Barges? We don't need no steenkin' barges!

What, he said, "badges?" Oh, OK, never mind.

The individual barges are named after my
mother and mother-in-law. Rudder and tiller
construction is in progress.

I have been working on the barges for the car ferry this week. I have the basic hulls done, including the frame work to support the rails. I'm in the process of adding the final details. Once the barges are done, I'll build the transfer bridge.









The USMRR had several sets of rail transfer barges. Most appear to have numbers instead of names, but in photos names on several barges can be seen. So I named mine after my mother and mother-in-law.

The transfer bridge will be about 4 inches long.

I still need to add some detail parts to the bow area.

The rails on the barges ride a little taller than the rails on the wharf. So there will be a slight incline up to the barge from the wharf. This is not un-prototypical. The tide at Aquia Landing is about 1 foot under normal non-flood conditions.  The transfer bridge is designed to move up and down to accommodate the tides.

The slight up ramp might help prevent cars from running off the floats. We'll see.