Hi All,
I've been looking for information on the early UK - Europe train ferries. The reference I've found mentions the (5x) WWI ferries lying idle until 1923 when they were sold to the LNER for a Harwich
- Zeebrugge ferry service and then the SR service from 1936.
Has anyone got any suggestions as to where I would find information on the LNER service? I assume it would be goods traffic only as war time ferries presumably wouldn't be equipped for passenger services?
Regards, Greg.P. Takaka, NZ.
There seems to be a bit of a black hole re the early LNER services (I have contacted the HMRS on this, looks like the sort of thing they do well).
What I have on this is . . .
HTH
Mike
A few references I found on Google which may help.
Die Reichsbahn
16/1925, Fährbootverkehr Deutschland - England über Zeebrügge - Harwich 1925.Hi Mike,
Thanks for that. > >
Thanks Yoda, the old monovian link is something new.
Hey, the artist has shown passenger coaches on board the ferry! Is this just artist's licence??
Thanks - With your permission I'll put that into the site.
I'll put all I have together and post it off to the HMRS, I'm a carer for the moment so I cannot get to the PRO to look into this. Things should change within the next year but they have chaps doing this kind of thing all the time - Itd be a good 'booklet' for them to produce.
Also found some more sources and info
Covering dates 1946-1947 Scope and content Purchase and re-conditioning of SS "Essex Ferry" formerly "Princess Iris" formerly Train Ferry No.1 Access conditions Normal Closure 30 Held by The National Archives, Kew
Restrictions on use Closure status Open Document, Open Description
Two different posters
Picture of Train Ferry at sea
I believe the ferries carried ambulance coaches during the war, they did not as far as I know carry fee paying passengers under LNER ownership (I may be wrong on that)
The ferry shown is illustrated in the early 1930s and hadn't existed in WWI. There wouldn't be much point in sending passenger coaches unless they were sleepers, newly built exports or perhaps coaches for repair.
Yes, well, the great thing about modelling ferry service is that if any rivet counting railway historian gives you a hard time along the lines of: "How did that particular rolling stock come to visit here then?" You can say with a perfectly straight face:
"The train ferry brought it."
Model Rail October 2004 has a nice article on night ferry stock and cover the ferries to a degree. Also some nice shots of "foreign" stock on home tracks.
And, if you really want a prototype for anything, modelling the immediate post-WW2 period would let you have stock for the MEDLOC leave trains being taken to or brought back from, service on the leave trains servicing British Forces in the Mediterranean theatre. These used a large selection of coaching stock from the Big 4- locos were from the various continental companies. You could even use a Bachmann or similar '44t' centre-cab diesel, suitably painted black or dark green, alongside USA shunters and EE diesel shunters. I've seen in the French modelling press an 0 (!) gauge model, albeit partial, of a 1920s/30s train ferry operation, built by a club in the Amiens region- I'll see if I can find a link. Brian
A few references I found on Google which may help.
Die Reichsbahn
16/1925, Fährbootverkehr Deutschland - England über Zeebrügge - Harwich 1925.1946-1947
Covering dates 1946-1947 Scope and content Purchase and re-conditioning of SS "Essex Ferry" formerly "Princess Iris" formerly Train Ferry No.1 Access conditions Normal Closure 30 Held by The National Archives, Kew
Restrictions on use Closure status Open Document, Open Description
Two different posters
Picture of Train Ferry at sea
I'm layout-wise modelling pre-Adolf south Germany, with a second string of LMS/L&Y HO. Strangely enough, I've begun to wonder if there is anything that could be interchanged. Travelling westward, there are the Italian fruit/vege containers (made very nicely by Lima), Hungarian wine and reasonably documented German vans and stanchion wagons plus some vaguely hinted at earlier designs. So far I have failed to find any British wagons that might have gone the other way (pre-Adolf) other than yesterday's hint that the LNER might have owned some ex ROD vans. I conjectured that as Fyffes was active both in Britain and on the Continent, some banana shipment might have taken place.
Surely Britain must have exported something to Europe in the 1920s?
Regards, Greg.P.
Hi again,
Duhh! time. :-)
I just picked up my long ignored copy of "The Guinness Book of Rail Facts and Figures". Under 'Train Ferries' it has entries:
- The first wagon ferry. 1833...
- The first railroad car ferry in the USA...
- The world's first 'train ferry'...
- The Harwich-Zebrugge train ferry. ... under "Great Eastern Train Ferrys Ltd."
24 April 1924.- The Dover-Dunkirk train ferry. 14 October 1936 ...
- etc.
I guess that should teach me to look in the obvious places first. ;-)
Considering the date, I wonder why the Harwich-Zebrugge company wasn't named the "LNER Train Ferries Ltd" rather than "Great Eastern ..."?
How is "Harwich" pronounced? ...wick? ...witch? ...?
Regards, Greg.P. New Zealand.
In news: snipped-for-privacy@ihug.co.nz, Gregory Procter blithered:
I dunno how it's supposed to be pronounced but I say 'Aritch. HTH Geoff
Aww, now I'm worse off than before I asked! ;^]
Greg.P.
The "w" is silent, as is the "H" sometimes!
Now, how to pronounce "Crich", site of the National Tramway Museum?
S'alright, we get all these Pom tourists trying to pronounce Maori place names like Takaka and yanks saying things like Arrrklaind and Chrast....Churrrch.
Regards, Greg.P. Takaka, NZ.
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.