http://www.bymnews.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=110

Pictures of the 650 foot cargo ship Cougar Ace carrying almost 5,000 brand new Mazdas drifting and listing at 60 degrees in the open seas. This has been going for for a couple of weeks now. have pumps on board to transfer water from one side to the other to right it, but first they towed it to calmer seas.

Wasn't there an Allegheny that got it's display track washed out from underneath and was in danger of "capsizing" out east a few years back. They got it upright and moved to a better location if I remember correctly, but this kind of puts that effort into a smaller perspective.

Perhaps at Roanoke?

It was the B&O Museum--the Allegheny was for a time locked up inside one of the Mt. Clare Junction shopping mall buildings (most of Mt. Clare shops was knocked down and replaced by this strip mall) on poorly-constructed display track that was not up to its weight. It was rescued years ago and is now under cover in the North Passenger Car Shop. If memory serves the loan of the engine to the mall dates back to the CSX era at the museum when the railroad's public relations department directly owned and managed the collection and the museum.

The shots of the COUGAR ACE bring back memories of the last days of the freighter S. S. FLYING ENTERPRISE which received worldwide coverage back in 1951 while slowly sinking off the coast of England and her skipper, Captain Henrik Kurt Carlsen, stayed on board almost to the end. I still remember the extensive photo coverage in the newspapers and magazines at that time.

I have some real vague memories of an articulated, which I believe was the N&W 1218 back in the 70's being on display under a highway overpass. Some years later that area flooded and the track became washed out enough that the locomotive tilted and was leaning against the concrete pilings of the overpass. Can anyone confirm this?

A curiosity question. Are those 5000 mazdas anchored to the various decks or are they loaded more like a ferry, held by gravity and the parking brake. Are thay all in a pile now?

Ed Selinsky, landlubber

I'm pretty sure that it was the 1604 that was propped up against a highway overpass at the original site of the Roanoke Transportation Museum in Wasena Park. Shortly after that happened she was moved to Baltimore.

You can get the latest news on this event by going to google news and searching for Cougar Ace.

http://news.google.co.kr/news?hl=en&ned ... earch+News

The Mazdas are well secured and seem to be in good condition. This is based on a partial survey of some of the ships cargo holds. But, the perception was if they were OK in the holds that were visited they are probably all OK.

Looks like Crowley Maritime is keeping a lot of their tugs employed on this project. That area is heavily populated with EMD engines right now.

The Cargo Law website has continuing coverage of the Cougar Ace,as well as other transportation incidents.Interesting website.

Yes, it was definitely no. 1604 at Roanoke. The railway museum there used to be located in a low area adjacent to a river and it flooded badly on occasion.

Some time after this 1604 was relocated to Baltimore and the remainder of the collection was relocated to the Virgnia Museum of Transportation's new location adjacent to the yards in downtown Roanoke.

Prior to 1985, the Virginia Museum of Transportation was located in Wasena Park near the Roanoke River. The museum faced 2 "1000 year floods" within 7 years at that location. The first was in the spring of 1978, about two weeks after I had started as Operations Manager of the Museum (then known as "Roanoke Transportation Museum"). While the track was undermined under several exhibits, the major damage was the destruction of the 7 1/2" guage RR. No locomotives "listed" after that flood. We were back up and running in two weeks with the miniature RR restored to service. The second flood was in November of 1985. By then I was in the auto business, and not even active at that time as a member. 1218 had just been taken out and moved to Birmingham for overhaul. The track under 1604 was completely undermined, and the engine rolled to the right, coming to rest against the pier of Wasena bridge overhead. If memory serves me correctly, the "list" was almost 45 degrees. RJ Corman righted the locomotive the following year, and it headed to Baltimore. VMT decided not to rebuild in that location and moved downtown to the old N&W freight station, in the process incuring a debt load that has just recently been retired.

A while back I learned a new phrase from one of my maritime friends that describes traffic like the 5,000 Mazdas that are in danger of going glug in these photos: "neobulk." It means merchandise that moves in such quantity that it behaves like a bulk commodity. In this case, items that used to be hoisted in and out of a cargo hold or lashed to the deck, that now flow like oil, grain, or coal.

Just another indication that we don't live in the days of 50-foot double-door auto cars anymore.

Hume

I see those car carriers come by my office window all the time. They have to be the most butt ugly ships that have ever been launched into salt water!

And yes the cars get tied down for the trip across the "placid" Pacific Ocean.

Back in the 1950s when we actually exported cars from the USA , I know a story about a ship getting hit by a winter storm off Cape Hartteras. North Carolina. Some of the copper broke loose and they proceeded to turn the t'weendeck into a pile of very high priced scrap metal. The owners did not load copper ingots and cars aboard at the same time after that.

Ted Miles

Back in the early 1960's the DT&I had a wreck on Summit Hill north of Waverly, Oh with a load of new cars - Ford T-Birds if I recall correctly. Anyway, they buried all of the cars in a farmer's field.

Somewhere in southern Ohio is a graveyard of old Fords.

And sitting on the bottom of the Atlantic off Newfyland are several EMD GT26's that broke loose in a storm and went over the side. They almost took the ship with them. They are in good company, there are a few steam locomotives and RSD-1's out there too, in the Railroad Museum of the Atlantic. Something for a future Bob Ballard / National Geographic special.