Modeling a Modern Port(And a partial trip report)


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The Name's Really Matt...
Hey guys. I recently took a trip to the Norfolk/Va Beach area. If anyone is familiar with the area, you'll know of the three "bridge-tunnels" in the area, two of which are on the main interstates leading into the area, and the other is a toll bridge-tunnel on a federal highway leading to VA's Eastern Shore. To make a long story short, I mapped a railroadly-scenic route from my hotel, up the toll bridge-tunnel, to Cape Charles, back down, through East, up the I-64 bridge-tunnel, down the I-664 bridge-tunnel, onto I-264, through the downtown Norfolk tunnel, over a draw bridge, and back to the hotel. The Cape Charles trip was quite interesting, as the Eastern Shore Railroad not only runs through and has a yard there, but operates a railroad barge from Cape Charles to Norfolk, interchanging with NS. I didn't see the barge, but I got a good look at several port operations, and a few locomotives. The East Norfolk leg was lousy, until the interchange with I-64. There were a few tracks where I suspect the barge connects with NS. A few operations were going on, so it provided for a bit of scenery. The I-64 bridge-tunnel provided large ships, but nothing else. Once I got on I-664, things began to get interesting. My take on the port I saw was this: A large coal exporting operation, with five-story coal mounds and a coal ?crane?(Not a tipple)Also a large container exporting operation, with four or five container cranes and containers stacked upwards of six per. Container ships were docked at the container port; coal ships were docked at the coal port.

I went through downtown four or five times. I always saw a pair of tracks with bascule bridges over the water. The bridges were always up; a train never on the track. It interests me that the bridges didn't move.

This has all gotten me interested in modeling a port. Probably not a huge port, but large enough to incorporate containers, coal, a barge(Walthers kit), several ship-loading cranes, water, and a bridge or two. I have a trackplan in mind, but no software to put it on. Until then, I'd like some suggestions for cranes, structures, bridges, kitbashing ideas, etc.

I'll update this tomorrow with more of an idea of what I'd like to do.


Thanks,
Matt
 
Matt if the container ports the one i saw on a TV show it's a monster, i think the cranes were made at the Hyundai shipyard in South Korea and transported on barge ready assembled, scary stuff. Ken Larsons "Iron Belt" has a crane and ship and some other interesting stuff. Walthers do some container cranes of different types and price range.
 
Hi Matt,

I lived in Norfolk for 3 years during my Navy enlistment, unfortunately this was during my "sabbatical" from the Hobby so I didn't do much railfanning or sightseeing at that time...

First, a coupla questions:

1) How detailed do you want the port scene to be? Ships take up a large amount of space. Robert Smaus did a few articles in MR ~10 years ago on modeling a '2D' container port background, not sure of which issue though. I did an ore-unloading dock scene as part of my steel mill layout, but I had to make some major sacrifices in my track plan to accommodate it.

2) Do you already have some of the Walthers structure kits in your possession? Most of their port-related ones (except for their ore bridge) have been out of production for several years, which means you'll either have to (1) pay thru the nose for these items on eBay if you're lucky enough to find them there, or (2) scratchbuild what you want using Evergreen styrene shapes. Personally I would choose option #2, since it isn't as difficult as it sounds, and you'll get a lot more satisfaction [and variety] from your work.

3) I you get hold of a Walthers bascule bridge, don't try to use it as a gateway where people will walk thru - sooner or later some clumsy or oversized person will bump into it, and styrene is ultra-fragile!:eek: Put it someplace where there is no human traffic.

Ports are fun and exciting, they are a real challenge to model - but worth the effort IMHO. Good luck with it!
 
CSX_road_slug said:
1) How detailed do you want the port scene to be? Ships take up a large amount of space. Robert Smaus did a few articles in MR ~10 years ago on modeling a '2D' container port background, not sure of which issue though. I did an ore-unloading dock scene as part of my steel mill layout, but I had to make some major sacrifices in my track plan to accommodate it.
Click to expand...
Ken, I am still struggling with this. I am not going to have a huge area to work with. I was also considering settling for a bit of "water" and a backdrop.

