Gradually the parts on my workbench and window shelf are going down as I continue to make slow progress in restoring the layout after the unitrack installation. Yesterday I managed to install power and telephone poles, street lights. seating benches and a variety of small items including replacing my two cranes one at the USCG/NUMA dock to lift seaplanes in and out of the water along with small boats and the 2nd crane went back on the general cargo, container, and ore dock. Also installed the office building made from 14 foot containers. 000_1349-1 by John Moore posted Dec 29, 2019 at 10:52 AM Also added another scene with a storage bin and shed, conveyor, and tractor trailer between the car float dock and the general dock. 000_1350-2 by John Moore posted Dec 29, 2019 at 10:52 AM Once again inspired by the ship cams I have been watching I am creating another barge. This time a pointed bow, notched stern to take a tugboat. The current container barge is going to get hatch covers and be converted to another ore barge. 000_1351-3 by John Moore posted Dec 29, 2019 at 10:52 AM Those tug barge combos usually stay as a matched pair And this one when finished will be about 150 N scale feet long.
Haven't kept up with your progress here lately, sorry! And so I miss the above event! And I am still wondering about the worm . . . . ? The trackwork is looking good, better than I imagined it would go with the scale of project that is! Hope to see trains running soon!
Over half of that tequila bottle is gone converted to water alcohol to soak down scenic material. No worm in the bottle or it would be a flatcars as a load. Working with the unitrack required more space than normal track so I had to widen rights of way which resulted in more objects getting removed and relocated.
An update on the latest addition to the port fleet. Got the well deck constructed on the container barge and the main deck installed and everything sanded There are some barges that carry a crew so I made a deck house that will be mounted aft. 000_1352-5 by John Moore posted Dec 29, 2019 at 9:50 PM
Looking really good there John. Working on building a river ore laker 441.8 o.l. 54' beam 34' depth loosely based off the Acawa Canyon of Algoma Central Marine.
John's parts boxes are amazing. All that he can create so quickly, and have those details right on hand.
The result of nearly 30 years of going to shows and shopping for building stuff more than cars or locos. Some of my parts date back to when we used to have some great hobby shops and an era when we had scratch builders. You would never know that the deck house on the barge is a re-purposed chicken coop. Another chicken coop was torn apart and rebuilt and is now my three bay speeder shed. I have been blessed with the ability to take something and see other uses for it. In a few days I am going to start work on my tunnel. I have learned my lesson on rail tunnels, don't have them they are trouble. The only rail tunnel that was on the current layout was to the mine area and it has been day lighted, the best decision I have made. Instead this will be a highway tunnel in the rear through the cliffs. When the old double track was removed and converted to single track when the unitrack went in the outside rail bed was turned into a highway. And to get it out of Friday Harbor and to the rest of the island the tunnel will be created through the cliffs. Waiting on a double track rail tunnel of cut stone and some retaining walls also of cut stone. Just the other side of the bridge is where the tunnel will be located. 000_1353-1 by John Moore posted Dec 30, 2019 at 8:37 AM
Any chance you can start a thread so we can follow your progress? I've wanted to build a laker for a while but wouldn't know how to start on the hull. Also, Pete Nolan has some gorgeous looking laker kits. https://nscaleships.com/
The build thread is part of this since it involves the port area of the layout. I have some earlier postings here on the tug conversion and the last barge build. A link here to my N scale vessels https://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?media/albums/maritime-vessels.2866/ Most of my vessels are intercoastal vessels and some ocean going vessels and all are scaled down to fit my harbor. Sylvan Models makes a Great Lakes freighter and they make a section that can be used to lengthen it. And while some of my hulls are cast resin others are from commercial kits that I chose for the hull size and then cut up the superstructure to get what I wanted. The rest of the parts are all scratch from various styrene shapes. My barges range from 7 inches long to only 2 and a half inches. The current ATB, as a articulated tug barge comb is referred to, will end up being about 10 inches long and will fit my container pier perfectly. I recommend the following live channels to watch for Great Lakes traffic. Most are on the ST. Claire River a major channel between the lakes. and It is from those that my elevated pilot house tug inspiration came from along with the barge now under construction. A scroll down the page gives a ship tracker map that is live. There are still 1940s era vessels sailing the lakes along with modern ones The cams scan up and down the river and if there is an operator on duty you get shots that zoom in. The one cam even captures the twice day switch engine serving the paper plant in Port Huron. There is even a USCG ice breaker and buoy tender stationed there which is very close to my model and there has been excellent footage of it coming and going. Also the ship tracker map shows all the rail spurs serving the area. I have done some build threads in the past and they may be still around if they were not lost in the last program change at Train Board. Currently my biggest vessels are about a foot long and they fit fine in my narrow port.
