Photoby Tony
Reevy
Deckhand
George Barden (l), on board the Nandua, waits to catch the
Bay Tide's tow line. Engineer Roland Washington (r) is about
to toss it to Barden from the Bay Tide on June 24, 1999.
A TRIP ON THE CARFLOAT
On June 23, 1999 Conductor Rudy Hargraves and his Little Creek
Division crew unloaded and loaded the carfloat at the end
of their workday. It was loaded with just eight cars, all
gondolas of stone. President and General Manager LeMond made
the decision to float a round trip the following day because
a full load, mostly stone empties, would be in the Cape Charles
yard the next morning.
The Bay Tide was called and had tied up alongside
the Nandua by 8:00 a.m. on June 24. By 8:45 a.m. the
four-person crew is ready to leave. The Bay Tide normally
carries a five-person crew consisting of captain, mate, engineer
and two deckhands. Today, one of the deckhands is sick.
ESHR Yardmaster Ronnie Carrigan loosens the wire ropes holding
the Nandua tight against the Little Creek float bridge.
Deckhand George Barden unlocks the pins. Responsibility for
the Nandua has now shifted from Eastern Shore railroaders
to Captain Lewis's crew until the pins are locked again at
Cape Charles.
After the Nandua is unlocked, Barden and Engineer
Roland Washington cast the Bay Tide and Nandua
off. The tug has been moored to the float. Washington returns
to the tug. Barden walks to the end of the Nandua and
catches the tow line tossed to him from the Bay Tide.
The Bay Tide moves close enough for Barden to board
her, then slowly pulls about 100 yards away from the Nandua.
As she does, Barden and Washington pay out the tow line while
Captain Willie mans the boat's rear controls and Mate Brad
Berry observes. Once all is set to Lewis's satisfaction, he
will tension the line and towing will begin.
After the float is under tow, Lewis and Berry go to the pilothouse.
One or the other of them will be there throughout the trip.
Washington and Barden go to the galley, which is far aft.
Barden will relax and then make lunch. Washington must check
the engines every half hour when the boat is underway.
By today, Washington has been working 45 days straight with
an occasional night ashore at his home. He is about to take
14 days off. "Some folks don't understand this kind of
life," he says. "You have to be there, be involved
with it, to know it."
The crew lives on the boat while working. Each man has a
stateroom. There are showers and a galley. "It's real
peaceful out here," Deckhand Barden says. "You leave
what's back there, back there."
Forward, on the bridge, Captain Willie turns the boat over
to Berry and takes a nap. He has been awake since 3:30 a.m.
"The captain has been doing this for a long time,"
Berry says after Lewis is gone. "He's seen a lot of things.
You can learn a lot by just watching him."
"You've always got to think about what you're doing.
Shoal water, ships, small boats. Everybody thinks they have
the right-of-way out here."
It's an uneventful trip over calm water. The tug and float
reach Plantation Light by about 12:00 noon. The light stands
at the entrance to Cherrystone Channel, the operation's route
into Cape Charles. This is the point where, to obtain more
control as they run the narrow channel with the wide carfloat,
the crew sets a three-line makeup, a maneuver also known as
putting the tug "on the hip" of the float. Lewis
comes back to the bridge, then walks to the rear controls
to handle this dangerous maneuver.
Lewis slowly closes the gap between the tug and the Nandua
while Berry looks on. Barden and Washington stand on the deck
below, neatly coiling the tow line as Lewis brings it in.
As the tug nears the float, Lewis pivots the boat so that
its bow is facing the same direction as the float's bow. He
then brings the Bay Tide alongside the float, with
the tug's stern just a bit in front of the float's. Barden
clambers up from the tug to the barge and sets the three lines-a
bow line, shoulder line and stern line-that give this position
its formal name.
Once the tug is tightly hipped to the float, Lewis pivots
the two craft in a large circle until the float's bow is facing
the channel entrance and Cape Charles. He then gets underway
again.
The tug and float reach the float bridge in Cape Charles
by 12:45. Docking takes about five minutes; Captain Willie
apologizes for being slow. His engineer, Washington, is having
radio trouble.
After the barge is locked onto the float bridge, the Bay
Tide's crew relaxes for an hour. Meanwhile, the Cape Charles
Division yard crew is busy. Assistant Yardmaster/Conductor
Danny Rasmussen, who has been working the Cape Charles float
bridge since 1969, supervises. Trainmen Doug Cowling and Vern
Wheeler pull pins and set switches. Engineer Thomas Widgeon
is in the cab.
