Anybody incorporate LARGE ships into your layout?

prrjim posted:

One of the fellows in the Chicago area who hosts an open house every year for O Scale March Meet, has a very large ore boat on his layout.    I think it is based on the Edmund Fitzgerald, but is shortened some.   It is about 8-10 feet long I think.     It is very impressive.

That would be Paul Balter's layout.  The ship is right at the bottom of the stairs into the basement.  Apparently, somebody brought the model to the Chicago meet, and Paul bought it.  There was page on display with the story of moving it and getting it down the stairs into the basement.  Anybody who ever helped somebody move a sofa up or down stairs could appreciate it.

Too cool. Man I would love to have the space for that someday. 

My father in law was a master with the Moore Micormak Line. He shipped all over from right after the war till the late sixties. As much as I would like to have a ship incorporated into the layout, they are too big.

If anybody is interested, I posted more photos from the layout (and a couple of others) in another thread a year or two ago.  However, there aren't any more photos of the boat in that other thread.

Jim

big train posted:

prrjim posted:

One of the fellows in the Chicago area who hosts an open house every year for O Scale March Meet, has a very large ore boat on his layout.    I think it is based on the Edmund Fitzgerald, but is shortened some.   It is about 8-10 feet long I think.     It is very impressive.

That would be Paul Balter's layout.  The ship is right at the bottom of the stairs into the basement.  Apparently, somebody brought the model to the Chicago meet, and Paul bought it.  There was page on display with the story of moving it and getting it down the stairs into the basement.  Anybody who ever helped somebody move a sofa up or down stairs could appreciate it.

That's AMAZING!! An O scale Edmund Fitzgerald would be over 15ft long as the prototype was 729ft in long. 

Thanks for sharing the great pics.

I have been accumulating O scale and smaller ships/boats for several years for the harborfront layout that I am starting to build this year. The waterfront trains will be On30 with 18-foot cars to make the boats seem even larger. Following are the sources of my maritime models.

My largest ship in merely a hull at this time: a 23-inch long, 5.5-inch wide one-piece blue plastic hull by Lego. All of dimpled deck is below the ship's sides and can be covered with sheet styrene or wood to hide the hull's origin from unsuspecting viewers. As true model kits, I have Deerfield River Laser's Vic 56 coastal freighter in wood at 21-inches long, 5-inches wide, and Langley Miniature Models' 18-inch long, all resin, Clyde Puffer that was common to Scotland from the 1800's until about 1950. I would recommend visiting the Deerfield River and Langley (British) websites for other vessels (Deerfield has several ferryboats an barges).

Another British manufacturer that I have not patronized is Model Dockyard, but it has many full hull rowboats in the $10-plus range. Other U.S. sources include Sea Port Model Works (not a lot of O scale, but separate hulls can work in multiple scales. Detail parts, too.) Frenchman River has recently added a 50-foot S scale steam freighter to its line of HO and O products. FOS Scale Models has a O scale oyster skiff (powered barge) and many HO scale waterfront structure kits that can at least provide inspiration. And don't overlook the products of Sylvan Scale Models, Rusty Rail and Model Tech Studios, the latter two producing details and figures suitable for a waterfront scene.

Gil Hulin

Years ago I built a toy train layout for a youngster and he really wanted to have a dock with a boat to bring freight to.  Seems his dad who had passed was a longshoreman, anyhow here is what I built for him.  O27 steamers only.  Not much detail but he loved it. Just a hunk of 4x4.   Russ

Michael Hokkanen posted:

Anybody incorporate LARGE ships into your layout?

If so, would you be kind enough to post a picture?

I am thinking of adding a larger sailing vessel or maybe a cruise ship in my harbor.  ($300 - $600)

I think the detail would be fascinating.

What are your thoughts?

Michael

My thought?  Incorporation a small SHIP into a layout is a major undertaking, especially in O scale.

I think we can agree that the USS Constitution or the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle qualify as larger sailing vessels.  Either one would be about four feet long at the waterline and six feet long including the rigging.

A small WWII era freighter like a C1-M would be seven feet long in O scale.  A Liberty Ship would be two feet longer.

A cruise liner like the Pacific Princess of TV fame, very small by today's standards, would be over 11 feet long in O scale.

A large modern fishing vessel line the Northwestern would be just over 2 feet long in O scale. Here the Northwestern in returning home to Seattle through the Ballard Locks.  The Great Northern (now BNSF) Salmon Bay Bascule Bridge is just out of the photo to the left.  The GN Ballard low line, now the Ballard Terminal Railroad, runs just behind the Corps of Engineers buildings and gardens.  The Northwestern was built at Marco Shipyards, just a stone's throw from the GN's Interbay Roundhouse. 

Opportunities abound to tie rail and sea.  A small coastal freighter could be loading lumber from a boxcar of flat car at a pier.  A fishing tender could be loading canned, frozen or fresh seafood to an insulated or refrigerated car.

Coastal freighters, sightseeing boats, fishing vessels and tugs are of a size that can be more realistically modeled on a layout.  Large ships are hard to selectively compress with a result that is pleasing to the eye. 

Peter, Run 186.

I thought about incorporating my 1/96 scale ships into my next HO layout (part of the reason that I previously went to HO) then discovered the real estate for the ships would take up most of the lay out.

In 1/96 destroyers are close to 4 feet and larger, cruisers 5 to 7 feet and battleships 6 to 9 feet, we won't even think of carriers.  In sort - no do able.

John H posted:

Peter, Run 186.

Thank you, John.......so my mind isn't completely gone!

Peter

The 1958 catalog was definitely an inspiration for what I included on my layout.

Your contributions have turned my question into a super thread with GREAT pictures. I can't thank you enough. Very much worth reading and looking at.

Here is an O scale Coast Guard cutter sitting on my layout years ago. I never found a spot for it.

Alan Graziano posted:

Here are a few o -scale ships that I constructed for one of my customers. If I can figure out how to get pictures off of my phone onto the forum, I can send some pictures of the ships on the layout.

 

Alan Graziano

very beautiful, I would love to get a ship like that.  were can I get in touch with you or you can e-mail me at gpamikeh1@comcast.net

You can also use one of your walls as the ocean and have a half ship at dock (your layout).  Here is an HO ship I did for the hobby shop where I used to work.  Russ

Or make a very simple car ferry and add to your layout at the same time.

DMASSO posted:

Here is an O scale Coast Guard cutter sitting on my layout years ago. I never found a spot for it.

Any interest in selling it?

Took this today.

Needless to say it would take a bit of work to bring it back to life.  Btw it's 4 feet long and started out as a full ship model 8 feet long originally intended to be in the layout's background.  I made all the parts from scratch.  Her name is Olympic and her registry is Liverpool.

Here is a better shot of the cutter.

I have one of those 110 Footers!  Not a bad representation (if you can overlook the somewhat over-sized details and the lack of the knuckle on the bow.  Sounds a lot like 3-rail trains when you think about it.  It does do a pretty good job in the water, too.

I have form time to time daydreamed about kitbashing mine into the 123 Foot version.