Scotia II Barge Conversion

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Mr Link
Posts: 1198
Joined: December 6, 2014, 3:43 pm

Re: Scotia II Barge Conversion

Unread post by Mr Link »

The stacks, pilot house and rear lifeboat deck were all eventually removed. This link has a couple of photos of the Scotia II in 1994 at Sarnia: http://www.boatnerd.com/news/newsthumbs ... bs_059.htm

In his book "A Railway to the Isle", author Ted Rafuse states that the pilothouse, stacks lifeboat deck and propeller were all removed at Port Weller in 1970. It also had some additional work done at Sarnia in June 1976 to allow it to carry oversize railcars. I'm not sure what this work would have been, unless only the pilothouse itself was removed in 1970, leaving the supporting structure in place, only to be removed in 1976.

The Toronto Marine Historical Society's Scanner also mentions both the 1970 and the 1976 work, but doesn't provide details as to what was actually done.

1970 Scanner

1976 Scanner

As for the photo on Ebay, it appears that the lifeboats had already been removed. Rafuse's book has a photo take in Windsor in 1969 still showing the lifeboats on board. So I suspect the ebay photo was taken in 1969 or 1970 at Windsor. https://www.ebay.com/itm/234036804377?h ... Swzg1gt7SW

Guest

Scotia II Barge Conversion

Unread post by Guest »

I'm not too well versed in railcar ferries on the lakes. There is a photograph of the Scotia II listed on ebay that I have a question about. The image appears to be undated but shows the vessel with its stacks and pilothouse intact. I have read that the Scotia II was reduced to a barge in 1970. When this conversion was done were these structures left in place or were they removed? I'm trying to determine as to what timeframe this photograph was taken.
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