Train Ferry Project in 1:76 ... previously ... Two (or more) Heads Are Better Than One ... or ... Too late! That ship has sailed!

[SteveyDee68]

I have expressed elsewhere the longstanding desire to model a train ferry in OO 4mm/foot, having read The Wardleworth Lines Committee article in the Railway Modeller as a youngster and being fascinated by its train ferry, and subsequently feeling challenged by the follow-up article talking about it and how "there are some things you can do in N that are simply impractical in another scale". The Rev Alan Shone designed and built a freelance train ferry in N gauge capable of holding eight coaches split across two tracks, so it was a little over four carriages in length. (Of course, the prototype Dover train ferry was similarly sized in carriage length terms, but having four tracks could hold up to 16 coaches.) The WLC layout included timetabled trains to be shunted onto the ferry, and original plans included a second ferry so that they might be exchanged and a different train be unloaded. Experiments quickly revealed that N gauge stock could not stay put on the rails whilst moving the model ship, and so just the one ferry was built and any stock worked onto it was assumed to represent a different train upon its 'return'.

 

Now, I have pondered over the idea for years (quite literally) of turning Cyril Freezer's Minories plan (with the goods shed at the front) into a station with a train ferry berth. Restricting the ferry length to two tracks and four carriages (a la WLC mentioned above) would still allow for an eight coach passenger train to arrive and be shunted onto the ferry. Lengthwise, I imagined a layout with a terminus of platform length of loco plus eight coaches, throat pointwork, and a four coach long headshunt running alongside the arrival/departure lines to allow the ferry to be loaded/unloaded.

 

I have drawn rough plans for this, and also an alternative with the ferry berth at the rear of the station (looking from the front) to ensure that the station might be fully seen and not obscured by the ship. Both seem feasible, but one aspect is puzzling annoying frustrating me - the stock is shunted onto the ship, and then gets shunted off again.

 

I would really like to exchange the stock on board the ship so that - despite not moving anywhere - the stock coming off the ship when it returns is different.

 

This is where I hope I might ask for any ideas - however barmy! - from fellow RMWebbers as to how to achieve this!

 

There are a few "rules" ...

 

1) The exchange of stock must remain "hidden" from view - not shunt it off again and "pretend" not to see it, or remove it by hand

 

2) The whole ship is modelled (unlike a Continental layout I read about with only the stern of the ship modelled, as a fiddle yard entrance)

 

3) The exchange of stock should not involve so much 'offstage fiddling' as to interupt the 'suspension of disbelief'

 

4) If possible, the process might be automated to assist with (3) (Wow! Just, wow!)

 

If this was an exhibition layout, the whole idea of the exchange of stock is to have an audience wonder "How did they do that?" (Like watching a magic trick!) Yes, I am thinking suchlike might have great entertainment value!

 

I have already sketched out multiple ideas but, as the title suggests, applying the hive mind of RMWeb may come up with a workable solution that I would simply never have considered.

 

Thinking hats on, chaps and chappesses; I really hope for - nay, look forward to - some imaginative solutions!

 

HOURS OF FUN!

 

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by SteveyDee68
Better English! Changed title of thread (again!)

[Dagworth]

Have a traverser inside the ferry.

 

Andi

[SteveyDee68]

1 minute ago, Dagworth said:

Have a traverser inside the ferry.

 

Andi

 

Thanks, Andi - I thought I was the only one up! Also, was that a record for the time taken to respond to a post? (I was still editing my original post to improve the clarity of my English when you responded!)

 

I'll have to ask you, if you don't mind, to elaborate upon your reply (in due course) as I'm not sure how that would work? (My mind is already racing with possibilities, but also struggling!)

 

Cheers

 

Steve S

[DCB]

The stock rolling problem is fairly easily solved with steel plates on the bottom of the coaches and super neo magnets holding them down.  The magnets are pushed up through the baseboard when the coaches stop and grab on to the bottom of the coaches. You need a frame to hold the magnets  down clear when moving the stock and raise it back to grab the stock.

I use small cylindrical super neo magnets with a 2mm hole down the middle, about 40p each which a 10 BA countersunk bolt passes through to hold them, to grab metal couplings on my coaches to stop rakes rolling out of my nominally level but actually 1 in 100 carriage siding.  One arranged to hold wagons couplings against the buffers when lifting my lifting section to vertical held the wagons but they didn't stay in line with the rails.  

With the stock secured you can change the deck as per a cassette.

Or if the ship is fixed lower the rail deck to below the ship and change decks or simply shunt stock off and new stock on.   I find an old 97XX condensing pannier tank is ideal for shunting subterranean hidden sidings.

Edited February 25, 2021 by DavidCBroad

[Harlequin]

Hi Steve,

What if the ships were themselves on rails and run from your normal train controller, ideally DCC.

(Yes, I said ships...)

 

Having loaded the ship that’s docked, you raise the ramps via DCC. That alone may be enough to hold the stock in place but if not then you actuate some other clamping mechanism like David’s magnets.

 

Then you gracefully drive the ship off scene, into a “ship fiddle yard” where there is, cunningly hidden, another ship with alternate stock on board.

 

To hide the rails while no ship is docked there’s a section of “water” that also runs on the ship rails and slides into place from under the quayside.

 

Sometime later you change the points in the ship fiddle yard, sound the ship’s horn (did I mention that the DCC ships on rails are sound fitted? Of course they are!) and drive it on scene to the amazement of the audience. The new ship pushes the sliding water cover back under the quayside. Release the stock clamps, lower the ramps and haul the new stock onto the layout proper.

 

While either ship is off-scene you’ve got the opportunity to shuffle the stock on board by hand if you want to ring the changes.

Could be automated in exactly the same way as you would automate your railway.

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by Harlequin

[Zomboid]

Were the boats double ended? If so you could push the carriages on one end, have the scenic break at the other end of the boat, and have a hidden shunter to take them out the other end/push new ones in. Maybe even buy a model of a little french engine for the job.

 

If not then a sector plate inside the boat would enable something similar.

[Chimer]

Assuming the coaches once on the ferry are hidden somewhere within the superstructure, you could perhaps drop the cassette holding them through the bottom of the boat?

 

But now Phil has suggested the ferry actually departing, I can't see you settling for anything less.  Don't like the idea of a ferry on rails though.  Real water, and have the ferry move by chasing a magnet moving under the sea bed (a la that system for road vehicles) .........

 

 

[SteveyDee68]

On 25/02/2021 at 02:59, DavidCBroad said:

With the stock secured you can change the deck as per a cassette.

Or if the ship is fixed lower the rail deck to below the ship and change decks or simply shunt stock off and new stock on.   I find an old 97XX condensing pannier tank is ideal for shunting subterranean hidden sidings.

 

Ah! Now, that is the "solution" I originally came up with! But, in the words of Max Bialystock in my favourite show The Producers, "So you say, but you don't tell me how!"

 

It is the vertical movement of the deck that has me stumped trying to work out how to do it simply and reliably!

 

On 25/02/2021 at 04:44, Harlequin said:

What if the ships were themselves on rails and run from your normal train controller, ideally DCC.

(Yes, I said ships...)

 

WOW!

 

See?! I knew throwing the question out to the hive mind would come up with solutions I had not thought of! Given that a ship will be approximately five feet long, a ship fiddle yard using points might end up longer than the terminus station itself as the ship has to "leave port" ... if an exhibition layout, a proscenium arch would act as an effective view blocker from front... a ship traverser would be a tad over five feet long ... a sector plate could swing back to allow two ships to interchange ... would the "sliding water cover" operate as a 'consist' with the ship to ensure movement is perfectly matched? The ship itself would need water modelled at the sides for it to sit in, to move  off with it and allow the sliding cover to replace it (easily hidden under the enclosing dock walls on both sides of the ferry berth). To disguise the join between ship water and cover water, do you model the wash/wake/turbulence at the rear from the ship's propellers? (This would perhaps look odd when reversing into the dock, but would be hidden under the link span when berthed.)

