Welcome to the Trainscapes segment! Each week here on Geek Alabama, Trainscapes will feature train content including videos of trains and behind the scenes action of trains and locomotives. Some people have an interest in seeing trains, and we here at Geek Alabama aim to please the train lovers!
The SS Badger was launched in 1952, setting sail in 1953 as the largest carferry ever built, capable of carrying up to 34 railroad cars. It operated for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway between Ludington, Michigan, and 3 ports in Wisconsin, including Milwaukee, and joined a fleet of 6 other vessels. The C&O’s carferries, formerly Pere Marquette’s, were a means of bypassing the congested rail yards of Chicago. Before hump yards and computerized handling of paperwork, the carferries were an efficient alternative. By 1955, C&O’s 7 ships were crossing the lake over 6,000 times annually, with over 100,000 miles racked up by the fleet, enough to circle the planet 4 times in a calendar year! In 1961 alone, they carried over 132,000 freight cars, 153,000 passengers, and 54,000 vehicles.
Since 1992, the Badger has been carrying automobiles, motor bikes, RVs, and commercial vehicles across Lake Michigan between Ludington and Manitowoc. Though she no longer carries railroad cars, the tracks are still visible on the Badger’s car deck, and the vessel remains a coal-fired steamer, the last ship in North America still operating with Skinner Uniflow steam engines. Even when she was built, the choice to use coal-fired steam was an oddity, but since the C&O was primarily a coal-hauler, it made sense, as transporting the black diamonds to Michigan from Appalachia was relatively cost-effective.
Categories: Trainscapes Stuff
