Solvay ended its career as a Panama barge. The small Solvay barges assigned to the Dombasle-Sarralbe service and the return trip carrying coal from the Saar to Dombasle were called the "Panamas". These boats didn't have a permanent crew. Their drivers were employees of the CGTVN (Compagnie Générale de Transports du Nord), the electric loco barge towing company, and later of Bargest. They would swap boats mid-journey when they met another one coming from the opposite direction, as did the locos. The control centre for this traffic had its office in Dombasle near the Pierre Escuras bridge. The first person in charge was Alfred Piant, whose sister ran the Spar grocery store at lock 22 in Dombasle. Two or three large Solvay barges ended their careers this way. Often, after years as Panama barges, they were scrapped in the dead end of the Dombasle port.
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Taken at the Mouacourt lock, No. 15 on the Meurthe side of
the Marne-Rhine Canal, on January 18, 1970. The Solvay 34 is pushing
the ice floes to make a basinful of ice before it can pass through. In front of
it, on an ice floe in the lock chamber, is the lock keeper (on the left), Mr.
Kiffer, my grandfather, with a yek in his hand. Next to him is the skipper of
the boat Les Gosses.
Handwritten caption on the back of the photo: Meaux - 2nd
Cornillon bridge - August 1947:
An early close up of the front of Solvay 34:
The next two pictures are of Solvay 34 in the ice in 1963:
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