Phil Goldstein has a great New York Harbor pocket terminals website with tons of car float photos and info.....DaveB

Link?

Would you have that link Dave? .....might be interesting to have a look.

Walthers Apron

I rather like that Walther's apron arrangement with the overhead hosting tower. I'm not exactly sure if it will line up exactly with my Frenchman's carfloat?....may have to modify or make another deck plate?

Here is a lot of information

Here is a lot of information about car float operations in New York: http://www.trainweb.org/bedt/IndustrialLocos.html#Development

The website is relatively confusing. You need to scroll down to find a wealth of links to different related topic spread over the site.
Regards, Volker

"Would you have that link?"

Hi Brian,  the site Volker posted is it.    Find the main index page then you can check out all the terminals listed....DaveB

Tenative Car Float location

Here is the tentative car float operation I am considering on my peninsula.   Teaser...more photos coming

(tip of the peninsula,....and that crane is not the proper one, too small)

The bigger white rectangle at the head of the apron is the footprint of the Walther's Pier Terminal Bld, with a track headed into the building

Location issue

Hi Guys,

I've built both the Walthers ramp and car float for my freelanced BEDT layout. I'm working with limited space and like one of the other commenters, I'm hoping for the car float to be removable and use it for staging rolling stock into the layout. The photo below was taken a couple of months ago. You can see that I only have 24" when the ramp is flush with the end of the layout section under construction (new section is over the file cabinet to the far right. The second picture shows the existing section and my concern with crowding the scene).

My problem is that when using the wye turnout that Walthers suggests, I don't have room for even a 15" radius before I'm up against the backdrop. I can adjust the location of the ramp, but I'm concerned the small water area on the layout may look too crowded. I'm thinking about some short sections of curved track coming right off the ramp and then to the wye so that I can clear the wall. Can anyone offer other possible solutions? 

I'm really hoping this wasn't a bad idea and end up scrapping the plan. 

Thanks in advance, guys!

Tony 

Tony Garcia

Modeling (very) Freelanced BEDT/LIRR in Colorado.

Shorten Carfloat?

Perhaps you could section out a small length of the carfloat itself?

I went thru a number of 'gyrations' with my installation, and there were some other ideas offered,...on these subject threads...

https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/industrial-port-facilities-on-my-peninsula-12214347
 

At one point I was considering 'half a carfloat'...
https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/baltimore-wharf-area-municipal-piers-docksider-locos-12214366

or check out images on a search of them using that search box on this forum, then selecting 'images'. I've found lots of interesting items this way.

Rotating Freight Cars on and off the Layout

  "The thought occurred to

Carfloats were/are used to get cars to places they can't get to by rail. If a railroad has a land route they will send cars by land unless there is some unique reason to use a carfloat. New York for example had lots of carfloats because most of the railroads approached from the west and it was shorter to carfloat across the river than to run up north and around the river( would have also caused a huge traffic jam on the limited capacity route). They also had lots or areas that were not connected to the rail network but needed rail service so pocket terminals served by carfloat were the answer.  If you have a story for your layout background/reason for existence you can try weave a reason for carfloat service into it. Modeling a prototype carfloat operation is a lot easier to justify, then one can just show photos of the real thing :> ) .....DaveB

http://www.trainweb.org/ultra

http://www.trainweb.org/ultradomes/features/bargeloading.html