2) Do you already have some of the Walthers structure kits in your possession? Most of their port-related ones (except for their ore bridge) have been out of production for several years, which means you'll either have to (1) pay thru the nose for these items on eBay if you're lucky enough to find them there, or (2) scratchbuild what you want using Evergreen styrene shapes. Personally I would choose option #2, since it isn't as difficult as it sounds, and you'll get a lot more satisfaction [and variety] from your work.
Click to expand...
No, I do not have these kits in my possession. However, I have located a couple of them on eBay. As for the structures, I plan on using a mixture of scratchbuilt and kits. I may tweak the kits a bit to fit my needs.

3) I you get hold of a Walthers bascule bridge, don't try to use it as a gateway where people will walk thru - sooner or later some clumsy or oversized person will bump into it, and styrene is ultra-fragile!:eek: Put it someplace where there is no human traffic.
Click to expand...
Heh, I hadn't thought about that. Actually, I plan on having a "waterway" under the bridge.
 
What about a port as a back drop,
If your layout was HO scale how about making an N scale backdrop seperated by water in between, you could get a lot more stuff into a small space that way, here's the link to the containers for free website http://www.igshansa.de/igsdownload.html you could make yourself lots of N scale and smaller scale containers for along the back. you could do a piggyback loading / unloading facillity at the front in HO to keep with the theme
There was an article a few years back in MR showing how to use forced perspective to create the illusion of depth, i think it was Art Curran's work but don't quote me.
 
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First thing you will need is a digital photo backdrop of the Port of Norfolk. Take a photo of the port "skyline" so to speak, the cranes, stacks of containers, and other large port infrastructure. Blow up the image at your local photo store, and mount onto your backdrop.

Another nice touch would be to use a small stereo that would play a recorded track of port sounds, such as ship horns, seagulls, sirens, and other port-area ambiance.

Keep us posted on your progress! Would love to see how your port project comes along.
 
Matt,

Not too terribly long ago MR did an article on a compact C & O terminal in the Norfolk/Portsmouth area that was served by a carfloat operation. Several years ago, Robert Smaus did a series of article in MR showing how to build a switching layou centered around a port. He did an excellent job of faking the entrance to a modern container terminal, complete with a container ship on the backdrop. Both articles should give you good ideas to consider. A search of the MR article index should yield the information on which issues these articles appeared in, and a used magazine dealer like Railpub.com could be a source for the magazines. A search of the Rail-Marine Information Group's article index could be helpful also.

Tom in Tacoma
 
If you really want a ship, whether it be container or cargo, check out some of the RC boat sites. There are many scale models of those sort of ships in scales close to HO, such as 1:96 and 1:70. The difference, I think, isn't that great when your dealing with huge ships anyways. The smaller scaled ships would also help in the illusion of depth.

I've posted a few links to such sites. The companys below are all in the UK so shipping cost for such kits may cost a small fortune, on top of the small fortune it would cost to buy a kit:

http://www.marcle.co.uk/catap9.html
http://www.rchobby.co.uk/radio_controlled_t_class_conta.htm
http://www.rchobby.co.uk/large_rc_container_ship_m_v__c.htm

I myself at one time wanted to model a small Navy Base Railroad, complete with a Ticonderoga class Cruiser or two.

Fair winds and following seas.
 
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Jeff Wilson's book Intermodal and Containers (I think) has a section on creating a port and using a backgroud to do this.
 
This is my HO scale container port modual.
The ship is made from thin styrene glued onto 2" thick foam insulation board. The ship is about 7' long. I still have a lot of work to do on it, but I think it makes a great back drop.
I plan to add some huge container cranes that will stradle the mi-jack crane I already have.
 
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