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A train ferry is a ship (ferry) designed to carry Railroad car, as well as their cargoes and passengers. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ferries are sometimes referred to as "car ferries", as distinguished from "auto ferries" used to transport automobiles. The wharf (sometimes called a "ferry slip") has a ramp, and a linkspan or "apron", balanced by weights, that connects the railway proper to the ship, allowing for tidal or seasonal changes in water level.
While railway vehicles can be and are shipped on the decks or in the holds of ordinary ships, purpose-built train ferries can be quickly loaded and unloaded by roll-on/roll-off, especially as several vehicles can be loaded or unloaded at once. A train ferry that is a barge is called a car float or rail barge. Some train ferries are considered pure train ferries that only carry rail traffic, whereas others are defined as train/vehicle ferries that also carry vehicles.
The first modern train ferry was Leviathan, built in 1849. The Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway was formed in 1842 and the company wished to extend the East Coast Main Line further north to Dundee and Aberdeen. As bridge technology was not yet capable enough to provide adequate support for the crossing over the Firth of Forth, which was roughly across, a different solution had to be found, primarily for the transport of goods, where efficiency was key. The company hired the up-and-coming civil engineer Thomas Bouch who argued for a train ferry with an efficient roll-on roll-off mechanism to maximise the efficiency of the system. Custom-built ferries were to be built, with railway lines and matching harbour facilities at both ends to allow the rolling stock to easily drive on and off the boat. To compensate for the changing , adjustable ramps were positioned at the harbours and the gantry structure height was varied by moving it along the slipway. The wagons were loaded on and off with the use of stationary steam engines. Although others had had similar ideas, it was Bouch who first put them into effect, and did so with an attention to detail (such as design of the ferry slip). This led a subsequent President of the Institution of Civil EngineersGeorge Parker Bidder; not to be confused with the lawyer (his son) who represented Bouch at the Tay Bridge Inquiry to settle any dispute over priority of invention with the observation that "there was little merit in a simple conception of this kind, compared with a work practically carried out in all its details, and brought to perfection." The company was persuaded to install this train ferry service for the transportation of goods wagons across the Firth of Forth from Burntisland in Fife to Granton. The ferry itself was built by Thomas Grainger, a partner of the firm Grainger and Miller.Shipway, J.S. (2004). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. The service commenced on 3 February 1850. It was called "The Floating Railway" and intended as a temporary measure until the railway could build a bridge, but this was Forth Bridge, its construction delayed in part by repercussions from the catastrophic failure of Thomas Bouch's Tay Rail Bridge.
In 1878, the Solano train ferry began operating in the United States across Carquinez Strait remaining in service until 1930 when a bridge was built. In 1899, the SS Baikal train ferry was assembled in Russia to link the eastern and western portions of the Trans-Siberian Railroad across Lake Baikal. The ferry had been built in Newcastle upon Tyne then disassembled and shipped in 7,000 crates to its assembly location inside Russia.
Switzerland has a long history of train ferry usage beginning in the 1860s. Between 1869 and 1976, train ferries also existed on Lake Constance. The Lake Constance train ferries linked lakeside railway stations in Austria (), Germany (, , ) and Switzerland ().
From 1936 until 1977 (except during the Second World War), the Night Ferry from Dover was a train ferry that connected the UK with France and the rest of Europe.
The Japanese train ferry Toya Maru sank during Typhoon Marie on 26 September 1954, killing more than a thousand. Four other train ferries, Seikan maru No.11, Kitami Maru, Tokachi Maru and Hidaka Maru also sank on that day; the loss appeared to be of about 1,430 people. At the time, Japanese train ferries did not have a rear seagate, because engineers believed that in-rushing water would simply flow out again quickly and would not pose a danger. However, when the frequency of waves bears the wrong relationship to the length of a ship, each wave arrives as the water from the previous wave is trying to leave, causing water to accumulate on the ship. After the accidents, all Japanese train ferries were retrofitted with rear seagates and weather forecast technology was greatly promoted.
The Norwegian train ferry Skagerrak built in 1965, sank in gale-force winds on 7 September 1966, on a journey between Kristiansand, Norway, and Hirtshals, Denmark, when the rear seagate was destroyed by heavy seas. One person subsequently died of injuries, and six freight cars and a number of automobiles sank to the bottom with the ship. Many more passengers would have died but for the actions of the Royal Danish Airforce who managed to use helicopters to rescue 144 people.
The Canadian train ferry sank on 20 April 1970, while assisting in a search-and-rescue operation for a sinking fishing trawler (MFV Enterprise) off the northeast coast of Cape Breton Island. The ferry was trying to maintain position to retrieve a body when its were overpowered by waves. It sank within 30 minutes taking several rail cars and 4 crew members, including the Captain, to the bottom of the Cabot Strait. There were 47 survivors.
In 1998, the largest train ferry ever was built, the on the Trelleborg-Rostock route, is long, wide, with six tracks plus two on an elevator to the lower deck, having a total length of track of .
These weaknesses include:
The Ann Arbor Railroad of Michigan developed a system of making cars secure that was adopted by many other lines. Screw jacks were placed on the corners of the railcar and the car was raised slightly to take its weight off its wheels. Chains and turnbuckles were placed around the car frame and hooked onto the rails and tightened. Clamps were placed behind the wheels on the rails. Deckhands engaged in continual inspection and tightening of the gear during the crossing. This system effectively held the cars in place when the ship encountered rough weather.
Some accidents have occurred at the slip during loading, when stability can be a major problem. Train ferries often list when heavy cars are loaded onto a track on one side while the other side is empty. Normal procedure was to load half of a track on one side, all of the track on the other side, and then the rest of the original track. If this procedure was not followed, results could be disastrous. In 1909, capsized in its slip in Manistique, Michigan when a switching crew put eight cars of iron ore on its portside tracks. The crew got off without loss of life, but salvage operations were costly and time-consuming.
Several train ferries, including , , and , have been lost on the Great Lakes. These losses, though causes remain unconfirmed, were attributed to seas boarding the unprotected stern of the ship and swamping it in a severe storm. As a result, Drawbridge were required on all new ships and required to be retrofitted on older vessels. In addition, two wooden cross-lake railroad ferries caught fire and burned.
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