WP The Western Pacific "NAVY"

Being a dedicated Rail/Marine Freak, and growing up around the "Wobbly", I have had a near live long admiration of WP's San Francisco Bay Navy. With no direct route into San Francisco, the WP was forced to ferry their cars across the waters of the bay, Originally a tug and barge operation, in the mid 50's, the WP purchased the self-powered car barge "LAS PLUMAS" of 28 car capacity. The WP, justly proud of her, placed this ad in a 1957 issue of "Time Magazine'.




Tom

 

Very cool! :shade:

 

The service was successful and lasted a very long time. The average was 3,000 to 4,000 cars a month, which went up to 10,000 cars a month during WWII. The WP had 2 1/2 miles of mainline and 12 1/2 miles of spurs and sidings in SF, divided into the "Uptown Division" and the "Downtown Division". Usual operations were 1 switch job working days, 3 afternoons and 2 or 3 nights. For 40 years the "navy" consisted of the tug "Humaconna", and later the "Hercules" with 2 wooden and 1 steel barge, each of 14 cars capacity. In 1957 the 28 car "Las Plumas" entered service, running 12 midnight to noon, with the last SF departure from Oakland at 0500 hiours.. The service lasted until 1978 when traffic was rerouted over the SP, and was discontinued with the WP's aquisition by the UP.

Most people are familiar with the carfloats of New York and the east coast, but not much has been published about the exstensive operations on San Francisco Bay. Both the WP and AT&SF were blocked from reaching San Francisco by land, and so resorted to barging cars in. The WP had their own yard, the AT&SF had a yard, but also interchanged with the State Belt Rwy at another slip.

In my opinion, the carbarges used by the WP and AT&SF on the Bay, and by the Milwaukee Road on Puget Sound were visually more interesting than the east coast barges, as many had an elevated pilothouse on the stern with steering gear.

As a side note, the "Hercules" has been restored, and is the last operating triple expansion steam tug on the west coast.

Tom

 

Very interesting. You mention the car ferries on Puget Sound for the Milwaukee Road...I live in Bellingham and the Bellingham Bay and British Columbia (BB&BC) opperated from Bellingham Cross county to Sumas (and Glacier). When the Milwaukee bought the BB&BC around 1910-1912, they instituted a car ferry from Seattle to Bellingham at the south end of Cornwall avenue. This service was ended in 1956 (+/- 1) when the GN granted Trackage rights.

 

I am actually in the design stages of the first of two layouts based on rail/marine operations in the Puget Sound region. Layout #1 is a freelanced 9'3" by 9'7" shelf layout 18" wide, very loosly patterned after Shelton, and serviced by carbarge from Seattle. It's main purpose is to refresh my long dormant layout building skills, and so will be fairly simple, with a plywood mill being the major industry, and a few smaller service industries like a propane dealer. There will also be a BN interchange.

Layout #2, which is a ways down the road will be a 10' by 12' around the walls layout loosly patterned after the Milwaukee Road's operations in Seattle in the late 70's. Major inspiration comes from John Crosby's Coast Division site. Besides a carbarge service to Shelton, I will also have service to Pt Townsend.

Tom

 

Awwww, ya gotta model the apron Boxcab, its the signature structure of the line! There are enough photos around to help build a credible model., and any information I can help with, just ask and I'll do my best to provide it.

One of my biggest concerns was fabricating the large pullies that support the apron and are tied to the counterweights. Yesterday I was cleaning up the shed and opened a box. Sitting right on top was a Pzkw I, an early WWII tank from my armored fighting vehicle modeling days, and on it were open spoked wheels that appear to be the perfect solution to mu needs. These are 1/35 scale, suitable for HO scale, so I'll bet the 1/72 scale kit would yield parts suitable for N.

Tom

 

The hercules is located at the National MAritime Museum at Fisherman's Warf in San Francisco. I have a picture of the Wife on board, but it's not on the net. Sitting near by is another piece of rail/Maritime history which I've posted before.




I don't have a picture of her, but the Maritime Museum of San Diego has Southern Pacific's 1898 built ferryboat the Berkley. It's odd to me that a piece of NorCal history is down here, but hey, as long as it's perserved.

 

I know Tom has passed but in case anyone else is interested here is a nice picture from a former WP Annual Report.

http://wpmuseum.railfan.net/ar57-1.jpg

Brad

 

A link to the Hercules in San Francisco:
San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park - Hercules History (U.S. National Park Service)

 

Until 1908 when the bridge was built at Vancouver, the NP ran a car ferry from Goble Oregon to Kalama Wn. Not much left now but some pilings from the old ferry slip at Goble.
Also at Goble is the former SP ferry Shasta. The Shasta is tied up just off shore. There are photos on www.Evergreenfleet.com under "Retired Fleet.