Does your railway have a port?

[Hines (Bill)]

Im quite inspired with @Eric_Mueller pond article and am still futzing around with fitting a waterway on my layout and giving it a purpose other than to explain why I have a bridge.

One of my earliest Tinkercad projects was remixing a part of this bridge to provide a down ramp. Recently @Devon_Sinsley reminded me about other waterways and reawakened my thoughts of the purpose of a waterway.

Do you have a port, a canal, a river, a lake, stream that plays a role for your railway or for a rail side industry?

Did you build a ship, boat or canoe for this water?

[Devon_Sinsley]

Bill,
I don’t yet have a “port”. But my semi fictional Canyon Creek Railway was, at least on paper, a railroad that was more or less an extension of the Coeur D’ Alene Railway and Navigation Company. I say semi fictional because it did exist on paper but never owned a single piece of equipment. It built its track and leased it to CR&N. It was ALWAYS CR&N but because of charters they formed two RRs. I won’t bore you with the details.

But the CR&N did have a “port” per say. It had a track down to the river where it had an interchange with steamboats. This was at Mission, Idaho.

https://www.pacificng.com/imglib/main.php?g2_itemId=7459&g2_imageViewsIndex=2

I have distant plans to model this scene.

[Korm (Korm Kormsen)]

i have squirrelt away everything, what i need for a port, but i never built it.
maybe on the next layout…

[Tim1 (Tim)]

The terminus for my line is Cliffport. Alas, the actual harbor area, owing to space constraints, is barely there.

It does have a creepy seafood plant, though…

And a lighthouse…

[capecodtodd (Todd Haskins)]

That is a great looking bridge Bill.
Having a water feature on your layout can be a lot of work. I knew a guy that put a koi pond in his RR and he spent more time taking care of the water, fish and plants that he didn’t have much time to run trains.

I have 2 dry washes on my RR that are bridged 6 times.

[rmccown-admin (Bob McCown (Admin))]

I have a port, but not too much port scenery at the moment. I have some seawall front that needs to be rebuilt (have the parts) and a car ferry (that needs to be changed from a piece of plywood with track to a proper ferry).

[Pete_Lassen]

We don’t have much in rivers in my section of Arizona, there is a slight bit of erosion in Northern AZ and after a lot of rain we do have some occasional streams , so I am following that sometimes water but mostly dry , by having a dry wash , and no need for transportation to or from it.

[Hines (Bill)]

@Tim1

It does have a creepy seafood plant, though…

Until I moved to the bush, I always wondered if anyone ever advertised fish other as anything other than FRESH FISH. I mean, you know when I was growing up, you could buy DAY OLD BREAD but not fish.

There was a pub there that advertised that it had the freshest thawed seafood in town. I really like the idea of your creepy seafood plant might deal in freshly thawed fish.

BTW am I seeing that your port also is part of the NASCAR circuit?

[Tim1 (Tim)]

The sidings at Cliffport make an ‘Inglenook’ switching puzzle. ‘Inglenook’ sounds a bit like ‘Insmouth’ a creepy town from the tales of HP Lovecraft, which was dominated by the cult of Dagon (not all of whose members were human). Considering all the nonhuman and semi-human people populating the layout, it fit. Hence, ‘Dagon Seafoods.’

[Hines (Bill)]

@Tim1

The sidings at Cliffport make an ‘Inglenook’ switching puzzle

I’m glad I asked… and learned something new. On my first pass I missed the word puzzle. On my second pass I had to look up ‘Inglenook’ switching puzzle to see what that was.

I see another explanation on why @freddy Fred’s got into Kadee, so deeply.

Tim, I think I’m going to need a bigger port.

[Devon_Sinsley]

One of our club members has a small G scale Inglenook puzzle for the Bachmann Lil Hauler sets. He takes it to the train shows and sets it up for people to try their hand a it. He has brought it to a couple club meetings and we have had timed competitions. They can be a lot of fun. There are other puzzle tracks as well but for a layout the Inglenook is the most realistic and useful for a small yard layout.

[Tim1 (Tim)]

Well, bit of a derailment here, but ‘Nocturne Gate,’ the town on the layouts upper level, is a mangled ‘Timesaver’ switching puzzle. ‘Mangled’ because the 12" wide shelf only allowed for two tracks deep instead of the three tracks the puzzle calls for, so I elongated it.

[Devon_Sinsley]

Tim the more I learn about your layout the more I like it. It sounds like a lot of fun in a small space

[Tim1 (Tim)]

The layout is in the 15x27 loft above the garage.

Alas, I don’t run trains that often anymore - too much other stuff going on.

I am considering simplifying the lower level by getting rid of a ‘distance eating loop’ that made it look cluttered with track.

[Hines (Bill)]

You know Tim, this means some of us will want more pictures and background stories of your rail line or a link to a previous post.

[Dave_Taylor]

Well the New Mexico Northern is about 600 miles from the nearest water that would be considered navigable ( except by the EPA). We do have 3 Rivers converge here. Best you might do would be a kayak or rubber raft.

[Dave_Meashey (David Meashey)]

Had a harbor on the British OO layout, but that was in the days of film and color prints. If I can ever find those photos, will scan them and post here.

Regards, David Meashey

[Devon_Sinsley]

@Dave_Meashey

that was in the days of film and color prints.

Geez you sure the weren’t eaten by a T Rex . . . Lol. I understand. I really wish I had the pictures from my model car days. They were film. Scanned all the good ones. Threw out the prints. Then had a computer crash and lost the digital copies. No getting them back.

[Dave_Taylor]

Well Dave Have I got deal or you…Only slightly used for15 + years young now… Free for the hauling away, You dissemble thou… A 30" wide Color Print processor, Just add chemicals, electric power, water and sewer, and you’re ready to go… And Wait!!! there’s more… I’ll throw in a PAKO 11" color printer… Yes you too can print up to 11x14 Prints from your 35mm, 126, 110, 120, and 220 6x6 and 6x7 color or B&W Negitives… All set to make the big dollars completing with Walmart, Target, Cosco and others… And to sweeten the deal you get, if you call right now, your added on “School Package Printer”, yes you too can print those high in demand school packages, Proms, and dances, Yes this wonderful money making machine, will print from split 70mm film or 645 film, 1-11x14, 1-8x10, 2- 5x7s, 4- 4x5s, 4-3.5x5s and 9up wallets on long roll 11" paper. Fits nicely in your new 30" color print processor.

Just come and pick it up…(Please)…

[Dave_Meashey (David Meashey)]

Well Devon;

I did not get eaten by a Trex, but I had a small triceratops to help carry my books to school.

Dave;
Think I will respectfully pass on your offer. The digital optical stuff has me spoiled.
Actually, Devon, I was young once. I had to grow up, but I still play with trains.

Best, Davie Meashey
P.S. Finally found a photo of the OO scale harbor. Alas, it was taken with either a Polaroid or Kodak instant print camera ( Yes, Kodak made that kind of camera decades ago, got sued by Polaroid for patent infringement, lost, and had to recall all their cameras. Sad, cause they took better photos than Polaroid.) Anyway it’s good enough to give you an idea of the layout of the harbor.