Train Ferries in Europe

1894

From the Engineering Mechanic

English engineers, finding it necessary to adopt our system of train ferries, and not wishing to give us credit of inaugurating that system, have managed to discover a Sir John somebody who worked the whole thing up fifteen years ago.

A New York paper says: "There seems to be nothing in the way of running unbroken trains between London and Paris, except the necessary capital and the employment of sufficient technical skill. If the London, Chatham, and Dover would combine with the Northern, of France, and employ an experienced American engineer to plan and construct the docks and appliances for embarking and landing the trains, and at the same time send to any of the shipbuilding establishments on our great lakes for a man to construct the ferry boats, the arrangement could be perfected in a year and a half or two years, when freight and passengers could be transported from any part of Great Britain to the Continent, and eventually to all of Asia and Africa, without change of cars or break of bulk."

The system of train ferries will no doubt be established throughout Europe in a few years, and will do much to expedite and cheapen transit.