talk to me about carfloat operations.

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briansommers787

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I'm getting ready to build a 30" x 22' HO switching layout.

I'm thinking cafloat ops. Wasn't there a book about what industries serve each other, etc?

I'm looking for a list of industries that would service each other and one set of industries would be on my layout and the others off layout servicable via carfloat

I want to make sure that my layout makes sense. I'm thinking of designing it backwards, starting with what industries I want to serve. Puting the large big complex ones off layout via carfloat and keeping the smaller ones on layout.

OR

just going further back in history when smaller companies had there own rail service.. oh that would be fun.
 
I can't recall whether it was the November, December, or hell, even October issue of Model Railroader but a very recent one does have some very good articles on carfloats.
 


There used to be many car float operations here in New Jersey to shuffle cars over to New York City. Might be worth checking into. They were operated by such fallen flags as CNJ, PRR, LV, Erie and DL&W. The later two just becoming EL. You also had NYS&W and NYC.
 
Carfloats still exist. It's the only connection to the outside world for Alaska Railroad. It's also how they make their interchanges.
 
We still have them around here just on a smaller level. Still one of the only ways to get freight cars into the 5 boroughs with out going up to Albany and back down.
 
Car floats

The last issue of Model Railroader had just over a dozen pages dedicated to car float operations in NY harbor, with passing mention of other areas. There is even a couple of layout ideas. Here in San Francisco, the Santa Fe, Western Pacific, NWP all had car float operations into the 1980's. The super mergers of the western railroads eliminated the need for car float operations in the region. The WP yard and slip is now a Muni (transit) rail yard, the ATSF yard was a clothing warehouse but is now being redeveloped as part of UCSF genetic research facility. The car float apron is still visible. At fisherman's wharf the NWP apron still stands.

Walthers Cornerstone offered a Waterfront series in the mid 1990's that included a car float, tug and apron bridge for car float operations. The complete set had a pier, a waterfront warehouse terminal, large crane and a book about waterfront operations. These items can still be found on e-bay for a price, the tugs are fetching about $75-80, the actual floats are in the $50 range. Now that MR has printed this article those discountinued items will be going up in value as interest in car float and waterfront operations have been picqued.

Good luck.
 
Car flow or rail-marine info?

briansommers787 said:
Wasn't there a book about what industries serve each other, etc?

I'm looking for a list of industries that would service each other and one set of industries would be on my layout and the others off layout servicable via carfloat
Click to expand...

A lot of folks have provided information about rail-marine modeling, which is excellent. But I don't think that's what the Original Poster is asking.

I read it that he is asking about the flow of freight cars from one industry to another or from an industry to a customer. I think he is asking what could be modeled on his layout and what could be imagined to be "beyond the benchwork", linked by the car float operation.

If this is what the OP is asking about, it’s a broad topic, but a couple of points.

In North America in the era when rail-marine was most active, the origination and destination of most shipments was usually not on the same railroad. Real-life railroads interchange traffic for one another, often at large yards. You can imagine these to be off-layout if your layout is small.

So for a layout served by car floats, you could have a huge variety of industries "off-layout" shipping to fairly compact customers on layout. For example, a (huge) paper mill off-layout on any railroad could be imagined to ship via a number of connecting railroads, with cars of paper eventually appearing via car-float to be delivered to a small warehouse that's modeled on your layout. Lumber from a (huge) saw mill located off-layout on any railroad could be unloaded at a team track or a small lumber yard on-layout.

And so on for any number of commodities. Shippers and receivers don't have to be located on the same railroad – in fact, they usually are not.

So to the OP, choose whatever industries or customers of industries you like for your layout. They can easily be imagined to connect to anywhere else in the North American rail network.

There are lists of real-life shippers and receivers on the Operations SIG's website.
 
thanks, that is exactly what I was looking for... That is really good news, I can have any industries/companies on my layout and bring in whatever I need via carfloat and keep it all very real.. - realistic ops is the main focus.
 


I don't remember where, but I recall seeing pictures of a car float built on a 4-wheel teacart, like this one:
http://www.teacart.org/images/catskill-craftsmen-utility-kitchen-serving-cart.jpg

The barge itself was modeled, along with the water around it to fill up the top of the cart. The idea was that this thing could be "docked" at different locations on the owner's railroad, so it could actually carry cars from place to place.

Or you could think about modeling a "river" big enough for the float to travel on, and put wheels under it and pilot it up and down the waterfront.
 
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