I found this website through an ad in RMC. I’m interested in eventually building a Great Lakes harbor scene on my layout and was curious if anyone has ever build an HO freighter model from BearCo Marine Model (http://www.bearcomarine.com/). How difficult was it to build?
I’m also curious about all of your opinions about how these things would look on a layout given their size (upwards of 6 feet in length).
I think they look very good but I’ve never built anything nearly this big before.
I’ve seen one of these on a layout, the guy had made it himself, it was in an old MR, Nov 1981, he scratchbuilt it out of brass!!! you have to get the water looking right too, and have a big enough train and loading area…ect, everything in proportion you know… DD
A 6’ ship model in 1/87 scale would be about 550’ in 1/1 scale (real size). That would be about right for a great lakes ore freighter. You’d need a lot of room for the scene or cut the model in half. (even then, it’s still a big space) It would look cool though.
If it’s what you want-Go for it!
I think its one of those things that if its function is key to your railroad, then its worth it. If it would just be an “add-on” scene, its probably not worth it.
Its all your choice for your railroad, it will look cool and impressive in any way. I recall their was a marine article a few months/ 6months ago that had a marine article and the author actually put the boat only half on the tabletop, the other half hanging off the side. I’d be afraid of it getting bumped, but…
You’re thinking of Charlie Martin, who built the Interlake Vulcanian - a superb Great Lakes-themed layout. MR ran a couple of featues on the IV and a great pictorial on the whaleback - here’s a link with some pictures.
Edw: The Bearco lake boat should be fairly easy to build. The boat from Sylvan is a better model but maybe more of a challange. The Sylvan model is of a canaler. Those were 250ft in length for the old canals before the seaway. It can be made longer with the addition of mid sections. This was also a common prototype proceedure. Actually 6ft is a mid size vessal and depending on the era could be too small. The 1000 footers scale out to around 12ft long and 1ft plus wide. Kens boat is a really great model. I can’t remember off hand what magazine it was featured in but if you can find out give it a look. As for myself I have three boats in the works. they are all being done from scratch. I just hope that I live long enough to fini***hem and the layout.