Train ferry

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A loaded train ferry approaching the dock in Detroit, Michigan, April 1943.
A loaded train ferry approaching the dock in Detroit, Michigan, April 1943.
Aerial view of a classification yard and two docking train ferries in Detroit, April 1943. A third ferry slip can be seen at the bottom of the photograph.
Aerial view of a classification yard and two docking train ferries in Detroit, April 1943. A third ferry slip can be seen at the bottom of the photograph.

A train ferry is a ship designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ferries were originally referred to as "car ferries" until about the 1950s. The wharf (sometimes called a "slip") has a ramp, linkspan or "apron," balanced by weights, that connects the railway proper to the ship, allowing for the water level to rise and fall with the tides. For an example of a specialized slip to receive railcars see ferry slip.

While railway vehicles can be and are shipped on the decks or in the holds of ordinary ships, purpose-built train ferries are much quicker to load and unload, especially as several vehicles can be loaded or unloaded at once. A train ferry that is a barge is called a car float.

In 1833 the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway operated a wagon ferry on the Forth and Clyde Canal in Scotland.[1] In April 1836 the first railroad car ferry in the U.S., the Susquehanna entered service on the Susquehanna River between Havre de Grace and Perryville, Maryland.[1] The first 'modern' design of ferry, the Leviathan, was designed in 1849 by Thomas Grainger for the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway, Scotland, to cross the Forth estuary between Granton and Burntisland. It was intended as a temporary measure until the railway could build a bridge, but this was not opened until 1890, its construction delayed in part by repercussions from the catastrophic failure of Thomas Bouch's Tay Rail Bridge;[2] Bouch designed the ferry loading mechanism.[1]

Contents

Nine train ferries were in use between 1907 and 1990, when bridges were built over the rivers they crossed. They were the Lucía Carbó, the María Parera, the Mercedes Lacroze (these three ferries operating between the ports of Zárate and Ibicuy, crossing the Paraná river in the northeast of the Buenos Aires province); then in 1913 were added the Roque Saenz Peña and Javier Ramos Mejía paddlers at Posadas (crossing the Paraná river in the southwest of the Misiones province, in the north of the country) and then, in 1928, three other ferries were built: the Delfina Mitre, Dolores de Urquiza and Carmen Avellaneda, replacing the originals which worked the Zárate-Ibicuy crossing. The first two were sunk due to collisions with cargo ships. Two of the most modern are still serving as floating piers in the Zárate region, and some others were sold for conversion to flat barges or were scrapped. The two northern ferries still remain at Posadas, and one of them has a railway museum inside. All the eight old ferries were built by the J. A. Inglis Co. Ltd., in Pointhouse, Glasgow, Scotland for the Entre Rios Railways Co. in Argentina. The ninth ferry, the Tabare, - the last and newest - was built in Argentina in 1966 by Astarsa (ASTilleros ARgentinos S.A.) at Rio Santiago Shipbuildings, near La Plata city, at the south of Buenos Aires area. It is still floating but not operating, awaiting a decision, in the south pier aside to the new Puerto Madero facilities, the new neighbour built in Buenos Aires city over the port and the old docks of Buenos Aires. (Information provided by Oliverio).-

  • The Port Lincoln division is isolated from the main system by desert and is very roundabout, and rolling stock is transferred as required by ship or by road low loaders.

  • The Varna-Odesa (Ukraine) train ferry line served by 4 boats (13,000 DWT each, carrying 108 loaded railroad cars) opened in 1978, bypasses a break of gauge. Later, the service was extended to include lines to Poti and Batumi, Georgia. Boats can carry trucks and passengers as well.


In use:

Former:

A ferry, though not necessarily a train ferry, links the 1435 mm gauge network of Egypt and the 1067 mm network of Sudan.

In use:

Former:

Bonn–Oberkassel train ferry
Bonn–Oberkassel train ferry


After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and upheavals along the railway route through Armenia and Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia instituted a ferry service over the Caspian Sea.

Both services are operated by Bluvia that is a subsidiary company of Rete Ferroviaria Italiana. At present the link between Mainland and Sicily has a regular and frequent activity, while the link between Mainland and Sardinia is less frequent and operated basically day by day on the basis of the actual traffic demand.

An unofficial web page about the Italian rail ferries can be found at this link.

Japan Railways would have had train ferries to link up the main islands before these were replaced by bridges and tunnels.

The Tinnsjø railway ferry, Norway.
The Tinnsjø railway ferry, Norway.

  • Link to Brazil - replaced by bridge c1985.

See Iran.

A ferry though not necessarily a train ferry links India and Sri Lanka over a narrow and shallow stretch of water.

A ferry, though not necessarily a train ferry, links the 1435 mm gauge network of Egypt and the 1067 mm network of Sudan, across the Nile River.

