Comments on: Heavy ice on the Detroit River prevents the tug F.A. Johnson, with the loaded car float Windsor, from docking at the CP boat slip in Windsor. Maneuvering above the slip, the Johnson hopes to wash the ice out of the slip so they can make the dock. With the help of propeller wash from fleetmate R.G. Cassidy (barely seen above the rail cars on the barge) the two tugs finally make landfall possible. CP would then pull the barge and reload with cars destined for the N&W on the Detroit side of the river just above the bridge. The N&W also had slips at the CN boat yard about a half mile above this location.

By: mile27

mile27 — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 04:11:06 +0000

That’s correct, Stephen and lot of the traffic via the rail barges was auto racks and parts cars (hi-cubes)that were too large to go through the rail tunnel. The writing was on the wall for this service after the tunnel had been deepened to accomadate the over-sized cars.

By: headtailgrep

headtailgrep — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 16:39:25 +0000

Earl – so would this have been N&W – CP interchange traffic then? And any through traffic on the NW in Ontario would have been ‘routed’ through the CN/NW Joint Ferry slip?