DARIEN, Conn. —Genesee & Wyoming Inc. and SEACOR Holdings Inc. today announced the formation of a 50-50 joint venture to own and operate CG Railway, LLC, a subsidiary of SEACOR recently acquired through its acquisition of International Ship…
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2017/09/05-gw-ferry-service
Wow, quite a ship!!! The service makes sense too.
A double-deck railferry?! I wonder how long it takes to load or unload it?
115 cars - is that 40 footers or 89 footers!
It’s a RO-RO, so not all that long, two, maybe three hours.
“We don’t need a bigger boat!”
Jaws 12
To load a double decker ferry with 8 tracks, wouldn’t you need 16 leads on 2 levels? How would that work? The photo of the ship is a little unclear.
I count 50-ish cars on the top deck - I’d hazard a guess that there’s a second level.
As for how they load them, I don’t have a clue, either.
Here’s an end view of one of the ferries from http://www.bennettoffshore.com/
They have an articulating ramp that allows loading on both decks.
http://www.bennettoffshore.com/innovations.html#railcar
Scroll down in that link.
Has there ever been any other kind of car ferry? If so, would it be considered a “ferry”?
I’m looking at the stern of the carferry and can’t figure out where the seagate is located. On the Lake Michigan boats it was raised like a drawbridge for loading and unloading and lowered across the tracks for sailing.
The ferries sail with an open stern. From pictures I would guess the deck is more then 10 ft above water line.
Regards, Volker
I noticed the contruction of the ships to be somewhat odd so I did a little research. They were built by Mitsubishi in 1982 as heavy lift ships, the Dan Lifter and Dan Mover. In 1985 the names were changed to Super Servant 5 and 6. In 1995 they were converted to single level car ferries. In the past 2 years they were made 2 levels.
They are owned by a new Orleans company and sail under Singapore registry with Ukrainian officers.
My guess would be that the car deck could take some wash-over, and that the rest of the ship is isolated from the effects.
Here is a video showing the loading process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y0JnpeCdoQ
The articulated ramp is the upper ramp, which can be lifted upwards like a drawbridge to provide head room on the lower deck for loading.
The ferry were designed as semi-submersible ship with open deck. Here is the Bali Sea as Super Servant 5: http://bureau-wijsmuller.nl/images/zwaar/Super%20Servant%205/031.jpg
And here as Dan Lifter: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/RFA_Sir_Tristram_%26_MV_Dan_Lifter_late_1982.JPG/1200px-RFA_Sir_Tristram_%26_MV_Dan_Lifter_late_1982.JPG
Some time in her live she was widened, most likely as Super Servant 5: https://img1.fleetmon.com/thumbnails/bali-sea_8106068_59356.940x1000.jpg
And the stern of Bali Sea: http://www.cgrailway.com/MediaDownLoads/Bali%20Sea%20Stern.JPG
Water on the deck is not a problem as long as there a means to get it off. It is not an uncommon sight on deep sea tugs: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/4a/a9/5c/4aa95c1d72396d014811433a18958fb6--ship-wreck-tug-boats.jpg
Regards, Volker
I wonder if seawater washing up on deck would invade roller baring seals, brake equipment, or hopper outlets.
Washing up and away should be no big deal. It is when the cars sit in water above the axle level for a period of time that the issues start mounting.
Wet decks are de riguer on ocean going vessels. One would love to sail calm seas but the choice is Mother Natures’ and she is pretty harsh. It is no harder to keep out salt water than fresh and the voyages are only 2 days.
