I'm thinking about circling back to the apron project. I could use some photos or blueprints of the prototype to base my models on. I've done a few searches on google and bing the past few months but maybe there is something better off the beaten path.
Here are a couple of photos I have collected. I wish I had some dimensional data, but right now I do not. They were all wooden structures and remained thus right to their end use. The top is a Milwaukee Road on Salmon Bay, in Seattle, Washington. The bottom is a MILW subsidiary company, Puget Sound & Willapa Harbor RY, at Raymond, Washington:
In San Fransisco, there are several examples still around (in various degrees of decay). China Basin, Pier 43 ferry arch and the Hyde Street pier are two in SF, and there's another in Richmond called the Point Richmond Pier (aka ferry point, former SF ferry slip). https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7715628,-122.3858605,283m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8092389,-122.4131473,84m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8091692,-122.4212058,69m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.9092415,-122.3914939,346m/data=!3m1!1e3
...and a bunch of info on the China Basin apron someone was building in N scale: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=31751.100
Awesome! Lots of great ideas for the hoist. What about pilings(?)? The supports that held the hoist above the water and also where the end of the apron connects to land. Would it have been a large cement block or wooden pier supports?
Out here (left coast) it was pilings fanning out in a V shape. If you look at the Google Map links above, you can see the pilings, sometimes with a track on them as well. Also the China Basin build link has a video and more pictures of the pilings as well.
Almost ready to release. It turned out really good. Not any particular prototype but elements of several. Decided to go with concrete pilings. Going to take the staging photos tonight and hopeful post this in a day or two.
