New York Times reports today that Coast Guard authorization bill lost clause allowing Badger to continue dumping ash, in Senate/House reconciliation. Current certificate expires December 19. Since the season is already over, the "last" voyage may have already occurred.

First the Delta Queen. And now the Badger. Steam powered boats get no respect!

Les

So, how hard will it be to dump the ash at the dock?
I'm guessing the ash is the same as fly ash from a power plant, if so, why not give it away to companies that use ash in construction? companies that make cinder blocks commonly use fly ash as a filler. Here in the south its popular enough to ship it in unit trains. Worst case they give it away and it costs them a bit more time/money to unload it. Best case, they sell it at cost and maybe break even?

eze240,
This would take at least some redesigning in the boiler room as the ash dump is a continuous process so they are not set up to capture & store it until the end of the crossing. Not impossible but from a business sense could the additional investment be recovered? No matter how neat or rare they are, they aren't set up to operate at a loss.
I truly hate to see this possibly happen, but it may....mld

There are any number of simple (cost efficient/practical) answers. If the boat no longer runs it will be for a reason similar to that which led to a certain locomotive being cut up in Chicago not that many years ago. Plainly put, unwavering and out of control obstinacies.

Cheers, Jason

Here's the article in the NYTimes, http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012 ... n-its-own/ I am surpised that they would actually care about a little boat on the great lakes and far from their area. It is interesting how Dick Durbin was mentioned as striking it down as it was an "earmark." Now I am all for getting rid of costly earmarks when the federal government gets stuck paying for stuff it should never pay for myself but here's Dick's record;
https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians ... =N00004981

Kind of a pot calling the kettle black when this earmark didn't cost the tax payer a dime. The key question I have is what is so bad in that coal ash when you look at 4 tons scattered through an enormous lake? There is probably a ton of silica, maybe a bit of unburned carbon?

Let make sure we don't drift into a political discussion here.

It's been on my short list for some time now and I'm regretting not getting out to ride her.

As a career boiler guy I can say that at least for land based boilers this would not be the end of the world. This boat has to have space to store the ash, I would be ashamed if I were the engineer in charge and not able to solve this one.

Let's hope for the best.

There are actually TWO ferries. The Badger and a sister stored serviceable in Ludington. Unfortunately, the reality is that with business enough for only one ferry there is probably not enough profit generated to do more than the minimum neccessary maintenance much less fund any major modification. I suspect that Badger barely supports herself as it is. As much as we love the nostalgia of a real steamship, nostalgia will probably not be enough to save the Badger or her sister ship.

The Badger's sister ship was the Spartan. The Spartan was built in 1952; the Badger in 1953. I'm not sure that the stored boat at Ludington is the Spartan. It may be the City of Midland (built in 1941) or even one of the older C&O (originally PM) carferries. Perhaps someone can tell us for sure that the spare Ludington boat IS the Spartan.

Les

Yes, the Spartan is moored in Ludington.
The City of Midland is owned by another branch of the same company, but has been cut down to a barge.

Jeff

Hmmm, I was under the impression that the ash was moved to a single location where it was dumped.... My thought was that something simple, like a vacuum system, piped to pull the ash to a forklift carried dumpster bin placed on the car deck, would solve the problem. The investment would probably be under $10k.....

I was also under the impression had the Spartan not been used as a scource for spare parts, they could be operating it as well. That doesn't sound much like an operation thats barely getting by.

You may want to go back and read the NYT article again -- they tried to put a work around in the Coast Guard bill, but that didn't work and the ball is back in the EPA court.

Also, back in the day (when the C&0/Chessie System) was running the ferries in regular service, they ran year round and could go through 3 feet of ice.

What made them obsolete was the fact they could only carry 16 railroad cars.

Bob H.

Bob -

Well, the capacity of the boats when built was 34 cars. That of course, was based on 40' cars, the standard at the time. Longer cars was a factor in the boats demise along with the change of the status of certain railroads and routing patterns.

Les

Here's an article with a very interesting quote in it;
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/ ... 26011.html


Tell me when was the last time you heard someone with a diesel powered vehicle complaining that steam has the advantage! I guess when you get up there in scale the lower cost fuel definitely starts to get the advantage. So there does appear to be demand for the service. I still wonder how the heck the ash is that dangerous to the health of the lake. My guess is that it is a lot of over reaction due in part to the fact that coal in politics today has become a dirty 4 letter word.

You guys DO realize that the Badger hasn't carried freight cars in about thirty years... right? In fact, there is not even track on the ferry slip in Manitowoc any longer... haven't been to Ludington since the service quit, so no idea about that end. All the Badger has to sell now is an inland pleasure cruise... they advertise avoiding the drive through Chicago, but their route is too far north... the Milwaukee to Muskegon hydroplane route makes more sense for that market.