Thanks and I just dented the credit card again with two orders for bicycles on without riders and one with riders. So within a month I will have all types of transportation on the layout from, sea, to air, train, car, bus, motorcycle, bicycle, and horse drawn.
I finished adding some more small trees and now am just about ready to clean the track and vac everything and run some trains as the snow falls. A top of the tracks shot of the added vegetation that also shows off the 3rd rail. 100_0987-3 by John Moore posted Feb 11, 2021 at 5:54 PM and in another shot the motorcycles on main street along with the newly redone station parking lot with cars once again. Three cycles are at the bottom of the picture. 100_0988-4 by John Moore posted Feb 11, 2021 at 5:54 PM Ordered some bicycles and some mopeds and scooters. Could not find any suitable bike racks in amount nor price so I am making my own to go at both train stations and to place around the town.
Looks nice! Gonna have a much smaller version of the yearly Sturgis motorcycle rally?? Maybe catch a train to a wharf area restaurant for lunch/dinner? (Need a confused emoji) Or will they follow the face ask and social distancing requirements? (Need face mask emoji) Couldn’t help it!! Joking aside, really looks good!
No this is the time period around 1946 to 1953 where face masks are something that is worn by a surgical team or a bad guy. You can take a ferry or a seaplane from the mainland to reach the Islands off Washington coast. Once on the Island you can take a train from Friday Harbor to reach Roche Harbor resorts. Your choice of the red eye special or the luxurious blue express with pullman service and dome cars. Other transport is a bus service that is slow and bumpy riding. Several hotels are available in Friday Harbor with one lodge run by the Buddhist Monastery. Fresh seafood dinners are available at Water Front Willy's in the harbor. Steak and ribs are available at Wicked Wanda's next to it. A diner is on 2nd street that is known for good home cooked meals and on main street there is Effies known for it's Scottish cuisine. Beer is cheap since it is brewed on the Island and brewery tours with sampling are always available. A fresh seafood market is is located in the middle of Cannery Road right in front of the fish cannery and charter boats for deep sea fishing are available at the fish dock. At the Friday Harbor resort located up on the cliff there is Ingrid's restaurant known for it's all you can eat shrimp and crab dinners plus prime rib of lamb which are raised on the Island. The Island is also home to the NUMA ocean research facility and the aquarium there is open year round for visits. There is also a USCG station there which maintains the lighthouse and is home port to a buoy tender/ice breaker and several fast pursuit patrol craft which keep busy chasing the bootleggers operating from the Canadian islands. One can take the great Northern or Northern Pacific and connect to the SP&S which connects to the ferry service and seaplane service to the Islands. All layouts need a story line and that helps to develop the layout. With mine there is a real Friday Harbor in San Juan Island located off the coast of Washington State. It has had a seaplane and ferry service since the early 1900s. The island had a quarry and a fish cannery was located in Friday Harbor. A real oceanographic research is located there also. Sheep raising and agriculture are present on the Island. There was a small railroad connected with the quarry. In the early years bootleg whiskey was run in the area. The island has always had poor roads and you either went by plane or boat to reach areas. I have compressed time and have several industries all there at the same time and kept the roads poor and few between. Thus the rail service. The rail service ends at Roche Harbor where some of the off layout facilities are located. Early container service is with 14 to 20 foot containers brought in by barge and tug. Rail service is by car float connecting to the SP&S and GN.
Thanks and another tidbit of a story line. Sabot stone was located in Klickitat WA on the KL&L RR. and was a real company. I decided that the Sabot family would buy the limestone quarries on San Juan Island. The real part is that Lime production from limestone was shipped from the Island as far as Hawaii and other locations. And the kilns are still a tourist attraction there on the island. Still is an active quarry on the Island today. So I had a bunch of Sabat Stone cars left from my days of modeling the SP&S and they were 34 footers ideal for the new layout. I also had a wood craftman's kit of a stone works that was cut down in size to fit the layout. Most of my piers in the harbor are outside faced with cut stone. So Sabat Stone continues on supplying cut stone for piers, retaining walls, stone chips for ballast, tombstones and fancy carved stonework to the world. The quarry and limeworks are located in Roche harbor at the other end of the Island. The stoneworks is located in Friday Harbor and has a two track spur, one for receiving stone and one for shipping stone products. Thus I do not have to model a quarry on the layout. The original stoneworks before it was cut down by about a third. Yuletide Marble Works by John Moore posted May 10, 2014 at 7:16 PM
I finished the bicycle racks ahead of the arrival, deciding it was better to build my own. I went to my building parts box and chose a section of fence and then some strip styrene. I cut to tops and bottoms off the fence even with the cross pieces. On some short sections I glued styrene support posts. I ended up with 7 racks of varying widths. The racks are 4 N scale feet tall. Each end of the racks were attached to concrete pads and will be scattered over the layout. Nearly 36 bikes and mopeds on order some with riders. 