Large Scale Central

Marine Railway Transfer Table

Prototypes
#1

You may have heard of a marine railway, where the rails run into the water and there is a wheeled frame on to which a boat can be moved and the whole thing winched out of the water. Here’s a small boat on a typical one.

I caught this shot from a moving trolley in Rock Hall, MD, on Monday.

This is the landward end of the railway - on the left is the track down in to the water. What amazed me was the row of sheds and tracks on the right. The transfer table on its rails lets you haul a boat out, moce the whole carriage opposite a shed, and roll the boat into the shed to work on it. Or vice versa.

Here’s an overhead of the railway layout. It looks as if they lift boats out with the travelling crane (2 grey units straddling the track) and drop them on a carriage. Probably because rails in the water need a lot more maintenance!

Most elaborate marine railway I’ve ever seen.

#2

Its a very popular “old school” way of hauling / launching and storing. Many boatyards have remnants of this style of hauling and launching procedures and many still use them. Because of a changing water height and a rather steep bank, the marina I was at for 25 years, uses a marine railway and then wheeled cradles and/or trailers to transfer equipment around the boatyard. Not as fancy as the transfer table, but more efficient and able to be used on many different types of crafts. Most of ours were sailboats with the masts up. The rail for the marine railway was 3’ x 3"’ angle iron, with a gauge or width of 12 feet and a length of 145 feet. Capable of hauling and launching up to 10 tons vessels. Not really speedy, but it was safe for the employees and the vessels we were responsible for. Small boats were launched/hauled at the boat ramp with a truck or tractor. Vessels over 10 ton were launched at the boat ramp with a “Hydraulic trailer” and a large over the road tractor/truck with a hydraulic winch on the frame that allowed the trailer to separate from the tractor and roll down the ramp 60 feet. Moving these big things around always made us feel like we were building pyramids. Very glad to be retired. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

#3

This ramp was used @ one point for a seaplane @ the Quabbin Reservoir. Rails have been removed.

#4

Thanks, Pete,

Great pix.

Chuck

#5

A summer camp that I’m associated with had a 15 inch gauge RR to haul their boats out for storage in the “Arc.” Think of a huge Quonset Hut, near the shore. During the “season,” the tracks would be disconnected from the Arc and hauled away from the shore, so the kids wouldn’t stub their toes on the rails.

One year, there was a series of storms that churned up the bottom, and the tracks disappeared into the muck. Each time I go back, I take schnorkle, mask and fins and swim out over the last known position, but so far, after 20 or so years, no joy.

It was a really cool, and inexpensive way to store the boats. Now, the boats are stored over winter at a marina. The new camp director can’t see the utility of storing the boats on site. More money than sense, I guess. Sad.

#6

This is were they stored the plane , to the right ( Humongous garage door)

The rails came up out of the water right into the hanger.