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New York Central’s Weehawken terminal with piers, elevators in the slips and yard—steam hoist lighters in the foreground and open deck scows Ship Operators Can Save lime Freight Transfer Between Rails and Ships Can Be Quickened by Close Co- operation—Study Marine Operations of Railroads in New York Harbor HE other fellow’s ‘job always seems complicated if you don’t know anything about it, but after you have had a chance to make a primary analysis, it very often shapes up like your own. Some time ago two friends from Vermont paid me a visit. They were railroad men, and sug- gested that a trip around New York harbor might interest them. It did and it was more interesting still to me to watch their expressions as from the pilot house of a shifting tug, they took in the handling of barges in and around slips and up and down the North river. One of them ex- claimed, “Why this kind of work is exactly the same as that of a railroad, only the tracks are missing.” New York harbor is just the same as any railroad, only the tracks are missing. However, there is a water substitute for thousands of tracks. Shifting of lighters is synonymous with switching of cars. Towing is the same as “way freights” and “jigger trains” and ferry service takes the place of passenger trains. Movements are made on schedule and “extras” G. S. Clark is the assistant manager of the marine department of the New York Central railroad, New York City. BY G. S. CLARK are run in greater profusion. We have our dispatchers and towing orders, Freight Is Transferred From Rail to Ship The efficiency of water trans- portation activities of railroads terminating at tidewater in a great domestic and foreign ship- ping center like New York is of the utmost importance to steam- ship operators. Vast quantities of freight are moved to the port by rail to be transhipped by steamer to destination, and steamships in turn bring in freight for rail shipment. The turn around of ships may be said to depend in a large meas- ure on the kind of service afford- ed by the marine departments of the rail carriers. On the other hand the steamship operator can help to expedite the transfer of freight by complete co-operation, by being ready to deliver and re- ceive freight promptly at the time stipulated. This article tells how the railroads serving the port of New York carry on this _inter- change, and their other marine ac- tivities. similar to railroads, with more “rails” and many more “stations.” 23 The perimeter of the lighterage limits of New York harbor measures about 75 miles and is made up of the Hudson or North river, East river, Harlem river and the Lower bay. About 60 per cent of this perimeter has piers and bulkheads given up to the handling of different items of commerce. The ownership is invested in individuals, corporations and municipalities. The railroads all terminate on the New Jersey shore with the exception of the New York Central, which ter- minates on Manhattan, the New York, New Haven & Hartford, which has its terminal in the Bronx, the Long Island, which stops in Long Island City and the Baltimore & Ohio, which has its terminal on Staten Island. Railroads terminating on the Jersey shore are the Pennsylvania, (except passengers), the Lehigh Valley, Cen- tral Railroad: of N. J., Delware, Lackawanna & Western, West Shore, and the Erie. These terminals consist of piers, ferry slips and _ carfloat bridges together with east and west bound yards. It is at the piers, slips and float bridges that the rail movement of freight ends and this story starts. Three generations ago lighterage