I am building an HO scale DMIR layout but walthers no longer stocks their ore dock kit ( now that i must constuct mine). Does anybody happen to have plans for one. I have MANY photos of DMIR docks but it looks like an overwhelming project. does anybody have any scratchbuilding advice? Thanx!
An HO ore dock IS an overwhelming project! Great Lakes ore ports are the fresh water equivalent of modern intermodal terminals - they start at gigantic and work up.
Some years back MR featured an article on a DM&IR-prototype layout that included an ore pier close to proper scale length. It ran down the length of one wall on a narrow shelf - which was the only thing that kept it from totally overwhelming the entire layout.
Good luck on your project.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with waterways navigable only by kayakers living out their death wishes)
Didn’t MR do drawings and pictures of the PRR dock at Sodus Point, NY in the last year? Somebody sure did and it is a fairly tight layout and small length.
If you’re willing to pay the price, those ore dock kits show up regularly on ebay, but last I checked they usually sold for around $100 each. Still, it would be a lot easier in the long run compared to scratchbuilding an ore dock, plus the Walthers one is pretty close to the steel type the Missabe used. GN and NP used concrete ore docks in Allouez, AIM used to make a conversion kit for the Walthers dock but those now run (if you can find them) for about $100 per also.
Iconografix have produced a book called GNR ore docks of Lake Superior photo archive.
It takes you all around an ore dock and has lots of drawings-it would be one hell of a scratch build job-keep scouring e-bay for Walthers kits it would be easier,although the MR review,I seem to recall ,said the kit was a bit of a challenge…
Good luck
Steve
Hey, MM…
Here’s a link to the Library of Congress prints and photographs archive search:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/mdbquery.html
A search on the words “marquette ore dock” will return several photo collections showing a prototype. No plans, but the most useful photos show the dock under construction, illustrating the major structural components. As for scratchbuilding: its big, but it looks like just a basic box on pilings, so scribing, slicing, and dicing some styrene oughta do it. Yeah, yeah…I know…its easy if you’re not doing it yourself!
Good luck. I hope this info is useful.
Bruce J.
I think it would be pretty daunting, especially doing all the individual chutes. It can be done, at least I’ve seen scratchbuilt N scale ore docks. I would still bite the bullet and buy one or two (or more!) of the Walthers kits and go from there. If nothing else, get one and use that as a starting point to go by in scratchbuilding an extension - which would be prototypically correct, many ore docks were added to as ore boats got larger over the years.
I recently visited a train show, at the show was a N-scale layout with a missabe based theme. There was a custom built ore dock that had operating chutes, (that was cool!). My layout is 1990,s based and some DMIR ore docks were fitted with new chutes to accomadate the 1000 foot ore boats that are wider than the older ore boats. The chutes look like they could be hinged on my model. And if I skimp on some minor details they should be easy to build a dozen or so. Im only building a two track dock along a wall (like the walthers kit.) Big project. Will be a challenge but fun to see the final outcome.
Thanks for all the advice everybody
Just a thought, but the Walthers ore dock kit is based on a steel ore dock like the Missabe built around 1900 in Duluth and Two Harbors MN. Some later ore docks (like Erie Mining or Reserve Mining built in the fifties) were basically concrete and had several long booms to unload the pellets with, rather than a steel dock with individual chutes like the ones built for DMIR, GN and NP. A dock like that would be much easier to scratchbuild - even a very VERY shortened ‘regular’ ore dock of say three feet would need you to build maybe 25-30 ore pockets and chutes etc.
Try this one on for size…
http://www.greatlakesmodeling.com/museum/steffan_don_ore_dock_steelton.htm
Back on 2-17-07 you wrote about building a DM&IR Layout and a possible Ore Dock.
Did you ever get a satisfactory response. Do you still need plans or information?
If you need to ask this question… buy the kit.
Here is a shot of one on a local layout. I think it was made from 2 or 3 of the Walthers kits put together.
There are more shots of it on the hobby shop web site
Here is a link to one
Ya I hate to beat a dead horse, but you need to get the kits.[swg]
You’re modelling the Missabe, and the ore dock kits from Walthers are based on the steel ore docks used by the Missabe (as opposed to the concrete docks used by GN, NP and others). The N scale ore dock you saw was built about 15 years ago as a major scratchbuilding project…right now I can’t recall the guy’s name, but it won several awards and I think was in the NMRA Bulletin and MR IIRC. It took literally hundreds of hours of work to scratchbuild it. You’d face a similar challenge in HO scratchbuilding an ore dock.
Let me put it this way: If “time is money”, let’s say your time is worth $5 an hour. If it takes say 500 hours to scratchbuild the ore dock, the “cost” (not including supplies) will be about $2500. If you buy two Walthers ore dock kits for say $125 each, you’ll cut the construction time down to maybe 20 hours, so the “cost” will drop to about $350 ($250 for the kits plus 20 hours @ $5/hour). You’re spending more money but much less time (and aggravation).
Missabe Modeler,
I have a two section Walther Ore Dock on my layout. The kit contains three, but that was too much distance, so I only used a part of it. I still have the instructions as well. I would be happy to send you copies, six pages. The ore shutes on one section are motorized, going up and down, with a Tamiya four speed crank axle gearbox. It is powered by two AAA batteries from a little $1 car. The car motor could even be used for the power. Since I seldom use the ore dock for operations, the batteries are the simplest power. I will share more with Missabe Modeler and the rest of you when I learn how to send photos on the forum.
Dakota Northern
if you find it dificult to locate the ore dock kits try looking on the net for hobbie shops in australia i recently saw a kit for sale and one was recently on ebay australia the aus dollar is approx 70% of the american dollar so you mmay get a good deal… try toms hobbies north ryde nsw aust
This is a Walters Ore Dock with 2 of the 3 sections that are in the kit. The trestle is from a construction kit that was my sons 30 years ago.
This is my DM&IR locomotive. It is a kitbash of a Kato cab and a Bachmann chassis.
I think that Walthers is bringing the dock out again. They have announced the steel making kits from start to finish are going to be made again. I’m going to do a concrete dock based on the one in Marquites lower harbor. It is only 960 feet long so it is possible to do it scale in 11 ft. Wish me luck.
Yes Walthers is bringing the dock back out, it should come out in February. Ill definately be using a few kits to make one. the space I have designated is about 4 feet of dock, and about two feet of approach. I measuered it out so that the ore dock itself will be long enough to allow for I think 4 sets of mini-quads up there. But that was if I was going to scratch it. So Ill have to see how the Walthers kits go up. In the last year or two my modeling skills have greatly improved and Ive learned alot in many aspects of the hobby, I was kinda looking forward to building the ore dock by hand. Someday I intend to make a large scratchbuilt ore dock, with the new conveyor style chutes, and maybe turn my Walthers kit into dock 5(?), the abandoned dock in Two Harbors, which is the facility I am modeling.