Pier 101 - car floating on The Bay in 1975

[long island jack]

I had a Revell tug  to add to the back of a layout i was planning, never got much further, i found all doors, windows and fittings were more to scale for N gauge than HO!

[barkingdigger]

Bear in mind the Revell tug is meant to be low-slung to fit under the flaired bows of cargo ships (like real ship-tugs), while a car-float tug usually had a taller bridge tower so the crew could see over the top of the loaded floats.  The LIRR used tugs similar in design to the Revell kit, but you need to raise the bridge accordingly.  (Got one for a planned float scene that I never managed to build...)

[Barclay]

Hi yes I think it will stand some modifications to the bridge, together with finer handrails and some de-cluttering. And a waterline conversion of course.

[Barclay]

Finally the SW9 is done - as done as it can be, I know it has its faults. 

 

Lettering is with Microscale, the number boards on the lights being so small that I had to make a larger one up and reduce it on the copier. There are window frames from Nickel silver fret waste; sunshades from masking tape and brass wire; all new handrails made from 0.45mm brass wire; glazing; new brass cab roof with the beacon from the original cab, the horn cut from the original 3-way version, and the radio aerial/platform thingy from brass. The original bell managed to lose itself so I borrowed one from a Roundhouse kit. The loco. received a light coat of varnish before weathering with a greyish/brownish black, very lightly with the airbrush. After this treatment the yellow at the front looked too dirty so I buffed it off when dry with a cotton bud (the yellow is very glossy). Some final work with powders and a chipping pencil on the steps. Pictures show this loco. very clean in 1975 and quite dirty/dusty in 1976 so my finish has ended up looking more like 1976, but with weathering I never quite know until it's done!

 

Inside, lead sheet was araldited either side of the motor to up the weight though it still can't compete with the older Athearn 'super-traction' loco's with their huge ballast weights.

 

A question - is that platform where you step out of the cab at the back really yellow? It looks like it probably is in photo's but I can't see one that shows it clearly. You walk on it to get in so it seems odd - perhaps it just needs more weathering, but it's an easy fix if someone knows the answer.

 

Pictured on my UK layout as Pier 101 is still just a piece of plywood I'm afraid...

 

 

 

 

 

[doctor quinn]

39 minutes ago, Barclay said:

A question - is that platform where you step out of the cab at the back really yellow? It looks like it probably is in photo's but I can't see one that shows it clearly. You walk on it to get in so it seems odd - perhaps it just needs more weathering, but it's an easy fix if someone knows the answer.

 

 

 

 

Found a shot of a sister loco on RR Picture Archives with it yellow but very dirty http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=5774159

The loco is looking really good

Edited June 26, 2022 by doctor quinn
Additional

[Barclay]

16 hours ago, doctor quinn said:

Found a shot of a sister loco on RR Picture Archives with it yellow but very dirty http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=5774159

The loco is looking really good

Thanks for that - great shot. I believe there's some sort of checkerplate walkway at that point, and I did scribe something onto the brass, but obviously not strongly enough! Weathering will do the trick, especially if I mask the walkway so it's heavier at that point. There should also be sunshades over the rear cab windows I realise - shame, they are tricky, and the model is fragile enough already.

[Barclay]

At last the layout has a home!

 

Despite the silly temperatures over the weekend I finally got 'round to installing the baseboards in the loft. Being opposite my existing layout limits the amount it can stick out, which will mean a limited backscene height, because of the roof timbers. Once I have established the ideal compromise (is there such a thing?) the bearers will be trimmed back. 

 

 

The 2 boards have been bolted together with coach bolts and wing nuts, which I think will suffice for a non-exhibition layout.

 

 

The cabin on the carfloat bridge is from Evergreen siding and plasticard, and its slightly odd shape is copied from the one at China basin. 

 

 

No. 1438 switches an elderly ice box reefer (needs weathering!) as I play trains and imagine the layout actually functions!

 

 

[Northroader]

Good luck with the temperatures, I used to have a set up like that, but found you could only really work up there in Spring and Autumn, it was uninhabitable for Summer and Winter. Luckily I had it converted with insulation. Until that happy time, remember to allow for expansion and contraction of your track laying.

[Barclay]

Thanks - I've been working in this loft for 22 years and it's only weather like this that really deters me! The layout will have copper clad track, which has survived very well on the other layout, suffering temperatures from 0 - 46C. As you say, lots of expansion gaps!

[Barclay]

Yes it has been rather warm up there recently, but I have managed to finish the supporting structure for the carfloat bridge.

 

Extra diagonal bracing was cut from spare bits of the Airfix signal gantry that provided the main structure. The timber walkway on top is coffee stirrers; the main winding wheels are mine headgear winding wheels from www.torrilaser.com - not the same as the originals but the best I could find. The medium and small wheels are laser cut wagon wheels from Scale Model Scenery - each consists of two stuck back to back. Counter-weights are plasticard, the ladder is an etched signal ladder. The rigging is from annealed brass wire, in some places this is too thin I think and extensions are needed down into the cabin when it is located for the final time. There's also less of it than the real thing - I felt the need to stop before I made a proper mess of it. Photo's show the structure at China Basin was not at all rusty, so just a little weathering, with more on the flat cabin roof. Just need a layout to go with it now!

