Please adivse on my railhead and wharf

[mobi323]

I am modeling a pre-WWII OO layout. It is not prototypical of any set area but will have prototypical elements from all over the GWR system.

 

I enclose a couple of pictures of one corner of the layout. Forgive the black rocks in the pictures but I have just glued them down as you do ballast and they are still a bit wet.

Click

Click

 

As you can see I am trying to put the maximum in that I can. I have placed the Jinty there to give a relative size. Where the Jinty is will be the middle of a dock. I plan to have two wharves in this dock. The left hand wharf will be to unload cattle and maybe a refrigerated fish facility. The far left hand siding will have a cattle yard and dock.

 

The right hand side of the shipping dock will be a china clay loading facility. At the end of the rail sidings, which will have to be elevated a bit, I plan on building some sort of chute that can be raised and lowered. The idea is that the clay wagons are pushed to the end of the siding (with a suitable buffer (see the Didcot coaling stage push cart on rails that have a curved up end that wraps around the wheel to stop it from being pushed too far)). The wagons carry about 10 ton and are unloaded into the chute through the end door. The reason for the second siding is clear now as the wagons are placed in the second siding as they are emptied and a the next full wagon is shunted up to the chute for its turn for unloading.

 

All this is to explain what my plans are. I think the basic design is how china clay was loaded into ships in the early to mid part of the twentieth century.

 

I would appreciate any comments.

 

Anyway this is not what my main problem is. The main problem is finding a ship that I can place in my dock. A bit of maths will tell you that I cannot place a whole ocean going freighter at the wharf. The smallest coaster would be about 18 - 20" long. You don't realize how difficult it is to find an inexpensive ship. I say inexpensive because to fit it in I plan to cut it into quarters and have the top forward half in the dock. (This is much the same as those Metcalfe warehouse kits that only have half the building except that I plan on having half a ship) and of course the ship will have to be cut along its waterline as well.

 

I have found this model and if I cannot find an alternative I suppose I'll have to buy it.

 

Has anybody got any better ideas (apart from scrapping the whole silly idea).

[Kris]

I would suggest modelling the wharf without the boat. The boat that you have pointed out would need some significant modification to make it look right, given that it is in a smaller scale all the doors, windows and other fittings will be noticeably smaller than those on other nearby buildings etc. have you looked at the Langley website. These models can be purchased cheaper elsewhere (the 1/87 models will suffer from the same issues as the boat you have found).

[kandc_au]

Given you only want to model 1/4 of a boat....why not make it yourself, out of either, balsa/card or a combination.

 

Khris

[Katier]

Maybe you can move canalside, you obviously don't have much room for a dockside being so narrow but a canal warf would work. Ok takes the setting away from the sea but might work.

[mobi323]

Maybe you can move canalside, you obviously don't have much room for a dockside being so narrow but a canal warf would work. Ok takes the setting away from the sea but might work.

 

Thank you for your helpful comment but I think I might have solved the problem.

Click

It is supposed to be OO scale and is 9" long which is about what I can fit in. (I might have to make it a little smaller when I am assembling it).

[wagonman]

Thank you for your helpful comment but I think I might have solved the problem.

Click

It is supposed to be OO scale and is 9" long which is about what I can fit in. (I might have to make it a little smaller when I am assembling it).

 

 

The only slight problem is that the Clyde Puffers, which were a very distinctive design, rarely strayed far from the west coast of Scotland (the clue is in the name). I don't think the GWR stretched that far...

 

There are prototypes of small coasters that plied the Severn Estuary but they would have to be scratchbuilt. Chris Handley wrote an excellent book on the Maritime Activities of the S&DJR – wrong company but right area – which shows several small vessels active in the 1930s. The railway company owned several vessels over the years, the last being the Julia and the Radstock, both about 190 tons GRT and 100' or so long. Drawings of these vessels are in the book. The book also has photos of smaller ships, some as small as 96 tons GRT which is very much in the Puffer range. Don't forget also that there were some sailing vessels, ketches and trows mostly, still active in the coastal trade – there are several books available to cover the West Country sailing ships. Photos, and some plans even, are available (at a price) from the National Maritime Museum.

 

On balance though, an empty berth seems like the best bet!

[jcb 3c]

If you modify a Clyde Puffer by putting the wheelhouse forward of the funnel its fairly typical of small coastal vessels found all round UK until the 60's, like rail engines many had long lives in the trade.

Heres a typical one having a rest

 

http://www.redcarlifeboat.org.uk/zetland/album/wrecks/pages/basalt-1957_jpg.htm

 

and heres a photoshopped model slipway one with wheelhouse/funnel reversed-

link-

http://www.modelslipway.com/puffer/puffer.htm