 

Thank you, Phil (Harlequin) for your suggestion, which reminds me of when I once took part in some "lateral thinking solution" staff training; I was told that my solution to a problem/challenge/task was so far "out of the box" that the trainers had lost sight of the box, were no longer sure what the box looked like and were questioning if they had packed the box in the first place! (In fact, the following session they told me they had updated the training manual!) Your solution is definitely not something I would have ever thought of. Hmmm...

 

On 25/02/2021 at 02:59, DavidCBroad said:

I find an old 97XX condensing pannier tank is ideal for shunting subterranean hidden sidings.

 

 

It took me a while, but I got there in the end, David!

 

On 25/02/2021 at 10:08, Zomboid said:

Were the boats double ended?

 

I think European train ferries (such as in Denmark) may have been, and "car floats" in the USA too, but UK ships were stern loaded only. As mentioned, a continental layout had just the stern modelled and it was the entry point to a fiddle yard. I like your idea of unloading with a continental loco from the opposite end, though!

 

A couple of suggestions for internal traversers, but how would that work without the ship becoming over-wide, bearing in mind that the tracks on deck run symetrically and not to one side? Struggling to visualise this...

 

Many thanks for the ideas - I am not dismissing anything, other than floating a radio controlled ship in real water!

 

Steve S

Edited February 28, 2021 by SteveyDee68
Inserted a missing word! Typos!!!

[Dagworth]

3 minutes ago, SteveyDee68 said:

 

A couple of suggestions for internal traversers, but how would that work without the ship becoming over-wide, bearing in mind that the tracks on deck run symetrically and not to one side? Struggling to visualise this...

Initially tracks 1&3 line up with the bow tracks, then tracks 2&4. The tracks can be ridiculously close together so the movement only needs to be the width of a vehicle. 
 

Andi

[SteveyDee68]

3 minutes ago, Chimer said:

Real water, and have the ferry move by chasing a magnet moving under the sea bed (a la that system for road vehicles) .........

 

Thanks for the suggestion, which arrived whilst I was typing that the only idea I would reject would be real water! (I know they have used it on the Wunderland (or whatever it is called) layout in Europe, but I think it is way beyond my own technical abilities to ensure water and electronics never meet! Not to mention that I plan to build the ferry out of non-waterproof materials!

 

6 minutes ago, Chimer said:

Assuming the coaches once on the ferry are hidden somewhere within the superstructure, you could perhaps drop the cassette holding them through the bottom of the boat?

 

This is a popular solution, and one I had thought of. The issue is, how?! 

 

7 minutes ago, Chimer said:

But now Phil has suggested the ferry actually departing, I can't see you settling for anything less

 

Yes. That is a problem, as he has now put the idea in my head! How to move a five foot long, quite heavy model smoothly is the problem!

 

Thanks for replying!

 

Steve S

[SteveyDee68]

On 25/02/2021 at 12:06, Dagworth said:

Initially tracks 1&3 line up with the bow tracks, then tracks 2&4. The tracks can be ridiculously close together so the movement only needs to be the width of a vehicle. 
 

Andi

 

And that is the power of RMWeb! That is a brilliant suggestion, Andi, and one I simply couldn't (and hadn't) visualise/d! I feel the urge to mock this up in foamboard to arrive at a working solution! Many, many thanks! I think this may be the simplest solution in terms of engineering (horizontal movement rather than vertical, and no "fiddle shunting required!)

 

UPDATE

Obviously some thought has to be put into the design before attempting a physical mock-up - see later entries for calculations, Powerpoint animations (oooh!) and timetable planning!

