Building a 1900-1910 N Sea Ferry

[Northroader]

Just thought I'd put this sketch in, as it's very evocative of the topic, even if it's round the corner from the North Sea at Calais. Don't know if paddle steamers went out before Nord compounds came in, though.

[Andy Hayter]

I am struggling to make out what the loco is 230 or 221. If it is a De Ghlenn atlantic then the timescales overlap with paddle steamers but if so then it looks like a 4 wheel tender. The coaching stock looks to be 4 wheelers but they stayed in revenue service until as late as the 50s so that is not much help.

 

According to the book that I have on ferries, all of the English Calais ferry companies changed to steam turbine propulsion in the first decade of the last century. In some cases paddle driven ships with a life as short as 9 years were sold for scrap. A few of the French paddle steamers made it into the twenties before being scrapped or sold to S America.

 

 

Of course we assume this is a cross channel boat and not a pleasure steamer plying up and down the French coast - which might very well have still been around in the 30s to 50s.

[Northroader]

I'm fairly certain the artist was doing an Atlantic (1900) The 230s had high running plate, no splashers. The tenders had an asymmetric wheelbase, centre and trailing much closer together, which might be misleading. Any news on boat progress??

[Andy Hayter]

The weather finally broke a couple of weeks ago, so work has now started. I am currently up to frame 27 from 39.

 

It is taking longer than even I anticipated.

 

The waterline and centre line are drawn out on tracing paper, and the half frame is then carefully traced out. The paper is lifted, turned over, centre ad water lines are aligned and the frame is traced again. This gives a full frame tracing.

 

The tracing is cut out and laid on thin card. It is carefully drawn around and the centreline also marked. This card outline is then cut out and this is then used as a template to cut out a second card frame. Eventually these will form respectively, the back of one section and the front of the next section of the ship.

 

The process for creating one pair of card frames is taking around 20 minutes. The whole process will therefore take around 13 hours and all I will have at that stage are some nice card frames.

[Northroader]

Digging around tonight, I came across a thread detailing building the "Caledonian Princess" train ferry in OO. Later era than yours, but I thought the constructional methods might be of interest. It's funny the amount of stuff hidden away on RMweb that you can accidentally find! All the best. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/22096-ho-scale-mv-caledonian-princess/#ipboard_body

[Andy Hayter]

Some superb modelling there. Certainly someone whose woodworking skills (let alone the rest) are way beyond mine.

 

I don't think I will go to the same level of modelling interiors, though I respect the work done, but if you cannot see it why spend so much trouble - except for your own self satisfaction (and nothing wrong with that if hat is what you want). Anyway getting any prototype information on interiors might be several steps too far. It's hard enough finding external views.