Turtle Creek Central part two.

John Moore Nov 11, 2018

  1. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Both the old ferry boat and the PCE were demo'd last night giving me a wealth of parts and I decided that the 2nd ferry will get built. At least 6 lifeboats were salvaged with their cranes intact giving me two lifeboats apiece for each ferry and some small boats to go in the harbor plus a number of life rafts. I am leaning toward taking the old hull from the old ferry and giving it a partial deck and superstructure to place it in the floating dry dock at the ship repair as a vessel undergoing major work. The new ferry is shown with the lifeboats and the cranes sitting on the deck and the next ferry hull is shown with the bow cut off prior to rounding off with a sanding drum.

    Starting work again on the harbor after a day lay off and pier three the ore and container loading pier. Since all off my steamers are now oil fired the coaling towers became surplus and I chose this model to get re purposed into an ore loader. I have a small fleet of little ore cars that will make the trip from the moly mine to be off loaded into barges. For the container loading side I have a small traveling crane and the smaller feeder ship has a crane to off load on the deck plus I have a container handler from Kato. My cars are by Bandai and are the little 40 foot cars that haul two containers each so the dock track can hold at least five cars. I would like to inset the track on that side of the pier if I can figures out a way.

    With my philosophy of keeping things smaller my container ship.

    And my short little containers and the container cars.

    I have two versions of these cars with one having the brake wheel at the end and the other having it on the side of the car. In Japan these cars are run in pairs with the end railings at at each end
     
    badlandnp and mtntrainman like this.
  2. mtntrainman

    mtntrainman TrainBoard Supporter

    9,982
    10,821
    143
    John....

    This is the second layout I watched you build. You continue to have more energy and imagination in a short period of time then I could ever muster !
    My hats off to you sir ^5 :)
     
  3. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Thank you for the kind words sir. This actually makes my seventh layout starting with early three rail Lionel, then HO scale and finally N scale. My fourth or maybe fifth venture into N scale, lost count in the passage of time. What helps me is a strong power of observation, I see beyond the photo of the locomotive or car and see what is around it. And I have been blessed with the ability to see another use in a lot of things that others don't. Having run out of rail bumpers I spied a couple of sets of kato unijoiners that were in my parts box. With a small piece of stryene to be added it has become my rail bumper.
     
    badlandnp, mtntrainman and Atani like this.
  4. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    On a cold and windy, and damp day here in this maritime environment I have kept my old and easily chilled body in and working on the pier, except for a trip to Southern States for a 50 pound bag of ice melt and a 40 pound bag of peanuts for the Wife's wild critters, and a fuel oil delivery. First track is glued down and the rails for the traveling crane have been installed. U channel was used for the crane rails. Rather than try to recess the rails in the foam to create a drive over surface I raised the surface with that thin shelf and drawer lining cork sheet that I get at Home Depot or Lowes.The cork insert between the rails has already been checked for flange clearance. Next up is to cut some thin strips of that cork and apply it on the outside over the ties and on the first layer of cork.The a light sanding to taper one layer into the other and I will have created a surface with the rail recessed. The same will be done with ore track next to be laid. Flex track is being used. The last section of flex without the cork has not been glued down yet allowing me to later angle the track to ease the approach.
     
    badlandnp likes this.
  5. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    The 2nd track has been installed on the ore and container pier and tied into another Peco ST-6 turnout.

    This pier angles out from the main pier and that makes the curvature for the track in reason and with the track angling off the pier and the 6 inch wide main pier everything is falling into place. This could possibly be doable with standard Atlas turnouts but a real fight where the little short sharp turnouts of the Peco ST5 and 6s it becomes easier.


    Kato and Tomix make the only other turnouts that would work for this application I believe. Joef used to have turnouts with a 7 and 5/8ths radius but they have long been out of production.
     
    badlandnp likes this.
  6. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Except for painting the hull the 1st ferry boat is done.
    The hull painting will be tomorrow so I can let glue thoroughly set and the 2nd hull has the deck glued on for the 2nd ferry boat. The 3rd pier is setting also letting glue thoroughly dry and is almost done. Then I can figure out how I want to install the tracks on the 4th pier which is the cannery pier. After all is done I can then start on the back row of structures and piers and the ship repair facility.
     
    mtntrainman and badlandnp like this.
  7. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Finished the first ferry and installed vehicles and people on it. I planned on the car deck having enough vertical clearance for a tractor trailer and came out with about two scale feet of clearance for my old style trailers.