 

HOURS OF FUN!

Edited February 28, 2021 by SteveyDee68
Updated

[imt]

It never fails to amaze me that wonderful solutions to extraordinary problems appear on this forum.  This is/was a fantastic thread full of "cunning plans".  It might even move me to think about doing a ferry.  I hope th OP does have a go at mocking it up and look forward to seeing it if he does.

[DCB]

You could mount the ship on a supermarket trolley frame, your local sink estate or canal should have a selection.

Lifting a deck or cassette vertically is a bit of a challenge, especially if the load is not evenly distributed.  The common or garden thing which lifts a foot or so smoothly and fairy swiftly is the car side window, so maybe a car window winder mechanism could be adapted.   Or a foot operated lever lifting the deck past the fully raised position and then easing it back down onto a locking mechanism. I had planned a few such lifts but always single track and around 8 feet long which makes and even lift even more critical lengthways but less so sideways.  Again its thinking outside the tin, then to quote Arthur Daley, "The world's your Lobster."

[Chimer]

 

27 minutes ago, Chimer said:

Assuming the coaches once on the ferry are hidden somewhere within the superstructure, you could perhaps drop the cassette holding them through the bottom of the boat?

 

18 minutes ago, SteveyDee68 said:

This is a popular solution, and one I had thought of. The issue is, how?! 

 

Maybe a barrel bolt underneath each corner of the cassette?  Granted would need teamwork and steady hands to keep it level as it's manoeuvred about .....

 

This solution and real water are mutually exclusive 

 

 

[Harlequin]

17 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

 ... would the "sliding water cover" operate as a 'consist' with the ship to ensure movement is perfectly matched? The ship itself would need water modelled at the sides fir it to sit in, to move  off with it and allow the sliding cover to replace it (easily hidden under the enclosing dock walls on both sides of the ferry berth). To disguise the join between ship water and cover water, do you model the wash/wake/turbulence at the rear from the ship's propellers? (This would perhaps look odd when reversing into the dock, but would be hidden under the link span when berthed.)

 

 

You're over-thinking it...  The water cover would be operated by gravity. It could be shaped at the ship end to wrap around the bow/stern of the ship(s). It would roll in when the ship leaves and just get pushed aside when the ship docks.

 

As far as wash is concerned, you could probably paint some light turbulence on so that it looks vaguely right in all conditions, maybe? But it you really wanted to go for it, maybe it could be animated in some way - er, a skinny edgeless LCD screen showing a video??? Now I'm over-thinking it!

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Harlequin

[SteveyDee68]

On 25/02/2021 at 12:23, imt said:

It never fails to amaze me that wonderful solutions to extraordinary problems appear on this forum.  This is/was a fantastic thread full of "cunning plans".  It might even move me to think about doing a ferry.  I hope th OP does have a go at mocking it up and look forward to seeing it if he does.

 

Totally agree, and am so excited to have a suggestion which should not only work but which I think is actually possible!

 

Despite currently trying to progress my dockside micro layout Burnstow Dock (was Blackford Wharf)  forward plus building a Y6 tram loco (on a pug chassis thanks to a suggestion by @Gibbo) together with a skirted Drewery diesel (on a Bachmann Junior chassis), I feel this is something I want to try sooner rather than later, even though it is for my much larger planned layout Broadhaven (was Broadchurch Marine) which has yet to have a plan finalised!

 

Steve S

 

 

Edited May 28, 2022 by SteveyDee68
Corrected layout name references

[SteveyDee68]

On 25/02/2021 at 12:24, DavidCBroad said:

You could mount the ship on a supermarket trolley frame, your local sink estate or canal should have a selection.

 

This made me laugh out loud, both for the suggestions of where to find them* but especially due to the fact that for the past twenty years plus we used shopping trolleys to move music stands around to different rehearsal rooms at the Music Centre where I work on a Saturday, and knowing how unpredictable they were to move even on a perfectly flat surface!

