Bob
I agree the Books by Tom Flagg are great . You need to see these to see what Nautical railroading was like in its era. The B&O photo is interesting. The three floats we see here had the center platform. Notice the rolling doors on the building that they face. The platforms lined up with these doors so that cars could be unloaded to the platforms and then into the warehouse structure at the pier line. These type of facilities were considered by the railrroads as freight stations . Most of the rail-lines serving New York City had such facilities on both the Hudson and the East rivers to deliver freight for truck pickup at these stations. I believe once empty, cars might be reloaded with freight that was left for outgoing shipments and the float then returning to the railroad's yard for forwarding on the railroad.