    Five autos and two trucks are in the auto deck and eight figures are on the decks. Six are seated or standing on the passenger deck and two crew member are near the pilot house with one on the deck above the pilot house and one at the pilot house door. Searchlights are fore and aft on the pilot house along with the radar mast and two ventilation funnels. The 2nd one I have started will be docked and loading so have the gates open at one end. This one will be either arriving or departing in the harbor.

    Hoping to finish the pier today. Still have some painting to do, a few bollards to install some wheel stops to install on the traveling crane track, the crane to rig, and finally some containers to place on it.
     
    badlandnp, Hytec and mtntrainman like this.
  8. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Work is well underway on the 2nd ferry with the structural members now in place and a vessel being built or under heavy repairs which will be in the drydock.

    Finished the bulk of the work on the ore and container pier by installing several stacks of containers and placing some crushed by tinted plaster around the ore loader for some spilled Moly ore. The only thing left is to extend the chute for barge loading on the ore loader and to rig the crane for container handling, and maybe add lights.

    The containers on the far right are Kato and Bandai containers while the containers in the middle and far left have been made by me. About four years ago I found on the web some free print outs of containers in various sizes and scales. The small containers are 17 feet in length while the Kato and Bandai containers are 12 foot in length. I cut wood shapes to length and size for the paper containers and used white Elmers glue to attach the paper to the wood.

    A have a small fleet of Bachmann old timer flatcars that are 34 footers with a metal underframe that I retro'd with MT trucks and couplers. On a number of the paper and wood containers I drilled out the bottoms and installed small round magnets that work excellent in holding those containers on the Bmann flats.

    The Kato and Bandai containers only fit on my Bandai container flats so the Bmann flats are used for the little longer paper containers.

    At the time I built the container feeder ship I needed some containers to load it with and the cost of buying containers enough to make a small ship load is ridiculously expensive, much less fill railcars and stack on a dock. For the cost of one pack of containers, I was able to buy the wood, glue and use a few sheets of printer paper and still have money left over.

    The site I found was in German I believe but the translation program on my computer took care of turning into English.
     
    Last edited: Jan 12, 2019
    badlandnp and mtntrainman like this.
  9. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Finally finished the pier with getting the crane rigged and the ore chute extended. Also found another barge by TomyTec that I had forgotten so now I have two barges for ore. One heavily laden the other floating high and empty. So I probably will have one at the pier and the other under tow leaving the harbor.
     
    badlandnp and mtntrainman like this.
  10. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Finally got to the backside of the harbor last night. Woke up this morning and was not happy with it yet mainly because I did not an adequate width of a ship channel when the angled pier were set in place. So I eliminated another module and cut one down and I may finally be happy with it. I also had a problem with car float pier projecting to much into the harbor so I further angled it and took an additional 2 inches off its length. Now the turnout is mostly on the main pier instead of all on the float dock. Still not happy with the way the car barge stuck out into the harbor I am building my own.

    The present back structures arrangement that I think I will be happy with.

    And the new car barge I have started which is about 2 and 1/2 inches shorter.

    The original car barge was longer and the dry dock is made from the section cut out that is on the left side. That section was 6 inches long so the original barge was 17 inches long. I had some Cedar wood closet liner down in my basement workshop that was the right width once I trimmed the tongue and groove sides. And two pieces laminated together give the right height. The new barge will be about 8.75 inches long so with the shorter barge I will gain about 4 inches of channel width when combined with the shorter pier. Overall the main channel in the harbor will end up about 90 N scale feet wide.
     
    badlandnp likes this.
  11. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Got the new car float sanded to shape and now filling a few places with wood putty where needed. I am probably going to laminate some styrene to both ends after another sanding which will give just a tad more length.

    Meanwhile I am finally happy with the back line up of structures and piers so getting ready to glue those in place and I am painting the water where the port was expanded to the far left. The land used to come up to the power plant. I am applying thin washes of shades of blue and green over a black base. All the paints are a water base acrylic.

    So while the paint dries and some glue sets up I will be working on the ferry and the car barge at the workbench.
     
    badlandnp likes this.
  12. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Routed and chiseled out the bed for the first track on the car float barge to be able to recess the track into the surface. Whole man cave now smells like Cedar.

