Editing Roll-on/roll-off (section)

===Invention===
[[File:Floating railway 1850.jpg|thumb|''Floating Railway'', opened in 1850 as the first roll-on roll-off [[train ferry]] in the world]]

The first modern train ferry was ''[[Leviathan (1849)|Leviathan]]'', built in 1849. The [[Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway]] was formed in 1842 and the company wished to extend the [[East Coast Main Line]] further north to [[Dundee]] and [[Aberdeen]]. As bridge technology was not yet capable enough to provide adequate support for the crossing over the [[Firth of Forth]], which was roughly five miles across, a different solution had to be found, primarily for the transport of goods, where efficiency was key.

The company hired the up-and-coming civil engineer [[Thomas Bouch]] who argued for a train ferry with a roll-on/roll-off mechanism to maximise the efficiency of the system. Ferries were to be custom-built, with railway lines and matching harbour facilities at both ends to allow the rolling stock to easily drive on and off.<ref name="Ferries">{{cite web|url=http://www.grantonhistory.org/transport/train_ferry.htm |title=The Train Ferries}}</ref> To compensate for the changing [[tide]]s, adjustable ramps were positioned at the harbours and the gantry structure height was varied by moving it along the slipway. The wagons were loaded on and off with the use of [[stationary steam engine]]s.<ref name="Ferries" /><ref name="Marshall-Guinness" />{{page needed|date=October 2016}}

[[File:Granton train ferry.jpg|thumb|left|[[Thomas Bouch|Bouch's]] ferry design. Note the [[adjustable ramp]].]]
Although others had had similar ideas, Bouch was the first to put them into effect, and did so with an attention to detail (such as design of the [[ferry slip]]) which led a subsequent President of the [[Institution of Civil Engineers]]<ref>[[George Parker Bidder]]; not to be confused with the lawyer (his son)who represented Bouch at the Tay Bridge Inquiry</ref> to settle any dispute over priority of invention with the observation that "there was little merit in a simple conception of this kind, compared with a work practically carried out in all its details, and brought to perfection."<ref>{{cite journal|title=Memoirs of Deceased Members|journal=Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers|date=January 1881|volume=63|series=Part 1|issue=1|pages=301–308|url= https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/toc/jmipi/63/1881 |access-date=17 February 2012|issn=1753-7843}}</ref>

The company was persuaded to install this train ferry service for the transportation of goods wagons across the [[Firth of Forth]] from [[Burntisland]] in [[Fife]] to [[Granton, Edinburgh|Granton]].<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=2969|title=Bouch, Sir Thomas (1822–1880)|first=J. S.|last=Shipway}}</ref> The ferry itself was built by [[Thomas Grainger]], a partner of the firm Grainger and Miller.

The service commenced on 3 February 1850.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/s/scotland_street_tunnel/index.shtml |title=Subterranea Britannica: Sites:Scotland Street Tunnel|work=subbrit.org.uk}}</ref> It was called "The Floating Railway"<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article62215901 |title=News of the Week |newspaper=[[The Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal|Bathurst Free Press (NSW : 1849–1851)]] |location=[[Bathurst, New South Wales]] |date=10 August 1850 |access-date=30 May 2013 |page=3 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and intended as a temporary measure until the railway could build a bridge, but this was [[Forth Bridge|not opened until 1890]], its construction delayed in part by repercussions from the catastrophic failure of Thomas Bouch's [[Tay Bridge disaster|Tay Rail Bridge]].<ref name="ODNB"/>
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