Industrial History: Shipping Cars (Autos), Tractors, Etc. by Barge

Friday, June 5, 2020

Shipping Cars (Autos), Tractors, Etc. by Barge

I had redundant posts concerning using water transport for automobiles. I've turned this one into mostly barges and the other one into mostly freighters.

Daniel Wilson posted
A cargo ship of [19]49 Fords!
Peter Silk shared
Ron Baker 60 on each level... 180 in all.
Buddy Reitz Plymouth would use barges to ship cars from their Evansville plant to southern dealers.
[I wonder where the plant was in Evansville. I knew Evansville made refrigerators and power shovels, but I didn't know they made cars.]
James Torgeson shared
Yrral Ecirp August 19th, 1949. Mississippi River at St Louis.
Scroll down for the black and white photo.
http://theoldmotor.com/?p=179845
David Gulden posted
Pickwick Lock shared

Obviously, the above was cropped from this photo.

Missouri Memories posted

1950 Fords being transported by barge on the Mississippi River in St. Louis

Photo courtesy of the Missouri State Historical Society

Bill Werner: Should say to St Louis were coming from Memphis

John David Walker posted
on the Tennessee river preparing to lock though the Guntersville lock carrying cars in 1939.
Don Traut shared

David Gulden posted two photos with the comment: "Pics. From the W.J."

Becky Redmon: Never did see any barges in the Ohio: River transporting cars. Awesome. Thank you

1
David Gulden posted
James E Reising: My guess would be the picture was taken here in Louisville. The tow is sitting on the upper end of lock 41 with the CofE repair station in the background.
Steve Smith: Many of the cars are Buicks and Pontiacs from the 1947 model year, I think.

David Gulden posted

David Gulden posted
David Smith: This was the original ASHLAND, and if I recall this was taken off of the Cairo Highway Bridge on the Ohio. I have a print of this shot given to me by the late Robert. L. Gray.
Brian Robinson: Great pic, but I am surprised to see an Ashland Oil boat pushing these. I thought they just pushed barges for their refineries?

David Guilden posted
BIG MAMA'S WHEEL ALMOST AS BIG AS ONE OF HER BARGES LOL
Nick Marina: Pushing up river through Cincinnatti.
David Gulden: Nick Marina that ole bridge is a dead giveaway lol
Darlene Hill Judd: CAPT. BILL HERE: In the photo the SPRAGUE is almost at the end of her trip. She will unload those six barges of autos from St. Louis at the Greene Line wharfboat just above that bridge pier.

David Gulden posted
LADY REE with a few car barges she was very similar to the BEN MCCOOL

If you put a roof on an autocarrier barge, you can haul cattle on the river.

David Gulden posted
OMAHA [comments corrected as Kansas City] on the MISSOURI with cattle barge 1967

It looks like water transport still plays a big role in Europe.

Fun Machinery posted

Tractor Fan Club posted
[This looks European to me.]

Tennessee River Locks & Navigation posted six photos with the comment: "We are locking the M/V Diane Denise up bound here at Kentucky Lock as a priority this morning to get these vehicles back to Fort Campbell. Kentucky Lock."

Gulden David shared

We Work the Waterways posted three photos with the comment:

Borghese Lane LLC's 3,000 horsepower M/V JENNIFER ANN caught here on the Mighty Mississippi River in Wickliffe, Kentucky.
She’s moving military vehicles probably from Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River to Fort Polk in Louisiana. Wickliffe is often referred to as the “Birthplace of The Mighty Mississippi River.”
Yes, the Mississippi River starts in Minnesota and runs through Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri but doesn’t become the “Mighty Mississippi” until after its confluence with the Ohio River in Cairo, Illinois. Wickliffe lies on the east bank of the Mississippi River just below Cairo.