City Belt Line (N-scale )

[Slim Rail Mike]

The Vessels are progressing. They’ll be my staging cassettes for operations. I’ve started the bridge in plastic for the Las Plumas.



Brass canons were installed on the Hastings to thwart the octopus.



Well actually, the brass tubes allow the tug to attach to the car float so they can be handled as one unit.





The tugs here are dry assembled. They have been primed and the yellow has been applied. They are ready to be masked for the red coat. Then I can glue them together, touch-up as necessary and add railings.

[Slim Rail Mike]

 I'm ready to make the railings and antenna masts. I purchased .020" styrene rod for the railings.  Thinking about it, with the handling the boats will get, brass might be a better choice. Here are John and Paul as they stand.

[wazzou]

Very nice!!!

[samusi01]

Nice.

The archival government drawings show the steam stack had a centered hole, whilst drone images of the PRR's Bloxom show an offset hole, toward the stern. Tried to find the source of the image I have but failed... PM if you want it.

It looks like an earlier version of the barge? Q1 / 2011 ATSF historical society pub Warbonnet has an excellent set of drawings of one of the later barges. On it, the bulwarks are not symmetrical, with a long section on the port side solid (where the tug would've been). I do not know if this applied to the earlier barges.

[Slim Rail Mike]

@samusi01 Thank you for the offer. While I don't expect to be building any more tugs in the near term, more data is always good.

The tugs are more impressions, than scale models. I tried to keep the proportions looking right, but much of the build was by eyeball and guess work. The 'fit and finish' is ok for a staging tool.

I do have a low quality image of ATSF carfloat #8 that I found on the web. The over all size is right for most of Santa Fe's later barges. Correct me if I'm wrong, I believe they were all build by the same yard. As to the bulwarks, I've built them higher than the prototype and wrapped them all the way around the stern. This in an attempt to keep the freight cars on board, while in route from the apron to the storage shelf.  I sure don't want tanks cars of whisky rolling off, like the prototype!

[Slim Rail Mike]

     While the west end of the yard still needs track laid, I am look forward to the industrial switching areas. I am going to try T-1-TRAK-ish modules for the waterfront and street running.  In AnyRail I’ve drawn a bunch of track plans, of areas around the city. I envision a pair of doubles or maybe three doubles for each vignette. I’ve chosen three locations as the preferred spots for track to cross module edges. 2” from the front the center (7” from front) and 2” from the back (12” from the front) to retain some modularity vs sectional. A 2” addition to the front for a better scene, may make sence.


    My workspace is unavailable, until work on our house is done.  That being the case, I’ll not be doing the carpentry for the modules at home. I looked at kits. The price isn’t too bad, but shipping adds 50% to the cost.  I’ll pass. @chessie system fan thread on Tea-Track, seemed to be just what I want. Bought a dozen tea trays from Michael’s. $5 and change each and free delivery, yes. They arrived today.

     The first section will be a single, transitioning the free-mo-n yard to the “tea” modules. I’ve a free-mo-n end plate already cut in my stash. The perfect location for me to model is immediately west of the yard. At 25th St and Illinois St. the WP crosses it own track, the SP track, then the ATSF track.
 

[chessie system fan]

Nice to see I made a convert.