Beautiful, Mark! May I point out that the barge would be almost impossibly stern heavy and port heavy. On a two track barge you would probably have the engine amidships on one track, and everything else (hopefully loaded) on the other? That's why many barges and ferries have an odd number of tracks.
Many thx for the compliment Peter. I did a quick check of the reference photos I have for the prototype for the Slocan barge "under sail and in its slips, and it seems that the prototype lived with the imbalance in most cases. Should they have the luxury of a half-loaded barge, then you are absolutely correct the engine and caboose were loaded on one side and the balance of the train on the other. However in most cases the barge is full, as it is in the model photo above, in which case I wasn't able to find much rhyme nor reason for where the engine was placed...most frequently it was right at the end of one of the two tracks and the barge tipped down 1-2' as a result. I think a more realistic set up in the image above would have been for the two tank cars to swap places with two skeleton flats, and possibly move the whole train down the barge 5-10 scale feet, but otherwise it seems that the CPR would have just lived with this imbalance! thx md
