Ninety years ago today, November 25, 1930, the carferry S.S. City of Milwaukee was launched at Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The ferry exists today in Manistee, Michigan and is open for tours, although their season has currently ended. Two steam era boxcars are on her rail car deck to show visitors how cars were secured for the ride across Lake Michigan. One of those is an Ann Arbor car (no info as to the car number) and I'm not sure about the heritage of the other boxcar. Any heritage info on those two preserved cars, would be very welcome. There is also an idler flat car on one of the four tracks of the rail car deck.

The "City of Milwaukee" worked for the Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company, a subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Western. After GTW stopped running their Michigan to Milwaukee, Wisconsin route in 1978, the boat was leased to the Ann Arbor Railroad and eventually sold to the MDOT for continued operation over the AA until that line discontinued their cross lake service in 1982.

Les

This is a very cool tour for those in the area. One of the only places I know of where you can stand between two, 2.5 story tall tripple expansion steam engines.

E:
There is another twin screw steam ship on the great Lakes: the CPR passenger ship SS Keewatin long on display at Michigan and now across the lake at Thunder Bay, Ontario. She was built the same year as the RMS Titanic was lost.

Ted Miles, a Railroad Navy fan

Was that late for reciprocating engines? When did new ocean-going ships transition to turbines?

Ted,
I drove past that ship hundreds of times while docked in Saugatuck. I never imagined it was a twin screw. I miss seeing it docked there.

Filmteknik,
The great lakes fleets held on to resiprocating steam longer than anybody else. Some of the turn of the century boats were even rebuilt in the late 40s into the 1950s using Skinner Unaflow engines (the steeple compound versions were rumored to be more efficient than turbines). The St. Marys Challenger (built 1906) ran with a Skinner (installed in the early 50s to replace a triple expansion) until the very end in 2013. Most of the Huron Cement fleet ran triple expansion (one had a quad) into the mid 1990s. Pere Marquette boats experimented with two steam turbine electrics, but were not happy. I believe the recieved Skinners upon rebuild. AA, GTW, and Straights Corp ran reciprocating steam. AA had two boats rebuilt with diesel. It wasn't until the lake boats started getteing well over 600 ft in length in the late 30s that turbines started getting used and after WW2 almost all new builds used turbines.

Edit: I double checked and the PM 31 and 32 were turbine. They were not repowered. PM 21 and 22 (both the same design as the city of milwaukee) were lengthened, rebuilt and repowered with Skinners.
Also, Mackinac Transportation was who ran the straights service to St Ignace. Straights Corp came in near the end.

Pere Marquette/C&O carferries City of Midland 41, Spartan and Badger had/have Skinner Unaflows. Prewar City of Midland 41 had simple single expansion engines while postwar Spartan and Badger have compound double expansion steeple compounds. Recips are better than turbines for carferries because you get full power in reverse right away.

The operators of SS Badger plan to resume crossing Lake Michigan in May, 2021.

https://www.ssbadger.com/the-legacy/

The USN WWII Casablanca Class escort carriers (CVE-55 Casablanca to CVE-104 Munda, 50 ships) had Skinner Unaflows. Some USN crews trained on SS City of Midland 41. A notable Casablanca Class CVE's was USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60) which led the task force that captured German U-boat U-505 on the high seas. Guadalcanal's Unaflows were able to propel her fast enough to conduct air operations while towing the sub.

Phil Mulligan