The rails that the heavy equipment drew us out on had big wheels under them. You may be able to see the wheels underneath in the first photo. The ship was gently drawn straight backward onto these movable rails. Then we needed to slide sideways to line the ship up with the exit lock. So our front-end loaders and tractors lined in pairs at either end of the ship, connected this time to the rails we were sitting on. They pulled those rails across the parallel tracks toward the end of the yard, which meant the ship was moving sideways. (This was a bit nerve-wracking, as the ship began to rock a little. If you saw how narrow the support under the ship is, you would know why we land-lubbers were a tad bit anxious. J) Gradually they pulled us to the end, so that the ship was lined up with the lock, which you can see in the second picture beyond the front end loader. The wooden platform with its rails was elevated above the water, so that we could be slid into place.
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