City Belt Line (N-scale )

[Slim Rail Mike]

The City Belt is still a WIP. Precious little has been done in the past many months, life being what it is. Not much modeling but some thinking.

 One such thought Free-moN is a great concept and tons of fine modeling has been done. Witness the many videos of meets. I like the height. I like the idea of prototype modeling. I like the modularity.

The modules are a bit fiddly to set up not hard but fiddly. I don‘t know other modelers. So doing a meet is a long shot.

The yard is pretty close to a scale copy of the 1915 track arrangement. It just fits in the garage. I’m happy with that. Where to run the trains from the yard?  I have a thousand ideas for things to model in San Francisco of the post war years. A bunch of Free mo N modules just isn’t going to work.

Ed Kapuscinski started a thread “What would keep you from building a TTRAK module?“,

 The key things I took away was T-Trak is very fast to set up and breakdown. The other thing it’s easy to hack Kato track to use whatever you wish with it.
So the next venture is a hybrid solution. Picture a 32”x80” hollow core door with a couple of Free mo N endplates that transition to a Kato unitrack connection. Legs to raise it to mate with Free mo N. Add a gaggle of T-Trak-ish modules for the the industries to service by the City Belt.

Here is a concept module. SP’s conditioning house near fishermans wharf.

The SP engineering drawing via http://wx4.org/to/foam/a_rrcontents.html.
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1948 Sanborn fire insurance map via the Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps
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1938 aerial photogragh availible from the San Francisco Public Library or   David Rumsey Historical Map Collection   https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~217219~5504219:Composite--1-164-San-Francisco
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Prototype track plan in Anyrail 7 trial version.
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 Condensed track plan in Anyrail 7 trial version.
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[OldEastRR]

What's a conditioning house?

[Slim Rail Mike]

 When a railroad customer orders a car especially food processors the car needs to be clean.

A clean out track in a yard would serve the purpose. This conditioning House (that is SP's name) cleaned boxcars and reefers being delivered to the many foods processors around Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.

This one is about a block from Ghirardelli Chocolate, Del Monte's cannery, and Italian Swiss Colony Wines to name a few. 

So in our model world it means traffic!

[Slim Rail Mike]

The marine railway has been busy.
Skinned the hulls of Las Plumas and carfloat #3. At the bow railings need to be cut to curve to the deck. The paper model bridge super structure hasn’t stood up very well to being handled. I’ll use my patterns to model it in styrene.

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Printed the plans and patterns for the army tugs. Started the build.

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Whoops didn’t print full sized, I guess there is a start to some work boats.

Printed the plans and patterns for the army tugs close to correctly. (good enough).
 They are ready for the hull plates.

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Here is the fleet ‘on the ways’.

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The vessels will be the cassettes for staging.

The Santa Fe tugs Paul Hastings and the John Hayden were both painted sort of war bonnet in my target years. In the 60’s the Hasting was converted to diesel. I believe it was painted the yellow and blue freight scheme at that point. The Las Plumas wasn’t in San Francisco until the year after that I am modeling. I’m ok with that. I don’t know how much a decade will gnaw at me if I paint the Hasting in yellow.

[TravelingCarpenter]

The City Belt is still a WIP. Precious little has been done in the past many months, life being what it is. Not much modeling but some thinking.

 One such thought Free-moN is a great concept and tons of fine modeling has been done. Witness the many videos of meets. I like the height. I like the idea of prototype modeling. I like the modularity.

The modules are a bit fiddly to set up not hard but fiddly. I don‘t know other modelers. So doing a meet is a long shot
.
Being a modeler that has free-moN modules and sections, they are not that "fiddly".  Kato unit track is not allowed, period, end of sentence.

Even though I am not a fan of social media outlets, there are groups on Facebook and Discord that can help to network with other Free-moN modelers.

I knew of some modelers that were interested, but one individuals interest soon vanished. So right now there is about 7 of us that have sections/modules to create a layout with. There is no one in my immediate area to set up with, closest guys are about 2 hours away.
 So i built my sections/modules to double as my home layout. So far my "pieces" have been to three RPM's, one national NMRA convention and the n scale operations weekend in Evanston, Wyoming at the end of July of this year.

The yard is pretty close to a scale copy of the 1915 track arrangement. It just fits in the garage. I’m happy with that. Where to run the trains from the yard?  I have a thousand ideas for things to model in San Francisco of the post war years. A bunch of Free mo N modules just isn’t going to work.

Ed Kapuscinski started a thread “What would keep you from building a TTRAK module?“,

 The key things I took away was T-Trak is very fast to set up and breakdown. The other thing it’s easy to hack Kato track to use whatever you wish with it.
So the next venture is a hybrid solution. Picture a 32”x80” hollow core door with a couple of Free mo N endplates that transition to a Kato unitrack connection. Legs to raise it to mate with Free mo N. Add a gaggle of T-Trak-ish modules for the the industries to service by the City Belt.

