Steamboats and other rivercraft - general discussion

[Cathead]

This thread has gone a bit dormant but I'm going to revive it with a very neat model I got to see recently. I was actually attending a model railroad convention, which included some personal layout tours. One fellow, in addition to a spectacular layout, had a scratchbuilt model of a real rail ferry that operated across the Missouri River at St. Charles (near St. Louis) in the early days of railroading. He gave me permission to share some photos here. 

This vessel operated until 1872, when a bridge was completed and its services were no longer needed.

 

This is in HO scale (1:87), the same scale as my current build Peerless (see signature). And for reference, here's one view of his layout, depicting Moberly, Missouri in extraordinary and highly accurate detail. This is on the same rail line as the ferry above served, though the layout is set almost 100 years later.

 

He's been writing a detailed article for the local railroad historical society and I told him about the NRG and encouraged him to submit the article to the NRG journal as well. 

 

I thought you all would enjoy this!

 

 

 

[wefalck]

Interesting subject! These 'Trajekts', as we call them in Geman and neighbouring languages, once have been quite common at places, where it would have been too difficult, not cost-efficient, or impossible to build bridges. Some of them are still in operation, although bridge-building has become more daring in recent years and they were laid off. In some cases there was joint use by railway carriages and vehicles.

- On Lake Constance, between Switzerland and Germany was one in operation for many years.

- At lower reaches of the River Rhine one took whole trains, including the engine

- At the German Baltic coast several connected islands with the mainland to allow through trains.

- There used to be a two-stage one that connected the German mainland with the island fo Fehmarn and then on to the Danish island of Lolland. In the 1960s the small rail ferry to Fehmarn was replaced by a bridge. I once took, just for the fun of it, the through-train from Hamburg to Copenhagen along this route.

- The once famous Trelleborg to Sassnitz train-ferry that connected Stockholm with the rest of Europe via Germany was discontinued after 111 years of service in 2020.

[Cathead]

Neat examples, wefalck! Steamboat ferries were fairly common on the Missouri River for a period of time, before bridges were finally built. But in winter they couldn't operate, so in some cases where the river froze solid enough, tracks were laid directly across the river ice, as in these examples from North Dakota:

 

1879 photo (University of Washington libraries)

 

 

1879 wood-cut print (North Dakota Heritage Center). Notice the steamboat drawn up on the bank for winter.

Edited April 30 by Cathead

[wefalck]

I seem to have read of similar examples from Russia, where tracks were laid across frozen lakes to provide short-cuts, rather than going around the lakes.

[Cathead]

I'd have no trouble believing that!

[wefalck]

The Dutch company Artitec makes some resin-kits of small German railway ferries around the island of Rügen (I think) in HO- and N-scale:

 

https://www.artitecshop.com/en/railroad-ferry.html

https://www.artitecshop.com/en/wittow-ferry.html

https://www.artitecshop.com/en/ferry-fehmarn.html - This one I remember seeing in operation, when we spent our summer holidays with may grandparents up at the Baltic coast.

 

 

 

 

[Roger Pellett]

A wonderful model!  Eric, I believe that you have a set of drawings for a similar railroad ferry in your stash.  Perhaps a future project?

 

Railroad car ferries also sailed on the Great Lakes, particularly on lakes Erie and Michigan.  On Eastern Lake Erie they transferred cars filled with Ohio mined coal across to Canada.
 

 Lake Michigan was a different problem as its axis is North South.  This means that it blocked railroads moving freight from Michigan to Wisconsin, Minnesota and points west.  Going around the south end of the lake meant that trains had to negotiate the crowded Chicago rail yards, an unacceptable solution.  Two railroads, therefore, operated very large purpose built car ferries across the lake.  These ferries operated year round, breaking winter ice.  As least two were lost in winter storms.  The last two, SS Badger and SS Spartan were built in the early 1950’s.  Both still exist although only Badger sails.  Today, she hauls passengers and their vehicles across the lake; no railroad cars.  Badger is the last coal fired reciprocating engine steamship sailing on the lakes.

 

There were also a number of paddle driven railroad car ferries that shuttled cars across the Detroit River.  The paddle wheels were driven by massive horizontal steam engines.  I remember seeing them in the 1960’s.

 

Roger

[Cathead]

Yep, Roger, I have those plans you gave me and they're in the someday mental file! I definitely thought of them, and you, as soon as I saw that model.

 

I've been hoping to take a trip on the Badger someday.