Solvay 46

Solvay 46, registration NY2776F, was built at Choisy-le-Roi in 1924 with a Kromhout engine. The information on this page is taken from Vagus-Vagrant.fr unless otherwise stated.

It ended its career as a Panama barge in the early 1960s. 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.

Here is Solvay 46 in the 1930s:

Here she is on the Toul flight:

Solvay 46 passing through Sommerviller in the 1970s, coincidentally dead opposite where we moor when we pass through Sommerviller on the Marne-Rhine canal:

Here she is (on the far left) on a postcard of boats waiting at Lay-Saint-Rémy to pass through the Foug tunnel on the Marne-Rhine canal:

This photo is undated and no location is given: