Hi,
I’m going to use a freight ship on my layout. But I have a question. When did the days of coal fired freighters end? I was going to use a tramp steamer from Sylvan as a model but I need to know what fuel that I need to supply it with. I like coal so I will probably use it but when did the old coal steamers disappear in the U.S?
Also, another question, anyone knows of any fishing vessels in HO?
Magnus
Well if you go over to Walthers website and do a search on ‘fishing’ or ‘boats’ you should come up with some leads.
Well thats where I started of course but I only really found one that would be appropriate. I always check the obvious before posting. One model from Sea Port Model Works was nice and I might get it but I would like some options.
Magnus
I would not find it incredulous if there were not a few coal-fired vessels still sailing the seven seas but most, I am sure, were converted to, at least, diesel when the price of coal went sky-high in the mid-60s. I know a guy who served with the merchant marine in WWII and he was telling me one time that in certain convoys the amount of smoke became indicative of a large number of coal-fired vessels. It would not surprise me, however, if the current inflation of petroleum prices did not cause a limited return to modern stoker-equipped coal-fired turbine powered vessels.
Coal was used to provide steam for merchant ships into the 1960s as there were still alot of ships that were built for World War II that were around at least until then. After that there was general shoft away from steam power and to diesel power because it proved to be cheaper in terms of crew size and maintenance.
Of course now, with the price of fuel oil being so expensive you may a another shift to cheaper sources or better efficiency in the use of any kind of fossil fuels. But don’t be surprised if alot of ships start using diesel-electric drives like modern deisel locomotives.
As for the availability of freighters, you probably don’t want to get them if you are modelling HO or larger sacles as they would be huge cpompared to your locomotives (about 36 inches for a 300 foot vessel). Of course you could paint it on your backdrop.
It’s much more manageable in N or Z scales.
Irv
Passenger liners and Navy warships began burning oil before WWI. Freighters were built burning the cheaper coal up thru WWII. After the war most new freighters were built for oil burning. The freighter I sailed on in 1956 was an oil burner, she was fairly new and in excellent condition. I’d expect a coal burner in the 1950’s to be older, shabbier and worn looking.
Oil burning ships made refueling into light work. Coal burners used to be hand loaded with coal in bags, an awful job requiring a lot of men, taking a day or more, and covering the ship inside and out with black coal dust. Barges would come along side, coal ports in the hull near the water line opened and the bagged coal dumped into the bunkers by hand.
Oil has nearly twice the heat energy per cubic foot than coal. So for the same range, a coal burner needed nearly twice as much precious internal space devoted to coal bunkers as an oil burner needed for tanks. And coal burners needed a crew of stokers to keep shoveling coal into the furnaces, whereas the engineer on watch need only turn a valve to tend an oil fire.
Magnus
I can’t tell you when coal firing ships disappeared in North America. My best guess would be around the World War I time frame, possibly as late as the '20s or '30s. Waterfront coaling facilities were gone by the '50s. I know when I was working on ships in the early '70s, all the ships were oil-fired steam or diesel. And these were ships built in the 1920s and 1930s.
From my understanding, the price of Bunker C in comparison to diesel helped drive a move from oil-fired steam to diesel in both the marine and railroad worlds in the '40s, '50s, and '60s. There were very few steam ships left in the '70s, and they were being rapidly retired. Steam ships suffered from the same drawbacks as locomotives - firing the boilers and making feed water took more labor and more skilled labor than diesel fueling, as well as fuel costs equalizing. Most new ship construction (except for the largest ships) from the 1960s on was diesel. Many of the diesel engines used were based on their their railroad brethren - Alco and EMD/GM blocks.
The Yahoo group on water front modeling (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waterfrontmodeling/) would have better and more accurate information than just my personal experience.
Fred W
For what it is worth the Lake Michigan car ferry is still coal fired. I rode it from Manitowoc Wisconsin to Ludington Michigan two years ago. Before they loaded any cars they backed a large dump truck on board and dumped the coal into the bilge area for the trip. I was probably one of the few people enjoying the smell as the wind was out of the west for most of the trip.
Of course there is always the nuclear option…
N.S. Savannah!
-George
Thanks for the info guys.
