The former Erie Railroad tug AKRON and the former Lehigh Valley tug CAPMOORE have been sold to a scrap metals dealer in Rhode Island for dismantling.

PC

To add the former Erie Hornell was scrapped about 3 months ago.

Just so everybody will know what has been going on, since former railroad tugs and the marine industry tend to be obscure subjects, the current economic depression has had a significant effect on the marine towing industry, some of the East Coast operators who do coastal towing have as much as half of their fleet tied up out of service right now. The 1940s to 1950s batch of railroad tugs are sixty or more years old and with the downturn in business they are prime candidates for retirement as the cost of insurance is often more than for a newer tug.

I should mention that the former owner of the AKRON and CAPMOORE made a considerable effort to get these two vessels "placed" for preservation, and approached several cities and towns that had previously been interested in having a tugboat in a shoreside park, and he also approached several well known marine museums, but none of the efforts yielded results. It seems that after the NYC #16 episode and with the questionable economy there is not much interest in putting money into displaying tugboats ashore.

PC

I actually have two tugboat captains/skippers in my circle of friends. (Welcome to Bawlamer, hon.) I sent them both after potential rail tugs when they were on the market, including one of them after these two.

The reality, as they told me, is that it's like running a railroad with cheap and old locomotives--what you save in acquisition costs (relative to newer power) gets eaten up in fuel and maintenance. It's a "false" economy, and none of them are going to partake of the same in this environment. Them you add in what Brother Cook noted above. It's like trying to get a locomotive donated when scrap metal prices are through the roof--ain't gonna happen.

I respectfully disagree to a point.

I work on one of these boats, I have seen them inside and out, and know the costs involved. One thing the RRs did good was overbuild on there marine equipment like no tomorrow. These boats are filled with quality war surplus steel, brass and copper (its actually kind of scary..) Simply put, there built tough. Joe Hack designed one hell of a tug, in fact, it is built better then the modern day Bay class ice breaker with thicker plates and closer framing, and best of all, 61 years later you can still get all the parts. They still have a lot of life to give and its unfortunate that they could not have found a better home. I was told the owner had to get rid of them fairly quick.

Down to 3 Joe Hack RR tugs left..

Two former Navy tugs were scrapped this week out on the West coast. There really isn't a demand for older tugs anymore, mostly because of the cost of retro-fitting them with EPA compliant engines.

Loss of the CAPMOORE is particuarly sad because the tug was still in pretty good structural condition. She had been the "spare" boat for Curtis Bay Towing in Baltimore (as the HAWKINS POINT) for several decades and was superbly maintained by the late Dick Rebele of CBT. I spent a lot of time riding this boat in Baltimore and her near-sister the SWAN POINT (former LEHIGH) in Norfolk. The attention the CAPMOORE got in Baltimore took her on for another decade until she was disabled by a bearing failure in the main reduction gear. She sat at Boston for almost a decade more (while an identical new replacement reduction gear occupied floor space in the warehouse of another towing company in town) before being sent to scrap.

The AKRON was in tougher shape structurally and needed some steel replacement in the deckhouse and bulwarks, but she was a fully functional and seaworthy tug up until the business climate changed two years ago. As far as I know everything on board was still operable when she was sent to scrap.

I have repeatedly notified marine museums when diesel engines from these older vessels were removed, in the hope that somebody might see fit to put one on display somewhere, but there has been little interest. If you want to see a full "shipload" of Cleveland Diesels (eight of them), you need to visit the USS SLATER in Albany, New York.

The other late 1940s to early 1950s built Lehigh Valley tugs were named for locations on the railroad, but not so the CAPMOORE, which is the nickname of Captain Moore of the Lehigh Valley's Marine Department, who retired the year the tug was delivered to the railroad.

PC

The Capmoore also didn't have a single patch on her either. Apparently the culprit for the failure was a failed solder joint on the oil line to the bearing. The Akrons Sister, Pleon in Maine is apparently under a pending sale also, Hopefully to a buyer in the states. This boat is reported to be in REMARKABLE condition, and the price they were asking was very reasonable. Hopefully Bostons other classic tugs find good homes.

Preston, What was the reason the Swan Point was placed out of service?