Another ferry used to operate between Juba, Sudan and Pakwach, Uganda, also along the Nile River.

In use:

All are for freight trains (and road vehicles) only, except that there is a daily passenger night train service between Malmö, Sweden and Berlin, Germany over Trelleborg - Mukran.

Former:

See Uganda.

  • Bosphorus - train ferry connects the European railway network with main connections from Thessaloniki, Greece and Bucharest, Romania terminating at the Sirkeci Terminal to the Asian network terminating at the Haydarpaşa Terminal. This train ferry is for freight. Passengers use passenger ferries. The current Marmaray project, expected to be complete in 2009, will replace the ferry connection with an underwater railway tunnel running between the two sides.
  • Black Sea - Ilyichevsk, Ukraine to Derince, Turkey bypasses a break of gauge
  • Lake Van - Tatvan - Van. The Istanbul - Tehran and Damascus - Tehran passenger trains operate from each terminus to the ferry ports. Only the luggage van takes the ferry, the passengers have to switch trains at either end. The Lake Van Ferry is part of the planned Trans-Asian Railway, Istanbul - Singapore. A scheduled freight train runs from Istanbul to Kazakhstan. The Train Ferry was established to avoid an expensive railroad line along the mountainous southern shore and may be replaced when traffic increases sufficiently.
  • M/F Erdeniz is a train ferry that carries wagons between Eregli and Zonguldak ports. The vessel operates every day except Sunday. The vessel is operated by Erdemir Logistics.

The Trans-Asian Railway has proposed a few train ferries:

  • between Sri Lanka and India
  • across the Brahmaputra River in Bangladesh
  • Penang in Malaysia and Belawan in Sumatra, Indonesia

The opposite of a train ferry is a portage railway.

  • A train ferry overcomes a lack of a land link.
  • A portage railway overcomes a lack of a navigable stretch of a river.

For example, before the Panama canal, the Panama Railway provided a link between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

The Norwegian train ferry Skagerak sank in September 7, 1966 on a journey between Kristiansand (Norway) and Hirtshals (Denmark) in heavy weather (Gale force winds) when the rear sea-gate was destroyed by heavy seas. Fortunately there was no loss of lives (although one person died afterwards). 6 freight cars went to bottom with the ship as well as some automobiles. The ferry was built in 1965.

A similar incident happened when the Canadian train ferry Patrick Morris sank on April 19, 1970 while assisting in a search and rescue operation for a sinking fishing trawler off the northeast coast of Cape Breton Island. The ferry was trying to maintain position to retrieve a body when her stern gates were overpowered by 30-foot waves; she sank within 30 minutes taking several rail cars and 4 crew members to the bottom of the Cabot Strait. There were 47 survivors.

Train ferries rarely sank because of sea-hazards, although they have some weaknesses linked to the very nature of transporting trains "on rail" on a ship.

These weaknesses include:

  • Trains are loaded at a rather high level, making the ship top-heavy.
  • The train deck is difficult to compartmentalise, so that sloshing flood water can destabilise the ship.
  • The sea doors where the trains go in and out are a weakness, even if placed at the rear of the ship.
  • The train carriages need to be strongly secured lest they break away and roll around, particularly on long, open-water routes.

The Ann Arbor Railroad of Michigan developed a system of making cars fast that was adopted by many other lines. Screw jacks were placed on the corners of the railcar and the car was raised slightly to take its weight off of its wheels. Chains and turnbuckles were placed around the car frame and hooked onto the rails and tightened. Clamps were placed behind the wheels on the rails. Deckhands engaged in continual inspection and tightening of the gear during the crossing. This system effectively held the cars in place when the ship encountered rough weather.

Several train ferries -- the SS Milwaukee, SS Pere Marquette 18, and SS Marquette & Bessemer No. 2 -- were lost on the Great Lakes. These losses, though causes remain unconfirmed, were attributed to seas boarding the unprotected stern of the ship and swamping it in a severe storm. As a result, seagates were required on all new ships and required to be retrofitted on older vessels. In addition, two wooden crosslake railroad ferries were burned.

Some accidents occurred at the slip during loading, when stability was a major problem. Train ferries often list when heavy cars are loaded onto a track on one side while the other side is empty. Normal procedure was to load half of a track on one side, all of the track on the other side, and then the rest of the original track. If this procedure was not followed, results could be disastrous. In 1909, the SS Ann Arbor No. 4 capsized in her slip in Manistique, Michigan when a switching crew put eight cars of iron ore on her portside tracks. The crew got off without loss of life, but salvage operations were costly and time-consuming.

  1. ^ a b c Marshall, John (1989). The Guinness Railway Book. Enfield: Guinness. ISBN 0-85112-359-7. 
  2. ^ Shipway, J.S. (2004). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. 
  3. ^ http://www.railpage.com.au/f-t11334286.htm

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