The last major construction project on the Brooklyn Terminal is building a harbor tug. The Sylvan Models product is a nice, well designed kit that is fairly straightforward to build. The challenge will be coming up with a way of doing the pilot house windows and the handrails in a way that doesn’t look overly thick. Commercially made etched brass handrails should be easy to find. The windows? Hmmm. Those could be more challenging.
Finally, “The Tunnel Building” is complete and in place on the layout. It’s a fairly basic kitbash of a Walthers structure. The front windows and doors are photos.
Work progresses on the last structure for the BT layout. For lack of a better term I call it the “Tunnel Building”. I’m using Walther’s George Roberts Printing as the basis and then kitbashing from there.
One of the primary areas to pay attention to was the size and location of the opening to make sure I had adequate clearance on both sides.
I wouldn’t classify myself as a “rolling stock guy”, at least not to the extent of my friends. It’s interesting to me, I know the difference between an X29 and PS-1, but I view the fleet essentially as rolling scenery. My focus is on plausibility not rivet by rivet accuracy. When I look at a photo of my layout I want to make sure the car types and colors, on a percentage basis, look believable.
To hit that target of plausibility I spend a lot of time studying the work of Jack Delano such as the shot shown above. You can see his full collection at the library of congress HERE. You’ll notice a sea of oxide red hues, along with highlights of yellow reefers and charcoal black tank cars. In the 1940’s outside braced cars were common.
N scale rolling stock generally comes from the manufacturer with truck mounted couplers. In order for the couplers to clear the bottom of the car, the entire car rides way too high. It’s a look that really grates on me as do the oversize couplers. I perform three mods to all cars 1) Body mount Z scale couplers (Micro Engineering #905, 2) Swap in Atlas (former BLMA) trucks #BLMA9045. These are specifically designed to “drop” the car back to its correct height (the wheels are also closer to the prototype width), and 3) add extra weight to the cars that need it. The 14 cars shown in the lead photo constitute the entire fleet for the Brooklyn layout but that’s more than enough to spin out a fairly long operating session.
Idler cars are used in car float operations as a “handle”. In other words it’s a way for the locomotive to grab cars from the float without actually going on to it. As I repaint and repurpose freight cars from my old N scale layout I came across the old gondola shown above. It was perfect for the job so I gave it a quick re-paint and detailed the floor of the car.
In watching this excellent video by NY/NJ Rail Videos showing the switcher working the old Bay Ridge yard I was struck by the grass, ballast, and other refuse in the car, an interesting detail to be sure.