It is a few years ago, but my recollection is that the SWAN POINT (ex-Lehigh Valley Railroad tug LEHIGH) came up for hull work and an engine overhaul at the same time and a decision was reached to retire her as there were enough newer tugs available in the fleet. The Norfolk market is highly competitive and I suspect that the decision to scrap the tug rather than sell her was a commercial one.

In response to a number of questions from friends relating to this discussion, the big problems with getting large older diesel engines placed with a museum are lifting capability, transportation, and floor weight load, as well as display space in the museum. The cost of the retired prime mover (usually a bit above scrap value) often is not the deciding factor. In the case of locomotive/marine prime movers in the EMD and Cleveland Diesel size range, you are talking 20,000# to 40,000# for the prime mover alone, that is without the accessories and power transmission system components.

Despite the widespread use of diesel engines, I am not aware of any specific "diesel engine museum" in the US that has a large number of these railroad/marine size engines on display. Probably the largest current collection of "prime movers" (not inside locomotives) among the railroad museums is at IRM. We had a discussion of railroad museums with diesel engines as floor displays some time ago on RYPN. As I recall, Steamtown, NC Transportation Museum, NY Transportation Museum, B&O Museum, Smithsonian, and CSRM were also among those who had diesel prime movers either on public display or in storage, and of course there is the 8-201A from the Flying Yankee (now disassembled).

I think it is very much to their credit that the NPS has an EMD 567C engine accessible as a floor display at Steamtown NHS.

PC

OK, I'll admit that my knowledge of ships and boats is pretty limited. I know how to take some pretty nice photos of Tall Ships, and can (barely) tell Port from Starboard. I'm also well aware that boats are holes in the water you pour money into.

That said... If these tugs are in good condition, why didn't somebody buy one to use as a yacht? I've seen quite a few tugs in Puget Sound that are now used as pleasure craft. Yes, they're harder to maintain, burn more fuel, and lack some modern conveniences. The same is true of the steam locos many of us know and love.... Still, is there nobody who thinks they're cool enough to preserve and has enough folding money to keep one as a "pet"? I've seen a friend pay 3/4 million for a yacht, bet you could have picked up one of those babies and dones lots of TLC for that amount of cash?

There's probably lots of good reasons that didn't happen, starting with "Money, money and money", but it just seems odd that nobody was interested...

You would be amazed the fuel usage for one of these compared to a locomotive or similar HP..

But, As I said above, one of the reasons I was told they were not sold is they had to be disposed of quickly.

> ...one of the reasons I was told they were not sold is they had to be disposed of quickly.

Rhetorical question you most likely can't answer. :) "Why the rush? What was so important about making them go away?"

Loss of dock space most likely. And finding space for a few 106' tugs is not simple.

The owner (I won't use his name on the internet without his permission) had these vessels on the market for several years, and had circulated information packets about the boats quite widely to towns with waterfront parks in the NYC area, and also to several marine museums. The scrap value of these vessels is not minor, and he has a business to operate that uses two other tugs and has his crews to pay, so it is likely that the tremendous downturn in marine towing made parting with these two boats a necessity.

Frankly I was surprised that someone in the Boston area did not pick up the CAPMOORE a houseboat, considering her decent condition and the colossal cost of downtown housing, but the local marinas might think twice about providing docking for a steel tug more than a hundred feet long with a more than 400 ton displacement (that is actual weight, not USCG tonnage). If she ever broke loose in a storm she could do a lot of damage, and being unpowered, it would require another tug to get her under control.

Really sorry to see these two vessels reach the end of their voyage, both are the products of a really superb designer, Joe Hack, one of the finest people in the industry.

PC

Would anyone know where I can locate a body plan for any of the TAMS designed RR tugs. I know the Lehigh Valley, New Haven owned boats of this design as well as the Erie. My dad and his brothers all worked for the old Erie RR in their marine division and I can only find the Walthers waterline model and would like to find a diagram of the hull below the waterline. I would like to be able to model these boats so I can pass part of the Erie history along to my grandsons. I have located plans for the older Erie tugs built in Delaware at Pusey & Jones and for the Bowes boats built in south Jersey for the Jersey Central/B&O etc. But cannot locate body plans for the TAMS boats