According to a post on Trainorders, the ex-Ann Arbor carferry Viking has been sold for virutal scrapping.

Yet another piece of rail marine history bites the dust.

For pictures of her in rail service, go to:
http://my.coredcs.com/~bbokrlwy/webaugc1/aug1pg3.html

Rob

The post says:
The "Viking I", which was originally Ann Arbor No. 7, built 1925, has been reportedly sold to a company in Menominee, Michigan. It is supposed to be cut down to a barge for handling wood. The same company recently purchased the Detroit River carfloat "Manitowoc" for use as a dock.

The Viking I has been tied up in the harbor at Erie, PA since 1996. The original intention had been to establish a cross Lake Erie passenger service from Erie to Ontario, but nothing ever became of that.

The ship will be towed to Michigan in the next couple of days, weather permitting, by the tug Olive L. Moore.

A couple of photos of Viking I in Erie:

http://www.trainweb.org/vermande/a/aaviking3.jpg
http://www.boatnerd.com/news/newpicture ... -01-jt.jpg

The tug is almost as interesting, as it was originally built in 1928. {Rebuilt in 1980):

http://wellandcanal.ca/shiparc/tugs/oli ... /moore.htm



trains@robertjohndavis.com

The Viking tow departed Erie yesterday afternoon, and is passing through the Detroit area today. Here's a shot of her leaving Erie from the Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping site (popularly known as "Boatnerd.com"). More news and photos of the tow can be found in the "News Channel" section of the site (link below).

Great Lakes and Seaway Shipping (www.boatnerd.com)

rjenkins@railfan.net

Here's a shot of her in her original form as the Ann Arbor no. 7, from the Bowling Green State University archive. As the Ann Arbor no. 7 she appeared in David Plowden's book "Farewell to Steam" before being dieselized and renamed Viking in 1965.

The AA no. 7 was one of several Lake Michigan ferries built to the same design in the late 20's and early 30's, the last of which was the Grand Trunk (later Ann Arbor) boat City of Milwaukee in 1931. The City of Milwaukee is now a museum in Manistee, Michigan, complete with her original steam engines and classic two-stack profile.

S.S. City of Milwaukee

rjenkins@railfan.net

I tried to get a shot of the Viking late Wednesday night, when the tow sat for a bit off the DTE Marysville Power Plant. She waited for a bit in the river, but the light was pretty bad and I couldn't get a decent shot of her in the river. You could sure make out that sillouette against the chemical valley lights in Sarnia, though! According to Boatnerd she continued upbound into Lake Huron later that evening. My guess is she is probably well into Menominee by now.

TJG



Port Huron Museum
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org