CP Scarborough Harbor Branch Line - HO Scale

[P5se Camelback]

... I also guess that the lakes rose and fell during the seasons due to spring melt from the mountains. By placing the slip on some rail they could tow it up and down the tracks depending on the height of the lake. The only clue I could see to support this idea is there is cable attached the slip that runs off the slip and up the slope inbetween the tracks. My guess is that when the lake levels change they could either pull or lower the slip. Then again I could be completely talking out of my backside. ...

Now that makes perfect sense!!!

My parents had a summer cottage on Lake Wallenpaupack in the Pocono Mountains of Northeast Pennsylvania. It is a man-made lake ... Pennsylvania Power and Light dammed up a stream back in about 1932 or thereabouts and the water level rises and falls. In the spring, with the snow melt, the lake level rises, sometimes as much as 20 to 30 feet (laterally up the slope of the "shoreline") and as they let water out to make power, the level drops. At around Memerial Day, the traditional "open the cottage" long weekend (women clean up the inside, men clean up outside; cut up the trees that fell over the winter, split the wood and stack it to season over the next several years, to use later as fire wood in the fireplace - the only heat in the place!) the water would be at the "winter water line," right up to the dirt of the shore line. By Labor Day at the end of Summer, the water level would be down the slope that same 20 to 30 feet.

In the spring, the "boating dock" and the "swimming dock" are pushed down from their winter spots up on the dirt, above the winter water line, and floated (on 55 gallon drums) out onto the lake. Two heavy lines hold the docks in to the shore. As the water level drops, the lines are relaxed and the docks are pushed out.

Sounds like the same operation that the railroad must engineer at the rail ferry "float." It wasn't much fun with a couple of docks, I can only imagine how tough it must be with rails and all that go along with them!