I may be able to get a very nice 1/87 coaster… and possibly a small tugboat… so I’m wandering off wondering about whether “European” style coasters are at all similar to US coasters… or lake boats (I know the big “lakers” are enormous). Then I’m wondering whether I could make some sort of exhibition layout featuring the boat(s) with some sort of shortline or switching scenario…?
Sorry this is yet another diversion… but smeone else might benefit from the ideas if I don’t use them…
If these boats might be suitable where might they work to small harbours or inlets please? What RR would apply/be nearby in each case?
Dave,in my experience,the west coast to southeast Alaska, a coaster would pretty much be relegated to the fishing trade.Not as fishermen but as refrigerated fish packers. Fishing is still a huge industry in Alaska. The coasters will trade as far north as Yakutat and take their cargoes to Seattle. The big majority of shipping is done by barge with containers onboard,much like you see the big ships. There is also rail barge service to Anchorage and Seward. The other coasters would be the fairly large Alaska Ferries which haul some freight in the form of containers on trailer beds ,cars and passengers. The ferries are very popular in the summer months as they are much cheaper than tour ships and you can take your car along for a nominal fee. You don’t even need a stateroom as you can pitch your tent on the top deck under the solarium.
Almost forgot,all types of liquid fuel is also brought by barge to all Alaskan communities
I really don’t know what sort of harbor you have in mind. The largest “vessels” the Sweethaven Harbor RR sees are tugboats and barges. Depending upon the era and location of your harbor, barges are the ubiquitous water-borne freight haulers. I live very close to the Tennessee River (in Alabama) and the number and kinds of barges is mind-boggling. All sorts of material can (and is) transported by barge (grain, cement, scrap metals to name a few). On the Tennessee, all barges are pushed by a “push boat” however this isn’t true on all rivers. Most of my life was spent near the Hudson River in New York State. On the Hudson River, barges are either pushed or pulled…depending upon tides and wind. Gasoline and fuel barges are plentiful on the Hudson and would add interest to your layout.
My Sweethaven Harbor Railroad has little contact with watercraft. The [fictional] railroad just happens to be located by a harbor - the viewer is led to believe ships and barges DO come in contact with the railroad…further along the harbor. I guess it all comes down to available space and personal interest. When you make your decision, take some pictures and post them in the forum for all of us to admire. Good luck.
Thanks for the helpful answers [8D] All stuff I didn’t have much of a clue about.
I’m thinking really of only a dockside or river/inlet mooring for the vessel to tie up at. Whether the dock would have RR track on it is an open question.
The coaster is a fairly modern vessel with the “works” at the blunt end and hatches right through most of the middle. The pointy bit is fairly high so it would probably be fine in either the Atlantic or the Pacific. The original probably works/worked the North Sea… which can be very scarey.
This is just an option … that I rather like… so long as the ship wouldn’t be completely wrong to the US coastline.
I like the fishing support vessel idea… would they unload themselves… and into what? A warehouse/ processing plant? Maybe trucks and mechanical reefers?
Small fishing village either Washington State or Maine 20-80 footer range
Small car and passenger ferries to get people to the islands
Marina comes with sailboats and powerboats
Pulp paper tug and Barge arrangement
Small shipyard with a Marine Railway
Fish Plant
Pulp and Paper plant
Ore dock
Small 300’ container ships
Tankers
Coast Guard Station
I’m sure the list can go on. Many small harbours have websites to market themselves and from what I’ve seen in this neck of the woods most of the small traffic is 70-80’s vintage when it comes to coastal service.
I like the idea of a small fishing harbour with the nets etc and a siding on the pier for the fish to be loaded straight onto a train of fish trucks
Then the fish trucks taken straight to the passenger station hooked on the back of the passenger express and running to the processing warehouse to be sold.
But I do not know if they did that sort of thing In the US, but it could be a good thing for those that want a bit of a challenge in their operations don’t be the controller that stops that train.
Not to mention the smoke houses and cat food plants that could be located near the harbour with their own sidings, and possibly just for a little frivolity and to see who notices them a mermaid or two
I’m not a boat or harbor expert, so I can’t answer specific questions. The forum members above have given you some good answers.
As to the question above, you may want to rephrase it so that it reflects more of what you’re trying to ask. As it stands it’s essentially a rhetorical question. Well, of course you can, you can do anything you want.
You might want to look at the Frenchman River models. You can find them at Walthers, and a couple of them are on sale. These are mostly small-scale fishing, lobstering and tug boats. As such, they won’t really interact with the railroad much, although you could have a fish warehouse with the occasional reefer dropping by for a load.
Like athletic stadiums and golf courses, ships are just so dang big. They just don’t fit the scale of most model railroads. On the other hand, harbors are a great thing to model. Also, the flat right-of-way along rivers and bays is the kind of territory that railroads really would like to run on, so even if the trains and boats don’t interact directly, they are frequently co-located along bodies of water.
If nothing else, water gives you a chance to put a railroad bridge over it. A ship going under the bridge would suggest an interaction with the railroad, without having to actually model it.
I’m going off my memories of the harbor at Kodiak, Alaska in the '90s. It was a very active commercial fishing port at the time.
The Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, and crab fisheries generally used 2 types of boats - the smaller boats home-ported in Kodiak (40-80ft long), and the factory ships, typically 2-3 times the size and home-ported in Seattle. In the '80s and '90s, both groups would bring their catches to processing ports such as Dutch Harbor or Kodiak. The catch would be unloaded at the processor’s dock in the harbor. The processors are/were all located directly on the water front. The fish/crab would be cleaned and flash-frozen or canned, or shipped fresh for those willing to pay the air freight (Alaska Airlines makes its profit hauling fish, not passengers.).
There were no rail lines in any of the major fish processing ports in Alaska, but if they had existed they would have been used to bring in supplies - fuel, packaging, etc., and haul away the frozen and canned product. Trucking and ferry or barge is not cheap when there is very little road infrastructure.
Bottom line: fish processing was almost always done in harbor-side buildings so the fisherman can get quick unloads and return to the fishing grounds. Fisherman don’t make any money tied up and unloading catch or loading supplies. Also, fish processing normally uses sizeable quantities of clean sea water, and must dispose of a substantial amount of fish waste and waste water (dumped at sea via barge or piped away from the clean sea water inlet. Fish processing is seldom profitable in large cities due to the value of water front real estate, and problems with disposing of waste, so you will find them mostly in smaller harbors and towns.
Since the 1990s, there has been a significant shift to processing fish at sea on processing ships, who then take the product to Seattle. Only the fresh, air-freighted fish is coming through th
It sounds as if the original poster is looking for a smaller, more scenic element. For those who are interested in rail/marine modeling, the Rail Marine SIG is an excellent source. This group has moved from a a formal membership SIG to a web site and discussion group format. Back issues fo the group’s Transfer magazine are available, including some on CD.
For those interested in using the Walthers offerings for rail marine modeling, the group has a download of clinic notes by John Teichmoller: http://www.trainweb.org/rmig/waltclin06.pdf
My 24’x24’ HO layout features two harbors. The one pictured, evolved out of necessity, to give me a place to put my two track swing bridge. One side of the harbor has a large crane, used to unload and load railroad cars on two tracks. The mountain built on the other side of the harbor entrance shows the mine ore loading building, with three tracks, merging to two tracks on the swing bridge. The mountain hides the three tracks, located in a tunnel under the mountain. A road winding around the mountain, serves a skiing and skating resort at the top. The point that I am trying to make is that additions to a layout may evolve from some treasured scenery feature, that needs some reason to be on the layout.
