Turtle Creek Central part Three

John Moore Oct 26, 2019

  1. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Now that the Fall season is upon us I have started modeling again and made a few changes in the process.
    I finally installed some edge fascia to the front of the layout and I chose a deep brown color.

    Then I decided the harbor was too crowded so I thinned it a bit. The container feeder ship was the first to go electing instead for a barge for container traffic. I salvaged the crane and small landing ship on it and all lifeboat then deep sixed it. Next to go was the big ocean going Tug Wile E. and again I salvaged cranes and lifeboats. All the cranes were converted to tower cranes for use in the harbor.

    I once again built my own barge using a bottom part of a Bar Mills fence package and styrene.

    And a much better container pier and ore dock.

    The container barge can be seen at the top left with a load of containers. Built it as a well deck barge. Besides the tug with the barge there is a small intercoastal freighter docked just behind a small barge with a pilings load.

    Next I relocated the seaplane dock down by the USCG and NUMA pier and added some small boats.

    One of the salvaged cranes was relocated here for hoisting boats and planes out of the water.

    I relocated most of the fishing vessels including putting some in the former seaplane dock area
    Another one of the salvaged cranes is shown by the cannery and fish market now used to off laod catches.

    Next I moved the heavy lift crane and pile driver both barge mounted and the dredge and its barge all to the marine services terminal across the harbor. Some small service tender vessels are there also.


    Cleaned up the area in front of the dry dock and boat repair house.


    And the docks in front of Wicked Wanda's place along with Waterfront Willy's are crowded with crews in enjoying a libation or two.

    I also moved the 2nd ferry boat and now have it just entering harbor which opened up more room in front of Wanda's and the boat repair.

    And finally I got around to installing my track gang speeder shed and materials buildings and at long last a water column on the outside track.
     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2019
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  2. mtntrainman

    mtntrainman TrainBoard Supporter

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    Lots of work done in that harbor John...(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)
     
  3. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

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    I don't think I've ever seen someone model a tug in drydock, small details like that are cool!(y)
     
  4. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    It was fairy easy because all the vessels where held in place with Elmers white glue so a little water and they were loose.
    Another shot of the harbor over the top of Wicked Wanda's.

    I have also taken the time to convert the last of my rod driven steam locos to tender pilots to facilitate running backwards as I have no turntable or wye so I made them bidirectional. The surviving five all got either Detail Associates or MT pilots. The rest of my steamers are all Shays or Class A Climax. Four Shays and two Climax. So I can run all steam If I desire. The rod steamers are all smaller drivered and able to take my tightest radius of 7.5 inches and either 4 wheel or 6 wheel.

    As I have stated before I have a layout with a narrow gauge flavor except I am running standard gauge
    The biggest radius on my layout is 9.75 and most of the mainline is 8 inch. The docks are 7.5 inch radius.
    The picture below shows 9.75 at the top and 8 in the middle with 7.5 at the inside. All my rod steamers can run on the 7.5.
    And my small fleet of 44 tonners run on this 7.5 well along with some box cabs and steeple cabs. The 70 tonners are restricted to the 8 inch main and yard leads.
     
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  5. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Continuing to work on my track gang and M or W small complex near the village train station by installing the three stall speeder shed and at least two more small structures are going to go in this small 2 inch wide space.
    A small fleet of speeders is ready to be added when done including a couple of handcarts back on the right.

    And my first addition to a dwindling steam roster the MicroAce 2-6-4T has nearly been Americanized with the removal of some minor things and the addition of a plow pilot.

    My latest addition to the Turtle Creek passenger roster was this Bandai set of 4 cars seen behind the MicroAce. At the top is a diesel powered mail express train. The cab car to the left is a mail and express car while the other cab car at the right is passenger carrying. All the equipment is Bandai B Train.

     
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  6. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Gonna be fun righting that boxcar that fell on its side on the barge lol.
     
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  7. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    John where do you find measurements for the shops overall length and beam width.

    Draft is not to much of a problem for me.
     
  8. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    A 200 ton heavy lift crane mounted on a barge is docked right across the harbor
     
  9. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Which shops are you referring too? Or did you mean ships?
     
    Last edited: Oct 31, 2019
  10. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Sorry John Ships.

    Stupid auto correct
     
  11. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Some of the ships are 1/150 tomytec vessels like the tugs. I have one sardine carrier kit being used as a mother ship for the fishing fleet. The rest of the vessels are scratched from resin cast hulls that I cast. I researched some vessels on the internet to get general length and beam and settled on around 60-70 foot and 25 foot beam on some. Hatchways and hatch covers are all from styrene and mast spars and booms from different sizes of styrene rod and tube. Some windows and doors are commercial fittings while other are done from styrene. Some commercial castings are used for Bollards and cleats, I used the same 65 foot resin cast hull for both my big fishing trawlers and for a intercoastal shipping vessel. I have two types of small fishing boats from TomyTec and two types from a Japanese kit. My barges are all kitbashed except for one Kibri product. The wider barges are from plastic kit containers for the hulls. like those used by Bar Mills and range from 60 foot to 25 foot wide while several are 75 foot long. Several of the resin cast hulls were used as barges like the one the heavy lift crane and the pile driver are on. The width varied for the use the barge was going to be put to. The NUMA ship came from the kit for the Le Suroit a French oceanographic vessel. The Coast Guard buoy tender is a modified landing ship model that was 1/160. Lindberg I believe. I also have some smaller resin cast hulls that are about 14 feet wide and used for various small barges of differing lengths. For a number of smaller vessels in the harbor I ordered some small 30 foot boats from Japan and outfitted them with cabins and masts. For some of the smaller ones I sectioned the 30 foot ones to a shorter hull. Most commercial N gauge vessels I found to be to large for the harbor I envisioned so in going for the smaller hulls I got a good fit with a variety of vessels. I set my vessel length limit at 220 feet when I started.

