A Sneak Peek at the Car Ferry Install - New Photo 7-19

Looking Good! Wish it could have stayed in Staten Island for a few more weeks so I could see it first hand.

Hey I got a great idea! Alex whip up another one for Aug 3rd!

Looks fantastic! Congratulations on your new acquisition, and kudos to Alex for such a masterful model.

Bruce

Jd that's really a great looking piece.  Alex is truly an artist.  Are you going to use a dockside loco to shift cars in and out?

No I will use a 0-6-0 but not a dockside.  

Sorry it couldn't have stayed at Alex's for his open house but the cost to ship that to Michigan would be huge!  I was staying only an hour from him so I was able to pack fit it int he back of the car and save some big shipping cash.  

Alex is truly a great artist.  It is a masterpiece and will be the center of attention to my layout.  

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the very nice comments, Jim it's looking beautiful so far. I can't wait to see it in full operation. !!!!!!!!!

Thanks, Alex

I should be able to load and unload it by the end of the night.   I want to plaster cloth all the scenery before I show photos though.   I have documented almost all the steps of the install and will have them in one big post early this week.  

Ok here is another sneak photo.

Only one track hooked up so far but here she is getting loaded.

Jim...just got in and saw your update.  Looking really great my friend!!  Are you going to simulate water in some way within the scene?

Alan

Yes.  I will be using the auatex glass, the same as I did in my harbor.  I have to and order it sometime this week.   

Looking great Jim!  That truly will be an attention grabber when it's fully installed.   What a great piece!

Thank you

I actually stayed up all last night and have all 4 tracks installed and had a ton of fun loading and unloading the car ferry.

Thank you for sharing.

Is the car ferry based on a prototype?

It is a scaled down version of the real Great Lakes Car Ferries that sailed across lake Michigan to avoid all the rail congestion in Chicago.

As much as I wanted a full scale version it would have been over double the length!  Would have held almost 30 full scale cars.   When I 1st contacted Alex about the project we decided that just over 4 feet in length would fit the layout but not look too small.  It holds 10 scale cars easily.   

I too thought the shipped looked chopped in half, but then I did some looking on line and found there were a lot of ships in Michigan that had this "chopped" look.

Very nice! Alex did a good job and your layout is coming along well. Are you going to add the rear hydraulic gate to the back of the ship. Looks like it was to keep the load from going into the 'drink'

Yes your right as it does have a chopped look but we knew that it would when we designed it.  There are many ships (or boats as they are called on the great lakes)  that have this look.  

As for the sea gate, no I am not installing one.  Not all the ferries on the great lakes had them, and they weren't installed until the late 50's on some ferries.

More photos should be posted and a video by the the end of the weekend.