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The S.S. ''City of Midland 41'' was a train ferry serving the ports of Ludington, Michigan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and Kewaunee, Wisconsin for the Pere Marquette Railway and its successor, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway from 1941 until 1988. The ferry was named after the city of Midland. ==Railroad car ferry== The vessel was built by Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company in 1940 at a cost of $1.75 million. One of the last coal-burning car ferries on Lake Michigan, she entered service for the Pere Marquette Railway company in March 1941 as the largest Great Lakes ferry ever built. Powered by two Skinner Unaflow steam engines, the ''City of Midland 41'' was capable of speeds up to with a cruising speed of . The ''City of Midland 41'' was unique for car ferries in that she also contained many amenities for the automobile and passenger traffic that crossed the lake in the warmer summer months. She had an extra passenger deck compared to the other ferries of her time, and frequently would run the Ludington-Manitowoc route during the busy summer months, serving as a moving connector of U.S. Highway 10. Because of her exemplary amenities as well as her size and aesthetic silhouette she was nicknamed the "''Queen of the Lakes''". In addition to transporting railroad cars through the World War II years, the ''City of Midland 41'' also served as a training vessel for United States Coast Guard and United States Navy enlisted sailors, since the vessel's Unaflow engines were similar to those used aboard the . In 1947 the Pere Marquette Railway was acquired and its assets, including the ''City of Midland 41'', merged into the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O). During the late 1940s through the 1960s the ''City of Midland 41'' experienced the prime years of her career. In 1952 and 1953, the carferries and were upgraded, and two new carferries, and , entered service. They were the last two railroad car ferries built on the Great Lakes. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「SS City of Midland 41」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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