Welcome to my blog about designing and building an HO module featuring a waterfront scene. The module will initially be constructed from two 30”X6’ Waffle style frames with the possibility of future expansion. One of the frames is a simple flat deck type 4” deep; I’ll refer to this as frame “A”. The other (frame “B”) is 4” thick on one end but starting about 6” from that end the deck drops to a lower deck. This lower deck reduces the thickness of the frame to about 1 ¾” thick all the way to one end. Also, frame B can only connect to another frame on one end and is therefore a terminating frame, a dead end. When these frames were first built I had intended to build scene with the track terminating on a pier (frame B) with a large warehouse or something but the exact plan had not been determined and that was back in 1999. By the time I finally dragged these frames out of my attic in the spring of 2009 I had played with a plan drawn in a CAD program to see what would work and what you will see now is 95% of what I came up with in the CAD program.
The overall plan is to have a car float apron with a small float yard. The yard will have a locomotive storage track, yard office, maybe a car inspector’s office, and maintenance sheds. I’d like to add some yard lights on a tall light tower but that will come down to feasibility. I would want some small very bright LEDs on the tower so I’ll have to play with the idea first. The yard will include a runaround track and the tail end of this track will be on a narrow pier. I would like to have a traveling crane on that pier but again I’ll have to give this more thought. I have a Sheepscot Scale Models crane (out of production) which I have yet to build. It comes with a book of instructions and is a highly detailed and highly complex kit. I think it’s a bit beyond me at this point. Maybe Walthers will reissue their pier crane then I’ll go with that.
Other rail served industries on this module will be a readymix concrete company and a vary large manufacturing plant. For the readymix company I have a Walthers kit which will be the start of the model. I will have to see how much I need to modify it to fit the available space and to make it look more like what I have seen locally. I'm thinking about maybe including a good sized structure for rail to truck cement transfer.
The other manufacturing plant will have a rail served power house in addition to the main facility which will have a double siding 200 scale ft long. The siding length allows for (8) 50' boxcars or (10) 40' boxcars on the siding. This industry was at first going to be a Maxwell House coffee plant, so I picked up one of the cool Miller Engineering "Maxwell House coffee" neon signs to go on the roof. Now however, I have decided to make this industry generic in design and architecture. Miller Engineering makes a number of very neat signs for a bunch of businesses, and by making the industry generic I can change the business just by changing the sign. This will also allow me to operate in a variety of eras, locations and railroads.
Below I have 2 images of the original CAD files I created for the Waterfront. If you look closely at the second image you will notice that the track plan differs from what was constructed as seen in the photos. This is because that while laying out the plan on the frames I realised I could lengthen the main runaround and simplify the plan with a few changes.
There are some things I want to achieve and explore with the creation of this module:
- Realistic track and ballast. - ( I very very rarely see modeled ballast that is not uniform in size and color but on the prototype, especially in yards, ballast is a mess. I want different colors and sizes with some dirt and gravel mixed in too)
- Cinder ballast. - ( I have yet to see someone model cinder ballast that looks right. Cinders are finer than most gravel, 1/4"-3/4" in size and can completely cover the ties while leaving the spike heads exposed.)
- Weeds and grass between the rails. - ( I have seen Lance Mindheim achieve this with fantastic results, I will try using some of that new Silflor prarie tufts.)
- Outdoor lighting around buildings.
- Smoke generation for the Powerhouse.
- Generic era and location. - (By careful selection of structures or by making them replacable I can have railroad equipment from steam to 2nd gen diesel that looks at home. I can also represent just about any Atlantic port and railroad that had any carfloat operations.)
Here is an Image of the overall idea for the Urban Industrial theme. The large export grain elevator on Pier 15 is neat, but the least likley to be built. However, all the others I fully intend to construct.