Here is a concept module. SP’s conditioning house near fishermans wharf.

The SP engineering drawing via http://wx4.org/to/foam/a_rrcontents.html.
(Attachment Link)


1948 Sanborn fire insurance map via the Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps
(Attachment Link)


1938 aerial photogragh availible from the San Francisco Public Library or   David Rumsey Historical Map Collection   https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~217219~5504219:Composite--1-164-San-Francisco
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Prototype track plan in Anyrail 7 trial version.
(Attachment Link)



 Condensed track plan in Anyrail 7 trial version.
(Attachment Link)

[Slim Rail Mike]

I’m liking the idea of T-Trak-ish modules for various industries.  T-Trak and street running with tight curves of urban operations should be a good fit.

 I’ve acquired a couple of hollow core doors to turn to tables for my industrial scenes. I’ll explore some t-trak until I can get back to my free-mo-n  yard modules this winter. I am using Atlas code 55 track and hand laying the turnouts and crossings. At the module junctions I’ll hack the kato track to use the connectors.

Along about 5  blocks of Indiana St the Santa Fe serviced a host of small industries. Here is a T-Trak ish version. Compressed ,but the track arrangement is almost the same as the prototype. The except is the siding with the crossing diamond was flipped to diverge left instead of right.

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On my background template the red bars on the edge of the corner modules represent free-mo-n end plates.

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This and the Indiana St modules would give me a loop to run-in equipment.
Operation might go like this.

Pull the car float or ferry into the classification yard.
Push outbounds from the boat-yard on to the vessel, which can now depart.
Sort the arrivals and make up trains for the various districts.
Get your power, back onto whichever job you've drawn, and deliver to the industries.
Return with the pick-ups and drop them in the boat yard.

 Rinse and repeat. This industries can vary depending what modules have been plugged in.
I'm liking it.

[samusi01]

To my knowledge, Hastings' superstructure wasn't yellow until 73-74. There's a March '72 picture of it with the red superstructure, and a January '75 of it with the yellow superstructure. My understanding is that your model era is mid-late 1950s; don't forget to raise the pilot house on both of them, delete the 50 caliber mounts - they didn't survive long at all, unlike the PRR's tug Bloxom which still has them - and the Hayden retained the solid bridge wings whilst Hastings had only railings. The ATSF has also enlarged the starboard bulwark opening on the bow for their preferred method of barge attachment. At some point prior to 1964 they either removed or covered the main winch... make it easy on yourself and model the cover.

Edited to clarify

[Slim Rail Mike]

@ samusi01 Good information, Thax.

Yes, I am modeling 1955-56 the last of steam on the SP.

As to raising the pilot house, would you know by how much. From photos the pilot house sole seems to be even with the top of the port lights of the captains stateroom. I have guessed 3 feet higher than when bought from the army.   

[samusi01]

@Slim Rail Mike

Sadly, I don't have any specifics, just the same Army plans that you do. I ended up raising the pilot house by .21" - about 2' 10", or very close to your mark of three feet. It's been some years since I did the models and, unfortunately, I simply cannot recall how I arrived at that height.

[Slim Rail Mike]

Some progress is being made on the tugboats. I'm building both the Hastings and the Hayden at the same time. Hopefully I won't make the same error on both of them. This is the Hastings with the hull almost done.

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[samusi01]

Looking good.

[Slim Rail Mike]

   Got more work done on the hulls. They need the H bits fore and aft and the forward wenches, as well as the anchor handling gear.  As I’m sure you all know, it is easier to work on walls before they are assembled. I try to remember that on the rest of the build!

[Slim Rail Mike]

I'm taking a pause build the vessels. I'm waiting for paint that has been ordered. The various decks and cabins are loose fitted, so they can be painted before further assembly.







 I've no photos of the tugs under steam. Only the 'Hayden' retained one ventilator. Would anyone know how many ventilators were on these Santa Fe  tugs before being converted to diesel? My plans show seven while still in military service.






Boy photos sure show every flaw.

[samusi01]

Try here:

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Hastings has what appears to be five or six - one small one outboard of the stack, and two pair of larger ones aft of the stack and on either side of the engine room skylight. I chose to model mine symmetrical, so six. Hayden had at least two starboard side aft of the stack in '62 but only one visible, port side of stack, just aft of the stairs, in '64.

At least some of my images are from the ATSF historical article on the "Santa Fe Navy", by John Signor.

Edit: well, that was a failure. Thought it was cued correctly, but no... You can watch the whole thing if you choose, or go to 14:00.

[Slim Rail Mike]

@samusi01 Thax, Thats a great help