 

Did you use the term sink estate as a double pun?! 

 

Most of the canals I see are in pretty good nick, these days... you must be referring to where they are near aforementioned estates! 

 

Steve S

 

* Also quite coincidentally, there is a large ASDA store literally two minutes up the road from where I live!

Edited May 28, 2022 by SteveyDee68

[SteveyDee68]

On 25/02/2021 at 12:33, Chimer said:

This solution and real water are mutually exclusive 

 

I'm glad you clarified that for me!! 😆

 

Steve S

Edited May 28, 2022 by SteveyDee68

[john new]

1 hour ago, Dagworth said:

Initially tracks 1&3 line up with the bow tracks, then tracks 2&4. The tracks can be ridiculously close together so the movement only needs to be the width of a vehicle. 
 

Andi

Keep the boat/traverser in place but have a sliding scenic panel for the boat. As it departs it reveals a second scenic flat of the dock and the reverse manoeuvre for its' return. 

[SteveyDee68]

Possibly slightly off-topic (or is it?) but has anyone used metal U-shaped channel for inset rails? I don't mean the U is to the width of the track, I mean the U provides the running rail and inner rail, the gap between being for flanges? Is such a material available in metal? (I know U shaped plastruct is but surely that would wear with metal wheels ... plus any lights on coaches would turn off!)

 

[Yes, I am thinking that coach lights are powered when lined up with the release tracks off the ship, but are 'dead' when stored in order to maintain the illusion of the ship having "gone" somewhere!]

 

Steve S

 

PS

I still like Phil's idea of the ship actually leaving, but technically that - for me - is like trying to build a Mars probe before successfully flying a kite!

Edited February 28, 2021 by SteveyDee68
Typos

[Zomboid]

Its not what you asked, but Tillig make inset track

https://www.tillig.com/eng/strassenbahngleis4.html

 

The curves and points are very tight, but it still might be helpful.

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

If the boat needs to move, then a Magnorail or similar system could be used, a metal plate on the bottom of the ferry attracted to a moving magnet, that would allow the use of real water if the water was contained in a plastic box with the magnets outside and underneath it.

 

Mike.

[The Stationmaster]

Interesting idea!  depending on the era and vessel you model you are definitely looking at a ship about 5 feet long for a British train ferry service.  But the length of the ship is not the only thing you have to consider in planninga layout as you also have to akllow for the link span needed to allow the ferry to be loaded/unloaded at any state of the tide.

 

This picture shows the links span in action at Dunkerque in the early 1990s

 

As you can see it s a pretty complicated arrangement with the nearest section to the ship more or less level with the deck (because of the pointwork) while the two intermediate sections move up & down with the tide.  you can get a rough idea of their length from the ferry wagons being shunted off the ferry.  The arrangement at Dover was much simpler - possibly because of the tidal range - but again there is the section with the pointwork level with the deck of the ship but only a single movable section beyond that.

 

You will see in both cases that the pointwork is clear of the declk of the ferry - in the Bristish example it is one ths ection which the ferry deck aligns with but on teh French example it is on the fixed section at the landward end with the rails then interlaced over the movable sections of the link span until they finally divide on teh final section level with the ferry deck.  as I said, the SNCF version is more complicated.  I didn't take any photos of the lines inside the hull because the light wasn 't good enough.

 

Because the rail vehicles were heavily loaded (steel traffic) all rail movements (until the french got a bit fed up with doing it that way) were carried out in parallel on the two separate lines onto the ship in order to keep things lined up.  I didn't take any photos of how the ship docked into the link span as we weren't allowed on the rail ferry deck except when the ship was secured for loading and unloading.  The pictures were taken during my working day - albeit a rather unusual day on that occasion but someone had to do it.   (And the food on the ferry was very good and reasonably priced - far better in the early 1990s than the sort of stuff by then being served up on passenger ferries because the lorry drivers had to be kept happy in order to convince them that the Channel Tunnel wouldn't be the way to cross that Channel when it opened about 18 months later.)

