A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a tugboat or pushed by a towboat.
A railroad car float in the Upper New York Bay, 1919. A tugboat (towboat) stack is visible behind the middle car.
Woodfibre, British Columbia
Car float in Howe Sound
The car float docks at Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York.
Barge often refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but on inland waterways, most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. The term barge has a rich history, and therefore there are many other types of barges.
Barges towed by a tugboat on the River Thames in London, England, UK
A British Airways Concorde being towed in New York City, USA. It is on a deck barge.
River barge below Barton Aqueduct c. 1793
A Dutch barge in Namur