I can see some really interesting currents from that Port Huron camera. Is it just due to the river meeting the lake? And winds making it worse?
That is a strong 4 knot current flowing South. Last night due to the storm the ship canal was closed due to high seas and waves at Duluth. Traffic is just starting to pick up again. Some interesting views of the Canadian side of the river with the big grain elevator and the refineries in the back. Must be about 60 to 80 rail tank cars lined up on the river side of the refinery. Canadian National tracks on that side. The one cam sits above an old train station with a passenger car out front that is a museum and is right at the bridge looking out at the lake. The other is around the bend and across from a big gravel and concrete plant the hug grain elevators and the refineries.
As a D&RGW modeler, having tunnels is almost a must. Knowing any restricted access is a recipe for trouble, I made my tunnels with open tops that can be removed for direct access when required. Here's how I did it. Tunnel 19/25 slides horizontally out. Tunnel 18/26 lifts vertically out. Tunnel 19/25: Tunnel liners were cardboard, later coated with sculptamold, and painted flat black: An early construction photo of the roadbed, no track and the basic landforms: Some basic scenery starts to blend the gaps into the scene: More scenery hides the gaps: Tunnel 18/26: Rocky mountainsides are a bit more challenging, but here's how I did mine. The basic landforms had several rock molds applied: Lots of rock molds, and sculptamold blending: Some scenery to hide gaps further (trees work great for this!) Snow helps to hide the gaps too: (Hydrocal sifted on a moistened surface, and misted with wet water) You have to really look for the gaps once blended and scenery hides the gaps: Sorry for the hijack, back to your regularly scheduled programming!
Np I wasn't a hijack since I brought tunnels up and this may help some folks. The Turtle Creek in all its versions has had tunnels because of different levels. When I finally scrapped the different levels and the point to point concept tunnels were no long needed and I was I was glad to be rid of the spider refuges. The layout still has two levels although one would not know it. The track from the port passenger station has a short 4% and the track from the other side of the port has a short 1%. The mine track where the tunnel used to be has a 2%.
So as not to distract from John's threads it'll be later on and it will most definitely be it's own thread. Sorry John didn't mean to hijack you thread.
Well continued the work on the container barge and converted the old container barge to a covered barge. 000_1354-2 by John Moore posted Dec 30, 2019 at 8:45 PM Now in the process of adding deck parts. And while I was fiddling with stuff i discovered that none of my tugs have life boats or rafts so I am in the process of remedying that by making self inflating canister life rafts to mount on the tugs.
Just added the air intakes and exhaust for the generator room. The generator provides heat and light for the crew and powers the bow thrusters for maneuvering that this barge is equipped with plus the running lights. 000_1355-3 by John Moore posted Dec 30, 2019 at 9:37 PM The prototype is a USCG barge of about 120 feet long that has crew quarters for 14 people, generators for light and and a bow thruster. I watched the actual barge a few nights ago coupled with a USCG ice breaker tug putting out the winter navigation buoys. On the glass plate to the right I am working on the liferafts for the barge and the canister life rafts for all three tugs.
Well finished converting the old container barge to a covered hatch barge and it is now on the layout ready to go into ore hauling service. 000_1356-1 by John Moore posted Dec 31, 2019 at 12:19 PM Added the finishing touches to the new container barge. 000_1357-2 by John Moore posted Dec 31, 2019 at 12:19 PM Joined the raised pilot house tug with the container barge and it is now an ATB. The whole assembly is 10 inches long. Added life rafts to the barge and self inflatable container life rafts to the tug, the round orange containers seen on the sides behind the tugs stack. Now ready to go on the layout at the container side of the general freight dock. 000_1360-3 by John Moore posted Dec 31, 2019 at 12:19 PM That cabin seen in the photo is from the tug that was in dry dock. It was marketed as a N scale tug by Sylvan but it is definitely not N scale way to large. It dwarfed the other tugs and they are 1/150 scale. So the only part saved was the pilot house and the rest hit the trash. Now starting to clear the workbench my break from layout restoration over. The turnouts needed to start work on the engine service area are due Friday. Today I will start working in the USCG/NUMA dock area on the scenic stuff.
And the ATB now in place at the container side of the dock. Behind it is a small intercoastal tramp steamer and docked beside it next to the fish market is the fishing fleet mother ship. 000_1363-6 by John Moore posted Dec 31, 2019 at 1:05 PM
