Chesapeke & Ohio Car Float

I'd love any additional information on the C&O car float in my dad's picture below. (The caption info is all stuff I found in earlier threads... thanks for that, gentlemen).

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 93&nseq=24

Couple specific questions.

1) Was this dispatched by the railroad?

2) Did it have a symbol?

3) What happened to this car float when the service was dropped?

4) How often did this run a day?

Plus anything else you would like to add would be great.

Thanks.

Charles Freericks

I'm not a member, but I can't believe that the C&OHS hasn't published some sort of definitive story on this operation. If all else fails, try them.

From the photo, this appears to be one of two four-track carfloats that C&O had in service in 1977.

They were used for interchange between Newport News and the Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line at Sewell's Point, VA.

The C&O #2 was sold about a year later to the Virginia & Maryland RR of Cape Charles VA (the ex-PRR carfloat route between Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore and Little Creek in Virginia Beach). #2 had been used over many years as a backup float, whenever the ex-PRR "Captain Edward Richardson" was hauled for repairs, or when traffic warranted a second float.

By the late 1970's, the steam-operated rudder system on the carfloat was out of service and the rudders (forward and aft) were centered and pinned on these carfloats. The pilothouse was occupied by a single deckhand (on the V&M) whose function was to handle lines on the carfloat.

R Paul Carey wrote: They were used for interchange between Newport News and the Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line at Sewell's Point, VA.

Actually it is bound for the C&O's Brooke Avenue Yard. NPBL didnt operate a car float to my knowledge and the ESHR's float was a whole nother operation.

If the car float pictured is, in fact, C&O #2, it was built for the C&O in 1924-25 (100 days building) at New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden, NJ. NYSB built lots of floats for the PRR, the Reading, the Erie, and the New York Central, but only this one for C&O.

NYSB didn't build any tugboats in the 1950s, so I'll guess that the tug was built at John Mathis (assuming the Camden origin is correct).

- Michael
http://yorkship.us