RR River car ferries

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chessiefan1980
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RR River car ferries

Unread post by chessiefan1980 »

Does anyone know of any railcar ferries operated on the Detroit River and St. Clair Rivers by the railroads during the modern era (1900- present)?

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thomas
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Re: RR River car ferries

Unread post by thomas »

there was at least 2 that i know of , both CP and CN ran one mainly for high cars.but i don't know the names of the boats...

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Mr. Tops
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Re: RR River car ferries

Unread post by Mr. Tops »

Until the late-80s/early-90s, NS Marine Divison (former N&W and Wabash before that) operated four barges (named Detroit, Windsor, Manitowoc and Roanoke) across the Detroit River handling traffic that could not fit through the tunnel; hi-cube boxes, autoracks, high/wide and cars bypassing the tunnel for other reasons. The barges went from Boat Yard to CN/CP slips in Windsor. While these are not "true" ferries, they still floated cars across the river.

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Re: RR River car ferries

Unread post by OwlCaboose2853 »

Mr. Tops wrote:Until the late-80s/early-90s, NS Marine Divison (former N&W and Wabash before that) operated four barges (named Detroit, Windsor, Manitowoc and Roanoke) across the Detroit River handling traffic that could not fit through the tunnel; hi-cube boxes, autoracks, high/wide and cars bypassing the tunnel for other reasons. The barges went from Boat Yard to CN/CP slips in Windsor. While these are not "true" ferries, they still floated cars across the river.
Addition; GTW also operated rail-barge service across the St. Clair River between Port Huron and Sarnia and a railcar ferry service across the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. The Detroit River ferries ceased running in 1975. The St. Clair River ferries had initially been discontinued circa 1891 when the first St. Clair Tunnel opened, but were reinstated in 1971 due to clearance problems for some cars at the tunnel. In 1995 a larger St. Clair river tunnel opened that allowed double stack inter modal conatiner trains to cross into Sarnia and the ferries ceased operation on the river.
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firemedic54
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Re: RR River car ferries

Unread post by firemedic54 »

I remember fishing all night along the St. Clair in Port Huron back in the late 80's/early 90's and seeing the ferries from time to time. As earlier stated, the new tunnel solved that issue.

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PAT.C
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Re: RR River car ferries

Unread post by PAT.C »

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Stinger4me
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Re: RR River car ferries

Unread post by Stinger4me »

The Lansdowne was the ferry used by the GTW. I recall working in the City Yard and loading and unloading the ferry was a big factor for that job. We used idlers(flat cars) between the loads from the ferry and the engine. The Rennaissance Center took over the site of the City Yard. The job also switched out Robin Hood Milling and other businesses in the area. The Lansdowne had a fairly straight shot across the river to the CN yard. Maybe this helps.

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Re: RR River car ferries

Unread post by oldhogger »

Somewhat late responding to this however during my almost 40 year career at the Canadian National Railway I was a deckhand (for about a year) on both the Lansdowne and Huron which ferried rolling stock from Windsor to Detroit (where the REN-CEN now stands). During the early 70's they were operated under their own power with steam powering the paddle wheels on the Lansdowne and steam driving the screws on the Huron. The Huron could only muster 14 minutes of steam, so all ice and traffic had to be clear before we left to cross and only a ran out of steam couple times :lol:

All four Wabash/N&W/NS ferries (Detroit, Windsor, Manitowoc and Roanoke) were propelled by tugboats. I pulled and loaded both N&W as well as CN as a yard helper and finally as an engineer.

All ferry operation ended when CN & CP bought the Canada Southern aka (Michigan Central/Penn Central/Con Rail) from 24th street Detroit to Black Rock, NY. Then as a CN engineer I ran through the tubes to Flat Rock or Pontiac. Obviously once the new tunnel was completed in Sarnia to Port Huron all ferries were retired.

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