100_0989-1 by John Moore posted Feb 12, 2021 at 6:05 PM In a continuation of the story line with the layout I present another story. Two sets of structures on the layout though in separate location are related. Back in 1918 some Japanese fishermen where caught in a Pacific storm of such intensity that they and their boats were washed up on the shore of San Juan Island. They stayed and established the fish cannery and expanded their fishing fleet. That explains some of the Japanese style fishing boats in the harbor as they turned out to be a more seaworthy craft. New boats were built for them by ACME Marine in Friday Harbor to their specs. Later more Japanese immigrated there in the late 20s. The success of the cannery led them to build a fresh fish market shipping seafood to the mainland in the 1930s. One thing was lacking though and it was their spiritual life. A delegation of fishermen traveled back to Japan to convince a Zen Buddhist sect to send some monks to the Island. Purchasing land up on the cliffs that overlooked the port area they built a Zendo and a temple.The temple took five years to build. Today that temple is a tourist attraction and the monks offer classes in meditation and holistic medicine. The fish market recently started using 14 foot refrigerated containers. The containers are delivered on rail cars and then shifted to the container pier where they are off loaded onto trucks. The trucks then go by car ferry reaching the mainland in about 3 hours and the mainland market by 4 hours. The empty containers are loaded onto rail cars and return to the island by rail car float daily. Two styles of Japanese fishing boats are shown here. The one with the extended bow is and older version, 000_1369-11 by John Moore posted Dec 31, 2019 at 9:23 PM The cannery on the left and the market on the right. 100_0990-2 by John Moore posted Feb 12, 2021 at 7:45 PM And the temple on the cliff. The left structure outside the gate is a lodge where folks can stay while taking classes. The next building on the left is the Zendo where the head abbot and monks live. Structures in the middle are shrines and the grave of the first abbot of the temple. And last on the right is the temple. All structures where obtained from Japan that are in the fenced area and some are laser cut paper kits. 100_0991-4 by John Moore posted Feb 12, 2021 at 7:57 PM
A few days ago I started a new ferry to replace one of the smaller ones. I used the full hull section from the previous Oregon project and it is giving me another waterline hull with high sides. The donor hull was sectioned into three sections to give me a hull that fits my harbor and ferry dock. The rest is all going to be sheet styrene. Am now on hold awaiting a punch set to arrive for square windows. 100_0992-1 by John Moore posted Feb 14, 2021 at 9:46 PM Meanwhile to keep me busy I just received my new passenger cars from Japan and have started assembly of the kits. Also in that shipment was the power units for them. 100_0993-1 by John Moore posted Feb 15, 2021 at 12:01 PM 100_0995-2 by John Moore posted Feb 15, 2021 at 12:01 PM
100_0996-3 by John Moore posted Feb 15, 2021 at 3:45 PM Two Bandai cars have been assembled. The 2nd set is the same as the first giving me two sets of matching paint jobs and has yet to be assembled. Each car is 32 N scale feet long. Each set will be powered by a Kato mechanism that can be seen behind them and the 2nd car in each set will be unpowered. The dummy chassis for the unpowered ones are to the far right and the underframes will get Kato 11-099 trucks. The two mechanisms have been fitted with Kato couplers.
The Bandai cars have been assembled and power units placed under the lead cars. Now waiting on the sets of Kato trucks to place under the unpowered and decals to arrive. 100_0997-4 by John Moore posted Feb 15, 2021 at 6:47 PM Meanwhile back to the ferry construction.
Back to working on the car ferry and hoping my square punches arrive early this PM. The vessel is 148 N scale feet long. I have a surplus of .040 sheet stryrene clapboard siding which I am using. The flipside is smooth stryrene so It makes good fodder for a build and saves money. Last night I glued some low sides on to both ends and now am working on the well deck sides which are 15 foot tall. 100_0998-1 by John Moore posted Feb 16, 2021 at 2:01 PM The passenger cabin area portholes were cut with a leather punch and are 2 foot wide.
The start of the lift sections at the loading ends. Surplus steel catenary masts spiced together. Those extra cat masts have come into use now several times. 100_1000-2 by John Moore posted Feb 16, 2021 at 4:16 PM
The set of punches arrived and I was able to punch out the windows for one side of the well deck. Probably give the fingers a rest and do the other side tomorrow. Also visible is the two ramps one in deployed state the other retracted on the left side painted hull red. The little punch is in the middle of the ship. 100_1001-4 by John Moore posted Feb 16, 2021 at 7:13 PM
The work bench is now organized confusion as I go to my scrap bag of styrene odds and ends to add bracing to the walls of the cabin and well deck. I also applied some paint to sections last night that will be difficult to paint when assembled. Running very low on Same Stuff plastic welder the white bottle in back. Fortunately I have some more due to be delivered tomorrow. 100_1002-1 by John Moore posted Feb 17, 2021 at 12:50 PM
Working on the ferry pilot house and passenger cabin today. 100_1004-1 by John Moore posted Feb 18, 2021 at 3:35 PM 100_1005-2 by John Moore posted Feb 18, 2021 at 3:35 PM Next step is to touch up paint and to glaze windows and portholes then fit a top to the pilot house and crew cabins. My shipment of solvent glue is due to be delivered today just in time since I am running low. Another batch of self propelled old style passenger cars plus trucks has left Japan via DHL and will be here by early next week.
The portholes are all glazed and the passenger section has been joined to the pilot houses. Tomorrow I start on the well deck sides. 100_1006-3 by John Moore posted Feb 18, 2021 at 8:23 PM
The well deck sides have received the first coat of paint and attached along with the deck. The passenger salon and pilot house are not yet attached. Now need to go back and putty some here and there then sand and apply paint again. The area between the two pilot houses are crew cabins, Another roof goes on there and the stacks and antennas plus spot lights and radar. Back down on the main deck I have to apply bollards and then I can begin work on the lifeboat davits. 100_1007-1 by John Moore posted Feb 19, 2021 at 4:32 PM
All three deck levels are now attached and painted and the radar mast was made and a Radar set installed on it. Lot more work to do. 100_1008-2 by John Moore posted Feb 19, 2021 at 7:39 PM
A little further on the ferry boat with stacks, mast, and ventilators added to the top of the pilot houses and the well deck top. Also added three flood lights to each pilot house roof and railings to the pilot house deck. Still more to go like railings for the passenger deck and lifeboat davits plus the lift towers for the end ramps. I also added running lights to the pilot house roof in the middle and running lights to the mast. 100_1014-1 by John Moore posted Feb 21, 2021 at 10:32 AM