    Some of the pilot houses on some vessels were made from the sides of scrapped Overton passenger cars cutting out the sections I wanted and then bending the into curved shapes under hot tap water. The ferry boat hulls are those plastic shell cases again. There are 23 vessels in my harbor, 17 smaller vessels, and 9 barges. The harbor has 14 structures served by those vessels and in some cases rail. Unless you have a lot of room those large vessels just do not fit. My harbor measures 30 inches wide by 6 foot long. And I have seen folks try to fit a single one of those large vessels into a smaller harbor than mine.
     
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2019
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  12. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Cool and thanks I was planning on a cargo liner of about 397 o.l. with a beam of 59 to 61 feet wide as part of the Gulf Coast trading and shipping company parent of the Indian Rock railway.

    As i'll have a deep-water port scene on the layout.

    That's why i was asking as there's not much on general O.L. & Beam info standard draft is 14-30 feet.

    Yes not going to do anything like the Edmund FitzGerald but then again lol.

    Might bend your ear as i build a couple of Cheeps.

    Might have to try a ship museum somewhere.

    Even local USCG wasn't any help so thanks.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 1, 2019
  13. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Best source is to go up on Google and type in somethings like merchant ships then be patient and go browsing. Quite often you come up with pictures that also have data on the ships.

    Sites like this are useful.
    https://www.history.navy.mil/resear...ist-alphabetically/m/merchant-ship-shapes.htm

    And this one.
    http://www.atlanticship.dk/en/Ships-for-sale

    Sometimes it is easier to buy a model ship kit close to scale and then modify the structure to fit N scale. I did that with the USCG buoy tender.
    You get the hull plus a bunch of parts that can be modified to N scale. For my vessels that are not waterline models I simply placed the vessel in position on the layout and made the water pour around the vessel. To make a waterline vessel you can also simply cut away a portion of the hull bottom and then glue a styrene bottom on it. With a good stock of styrene one can modify the vessels and fill in gaps in the deck made from moving superstructure around and create cargo hatches. Plastic rod and tube creates masts and booms. In this case the vessel was already in N scale and I could just as easy located the superstructure aft and installed masts and booms plus cargo hatches in the forward section. The hull is 160 N scale feet long.
     
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2019
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  14. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    That could also work as a great start for a civil engineer's river dredge.

    John now your being a bad influence on me lol.
     
  15. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Last night I put the last structures in the village station area and except for scenic touch up work just about done.
    The repair shop and one of the bunkhouses.
    One of the speeder sheds and a old boxcar for storage. The three orange things are speeder trailer cars with sides.

    The other storage boxcar on one side of the passenger platform and another bunkhouse on the opposite side. There are three small bunkhouses.
    The opposite side of the tracks has two speeded sheds and a storage building.

    An overhead shot of part of the complex.

    An another overhead shot of the other end.

    Next up is to go over everything with a stiff toothbrush and a vac. Then its time to break out the brushes and paints and do some touch ups.
     
  16. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Working on creating some more mini scenes on the layout and I had a old abandoned house that I picked up years ago at a train show. A little bit of a black wash and a burnt out structure. Placed it at the entrance to the container pier as the night watchman's house. Story line is that he got into some potent hooch sold by Mountaintrain man's cousin Billy Bob, fell asleep with the pot on the cooking stove and set the house on fire. Friday Island engine number one is just wrapping up and heading back to the station while the Chief, Fire Marshal, and Squad one crew are inside still.
    Now just need to place some people in the scene besides those on the fire truck.
     
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  17. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Looks good must be a nice day with the convertible top down on the engine.

    Now you just need to play the song

    White lightning.
     
  18. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Don't know why ever they designed fire equipment with an open cab but I was riding in open cabs back in the early 70s. Windshield wipers on both sides of the windshield.

    Still adding stuff to the village and will be for the next few weeks or more. So far I have added benches, picnic tables, some vehicles, street lamps, power poles, and fire hydrants. And I carried the power poles, fire hydrants, and lights down into the harbor. Mtntrainman is going to like what is going on the short section of track just installed in the foreground.
     
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  19. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Open cab always made me wonder.
     
  20. mtntrainman

    mtntrainman TrainBoard Supporter

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    Every railroad town should have at least ONE locomotive on display for the townspeople. Just my thought. (y)
     

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