 

[Barclay]

Yesterday during my lunchbreak I took a stroll around the port of San Francisco, courtesy of Google Maps. From Pier 50 there's a good view of the derelict float bridge at China Basin but this time I was looking at track, and found plenty still in place, set in concrete, which is an effect I would like to reproduce for a fair amount of the layout. I think concrete is hard to portray well, and some modellers actually use overhead photo's of real concrete surfaces, which can look stunning. However I think I'll take the time-honoured route of stippling some slurry on top of a cardboard infill...

 

This track is most interesting - on my British layout I use check rails to hold back the granite setts, and here we see something similar, but not actually a rail, maybe just L-section steel? Look at those short point blades! I like the recessed switch levers, under a steel lid like a manhole cover - that will save me making them, just to get broken off when I'm uncoupling something.

 

 

[Barclay]

Time certainly flies, but there has been some small progress with the layout. A socket for my controllers has been fitted and wired in, and the 'fiddlestick' constructed from 9mm ply. It hinges off the end of the layout so it can be swung down out of the way to make room for my chair of contemplation - a Great Eastern Railway waiting room chair that was once at Liverpool Street.

 

Meanwhile the first 3-way point has been built, using C&L 00 gauges, the type with the larger check rail clearances for RTR stock. Finally, and quite out of the blue, Mr. Clutterbuck was kind enough to include a feature on the layout in Narrow Gauge & Industrial Railway Modelling Review no. 132 - an American special, and that has really inspired me to get a move on.

 

I am still undecided about point control - I had originally planned to make TOU's that were based around a DPDT slider switch, operated from the edge of the layout by rods. However, having seen the Peco Twist and Lock point motor at my local model shop I am very tempted to 'go electric'. It would be such a simple way of arranging things and save a lot of the kind of labour that I don't particularly enjoy, though everything comes at a cost of course.

 

 

 

[Barclay]

The slow and stately (?) progress of this layout continues. The points are now all finished, leaving just some plain track to fill in, plus a diamond when I am absolutely certain of the geometry required. The pier has been timbered with coffee stirrers, as has the float bridge. I had previously intended to timber a large portion of the layout and bought a box of 1000, so I do have a few left over! Brass panel pins have been inserted into pre-drilled holes in the pier, so the rail can be soldered down, and I will do the same to the float bridge in due course. Underneath, feed wires are going in to supply the second baseboard, point frogs etc. but a bit of thought made me realise that I only need 2 pairs of track feeds, so wiring will be minimal. Spurs will be isolated by the points so I might get away with no isolating sections. After some thought I think I will keep the point control simple (well, cheap!) and fashion some T.O.U.s around DPDT switches, mounted on aluminium angle, and operated from the baseboard edge by brass operating rods.

 

 

 

[Barclay]

Progress on the track has been slow, while I procrastinated on the means of point operation (hacked servos it is, so I can get on with it now!)

 

Meanwhile, I have been giving some thought to road vehicles for the layout, and it is quite challenging to find the right stuff here in the UK for a US layout set in the 1970s, at least without breaking the bank with US imports. I managed to get a couple of good ones from Oxford - the 1965 Chevy stepside pickup, which only needed some matt varnish to give the paintwork a slightly faded out finish, and a 1968 Dodge Charger, which is a little more out of the ordinary than I would have liked but then I do like Mopar muscle! The small stuff was finished off with a classic Chevrolet van by Trident. I lowered the body by filing down the axle holes to give it a more correct stance, and removed the slightly modern-looking logo on the sides. A coat of matt varnish and some black panel wash on grilles and wheels completed this one.

 

 

I also wanted some trucks, and had a Wiking 'US Truck' that I had bought years ago. Research suggested it is a Peterbilt 359 which is fine for my period, and a full re-spray from the original shiny black and green plastic improved it radically. Something I really wanted for the 1970's scene though was a Cab Over Engine truck, and eventually found a Freightliner example by Con-Cor/Herpa. This has been re-painted and the chassis weathered. I haven't painted the trailers that came with them - I just don't think there's room for them.

 

 

Just 2 days after the Con-Cor model had arrived I was in my local model shop and there on the second hand shelf was an Athearn White-Freightliner COE truck with Union Pacific trailer, and all for a fiver! I now had more than I really needed, but never mind. The UP truck has just been lightly weathered, and I will use the trailer too. Isn't this hobby great at providing distractions from the things we really should be doing, such as laying the track?!

 

 

[Barclay]

I can't be accused of rushing this I know...

 

To be honest modelling has taken something of a back seat this summer, but the points were all completed, and I am now laying the track starting from the pier where the Fairbanks-Morse stands idling in this picture. This has been an ideal loco for testing as it has no paint or detail to mess up. It's now time to stick down the diamond, then start at the other end and the tracks can meet in the middle. The carfloat bridge has also been timbered and the track laid on it. Yes, I know the loft needs tidying up. I would love a proper railway room in the house itself (maybe when we retire) but the downside would be I would have to keep it tidy!

