RE: (erielack) Seatrain (was: NY-98 spotting feature)

["Tupaczewski, Paul R (Paul)" <paultup_@_lucent.com>]

Paul B. asked:


> I've 
> always wondered
> about Seatrain Lines, a large American Flag carrier that disappeared
> somewhere around 1980, either went oob or more likely was merged into
> another shipping line. Is anyone familiar with that company?

There was an excellent 4-part article in the Rail-Marine Information Group's magazine several years ago about Seatrain; you can still purchase photocopies from them.

Seatrain started off as (surprise!) trains going over the sea. They had a fleet of large ships that held several tracks, and they'd load boxcars into the ships, just like they load containers today. The cars were shipped to Havana, Cuba (prior to Castro), and somewhere in Texas, I believe. After a while, the company switched to containerization.

There's an excellent picture in my Susquehanna book of the pier at Edgewater where Seatrain left from in the 1940s-1950s. I also have a photo of the train-carrying boats shortly before their scrapping in the early 1970s, I'll post those tonight.

It went bankrupt in the early 1980s and was dissolved, apparently. They managed to get 40' corrugated ISO containers (leased), so they got almost into the "modern" intermodal times.

	- Paul

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