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The night ferry still was running in August1978 when I rode it from Victoria to Gare de Nord. I recall that it was composed of about seven Wagon Lits sleepers of a smaller loading gauge than continental stock, and that it ran as a second section to a very long and crowed second class coach train that did not run onto the ferry. Greg T. At 12:05 AM 2/18/2005, Malcolm Bott wrote: > 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? Gregory L. Thompson Professor and Doctoral Program Director Department of Urban and Regional Planning Florida State University Tallahassee, FL 32306-2280 1.850.644.8514 office phone 1.850.645.4841 fax [log in to unmask] http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~gthompsn/my_web/default.htm