Hidee Ho Friends,

Yes, I am addicted to lists of old stuff, can you tell?

So the cool thread below about ferries, barges and things that float got me to thinking... how may railroad ferries from the east coast roads are left? I am talking people-boats once used to move thousands from Joisey to da City.

I thought I knew of them all, but two in the past year have thrown me...

1. Binghamton -- An Erie (or was she a Lackamoney?) ferry is a floating restaurant at Edgewater, NJ
2. Cranford -- A CNJ boat, she rested for many years in Brielle before joinging an underwater reef park a few years back. She's down below, but still there.
3. Elizabeth -- (?) I think that's the one the was a CNJ boat and is now a Hooters in Philly. I kid you not. And you thought my rolling Nevada brothel idea was far-fetched!
4. Unknown -- Just north of the Hooters ferry in Philly is a another rr ferry seemingly abandoned.
5. New Brunswick, NJ -- A CNJ (?) ferry has sepnt many years in the muck of the upper Raritan.
6. Port Reading. NJ -- Much to my suprise, a jaunt down the Hess plant access road revealed that a RR ferry had been moored next to the Reading's McMyler dumper. Who is she?

Any more?

Add 'em to the list!

Rob Davis



trains@robertjohndavis.com

Greetings, fellow addicted lister;

Are all of the ferries mentioned below steamers, or former steamers? Thanks for heads up; I had Binghamton, but none of the others.

A webpage I found on the Binghamton simply referred to it as a "Hoboken Ferry", without mentioning what RR operated it.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

> Hidee Ho Friends,

> Yes, I am addicted to lists of old stuff,
> can you tell?

> So the cool thread below about ferries,
> barges and things that float got me to
> thinking... how may railroad ferries from
> the east coast roads are left? I am talking
> people-boats once used to move thousands
> from Joisey to da City.

> I thought I knew of them all, but two in the
> past year have thrown me...

> 1. Binghamton -- An Erie (or was she a
> Lackamoney?) ferry is a floating restaurant
> at Edgewater, NJ
> 2. Cranford -- A CNJ boat, she rested for
> many years in Brielle before joinging an
> underwater reef park a few years back. She's
> down below, but still there.
> 3. Elizabeth -- (?) I think that's the one
> the was a CNJ boat and is now a Hooters in
> Philly. I kid you not. And you thought my
> rolling Nevada brothel idea was far-fetched!
> 4. Unknown -- Just north of the Hooters
> ferry in Philly is a another rr ferry
> seemingly abandoned.
> 5. New Brunswick, NJ -- A CNJ (?) ferry has
> sepnt many years in the muck of the upper
> Raritan.
> 6. Port Reading. NJ -- Much to my suprise, a
> jaunt down the Hess plant access road
> revealed that a RR ferry had been moored
> next to the Reading's McMyler dumper. Who is
> she?

> Any more?

> Add 'em to the list!

> Rob Davis


Surviving World Steamships
james1@pernet.net

Rob,

There is another ferry, although this one is the barge-like car floats similiar to PM 10. However, it is probably more like a recent loss.

In Shaun O'Boyle's pictures of Whitte Scrapyard, there is structure sitting out in the water, next to what appears to be a steam dredge or piledriver. It looked like a ship's bridge mounted on struts.

After looking at T.J. Gaffney's Pere Marquette 10 photographs, I realized it was a carferry of similiar constuction. Part of the hull is visible in one of the low-tide photographs.

Unfortunately, I have heard (but cannot confirm) that Whitte cleared out the graveyard sometime during the 1990s, and only two or three steamships remain. NYC Tugboat #16 was removed and put on display, but I believe everything else is gone now. Again, I can't confirm that; the photographs on Microsoft's Terraserver show everything still there in 1994 or so.

I know next to nothing about carfloats; where some self-propelled like PM 10, or did all require tugs?

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a


Witte Marine Equipment (Grave)yard
james1@pernet.net

Bringing this thread back from the dead.

Back in April I was able to visit the former DL&W Ferryboat "Binghamton" docked along the Hudson River in Edgewater, NJ. The ferryboat most recently was a banquet hall but has not been in operation for 10 years or more. I had heard the tropical storms last fall delivered a beating to the ferry boat and although not visible from the shoreline the river side of the boat has lost its walls on the first deck above the waterline. THe boat has also sunk. Truely a sad sight.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3084669

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3084671

Just a few weeks ago..


The only way she will be leaving is in a dump scow unfortunately.

CNJ's Elizabeth has since been sunk as a New Jersey artificial reef, after the steam power was removed.
Unknown may have also been the Elizabeth, just at a different mooring before or after the Hooters gig.
If it's seen from the New Jersey Turnpike bridge, the boat in the Raritan river is a City of New York Staten Island ferry.

So, basically they are all gone.

While not on the east coast per se (i.e. east of I95) the City of Milwaukee has been stuffed and mounted and is on display in Northern Michigan and the Badger is still (for now at least) in operation.

Sadly the Landsdowne and "Chief" are essentially gone.

Bob H

Not sure when the Microsoft Bird's eye view was taken, but there is still a lot of CR.., uhm..aahh... stuff at Whitte's, type in 2453 Arthur Kill Road, Staten Island, NY into Bing Maps if link doesn't work.
http://www.bing.com/maps/#JnE9LjI0NTMlM ... E4ODIyNQ==

IIRC less then 2 years ago there were photos of a restoration of what I think was an enclosed car float here. I want to say it was on the Hudson, they had it in a drydock so they could replace the beams in the flat bottom hull. IIRC it was painted dark red and belonged to a historical society or museum.

Rich C.

It is a shame. Thirty years ago one could argue that a catalog of representative marine vessels had been preserved, and one by one, they are gone. The Great Lakes car ferries are distinctly different from the New York Harbor passenger ferries. These are described here as "railroad ferries", but they were not for carrying rail cars. These were for the final mile of transportation from railroad passenger terminals on the New Jersey side of the Hudson, for connections to Manhattan.

They are basically all gone.

Your thinking of Lehigh Valley 79, the Waterfront Museum. Never came from Wittes though, the owner plucked it off the bottom of Morris Canal.

http://www.waterfrontmuseum.org/

I have had the pleasure of moving it around a few times with the of all things, LV Tug Cornell.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25987785@N ... 850679067/

There WERE two boats in Philly; the CNJ/Hooters boat and another one painted white. The white one was maybe a quarter or half mile north of Hooters. I haven't been there to look for several years, though.

The NJ TPK boat on the Raritan was the Staten Island ferry Mary Murray, the last of the conventional recip. steam boats; the later ones were Skinner Uniflows. I had the pleasure of making a few trips in her engine and fire rooms in '71. After several failed attempts at adaptive reuse, she was scrapped within the last year or so.

Here is a link to a NJ scuba site with information on the ELIZABETH, MARY MURRAY and ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

Wesley

http://njscuba.net/artifacts/ship_ferry.html

I don't think any former SI ferry has made it to live another day under there own power outside of ferry ownership...

Not a RR ferry, but we still have a very significant marine artifact, the SS United States, in Philly. Sadly, not sure if she will be saved.