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Aquatrain
The Aquatrain (or AquaTrain) was an unpowered unmanned sea-going rail barge operated by Canadian National Railway (CN) between Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada, and the Alaska Railroad in Whittier, Alaska, United States. It is the largest such barge in the world, containing 8 sidings and using a tug for power and control. The length of loadable train, some 50 cars, would, if the cars were placed end to end, rise up twice as tall as the Chicago Willis Tower. The ferry service started operations in 1962, and had a 3-day voyage between Whittier and Prince Rupert, usually operating once a week, year-round. The Aquatrain barge was built in 1982 by South Korea's Shin-A shipbuilding, and is . Since 1993, the Aquatrain's maritime tugboats and tug crews were provided by Foss Maritime. Foss utilized two tugboats ''Justine Foss'' and ''Barbara Foss''. Service ended in April 2021. References External links * CN RailCN Aquatrain: Fastest Rail Ferry Service to Alaska* oil-electric 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rail Barge
A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of Lighter (barge), lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a tugboat or pushed by a towboat. This is distinguished from a train ferry, which is self-powered. Historical operations U.S. East Coast During the American Civil War, Civil War, Union general Herman Haupt, a civil engineer, used huge barges fitted with tracks to enable military trains to cross the Rappahannock River in support of the Army of the Potomac. Beginning in the 1830s, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) operated Capital Subdivision#Alexandria Division, a car float across the Potomac River, just south of Washington, D.C., between Shepherds Landing on the east shore, and Alexandria, Virginia on the west. The ferry operation ended in 1906. The B&O operated a car float across the Baltimore Inner Harbor until th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue and the physical size of its rail network, spanning Canada from the Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia to the Pacific coast in British Columbia across approximately of track. In the late 20th century, CN gained extensive capacity in the United States by taking over such railroads as the Illinois Central. CN is a public company with 22,600 employees, and it has a market cap of approximately CA$90 billion. CN was government-owned, having been a Canadian Crown corporation from its founding in 1919 until being privatized in 1995. , Bill Gates is the largest single shareholder of CN stock, owning a 14.2% interest through Cascade Investment and his own Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prince Rupert, British Columbia
Prince Rupert is a port city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Its location is on Kaien Island near the Alaskan panhandle. It is the land, air, and water transportation hub of British Columbia's North Coast, and has a population of 12,220 people as of 2016. History Coast Tsimshian occupation of the Prince Rupert Harbour area spans at least 5,000 years. About 1500 B.C. there was a significant population increase, associated with larger villages and house construction. The early 1830s saw a loss of Coast Tsimshian influence in the Prince Rupert Harbour area. Founding Prince Rupert replaced Port Simpson as the choice for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP) western terminus. It also replaced Port Essington, away on the southern bank of the Skeena River, as the business centre for the North Coast . The GTP purchased the 14,000-acre First Nations reserve, and received a 10,000-acre grant from the BC government. A post office was established on November 23, 1906. Surv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whittier, Alaska
Whittier is a city at the head of the Passage Canal in the U.S. state of Alaska, about southeast of Anchorage, Alaska, Anchorage. The city is within the Chugach Census Area, Alaska, Chugach Census Area, one of the two entities established in 2019 when the former Valdez–Cordova Census Area, Alaska, Valdez–Cordova Census Area was dissolved. It is also a port for the Alaska Marine Highway. The population was 272 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, having increased from 220 in 2010. The city is notable for the fact that almost all of its residents live in the Begich Towers, Begich Towers Condominium, earning it the nickname of a "town under one roof". History The region occupied by Whittier was once part of the portage route of the Chugach people native to Prince William Sound. Later, the passage was used by Russian and American explorers, and by prospecting miners during the Klondike Gold Rush. The nearby Whittier Glacier was named for American poet John Greenleaf W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alaska Railroad
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., it borders the Canadian province of British Columbia and the Yukon territory to the east; it also shares a maritime border with the Russian Federation's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug to the west, just across the Bering Strait. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of the Arctic Ocean, while the Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest. Alaska is by far the largest U.S. state by area, comprising more total area than the next three largest states (Texas, California, and Montana) combined. It represents the seventh-largest subnational division in the world. It is the third-least populous and the most sparsely populated state, but by far the continent's most populous territory located mostly north of the 60th parallel, with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willis Tower
