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Cross-estuary freight: were there any"car-floats" in Britain?

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S&CLER

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The attached extract from the Mersey Railway's share prospectus of February 1884 shows that the company had plans to run freight at night. The mind boggles at the idea of steam-hauled loose-coupled trains attempting the gradients in the tunnel. The question is how would they have reached it? Presumably goods branches to connect with the L&Y and CLC at least would have had to be built, possibly with wagon-hoists like the one between the GE and East London.
It makes me wonder how such cross-estuary freight was handled. Were goods wagons ever loaded on to what the Americans call car-floats on any British estuary, as they were and still are between New York and Jersey City/Hoboken (America's Birkenhead)?
 

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D6130

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Prior to the opening of the Tay Bridge in 1879, there was a train ferry from Tayport in Fife to Broughty Ferry in Angus....and after the collapse of the original bridge, the ferry service had to be hurriedly reinstated until the new bridge had been completed. If you walk down to the old train ferry slipway, adjacent to Broughty Castle, you can still see the old rails set into the stone setts.
 

Gloster

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I have a very vague recollection, which is probably completely wrong, that there was something in the Billingham area of Teesside. Other than that I can only think of the short-lived service (1885-1888) between Langstone and Bembridge.
 

Taunton

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The attached extract from the Mersey Railway's share prospectus of February 1884 shows that the company had plans to run freight at night. The mind boggles at the idea of steam-hauled loose-coupled trains attempting the gradients in the tunnel. The question is how would they have reached it? Presumably goods branches to connect with the L&Y and CLC at least would have had to be built, possibly with wagon-hoists like the one between the GE and East London.
It makes me wonder how such cross-estuary freight was handled. Were goods wagons ever loaded on to what the Americans call car-floats on any British estuary, as they were and still are between New York and Jersey City/Hoboken (America's Birkenhead)?
Both the LNWR and the GC (who ran the CLC) were on both sides of the Mersey, so goods wagons would just be routed appropriately to either side. Not the case in New York.

Cross-river freight was nevertheless quite extensive but handled entirely by lorries, initially horse-drawn, later of course motor lorries. There were specific ferries built for vehicles, the "Luggage Boats" (surprising name) which ran right until the Mersey road tunnel was opened in the 1930s.
 

BayPaul

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Both the LNWR and the GC (who ran the CLC) were on both sides of the Mersey, so goods wagons would just be routed appropriately to either side. Not the case in New York.

Cross-river freight was nevertheless quite extensive but handled entirely by lorries, initially horse-drawn, later of course motor lorries. There were specific ferries built for vehicles, the "Luggage Boats" (surprising name) which ran right until the Mersey road tunnel was opened in the 1930s.
Wallasey Corporation invested a large amount of money to provide railway wagon carrying capability at their Seacombe stage in 1880, with a hydraulic lift providing access to the floating pier, and a network of tracks to access the luggage boat. Unfortunately it was never used, as similar facilities were never provided, on the Liverpool side

Strangely, due to subsidies and a certain amount of belligerence / incompetence by the local authorities, the luggages boat actually survived into the 1940s. The Woodside luggage boat negotiated a subsidy with the tunnel committee, indemnifying it against losses, and it continued to run until 1941. Rivalry between the two operators led to Wallasey continuing to run their (unsubsidised) luggage boat until 1947. This was partly because the Wallasey Corporation signed a 10 year agreement with GWR in 1937, meaning they had to continue the service at an enormous loss, and also because they spent a massive amount on new landing stage facilities in 1926, even though the tunnel was already under construction.
 

Dr Hoo

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The concept of the 'car float' was invented in England. The Combe Down Carriage Way (a waggonway with wooden rails), constructed by Ralph Allen and John Padmore in around 1731 to convey large blocks of stone for building Bath, was extended across the River Avon by the expedient of floating loaded waggons across on a barge.
 

randyrippley

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Anyone know the stone for the Portland Harbour breakwaters was transhipped from the Admiralty Railway?
Would seem a logical place to try putting the waggons on pontoons
 
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