UPDATE - Model of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Does Anyone Have One of These on your Layout.

Beautiful and priceless
You will regret it if you don't try

I'd take it and leave it HO. Build an interchange between the main and the "narrow gauge" lines on the docks.

Looks like a beautiful model.

A perfect way to incorporate a small On2½ operation!

If it’s in the background you won’t have to alter it. “Forced perspective “. JohnA

When I first posted this, I didn't know it was a model of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  The original owner hadn't applied the name decals on the ship.

We ( the club members) only worked on dismantling this large layout one day a week. It was over a hundred miles round trip for some of us.  It took 7 weeks to get the job done.  I was able to salvage this display but waited until the last couple of weeks to remove it because of its size.  I didn't have anywhere to put it at home and wasn't too excited about my wife seeing it.  However, I knew I would be transporting it to northern Virginia in the near future.  After riding around in the back of my covered pickup for a couple of weeks I pulled it out onto some sawhorses and built a structure around it for the long trip north.

This picture is after I got it up north.

This is after all the packing materials are removed.  The ore loading facility is packed separately also the smaller ship. 

This display is quite heavy and bulky almost too much for one person to handle.  Therefore, I decided to attach some wheels to the bottom.

This is the box holding the ore loading facility.

It's nice that the loading chutes were removable.  I got little pill bags to hold the counterweights and connector arms.

The smaller ship suffered some damaged, broken mast, coming up the interstate.

Almost ready to roll into place.

I built one out of 1x4 lumber stacked and shaped. It’s on the wall, not my layout. JohnA

Nice job John,  it looks real nice.  How long is it ?

Doug

With a load of iron ore, 26 thousand tons more than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty, …….😉

Pat

Doug- it’s about 30 inches long.  It should be longer, in relation to the 3 1/2 inch width.  Hatches are paint stir sticks. My brother has a yearly event in November hosted by the Lewiston (NY) art council commemorating the sinking. JohnA

@boomer0622 posted:

This is on a HO layout that is being disassembled and it might be up for grabs.  I'm thinking about trying to cut it out intact and converting it to an O gauge module.  It's about 4' long.   Am I crazy for thinking of such a conversion?           Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Doug

At first I thought this was a crazy idea, but that is such a beautifully done display, and I understand why you would want to use it.  If you only use small switchers and ore hoppers and lower profile 2-rail O scale track around it (or maybe even S scale), you may be able to pull off the appearance of a smaller ore ship.  

Or as a module, leave the HO track in place and run your O scale mainline  in front of it and have everyone use their magic forced perspective goggles.

Bob

John, Your model doesn't look out of proportion to me.  It's amazing what you can do with paint sticks.

RRCOC,  It did turn out to be somewhat of a crazy idea.  It's too long to become a 4' module at 5-1/2' and about 30" deep not to mention the weight.  So it will become a static display under the layout table.  My train room is too crowded to get it up to normal viewing area.   Pictures to follow.   

It will be located under the orange bridge.

It will have to roll under the helix from this end.

Rolling down the hall into train room.

In place now. I've used some weed block material for temporary backdrop.  Any suggestions for a backdrop will be appreciated.

Nice model. Here is mine, N scale.....measures 48" from stern to steering pole. This was a kit that came from the well know, and now defunct Carr's Hobby in Duluth, MN.

Several decades back when Z gauge was getting popular, in an edition of Model Railroader, one fellow set up a Z gauge loop in the mountains of his HO empire, with tunnels and bridges, and the effect from across the room was like looking at a HO gauge train at a great distance.  Now being a bit humorous, but if you did that with this HO scene and your O, it would probably have to be 50 feet away.

I have a good friend that built a large 'L' shaped HO Marklin layout of about 25X10 with his wife doing all the scenery.  He was stationed in Germany in the 60's and bought all kinds of Marklin stuff instead of chasing the local frauleins,  Thankfully he made it home in one piece after being sent to Vietnam.  The level of design, the scenery was beyond museum quality.  You could have taken a small camera and passed it along the city streets, the right of way, anywhere on the layout and it would look like you were in Germany.  He tried to give it to the Greenville, SC, Children's Museum, they did not want it.  He eventually sold it and he said the saddest part was watching it be cut up in sections to be removed.  I doubt the new owner would be as successful as he was, in reassembling it to its former beauty.

This thing is really impressive!! It's great that you were able to save it!

Edmund Fitzgerald docked at the Colorado Model Railroad Museum Greeley Colorado. 

Jeff- your Fitz looks fabulous! JohnA

@CHOO-CHOO MIKE posted:

Edmund Fitzgerald docked at the Colorado Model Railroad Museum Greeley Colorado. 

Great looking model!! What's the scale?

@John A posted:

Jeff- your Fitz looks fabulous! JohnA

Thanks, a good friend of mine put the model together. It has one gross of stanchions that's 144 and every one has holes to thread the thin wire thru to make the railings. Special decals had to be custom made for the names etc.

The whole layout including the Edmund Fitzgerald is H.O. scale.