As a very slight correction, the southern ferry service operated to
Dunkerque, not Calais. The facilities at Dunkerque were largely destroyed
during the second world war and were rebuilt in the 1950's. This carried a
through overnight passenger service from London Victoria to Paris (the Night
Ferry) until I believe the early 1970's.
-----Original Message-----
From: All aspects of railways, past, present and future.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bill King
Sent: 17 February 2005 22:18
To: Malcolm Bott
Subject: Re: Train Ferries
Hi, Anzir,
There were two train ferries that operated from the UK. One was from
Harwich to Zeebrugge, commenced by the Great Eastern Railway using surplus
equipment used during WWI to transport armaments to France. The second was
from Dover to Calais. The latter closed shortly after the opening of the
Channel Tunnel. The "Sea France Nord Pas de Calais" was a train ferry and
is still in service between Dover and Calais, albeit only for road traffic.
There are train ferries operating in Denmark and elsewhere. You could join
a couple of Yahoo groups that deal with ferries to get more info. They are
the "Ferries of Northern Europe" group and the "Ferries Outside Europe"
groups. Alternatively you could find a quarterly magazine called "European
Ferry Scene", published by Ferry Publications:
http://www.ferrypubs.co.uk/efs.html
The Great Eastern Railway Society has a selection of copied leaflets and so
on relating to the Harwich train ferries, but you might like to purchase
"Journal Special No. 2 - Visit to Harwich and Parkeston Quay". You can find
details of the sales outlet at:
http://www.gersociety.org.uk/
The list on the internet suggests that this item is out of print, but I
don't think this is so. Try contacting the Sales Officer, Barry Jackson, by
e-mail.
Regards,
Bill King
You wrote:
I am looking for information on train ferries. Specifically, does anyone
have information on the train services operated (and which ports handled the
loading of trains onto ferries to and from the UK) and what they heyday of
this type of operation was.
Do train ferries continue to operate in any part of the world?
Are there any significant drawbacks to using such services today, aside from
the obvious ones that the rolling stock is required to be conveyed on ferry
for long periods of time, and that a ferry is much shorter than a freight
train. Does loading a train onto a ferry take longer than transshipping its
contents?
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