has any had car ferry/barge service on their layout? I am thiking of doing one but would like to see some before i start. [:)]
I don’t have a layout, but I have seen this done on layouts featured in Railroad Model Craftsman magazine a month or so ago.
The Maritime Museum in Halifax has the greatest large scale model of a railwaycar ferry I have seen, also on the ferry are beauitful scaled passenger cars,try contacting them on the internet for some information.
I’d like to, but the ship would take up most of the space available in HO scale. If you were to build it to O scale you could probably fit R/C equipment and have a model ship that can also be sailed on a handy pond/lake when it’s not a part of the layout.
Neville Rossiter in Australia has a beautiful O scale layout based on Brooklyn that makes extensive use of car ferries. He essentially uses the ferries (he has several that he can plug into the dock) as short fiddle yards.
If you want to add a railroad car ferry to your layout go to this website of the L. S. Thorne. It opperated between Gretna, LA and New Orleans, LA and was operated by the Texas Pacific Railroad.
My Father, Grandfather, Uncles and elder cousins worked on her. As a young youth I walked aboard her.
The other railroad car carrier for the TP was the Gouldsboro and it looked similar to the L. S. Thorne and was built atop the Civil War USN Cicaksaw’s hull.
Ferries don’t have to be immense–the Ramon, car ferry for the Sacramento Northern, held about eight cars. It was 270 feet long, or a touch over three feet long in HO. The Ramon was also wired with overhead trolley wire, since the Sacramento Northern was an electric railroad–the only interurban with a ferry! As mentioned above, many use ferries or car floats as staging yards, but some, like Ramon, were sturdy enough to carry lightweight locomotives and could carry whole (short) trains.
You might find George Hilton’s book on Great Lakes ferries interesting and useful; John Signor’s book on the SP’s Western Division also has some great photos of the SP’s older car ferries in the Bay area.
You bet, its great its like having a working staging yard.