I think I will do like this. First of all, their WILL be two boats on the layout. I already got the space set aside for them and I will probably end up having two more boats, a tug and a fishing boat. But the two big ones will be a bulk freighter and a steam tramp. I do not think that the size is a problem. They are just 36" each and the place where they will be put is nearly 36 feet long. That is how long that yard will be. It’s at the opposite end of my other big yard(which is mostly a passenger station on the top deck).
So the bulk freighter will do what it does and be fueled on oil. The tramp steamer will change between sessions, sometimes it will be a coal burner and sometimes a oil burner. The ship will be different ships so to speak. That will allow me to ship fuel to it as I feel like it. Also, since the ships is so versatile as a destination it will allow me to tun freight cars with a wide variety of goods and merchandise. And I can change it between sessions. For me that is a perfect industry to model.
Another reason to use ships is that I love them, I started my modelling career by building scale ships, which then led me in to war games and then that led me to trains and now this, full circle and nothing lost. So the ships, along with the passenger stations will be my main focus on the layout.
One more thing to remember, these boats are large, but the are not huge, they are really only long, but only twice as long as a Big Boy so hardly to visually demanding for a layout.
Once more, thanks everyone.
Magnus
Howdy, Magnus.
For your coal-fired tramp, a WWII Liberty ship stripped of its military hardware and with woodwork replacing steel plate around the deck house would be a believable option. While the Liberties date from 1942-1944, the design was copied from an 1887(!) original. The Liberties burned oil to generate steam for their triple-expansion reciprocating steam engines, but I’d bet big bucks that the original design was a coal burner.
While there might not have been any dedicated coaling facilities for steamships in New York in the '60s, there was still plenty of coal being moved in barges around New York Harbor (to feed several Con Ed power plants that had no rail access, for openers.) I’m sure that if someone needed a load of bunker coal, someone would arrange a way to deliver it.
Chuck (long-ago Merchant Marine cadet modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
You are right, but coal was still available to shis by barge into the 1960s and possibly longer in NYC.
Ad for the Liberties, there were alot of them built during World War II until replaced by Victories in let 1944/45. Not as many Victories were built as there were Liberties. But the US wasn’t the only country building merchant ships during World War II. The Canadians and the Briish were doing it too and many of those ships were coal burners.
Irv
Here’s some HO waterline models:
If you’re modeling the Great Lakes, you might want to try one of these:
They have ships as long as 71" to fill your space!
The Liberty ships were designed to last a single transoceanic trip, so it is amazing some lasted a lot longer. We’ve got one here in the San Francisco bay:
http://www.ssjeremiahobrien.org/
Mark
I will be getting the Sylvan vessels but through another source. Thanks fro the link anyways.
Magnus
Thanks for the links, the top one was new to me.
Thanks,
Magnus
Ho scale ships are not that plentiful…I am in the process and it will be a long one of converting a 1/72 scale Snowberry Corvette kit by Revell to an ocean going freighter.You need a fair bit of space to display it on your waterfront ,but for the money it’s the best I have seen in my travels. I’m a bit partial to this kit as the Canadian navy ran a lot these corvettes during WWII and we have the last remaining one on display here in Halifax…I’ve also started work on an old Frog kit …A Shell Welder boat fro a oil tanker …The scale is not 1/87 but you can be creative here and there…On my layout everybody is happy to sail aboard her. Frenchman River tugs are great also. Have fun.
What about a “Laker”? Mainline Modeller ran a 3-part article on these a while back, complete with HO scale drawings. IIRC, an HO scale Laker would be about 3’ long.
http://www.putinbayphotos.com/modboats/modboats.html
Mark.
Evening Lillen: If you are going to use Sylvan Models for both ships they would both be coal burners in the 50’s. The Mc Curdy that was operated by Stinbrenner used coal into the late 60’s. Many other ships on the Great Lakes used coal into the late 60’s and 70’s and the Badger is still burning coal today.
As for the size the lakers came in a large range of sizes. The older ones being from 300 feet up to 600 feet. The larger boats came along during the war and after with the 1000 footers being built in the 80’s. A 1000 foot boat is around 11 ft. in HO. The visitor center in Duluth has a model of an ore dock with a 1000 footer in HO. Very impressive. I’m sticking to 537 ft as my largest boat on my layout. My ore dock will be 11ft long. That makes the boat look small.
I’d like to see some of what you are doing. Drop me a line if you like. I have an extensive library on the Great Lakes and if I can help in any way I will.
Mark did you do the model of the ACE. Great job.