The recent post on the Blakely Island car float operation triggered my memory. There's a good photo of #10 with idler car from eye-level view on the "Fallen Flags" website, from August 1979: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/slsf/slsf10abp.jpg Best Regards,
Look at the big mill gon on the car float in the Blakely slip pic. Wonder if that is one of the 70000's or 70050's? Ken
Here are two shots of the Blakely operation with float "Pinto", in 1978. At this time traffic was pretty much all jumbo tank cars. Rick Morgan
Mike - This is not a definite answer to your question, but ... Per the February, 1994 "Railfan & Railroad", which had a feature on the Blakely Island operation, I would guess the carfloat barges were in a rusty boxcar red color. There is only one color shot in the article that shows part of a car float - it is Box Car Red. The pics I have of SLSF 11 and SLSF 10 that show a carfloat in the background suggest rust is the primary color - but they do look like they were Box Car Red once. Ken
Also Mike--Nearly anything metal around a port would always be rusty to some degree. Boats, ships, containers etc. Tom
Thanks. The Pinto looks like it is sporting a few years on her. I am assuming the entire barge was painted Box Car Red or oxide with waterlines left on the hull and top. ~mike
I've not seen it in action, but - as noted above, try to find a copy of the Feb, 1994 "Railfan & Railroad". The subject was in BN "gangreen" time then, but the article does a nice job of describing the Blakely Island/Mobile operation, including photos of SLSF 10 and SLSF 11 and a shot taken from "Pinto". Ken
Re: Blakely Island Slip - ATN, Mobile Sub I think I've found the two Blakely Island car float docks. State Docks side: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=30.7...-88.039863&spn=0.005645,0.010568&z=17&iwloc=A Blakely Island side: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=30.709344,+-88.036172&num=1&t=h&vpsrc=6&hl=en&ie=UTF8&z=17&iwloc=A
Re: Blakely Island Slip - ATN, Mobile Sub I was planning of posting this under the new products tab but will do one here instead. A small company in Nebraska, Frenchman River Model Works http://frenchmanriver.com/ is set to release a kit for a car float in HO scale. They also offer tugboats and related accessories and detail part. Their float is a 3 track model and the Frisco's was 2 but maybe could be kit-bashed. On a related manner about this company, they make a small town bank kit that looks like many that existed in the Midwest including New Albany, KS on the Frisco and Thayer, KS on the Santa Fe (now Watco).
Re: Blakely Island Slip - ATN, Mobile Sub That's it. I used to work at the Shell Terminal just to the north of there. One of the old hands showed me where they docked on both sides
The google maps are very interesting, does anyone know how to save them to your computer, or, at least, print them out?
I always do a Prt Scr and then paste it into Word. One could do the same in some photo editing program some how. I just do what I know.
A poor scan of a contact sheet that some may find useful. One would have to enlarge the sheet, but the bottom right photo shows a notch in car ferry. View attachment Blakely Island car ferry.jpg
Bob - Wow. Those are some dandies - not only a photo of #11 but a photo from inside the cab. The flanged pipes in the gondola is also an open, interesting load that I would not have thought of modeling, but may have to consider using. Best Regards,
