Some finishing details...

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Sorry for the quick double post, but I found something interesting. The page itself is a MILE long, so rather than have you scroll down to it, i'll quote it, but here is the link to the original site. It involves a float bridge like yours (gantry), rather than the floating type.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/nynjr.html#Pinning">http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloc ... ml#Pinning</a><!-- m -->

Greenville Floatbridge Operations:

Unlike Bush Terminal, Greenville operations are quite different, and utilized a completely different kind of float bridge.

The float bridge utilized at Greenville is a design that is completely suspended over the water by means of a gantry system, unlike the pontoon type used at Bush Terminal. Since Greenville is of Pennsylvania RR heritage, so are the floatbridges.


To pin (attach) the carfloat to the apron in Greenville: 1. The tugboat would bring in a loaded carfloat and it would be moored to finger pier on the sides.

2. The float bridge operator would raise or lower the apron depending on the tide to get the correct matching height between the carfloat and the apron.

3. A deckhand would attach a line from an electric power winch to a cleat on the carfloat, to pull it in and bring it into alignment to the apron.

4. The apron would then be pinned to the carfloat. This is done by driving the toggles on the apron into corresponding hole on the carfloat with a crowbar and then the toggle would be choked to prevent them from slipping out.

5. A secondary line would be attached from a manually operated winch to the carfloat and this would also be drawn tight.

6. A deckhand would then put the rails into final alignment using a ratcheting hand jack (sort of like a binder).

7. The locomotive would then approach the carfloat on the left track, and pull that cut of cars back to about the crossover.

8. The locomotive would then go to the right most track and pull that cut of cars all the way back into the yard.

9. The locomotive would go back to the left track and finish pulling that cut of cars off just to clear the switch on the apron. The switch would be thrown and the cut of cars still coupled up would shove onto the center track and pull off the remaining cars back into the yard.

Note: While all of this is taking place the operator in the cabin would be constantly raising and lowering the aprons
to match the tides and weight distribution on the carfloat.

Reacher Cars

While predecessor railroads used a dedicated reacher car (made out of an old gondola), today any empty gondola or spine car is used if it is warranted.