Cowling walks out onto the float and unchocks cars. When
the cars are free, Widgeon backs ESHR GP10 No. 2000, a covered
hopper, and a line of three blue-painted ESHR "reach
cars" towards the float. The reach cars are ancient,
friction-bearing gondolas restricted to this use. They keep
the engine's weight away from the bridge and float.
The eight cars of stone are in two cuts of four on the inside
two of the car float's four tracks. Widgeon and No. 2000 grab
the first four, then pull up to a crossover. Wheeler sets
the switches. Widgeon backs across the crossover and onto
the other center track to grab the remaining four gondolas.
He pulls the cars forward and heads for the yard. Wheeler
goes with the train to help with spotting the loads.
After about 15 minutes of switching, the crew is ready to
load the barge. This will be an almost full float-load of
about 20 cars, mostly empty gondolas used for stone loading,
in four cuts.
Center of gravity is important in loading the carfloat. Rasmussen
draws on his years of experience in deciding how to load the
float. Today, the outside track on the port side is loaded
first, then the inside track on the port side, the outside
track on the starboard side, and the inside track on the starboard
side. Rasmussen ties the handbrakes on each cut after it is
spotted. Cowling chocks cars on the float, as does Wheeler
after he has finished switching chores on the ground and the
float bridge.
Now, Deckhand Barden walks from the tug to the carfloat's
bow. He uses an iron lever similar to a spike maul to unlock
the pins while Rasmussen watches. Rasmussen pulls the looped
cables off the float and stows them on the float bridge deck.
The Bay Tide and the Nandua are now ready to
return to Little Creek. The process took just under an hour.
Captain Willie takes less than ten minutes to pull the carfloat
out into the channel, switch from hipped to towing position,
and get the Nandua under tow. In four or five hours,
the process will be repeated on the Little Creek side. If
traffic warrants, the Bay Tide and Nandua will
then turn around and make a night run to Cape Charles. If
there is not enough traffic, the Bay Tide will go on to another
job or tie up at its home dock in Norfolk. The carfloat will
then be left locked to the Little Creek float bridge, ready
to load.
RAILFANNING
The good news about railfanning the carfloat operation is
that its Cape Charles end is publicly accessible. A gravel
road used by locals to access some fishing holes and boat
docks runs right across the tracks running between No. 2 bridge
yard and the Cape Charles float bridge. Access to the Little
Creek float bridge area, which isn't served by a public road,
is only possible with permission of the Eastern Shore Railroad.
While reaching the Cape Charles site without trespassing
is easy, knowing when a tug and float might arrive is difficult.
As Little Creek Division Conductor Rudy Hargraves says, "There's
no regularity to it at all."
Despite its irregular operation, the Cape Charles-Norfolk
carfloat is worth visiting because of its uniqueness. Along
with the New York Cross Harbor Railroad, it is the last of
its kind east of the Great Lakes. It is only in unique, geographically
limited areas like New York Harbor, the Eastern Shore, Seattle/Vancouver
and Alaska that car ferries or floats can survive given their
high labor costs, equipment needs and vulnerability to weather.
THE FUTURE
The Norfolk Southern and CSX takeover of Conrail, resulting
in NS's acquisition of the former Conrail lines on Maryland's
Eastern Shore, is playing a major part in determining the
Eastern Shore Railroad's-and the carfloat's-future. Both of
the railroad's major interchange points-Pocomoke City, Md.
and Portlock Yard in Chesapeake, Va.-are now owned by the
same railroad, Norfolk Southern.
"We are still hoping for a positive impact from the
merger," LeMond says. "We feel that Norfolk Southern
will act to regain business on the Delmarva Peninsula that
Conrail wasn't interested in. It will take a lot of time and
be a lot of work, but hopefully there will be a traffic increase."
Survival of the Eastern Shore carfloat service, of course,
depends partially upon NS's continued willingness to move
overhead traffic between the Norfolk area and points north
via the Delmarva/Eastern Shore Railroad route. Now is a good
time to head to the relaxed Eastern Shore and view this historic,
unique operation.
IN MEMORIAM
Captain Willie Lewis passed away the year after this article
was researched. He died at work on the water, drowning after
falling overboard. Lewis's death shows that working on the
water, like railroading, is still a dangerous profession.
It also shows that preserving people's history, folklore and
folklife-their ways of making a living and the things they
make, their stories and songs-has lasting value. It is important
to document the traditions and lives of the people around
us, because what seems permanent today often vanishes tomorrow.
Photo by Tony
Reevy
The Little
Creek Division Crew leaves Eastern Shore Railroad GP10 No.
8096 at the end of their work day at about 4 p.m. on April
9, 1999.
