Part 4: Marine vessels
Entry posted by M Graff
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My layout is thought to be situated on the US eastern shore in the vicinity of Maine. It is a shortline with it´s major traffic generated through the Harbour and the Car float operation.
I had already made the Car float apron so now I "only" had to make a Car float 
.
Initially I had actually wanted to use the Walthers float, but the scarcity of it and the very high prices on it made me plan a build of my own instead.
As I had some plans from Sylvan scale, and a lot of pictures from the Web, it made it easy to make some plans for a Car float that would suit my needs. I like the appearance of the "Station-floats" (the ones with two tracks and a center platform), So that was what I was aiming at.
I started with two big Balsa planks (it´s good to be a model airplane builder as well...), I glued them together and sawed them to shape with my band saw. And primed it with some sanding sealer before I sanded down the grain.
I glued the rails to it and made the deck from 1,5 mm balsa sheet that I scribed planks in with a pencil.
To make the hull plates, I used Aluminum tape and applied at all over the metal areas. I glued some mahogany strips as rubbing strakes on the hull sides.
I painted the hull black and stained the deck with India Ink. I weathered the hull very heavily as it is prototypical for the timeframe.
I made the railings from brass wire and the platform from wood strips.
It really makes the place in the scene I think.
To pull the Car float I needed a Tugboat as well. And again was the available kits very expensive...
As luck would have it, I already had a Lindbergh diesel tug that I got really cheap on a sale a few years back.
It is in 1:90 scale, but that doesn´t really make a difference to me. 
This is how it looks in original:
Here is the BEDT Tug Invincible that I used as an inspiration:
I sawed off the bottom of the hull to make it into a waterline model, and I replaced the bridge with a new built from styrene.
I made a new chimney from brass to backdate it to steam powered. It is more like the RR tugs of the Eastern shore now.
I painted it to represent a Tug that had been around for a while but not too beaten up.
That concludes the ship building for this layout B), in the next installment I will concentrate on the city.
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