 

Ince identally for the traction fans SNCF obviously had very different ideas from BR about how to shunt a train ferry -

 

[SteveyDee68]

Further to the suggestion from Andi (Dagworth), I have been doing a little thinking and a few drawings to work out some possible measurements. As for the traverser itself, I am wondering whether I might get a customised lasercut version; I am certain I have seen something done elsewhere on RMWeb where the traverser is simply a ply deck sliding on top of another ply deck, and am thinking that having either ply or mdf cut accurately by laser might be the best way of doing this. But I am getting ahead of myself!

 

Calculating the Width of the Internal Traverser and Relating to the Prototype 

 

After Andi's revelation* that the traverser only needs to move (effectively) one width of track in order to line up a pair of new exit routes, I started thinking about how that could be applied to the ship design. I decided to create a "Standard Track Width" (STW) to help me plan the traverser's parts and, from that, aspects of the design of the ferry itself. To assist with visualising this, I've been creating a PowerPoint...

 

After settling upon 44mm for the width of each trackbed on the traverser, my mind turned to how to hide the fact that other stock would be parked in close proximity on the traverser. I thought maybe sidewalls, 2mm thick running between each track; the inner sides would be finished as the interior of the ship with access doors, pipes etc. Of course, inner tracks would share a sidewall, which would be decorated on each side appropriately.

 

So, 4 x 44mm STWs = 176mm; plus 5 x 2mm (sidewalls) = 186mm width for the traverser table, and add a further 46mm for the traverser table to slide across and the total width of the traverser is 232mm. With hull sides of 3mm thickness, that would add a further 6mm to the final dimensions, so the total width across the ship's hull at train deck level would be 238mm, or a scale 59'6" across the beam. Allowing an extra 1mm each side between the end of the traverser and the ship's hull would increase the width to 140mm, or a scale 60' across the beam.

 

According to Appendix 2 of The Night Ferry by George Behrend and Gary Buchanan, the three SR built 1934 train ferries Twickenham Ferry, Hampton Ferry and Shepperton Ferry measured 63'9", 63'2" and 62'10" across their beam, so my measurements work out almost to scale (255mm, 253mm** and 252mm** respectively)! Of course, these ships all accomodated four tracks across their decks accessed by two tracks across the linkspan so would have considerably more room for each track (a much greater STW than I have allowed) whereas for the purposes of allowing two train consists onboard the ship for model operational purposes, I am using the same simplification as Rev Alan Shone on his 2mm scale ferry and limiting the link span to a single track splitting into two tracks (or so it appears to the observer!!)

 

By increasing the BTW for the traverser, the following calculations were arrived at:

 

46mm BTW ... 184 + 10 + 48 = 242 (traverser) ... 242 + 2 + 6 = 250mm (62' 6" approx Twickenham Ferry)

 

47mm BTW ... 188 + 10 + 49 = 247 (traverser) ... 247 + 2 + 6 = 255mm (63'9" exactly scale Twickenham Ferry)

 

48mm BTW ... 192 + 10 + 50 = 252mm (traverser) ... 252 + 2 + 6 = 260mm (65' = over scale width)

 

Length of Internal Traverser

 

Taking a Class F sleeper car length of 16280mm (or 53'5"**), that equates at 214mm** at 4mm/foot. My plan to hold four such vehicles would need a minimum traverser length of 856mm, but allowing for couplings etc this might be increased to exactly 1000mm (1m) in length.

 

Taking Twickenham Ferry (as it is possible to exactly match its width), the total length of the ship was 359' which scales at 1436mm. However, despite a cutaway illustration showing four carriages on board (p.25, courtesy Railway Gazette 16 October 1936), according to Behrend & Buchanan "Each train ferry track took three sleeping cars" (p.21)... that would mean that the internal traverser on my model would need to be capable of taking 642mm (extended to 750mm, as before for couplings etc).  

