Car float.

As this shunting (switching) layout was inspired by the terminal railroads in New York, I have replicated the means that cars were delivered. Transfer barges were moved around the waterways and docked so the isolated yards had a maritime link to the mainland. Some railroads had dedicated fleets of barges and tugs to provide this service. There is a great website about these operations (http://www.trainweb.org/bedt/BEDT.html) that I found very useful and interesting.

The crew is retrieving the new inbound cars that will then be switched to their destinations as per the waybills.

Then the other string of cars is removed, I'm not sure how the were actually loaded/unloaded to compensate for heeling. The loco is unable to board the float (as there is no electrical connections) so a bridging car is used.

I am a railway modeller so the car float is a little bit crude, but for my purposes it is a "good enough" representation. It latches onto the baseboard with the aid of pins and a screw to hold it in position. It is attached to the board semi-permanently. There is plans to construct a second car float so that they can be pre-loaded and interchanged.