Viking Ferry 1978

I noticed that I originally marked that page 1979, but that was the date the slides came back from the processor.
(o how marvelous the digital cameras are today compared to waiting over a week to get mail-order processing.)

This vacation trip was between Christmas and New Years 1978, I think, because I had to use up company vacation within the calendar year.

Page includes this 2001 follow-up about the 'ferry in the fog' logo seen on a former Ann Arbor boxcar seen in 2001, near Plover, Wisconsin.

Here's a note from Nick T. 

While searching through the boxes of model railroad
rolling stock and building kits tonite, I came across
my AA boxcar.  It is actually made by Roundhouse (not
Athearn)  The description on the side of the box is
"50' PS Rib Side Box Car 1910 Ann Arbor RWY"
(I believe that 1910 is the Roundhouse part number as
the model itself is numbered AA 5016).  I do recall
seeing an Athearn one at a swap meet somewhere though.
Nick Trimberger

More information from Evan Garrett: 
As to your questions regarding the Ann Arbor (Michigan Interstate Rwy.,
operator) boxcars, probably the best source of information would be Craig
Wilson's Freight Cars of the Ann Arbor Railroad, 1947-1985, published in
1989 and available from the Ann Arbor Railroad Technical & Historical
Association, P.O. Box 151084, Grand Rapids, MI. 49515-1084.  Craig is a
long-time modeler of the Ann Arbor, a devoted "rivet counter," and both
edited and wrote the modeling column in the AARRT&HA bulletins for years.

The "ferry in the fog" scheme began to appear on freight equipment with the
lease of 20 hi-cube boxes for auto-parts service in 1979.  Shortly
thereafter, the AARS started to take delivery of what would eventually
number ca. 250 50' boxes in orange with the "ferry" logo (at least the first
100 were "Hecho en Mexico").  By the mid-80s, as the MIRC was embroiled in a
legal dispute with the State over its status as operator of the state-owned
line (Michigan picked it up from the bankrupt AA during the Conrail
reorganization), the leases were reassigned to other reporting marks (e.g.,
LRWN, GBW), although many of the cars continued to be used to serve local
customers for some time.  By the late-80s, as TSBY and the "new" AA
(Toledo-Ann Arbor) took over operations, the cars dispersed to new owners.
I noticed quite a number had gone to the QC, which used them for a while
without painting out the "ferry."  By now, the only quick clues that still
remain as to the cars' former identity are the orange paint and the
black/white stripe on the left side of the door.  At that, I've seen such
cars reasonably frequently passing through southern Michigan/northern Ohio,
usually as individual components of CP, CSX, and NS freights.

....thanks for the link to the
AATTW page.  The next set of images on the Photo Gallery page will probably
be from the early AA-TSBY era, with "ferry in the fog" boxes strewn around
the background -- check it out in a couple of months.

Evan 

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Map dated 1982 from Terraserver web site.

It always amazed me how small the turning basins are on Lake Michigan ports.

And when the ferry went out the channel, it seemed as if it was pushing water out with it.

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Concern over excessive lean on the loading apron and near de-railment.
They pulled and pushed entire tracks in one bunch.
. . 'Must not have read Jack Armstrong's book on keeping ferries balanced by only pulling a few cars at a time.'

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(hey Jon and Keith, that's Larry on the right)

Unloading in Frankfort, Michigan, at night, four hours after leaving Wisconsin
I remember something about them loading rail cars until just enough space was left for the autos.
This day there was space for everything, otherwise some low-priority rail cars would be left for another trip.

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In 2010, I saw an old blueprint on display at a model RR show,
It was for the Viking.

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In the large cross section view below,
notice the rail cars on wheels on the right center,
and the large circle on the lower right is for the ship's boilers

. . . . . . .. . . . . .Here are some emails from 2003 about the Viking:

the VIKING just arrived about a week ago in Menominee (Jan. 2003) and KK hasn't had a chance to destroy her into a barge for hauling woodchips yet... . John Campbell The former car ferry Viking has been taken to Menominee, MI this past week to be cut down into a barge as well. The City of Midland 41 was also cut down to a barge and can be seen passing through the locks during the shipping season. A sad thing to see the Great Lakes car ferries of past glory ending up as barges. Maybe that's better than being gone entirely? Brian Stackpole (*sob*) Brian, say it ain't so!! Not VIKING!!! Please, not VIKING. You'd think that the Manitowoc Maritime Museum would want VIKING; she's one of a septet of Carferries built at Manitowoc Shipbuilding back in the 1920's (Originally ANN ARBOR # 7), and only the ex-Grand Trunk CITY OF MILWAUKEE remains---docked in Elberta, and enshrined amidst controversy, no less; some wish to keep her as an active Museum, others want her towed OUT of Lake Betsie and pared down into a Barge like the others. Well, we have BADGER yet, but she wasn't built at Manitowoc. (sigh) Doesn't lessen the hurt any.

In 2001 there was a club site by Evan Garrett for the Ann Arbor (Michigan), 'Train & Trolley Watchers' (AATTW ?) but the original web page from then doesn't link now in 2009.

And somewhere from the ship watcher's websites, there's a half dozen links to ferry sites.

And see current link to Badger Ferry across Lake Michigan, but they don't take railroad cars now.

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And from the yahoo GBW group I copied this ferry message from 2007, and I didn't check to see if all the links work yet, and I didn't write the code to click on them. you can copy and paste.

Here are some links about carferries you might want to check out:

S.S. City of Milwaukee:
http://www.carferries.com/

Carferries of Ludington:
http://www.carferry.com/

S.S. Badger:
http://www.ssbadger.com/

Lake Michigan Car Ferries:
http://www.execpc.com/~abuelow/ferry.html

Grandpa's Carferry page:
http://www.carrinter.net/~bessey/carferries.html

Lake Michigan Carferries:
http://www.angelfire.com/mi2/ednora/carferry.html

Grand Trunk Carferries:
http://carferries.com/gt/

Tim Vermande's Carferry & Train Photos:
http://www.trainweb.org/vermande/

Trackdog's Michigan Railroad Car Ferry Page
http://members.aol.com/carferry/Carferry.htm

Ann Arbor Railroad Car Ferry Page
http://members.aol.com/carferry/Annarbor/aa.htm

The Ludington Carferries
http://www.geocities.com/carferry41/index.html

Chief Wawatam
http://www.geocities.com/selim423/Chief/Chiefhome.html

Sainte Marie
http://www.mhsd.org/publications/glswr/stmarie.htm

Rail-Marine Group:
http://www.trainweb.org/rmig/

All the Best!
Roger Kujawa - Morton, Il..