 

Proportionally, the four coach traverser would be 69.6% of the total length of the ship (close to 7/10ths) whereas the three coach traverser would be just over 52% of the total length. Looking at the schematic of the new ships from the Railway Gazette it would appear that the covered train deck itself was more like 90% of the length of the ship, so the longer traverser makes more sense proportionally for the model, if possible to fit inside the hull outline.

 

Train Ferry Dimensions - Actual and Scale

 

1934/35 Vessels

Twickenham Ferry - L 359' (1436mm) x W 63'9" (255mm)

Hampton Ferry - L 359' (1436mm) x  W 63'2" (253mm**)

Shepperton Ferry - L 359' (1436mm) x W 62'10" (252mm**)

 

Later Vessels***

Saint-Germain - L 379.5 feet** (1518mm) x W 60.4 feet** (242mm)

Vortigern - L 375.9 feet** (1504mm**) x W 63 feet** (252mm)

Chartres - L 378.6 feet** (1514mm**) x W 63 feet** (252mm)

Saint Eloi - L 376 feet** (1504mm) x W 63 feet** (252mm)

 

Although similar in size and width (to fit in the existing train dock facilities at Dover) the passenger capacity increased over time; the original three ferries all carried 500 passengers, but thevlater ferries carried 850 (later 1000), 1000 (later 1400), 1400 and 1000 passengers respectively.

 

Gross tonnage, however, increased across each successive vessel, namely 2839, 2989 and 2996 tons for the original three, then 3094 (later 3492), 4371 (later 4797), 4586 and 4648 tonnes for the later vessels respectively.

 

Therefore any model attempted is going to be around 1.5m long in 4mm scale (59"** or 4'11")

 

HOURS OF FUN!

 

* Possibly the only person this was a revelation to was myself! 

** Figures rounded sensibly!

*** Dimensions given in metric and converted to imperial (with necessary rounding)

 

All ship related data is taken from Appendix 2 of Night Ferry by George  and Gary Buchanan, and for Wagon-Lits Type F sleeper coaches from Appendix 3 of the same book

 

Image 1 - Twickenham Ferry (from the Shipping Wonders of the World website)

 

 

Image 2 - Hampton Ferry accredited to Roy Thornton (from tynebuiltships.co.uk

                       and matching the Railway Gazette illustration on p25 of Night Ferry)

 

 

Image 3 - coloured version of longitudinal section of Hampton Ferry, from John Speller's 

                       SE&CR webpages (and as reproduced in model magazine articles)

 

Edited February 28, 2021 by SteveyDee68
Labelled images

[SteveyDee68]

Thanks Mike (The Stationmaster) for the photos and information about the link spans. These are exactly the kind of photos that don't seem to exist either because of poor access or simply little interest! (Who wanted to waste expensive film stock on a grotty bit of ironmongery when there were exciting ships and rolling stock to be captured?!)

 

I've been busy calculating dimensions for the internal traverser, and then applying those results to the actual ships and I'm happy to see you confirm that the model will end up 5 feet long! I plan to model a dock as at Dover which means a simpler, shorter linkspan (possibly 30-40cm long) which will feed back (via a headshunt) into a modified Minories style station.

 

The only technical issue (apart from building a five foot long model ship! ) is that the necessarily narrow doorways onto the traverser tracks (which I plan to be 'walled in' - later post to illustrate!) mean that tight curves to achieve the necessary spacing might cause coaches to foul the doorways. I could, of course, simply have a single wider doorway across the 'middle 3 positions' of the traverser, but I am really keen to create the 'illusion' of different trains loading/offloading from the ship!

 

Besides which, I have worked out a sequence timetable across two ships* across a working day which sees a variety of different trains 'taking to the water'!

 

HOURS OF FUN!

 

* In reality, the one model vessel - I may be bonkers but not completely mad!!