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  • Seatrain Lines

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This forum is for discussion of "Fallen Flag" roads not otherwise provided with a specific forum. Fallen Flags are roads that no longer operate, went bankrupt, or were acquired or merged out of existence.

Moderator: Nicolai3985

 #154701  by Gilbert B Norman
 
Nope, not a railroad but rather a maritime company.

For any others with a crossover interest in the maritime industry, check out the Steamship Historical Society's Summer 2005 magazine, The Steamboat Bill. There you will find an extensive article about Seatrain Lines, a maritime concern serving various intercoastal ports as well as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and maybe even Jamaica. Boxcars would actually be loaded, trucks and all, aboard their oceangoing vessels. The vessels were not configured as Ro-Ro, such as railroad carferries, but rather the cars were loaded by means of cranes. In short, Seatrain was (admitedly crude) precursor to today's container vessels.

www.sshsa.org

 #196972  by trainwayne1
 
While perusing some of these older threads (I should be out Christmas shopping......nah....that'll wait until next sat. morning...) I stumbled on this one about Seatrain. I grew up in Butler NJ on the NYS&W and in the late 50's, early 60's on the days after a Seatrain ship come into the terminal in Edgewater, NJ the Susquehanna westbound road train would grow from 30-40 cars with 2 or 3 RS-1's to trains of 60-80 cars with up to 5 units. I clearly remember seeing trains with 5 RS-1's (sometimes an S-2 was mixed into the consist) smoking and banging their way up the grade thru town with every hood door and roof vent open to try and keep the units from overheating in the summer heat.
Seatrain moved into Edgwater in 1946 from it's original home in Hoboken and shipped via the NYS&W until 1965-66, when they became a container carrier and mover the operation down the Hudson River a mile or so to Weehauken.
In 1946, when Seatrain commenced operations in Edgewater, the Susquehanna purchased 2 US Army Whitcomb gas-mechanical switchers to service the pier. The ships held up to 100 cars and this was lucrative business for the NYS&W. In Paul Tupaczewski's book, New York, Susquehanna and Western In Color on pages 82-83 there's a great picture of the 2 sided pier and the huge crane jutting out into the river. Along with all the other busy industial customers ( Hills Brothers Coffee and the Ford assembly plant) in the Edgewater area, the scene begs to be modeled.