Does anyone know where I can find container ships and/or the dock side loader of the ships in N-scale? I’m not talking about the loaders that load railcar but the ones that they load the ships with. Is there a company that makes them or can one find them on the net. THXS
Shawn,
You probably should check into Searails’ resin kits in N and Z scales. Here’s the link:
http://www.searails.com/pages/873666/index.htm
You didn’t say they had to be inexpensive.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543
Shawn
The great thing about containers is that a wide variety of ships transport them on deck. So if you are unable to find a kit of a “Standard” container ship, you can use a general cargo ship to transport your cargo. There was a kit out there of the “American Scout”. It is a wood kit and if I’m not mistaken it is between 1:100 and 1:150 scale. You maybe able to source it at the “Dromedary” in Texas. I don’t believe they have a website but they deal in model ships and they have a very large selection of kits. They maybe of some assistance.
Regards
Fergie
Shawn,
On a hunch, I checked Sylvan Scale Models, and in their "Whats New section:
http://www.isp.on.ca/sylvan/whatsnew.htm
lo and behold there was an announcement that they will be releasing a container ship in N scale, first, to be followed later by the same ship in HO, both some scale 200+ feet long. I suggest that you drop them a line at their Email address:
office@Sylvan.isp.ca
and see what is their planned release date. I’ve found them to be very responsive and friendly in my dealings with them. And, their planned price may be less than Searails.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543
280 feet! O_O WOW! I hope that’s scale feet… [;)]
so will HO be about 6 feet long??
If my math is correct, then the HO ship should be about 3 1/4 feet long.
280/87=3.218
Yep! just over the length of two Big Boys (132’) double heading. Don’t forget about the Width as well as that will take up additional space (@70’ )
Or in N scale, about 20 inches long. Ships modeled in model railroad scales should, ideally, be a little smaller than the scale being modeled–this is often done for buildings, trees and other structures, so as to not dwarf the railroad or take up too much space. Typically a ship will be a background item in a scene, behind the trains, so modeling it a bit smaller than one’s scale also adds forced perspective to a scene.
Here is the Hulk of the American Scout. I bought it for $20. Eventually it will be fitted out as a General Cargo Vessel with a deck cargo of timber and a hold full of coal.
Length is 51" Width 7". These vessels could easily fit containers on their decks and hatch covers.
You may want to try Great Hobbies in Charlottetown, PEI
www.greathobbies.com
Regards
Fergie,
Great pic. It really puts into perspective the size of the ship. I’m thinking the ship would make an excellent backdrop prop. Perhaps cut down the middle in order to reduce the beam (width). Warehouses etc. could be used to cover the bow and stern so that the cutting wouldn’t be obvious.
If you go to the Searails site:
http://www.searails.com/pages/873666/index.htm
there are some more photos that are good for size comparison. The marine terminal crane (Shawn’s dockside loader) dwarfs the railroad tracks it is over. Mr. Shiff also offers other marine craft such as coastal steamers and car ferries, as well as petroleum refineries, container loads, etc.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543
I found a place that makes custom ships…but there’s a catch…one container ship …price $1250.00…that’s a bit steep so looks like i can buy a lot of styrene and balsa wood for that price and build my own…here it is anyway www.bearcomarine.com Chuck[:D]
Hello Shawn, www.allwoodwings.com is located in the Phillipines. In the past, I had this outfit custom build from mahogany 4 warships in N-scale…a Oliver Hazard class FFG( 36 inches long)…Tarawa class LHA( 60 inches long)…Essex class CV (70 inches long)…and a Forrestal class CV( 85 inches long)…believe it or not all in perfect N-scale but exspensive!!! He will custom build a merchant
20" sounds very small for a container ship in N scale!! Living in northern NJ, I see these ships & the cranes very often. From the NJ Tpke, they loom over everything from miles away!! Don’t have a real idea about the ships, but the cranes must be 200 -250’ tall!! My [2c]
A Liberty Ship, a WW2 era steamer is over 400 feet long, so a 200 ft ship would be pretty small. The smaller APL container steamers from the 1960’s are over 600 ft long. The modern container ships are over 800 ft long.
Dave H.
One of the newest container ships is the Emma Maersk. She is 1302’ long with a beam of 207’. She can carry many, many containers.
Don Z.
EDIT: Please forgive me; it was pointed out that I erred in the number.
And as big as she is, guess how high the cranes are!!![:O]
try this link…http://www.loyalhannadockyard.com/...go to the tab “kit selections” and scroll to the bottom where you will find “Semi-Kits” it will shaded in yellow…click on “Metcalf Mouldings Semi Kits” and you will see the hull for the Atlantic Conveyor in 1/144 scale. I bought one of these a year ago and am getting ready to buy another. You simply get a fiberglass hull with no fittings that you have to kitbash yourself at a price of $300. N-guage containers fit nicely on the deck.
Quick and dirty dimensions of the dock cranes - 250 feet from dock to top, 400+ feet of bridge (220 feet over water), footprint 80-100 feet square (or rectangular 80 x 100).[:O]
If I wanted to build a fully-floating HO model of a post-Panamax container ship like Emma Maersk I’d start with a square-sterned aluminum canoe…[8D]
IMHO, container ships and their loading/unloading facilities look great as photomurals on backdrops - especially since the rail-loading intermodal facility is almost always well away from dockside. What’s under the cranes? Rubber-tired road vehicles![|(]
Unless you have visited a full-scale port facility you don’t realize just how huge ships and the equipment used to load/unload them really are. Unless you’ve been a working sailor you don’t realize just how SMALL an oceangoing ship seems to be when it’s out of sight of land.
Chuck (long-ago Merchant Marine cadet modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)