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Let's shelve it anyway. Car floats are a category of "lighter." Lighters are defined as "non-self propelled," and are moved by tugs. Train ferries are self propelled, and are a different category of vessel. Ref. Lederer, Eugene (1945) Port Terminal Operation, Cornell Maritime Press, NY, pp. 291-292.
Digthepast (
talk)
01:45, 8 October 2012 (UTC)reply
Hi. You asked that question with respect to an article
car float that I started way back in 2005. I'm afraid I don't remember starting the article, or my thinking at the time. So what follows is to a certain extent reconstructive.
Firstly, to answer your question, I'm British. However I believe that car float is a US term. I'm not aware of a British English equivalent term, probably because to the best of my knowledge no such animal has ever existed in the UK. The nearest equivalent would be a
train ferry, but that is a more general term, without the implications of unpowered, use of tugs etc.
I would agree that rail barge is more descriptive, but it is not a term I've ever heard used before. If that is the general term in use in Canada, then I would suggeset that this is the term that should be used in a Canadian context.
Hello Chris, I used the "History" feature, 5th item down at top left of the
car float article ([
History) and then clicked on "earliest" to get to the the beginning and thus found "(cur | prev) 2005-05-20T18:25:37 Chris j wood (talk | contribs) (353 bytes) (new)". That is why I asked you. Just click on the links.
Peter HornUser talk20:10, 6 March 2011 (UTC)reply
Sorry, you misunderstood me. I wasn't saying I didn't start the article, merely that 6 years later I have no recollection of doing so, and therefore cannot answer to what my thoughts on the subject were at the time. --
chris_j_wood (
talk)
18:35, 7 March 2011 (UTC)reply
I don't have time to research citations for my claim, but you'll have to for now put up with the so-called "original research" claim that "car float" I've never heard before. I don't know if either term might be in a Canadian dictionary, or what the industry actually uses; I do have a friend who works for teh Southern Railway of BC (which is owned, now, by WMG-cum-Seaspan) but that would only be hearsay if he did know which term etc. That WMG/Seaspan is an American company (now; Seaspan as a brand has been around BC for decades, long before the Washington Group bought it up and lately rebranded itself with that name) indicates that an American term might be in use at that company now. "Rail ferry" is a term sometimes heard here but often used to mean the transport of vehicles by flatdeck through areas where there is no road, only lake. I don't know in other parts of Canada; the usage in New Brunswick or Ontario may be different.....and I don't know if e.g. the rail line on Newfoundland has slips at Port-aux-Basques or Argentia or elsewhere to get railcards to/from Cape Breton etc, or what those would be called (I think those would be CN). Also to note in passing there seems to be an ongoing perception, not helped by FB and Macintosh and Microsoft softwares/OSs option only between US English and UK English only, that those are the only two kinds of English; leading to the supposition that American usages are automatically Canadian usages, or on the other hand that Canadians should use British-isms when not using American ones. Imperial cultural-insensitivity from both sides in other words. I have a full plate right now, not just in wikipedia, and don't have time/energy to hunt this down, only to tell you that "car float" is an alien term to me, and I've been around railyards and barges and port facilities of all kinds in BC.
Skookum1 (
talk)
22:04, 6 March 2011 (UTC)reply
Sorry but I don't understand. The article I started back in 2005 made no reference to Canada. It certainly never suggested that car float was a Canadian term. Nor does it appear to do so now. The bottom line is that we have to have an article title. It could be 'car float'; it could be 'rail barge'; it could be 'rail punt' (a term I've heard used in Australia, although I'm not sure of its exact meaning). Which we choose is pretty arbitrary given the global nature of WP; it is just a question of making sure we have the appropriate redirs in place. --
chris_j_wood (
talk)
18:35, 7 March 2011 (UTC)reply
The Skinny
the short answer is rail barge, or car barge, Can; train ferry, Brit;
Car float, US NYC.
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Splitting proposal: Create own article for New York Harbor's car float operations
I propose to split the aspects concerning New York Harbor from the main article, as these formerly extensive operations merit their own (extended) article and already make up a somewhat disproportionate part of the current article.
GeorgR (de) (
talk)
21:53, 29 March 2024 (UTC)reply