 

[Rich_F]

2 hours ago, Barclay said:

I can't be accused of rushing this I know...

 

To be honest modelling has taken something of a back seat this summer, but the points were all completed, and I am now laying the track starting from the pier where the Fairbanks-Morse stands idling in this picture. This has been an ideal loco for testing as it has no paint or detail to mess up. It's now time to stick down the diamond, then start at the other end and the tracks can meet in the middle. The carfloat bridge has also been timbered and the track laid on it. Yes, I know the loft needs tidying up. I would love a proper railway room in the house itself (maybe when we retire) but the downside would be I would have to keep it tidy!

 

 

Loving the Chevvy pickup & the GTO. I had those two exact vehicles on a couple of my old HO layouts!

[Barclay]

The mojo has been distinctly lacking this summer and autumn - I've done a bit on my EM projects but not much. Hopefully this piece of nonsense will help revitalise the US arm of the operation...

 

I got this old Varney "Little Joe" B&O switcher from Elaine's Trains for £15 - great service as always. It was cheap because it was missing a motor. The cast body suggests it was produced between 1941 and 1953 so it has a lot of history behind it, but I was pleasantly surprised by its overall quality and fineness compared to British efforts of the same era - you couldn't put early Tri-ang on modern track and expect it to run that's for sure.

 

 

I really wanted to find a worm that meshed with the existing gear wheel, to avoid having to pull the wheels off, and got lucky at the third attempt - I had a set of old 20:1 gears that came with a kit a couple of years ago and the worm meshed very nicely. It was fitted to a 6 pole square can motor that came cheaply from China a while back - they are very strong and smooth, and also rather slow revving, their only downside being that they are not at their best with a feedback controller. The motor was secured down with a brass strap, and some simple pickups fitted:

 

 

After this it was time to test and I am pleased to report that it runs well, though the gear noise is pretty loud, which is unfortunate because these motors are practically silent! I am tempted to clean off the lube and run in the gears with Brasso to help them to play more nicely together. Then it will need some more detail. All rather silly really but very enjoyable. By the way, does anyone have one of those after-market valve gear kits for one of these that they don't need?

 

 

 

 

[dave1905]

Those single point switches are very common in trolley and other urban street trackage.

 

Here are scans of a RACOR track products catalog that might give you a cleared look at what paved area switch parts look like.  The switch pictured is a double point switch, but the idea is similar.

[Barclay]

Thanks for the info - I'm beginning to wish I'd paid more attention to detail in the track construction, those really short heel switches would have looked rather good, but hey I'm lazy!

 

Having made a definitive decision on how to operate the pointwork at least 3 times now I'm veering towards having DPDT switches mounted under the board with the switch accessible from the top, covered by a length of square brass tube to the top of which is soldered something like the steel gratings you have illustrated above. You would only need to slide it back and forth with a finger. I really need to make up my mind.

[Barclay]

A concerted effort over the recent break from work has seen the trackwork completed. It has ended up very messy as some of the sleepers I stuck down in advance have turned out to not be in quite the right place! This of course is entirely the result of me adjusting it this way and that, and even now, looking at this picture, I see a slight lack of 'flow' to the track at the entrance to the run-round loop that might need yet another tweak! Luckily all of the sleepering will be covered up, and I have ordered some ivory coloured 1250 micron card to represent the concrete surface. This is the same thickness as the sleepers so I should be able to slip the first layer under the rails and then have a top surface that is slightly lower (about 3/4 mm) than the rail head. As I discovered many years ago with my British EM layout, a totally flush surface looks good until the first time you clean the track... Detailing and colouring the concrete surface will need a lot of practice and testing of techniques before I commit to doing it for real.

 

For point control the simple option seems best so some DPDT switches will be ordered and once they are installed I can conduct some extensive testing before finally getting onto the scenics, and the carfloat of course - looking forward to that.

 

 

[Barclay]

Anyone who has actually read all of my drivel regarding this layout will be aware that I have made a definitive decision regarding the intended method of point control on at least 4 or 5 occasions! It's odd for me to be unable to make up my mind, at least regarding the toy trains, which are, of course, quite irrelevant in the scheme of things - it's one of the things I like about the hobby.

 

The latest fad in my loft is the hacked servo, which I seriously considered a while back before deciding it was too complicated. However I made a prototype, and it works, plus I have all the bits, and my friend Chris said just install it and see how it works. Good advice...

 

I must stress that the hacked servo is very much not my idea, just a great notion that I picked up on RMWeb. It's not for everyone - techie people will not understand why anyone would not want a fully functional servo, but it suits my low-tech approach to things and my aversion to complexity. You basically take all of the clever stuff out of the servo, leaving it as a simple motor/gearbox, which you wire up and physically connect to, a DPDT switch so as it throws, it switches itself off again. Throw the control switch the other way and it throws back, switching itself off again. The spare 'side' of the switch changes the polarity of the crossing. The photo's probably explain it better:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The idea is to fit it underneath, with the top of the arm projecting slightly above the baseboard, and operate the point via a short wire. A representation of the cast iron switch covers would hide the works from view but allow maintenance. Time to install the prototype and then report back!

Edited January 23 by Barclay