The Willis Tower (originally the Sears Tower) is a 108-story, skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), it opened in 1973 as the world's tallest building, a title that it held for nearly 25 years. It is currently the third-tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, as well as the 23rd-tallest in the world. Each year, more than 1.7 million people visit the Skydeck observation deck, the highest in the United States, making it one of Chicago's most popular tourist destinations. The building occupies a site bounded by Franklin Street, Jackson Boulevard, Wacker Drive, and Adams Street. Graham and Khan designed the building as nine square "tubes", clustered in a 3×3 matrix; seven of the tubes set back at upper floors. The tower has 108 stories as counted by standard methods, though the building's owners count the main roof as 109 and the mec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foss Maritime
Foss Maritime (formerly Foss Launch and Tug Company), is an American tugging company. The company was founded in 1889 by Thea Foss (1857–1927) and her husband Andrew Foss. The company is now the largest tug and towing concern on the west coast of the United States. On July 2, 2013, Foss Marine Holdings announced that (effective at that date) it would merge all of its operations and resources under a single name: 'Foss Maritime Company'. Founding and early years The Foss concern began in 1889 with a single rowboat which Thea Foss rented by the day in Tacoma while her husband Andrew, a builder, was working on a construction project. At the end of the building, the Fosses realized that Thea's boat had made them more money than Andrew's carpentry. They acquired more boats and soon began operating larger vessels, branching out into sailboats, naptha launches, gasoline-engined vessels, and scows and barges. By 1916 Foss Launch and Tug Company bought Captain O.G. Olson's Tacoma towi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tugboat
A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, such as in crowded harbour or narrow canals, or cannot move at all, such as barges, disabled ships, log rafts, or oil platforms. Some are ocean-going, some are icebreakers or salvage tugs. Early models were powered by steam engines, long ago superseded by diesel engines. Many have deluge gun water jets, which help in firefighting, especially in harbours. Types Seagoing Seagoing tugs (deep-sea tugs or ocean tugboats) fall into four basic categories: #The standard seagoing tug with model bow that tows almost exclusively by way of a wire cable. In some rare cases, such as some USN fleet tugs, a synthetic rope hawser may be used for the tow in the belief that the line can be pulled aboard a disabled ship by the crew owing to its lightness ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Train Ferries
A train ferry is a ship (ferry) designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ferries are sometimes referred to as "car ferries", as distinguished from "auto ferries" used to transport automobiles. The wharf (sometimes called a "slip") has a ramp, and a linkspan or "apron", balanced by weights, that connects the railway proper to the ship, allowing for tidal or seasonal changes in water level. While railway vehicles can be and are shipped on the decks or in the holds of ordinary ships, purpose-built train ferries can be quickly loaded and unloaded by roll-on/roll-off, especially as several vehicles can be loaded or unloaded at once. A train ferry that is a barge is called a car float or rail barge. History An early train ferry was established as early as 1833 by the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway. To extend the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transport In Prince Rupert, British Columbia
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations. Transport enables human trade, which is essential for the development of civilizations. Transport infrastructure consists of both fixed installations, including roads, railways, airways, waterways, canals, and pipelines, and terminals such as airports, railway stations, bus stations, warehouses, trucking terminals, refueling depots (including fueling docks and fuel stations), and seaports. Terminals may be used both for interchange of passengers and cargo and for maintenance. Means of transport are any of the different kinds of transport facilities used to carry people or cargo. They may include vehicles, riding animals, and pack animals. Vehicles may inclu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1963 Establishments In British Columbia
Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove River, Sydney, Australia. * January 2 – Vietnam War – Battle of Ap Bac: The Viet Cong win their first major victory. * January 9 – A total penumbral lunar eclipse is visible in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia, and is the 56th lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros 114. Gamma has a value of −1.01282. It occurs on the night between Wednesday, January 9 and Thursday, January 10, 1963. * January 13 – 1963 Togolese coup d'état: A military coup in Togo results in the installation of coup leader Emmanuel Bodjollé as president. * January 17 – A last quarter moon occurs between the penumbral lunar eclipse and the annular solar eclipse, only 12 hours, 29 minutes after apogee. * January 19 – Soviet spy Gheorghe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
