Buffalo River Trip - Part II

I posted Buffalo River trip 2006 - Part I, yesterday.

We put in at the Ohio Street launch - map - and immediately noticed these two rail cars atop this way cool looking barge. Turns out the Lansdowne was built in 1883 and is the only remaining wooden side-wheel barge on the Great Lakes. It served as a rail ferry between Detroit and Windsor and recently as a restaurant, too. Cool history. Click 1, 2, 3 and 4 for more. The barge is named after the former Governor-General of Canada, Marquess Lansdowne. Cool that he worked on railroad issues in Canada, back in the day and later as Governor-General of India, during the Raj. The rail cars were manufactured by The Milwaukee Road Co. and were partially submerged when the Lansdowne sunk this past Christmas day down in Presque Isle. Excellent forum for rail car restoration and lots of links to these specific cars.

click image to enlarge

According to the folks at BIDCO Marine, Specialty Restaurants of Anaheim, CA owns the barge and rail cars. Plans are to turn the Lansdowne into a restaurant again, somewhere in Toronto. Wonder how long it will be in town. Anyone know what the latest is with this?

Further down, and one of the reasons for heading out of course was to check out the Commercial slip and see what's been happening. Mark has some street-side views. I was determined to get closer.

click image to enlarge

The construction equipment is perched on top of the Hamburg drain. This of course was covered when the canal slip was filled in, back in the day. It's my understanding that the drain will be cut back to the street. Sort of where Mark's pics were snapped.

The guys at Lower Lakes Marine Historical Society probably have more stuff about the Commercial slip and barge traffic on the Great Lakes.

Great day for the Buffalo River. Afterwards, met up with a fashion photographer to scope some unique urban sites...like Harwood and 669...

btw...here's the goods about the Ohio Street Launch, from the DEC.

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