In Spite of the mile and a quarter of river between them, the Southern's freight houses at Norfolk and Pinners Point, Va., must be considered as two ends of the same freight platform. The two freight houses are located on opposite banks of the Elizabeth River with no bridges handy. As a result, much of the freight that moves to and from Norfolk via the Southern has to become "floating freight" for a part of its travels.

To keep freight moving along this combination land- and-water route, J. A. Sams, the agent-yardmaster in charge of both installations, .has a growing supply of mechanized freight handling equipment and a complete Southern Railway navy consisting of a tugboat, an 'open barge, four car floats, fourteen house barges and a floating pile driver.

Piers 1 and 2 at Pinners Point. The building in the background between them is the freight office.

Most of the Southern's river traffic at Norfolk involves less-than-carload freight being picked up from or delivered to shippers and receivers in Norfolk and Ports- mouth, or connecting railroad lines. However, some carload freight crosses the river on car floats going to and from waterfront industries that are not served by the Norfolk and Portsmouth Belt Line Railway (an industrial switching line of which the Southern is part owner) .

Pinnners Point, by far the larger of the two installations, serves as the make-up and break-up point for Southern Railway trains serving the Norfolk area. Cars from incoming trains are separated according to the destination of the freight and whether it is carload or less-carload. Solid carloads of freight for business and industrial establishments in Norfolk and Portsmouth, and for all but two connecting rail lines, go to the Norfolk and Portsmouth Belt Line for delivery around the city. The Southern has direct connections and car interchange with the Atlantic & Danville and the Atlantic Coast Line railways. Carloads of freight consigned to the Baltimore Steam Packet Company are switched in on the tracks at Pier 1.

Car floats carry carload freight across the river to waterfront business locations not served by the Belt Line. Between the two freight house piers, tracks run to the water's edge. Here, a floating bridge is used so cars can be moved directly onto car floats. The car floats are then maneuvered across the river by tugboat and moored be- side warehouses along the river front where the contents of the cars are unloaded. The freight cars themselves never leave the car floats on the Norfolk side, either being loaded from the warehouses of shippers along the river front or else returned to Pinners Point for outbound loading.

Merchandise cars from incoming trains are switched in on tracks leading to Pier 2, one of the two 825.foot-long covered platforms the Southern uses for handling merchandise freight, and some carload freight, at Pinners Point. The handling of L.C.L. shipments from these cars has been so thoroughly planned and mechanized that the freight never touches the floor at all between the car at Pinners Point and the contract trucker's delivery truck backed up to the freight house door at Norfolk.

Towlines fastened, the tug "Memphis" steams out oi the slip between the two piers towing the barge.

From the cars L.C.L. freight goes directly onto four-wheeled floats which are assembled into "float-trains." (In order to avoid confusing these with the Southern's navy, it might be well to note here that these "floats" have nothing to do with water, but are the four-wheeled carts familiar to every freight handler. The Southern has 389 of these "floats" at Pinners Point and Norfolk. They're rubber-tired for smooth riding and equipped with automatic couplers for easy assembling into trains.) Battery-powered electric tractors move the trains of loaded floats from the freight house platform up the gangplank onto one of the house barges moored alongside the pier.

As soon as a house barge has been fully loaded and the doors have been secured, the tugboat moves in close where the deck hands can make the towlines fast. Backing out of the slip between the two piers, the hard-working tug tows the barge out into the river. Once in the channel, the tug maneuvers into position beside the barge while the towlines are made fast again. Side by side, like a motorcycle and sidecar, the tug and barge make the brief voyage to the Southern's waterfront freight house on the Norfolk side. Here another electric tractor moves the float trains from the barge to the freight warehouse where the various shipments of L.C.L. freight are loaded from the floats to trucks for delivery to customers or to connecting railroads.

L.C.L. freight outbound from Norfolk via the Southern gets the same mechanized handling-from contract truck direct to wheeled floats, then movement by house barge and tug to Pinners Point. Pier 1 is the scene of all outbound L.C.L. loading. Here freight shipments from Norfolk, from connecting rail lines and from the Baltimore Steam Packet Company (a steamship line serving Chesapeake Bay) are loaded into cars to be assembled into outgoing trains, along with the full carloads brought over by car float or delivered to the Southern by the Belt Line or connecting railroads.

In midstream the tug maneuvers alongside the barge to make the trip across the river to Norfolk.

Since the Bay steamers tie up alongside Pier 1 to unload freight for the Southern, the pier is also used as the loading point for carload and L.C.L. freight being delivered by Southern to the Bay Line. Carloads of freight are switched in on one of the tracks running down the center of the pier. (Copper, pig iron, twine, pulp board and cotton piece goods are some of the principal commodities that arrive by the carload for the steamer connection.) Less- carload shipments come over from Pier 2 on float trains drawn by the electric-battery-powered tractors.

Mechanized freight handling is the order of the day at Pinners Point and Norfolk. Four battery-powered tractors provide the motive power for the fleet of wheeled floats mentioned earlier. A one-ton fork lift truck sees frequent service; the order is already in for a second truck with a two-ton capacity, and there's a portable electric crane ( one-ton capacity) to take care of any heavy lifting jobs to which the fork lift trucks are not adaptable. In using this mechanized equipment, the men at Pinners Point have the advantage of wide platforms and double-planked runways. Other mechanical aids to freight handling and stowing include a special truck for moving sheet metal, four banding machines and a portable electric saw.

The Southern has a third pier at Pinners Point, one that produces valuable traffic for the railway although the greater part of the pier is leased to the Norfolk Tidewater Terminals. About once every three weeks, for example, the Tidewater Terminals receive a shipload of paper from Canada, with the Southern getting practically all the cargo for revenue haul. In the other direction, numerous shipments of pig iron originating in Birmingham come into Pinners Point by rail to be transshipped to coastwise barges for delivery to receivers at Burlington, N. J.

With the barge safely moored beside the Southern's warehouse at Norfolk, the tug starts the return trip.

In leasing the pier, the railway reserved one facility for its own use-a pump and pipeline system for transferring oil directly from tank car to ship or from ship to tank car, one that will accommodate ten cars at a time for rapid loading or emptying.

Besides the piers and floating bridge Pinners Point has its own yard, yard office and storehouse. Its fire department boasts a big, red city style fire truck and the power plant contains facilities for recharging the batteries of the fork lift truck and tractors. But to most other Southern Railway people, whose operations are strictly the "landlubber" variety, the most interesting thing at Pinners Point is its navy.

The work horse of the Southern's fleet is the "Louisville," an 83-foot, iron hulled tugboat. At the time Ties visited Pinners Point, however, the "Louisville" was temporarily out of service while its steam engine was being replaced with a new diesel marine engine. The "Memphis," a larger. steamboat that once carried passengers between Norfolk and Pinners Point (when there was passenger service on the line to Norfolk), had taken over as a stand-by tugboat to tow the house barges and car floats between the two sides of the river .

This is no more than a brief introduction to the "old salt division" of the Southern. There will be more to tell about the Southern's navy, and the conversion of the "Louisville" from steam to diesel power.