    I used the other barge to get the spacing for the track and the track level with my barge landing tracks.
    Once the track is installed I will cover the recessed ties with fine strips of Balsa wood just leaving the rails above the deck with a gap for flangeways and the ties will be covered. The red stains are blood where I caught my finger with one of the wood gouges from my Exacto wood carving set.
     
    mtntrainman and badlandnp like this.
  13. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

    13,965
    6,903
    183
    Christening with champagne brings good luck. What type of "luck" do you think christening with blood will bring? :eek:
     
  14. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Well with any luck it might prevent everything in the harbor from melting into a blob when I finally pour water, or an instant reaction with the acrylic paint resulting in inferno that burns the layout to a pile of ashes.
     
  15. badlandnp

    badlandnp TrainBoard Member

    4,587
    16,153
    90
    The smell of fresh cut cedar mixed with the fun of bleeding on your project! Just cain't get much better!

    Am really enjoying watching this build, John. And the creativity is wonderful!
     
  16. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Decided to give the layout a rest today and instead worked on my smaller car float barge. Probably will finish it tonight. This started with two pieces of Cedar wood closet liner I had downstairs in the basement in my wood stack that I laminated together then trimmed to a length of 9.5 inches. When I trimmed off the tongue and grove sides smooth I had the exact width of my Sylvan car float which is about 3 and 5/16 inches wide. My shop sander was used to give me the rough shape and it was finished with a Dremel sanding drum.

    I decided to inlay some flex track into the deck rather that try to come up with welded tie plates and rails laid on top. So it was routed out with some Dremel attachments to sink the track to the right depth so that the rails projected above the barge deck. Then I laminated strip styrene into the sides and the middle of the track. The rail sections were laid in with ACC along with the styrene. Paint is Poly Scale light frieght car red. Weathering is Bragdon powders light rust and dust for dried sea salt from spray. Just need to install bollards and cleats and it is ready to go on the layout. Since my layout roster is limited to 40 foot cars it has a capacity of six cars.
     
    badlandnp and Hytec like this.
  17. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Dug through my marine supplies last night and finally found some deck cleats and some bollards for the car float barge and installed same. Now I can get the barge landing positioned how I want it and tacked down at last. That part is crucial to locating where the remaining piers go and their spacing between them for vessels and barges.
    However another problem reared its head in the last day or so. The container and ore loading pier in the photo has a warp in it and lengthwise rather than from end to end. This is rigid dense foam the Owens Corning Pink Panther stuff and I have never seen this happen. So my ore loader ha. s a lean to the inside. I detect Mr. Murphy at work here. I have already taken it and grabbing both sides managed to bend it back some and I hope to bend it some more later. Thinking about using ribbed short panel nails to install it. The paints used on the foam were water based. If that fails I have more foam and will just build another.

    I also installed the boat repair shop docks and ramps and the floating dry dock last night.
    Some more silicon caulk along the backdrop seam along the bottom in an area I had missed and then hopefully I will get that back row of port structures finally installed permanently.
     
    badlandnp likes this.
  18. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Well the back row of structures is now in permanently but still have the crane to install by the dry dock and boat repair. Also the container and ore loading pier is permanently installed. Now battling with where the ferry landing will go. My original idea was to build a small angled dock last night but a test of the mock up did not go well so now thinking of getting the hot knife and creating two inserts into the small corner on the bottom left. That area will get a dock for the seaplane, train station, and ferry landing.

     
    badlandnp likes this.
  19. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Some quick work with a hot knife while eating a liverwurst and onion sandwich solved my problem and with just enough space left to slide in my small dock and retaining wall section for the seaplane between the ferry dock and the cannery.
     
    badlandnp likes this.
  20. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

    13,396
    12,182
    183
    Went to my batch of scrapped flatcars for the decks to use as material for my ferry docks and after trimming off the stake pockets and cutting some to angles got most of the ferry docks assemble and fitted this afternoon. All had the cut stone pier facing applied and two more sections remain, one of them being the seaplane landing. The small station as shown in about where it will be placed. Sea plane landing will be to the right of it. Hope to have two tracks feeding the station. Since my passenger service are the mini RDCs a three car train takes less space than than a standard 80 foot passenger car.
     
    badlandnp likes this.

Share This Page