This month's MR is both a blessing and a curse. Doug Kirkpatrick's article on the waterfront layout blessed me with a better idea on how to handle a car float but cursed me with having to pull up half my 2x12 Crab Point and Eastern.
It will, however, resolve multiple alignment and construction issues. I was planning on having the car float as either a hinged drop down or a pull-out slide that could be raised to track level. Due to space constraints (A closet that I need access to) a permanent structure is not possible. So, I am using Doug's idea. I lose a couple of spots to switch but may gain one or two with the reconfiguration. All in all, it will work much better.
After all that my question is this - do you pour the water with the float in place? Or pour the water first and then set the float on top? Obviously, this affects track alignment.
Thanks
I'm not sure what to suggest but I do know that most modelers who have water features with boats/ships seem to prefer to cut off the hull at the water line rather than have the complete hull get immersed in the liquid resin as it hardens. Any "gap" between resin and hull can be easily disguised with clear caulk dry brushed with white to approximate the wake a boat leaves.
Dave Nelson
My car float will be permanent. My intention is to build the "carfloat" as a piece of benchwork and get it operating correctly. Then I will pour the water and "skin" the benchwork to make it look like a carfloat.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I built my car float as a cassette, basically a piece of 2-inch pink foam with Masonite glued to the sides. I painted the foam black and glued the car float to it, then poured tinted Envirotex around it. This gives me a solid, single-piece movable cassette. For access reasons, I have a hinged shelf the cassette sits on, and the apron is attached to the layout bench work. The cassette box is a few inches longer and wider than the car float itself.
I used the Walthers carfloat and apron. I don't know why the author of this month's MR article had to reconfigure the apron to power the turnouts. I did both of mine with Tortoise machines using long wires from below and they work fine.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasley I don't know why the author of this month's MR article had to reconfigure the apron to power the turnouts. I did both of mine with Tortoise machines using long wires from below and they work fine.
I tried to power the turnout on the Walthers Carfloat and failed miserably!
SeeYou190 I tried to power the turnout on the Walthers Carfloat and failed miserably! -Kevin
On my apron, the leading edge of the points is on the apron, not on the carfloat. So, the Tortoise is attached beneath the apron, and my (removeable) carfloat doesn't even have to be "in port" to switch the points over.
I got my carfloat and apron long after Walthers had "discontinued" both items for years, then brought them back. Could they have changed the design?
I try to operate the carfoat terminal prototypically, keeping the locomotives off the carfloat and apron by using a set of 3 idler flat cars. So, I have no need to power the tracks on the carfloat or the frogs on either of the turnouts. I did replace the supplied plastic carfloat rails with metal, but I did that to improve rolling resistance so I could pull a string of cars plus the idlers using the 0-6-0 tank engine that services the port. I was a real fussbudget keeping everything level to make that possible.
Here is the empty apron. Notice how the points for the turnout are on the apron, while the frog would be on the car float.
Here is the car float and apron on the Strongsville Club layout, we use Tortise Switch Machines and this one operates flawlessly. It is used extensively when we have an operating session.
Rick Jesionowski
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
In my opinion, there would be two broad approaches to do this.
If the 'carfloat' is a dummy, and never moves, then I'd make it to the same standards as fixed benchwork and pour the 'water' to suit. That would apply to almost any 'cassette' (for example, one being used to simulate 'interchange' or facilitate getting trains on or off the layout).
The alternative, if you want a functional apron and bridge, is to make the bench work for the float and surrounds to slide on vertical rails underneath, with some sort of screw elevation drive, and cast the 'water' into a plug that can slide vertically against scenery walls decorated to look wet/exposed/etc. at "low tide". This leaves a certain amount of fun and imagination how the joint at the apron hinge, and the joint at the carfloat, are vertically hinged, but rail alignment and cross-level would still be precise.
I looked up an old photo I took of a club layouts carfloat, and it doesn't look much different from the ones above, so I doubt it was changed much.
I gave some thought to making the apron bridge height adjustable to simulate tidal changes and heavier vs. lighter loads, but decided that would complicate the trackwork too much. The apron bridge is very short, and any level change on the carfloat end would result in a big change in slope, which would lead to kinks and derailments at both ends. It would also require more motive power to push and pull the string of cars.
Since I model the Midwest, my carfloat is likely on a Great Lake, not the ocean. So, the total tidal variation is typically a few centimeters, and not modeling it seems like the best decision.
My Frenchman River float-bridge and car-float sit atop 'plexiglass water'. Gloss gel water effects done after floats were fastened in place. Ribbon Rail gauges came in handy aligning tracks to float bridge.
Regards, Peter
OvermodIf the 'carfloat' is a dummy, and never moves, then I'd make it to the same standards as fixed benchwork and pour the 'water' to suit.
That is how I intend to model mine. Rigid and secure.
Guys like you and Track Fiddler are real-world craftsmen. I am sure any benchwork options would be rigid and secure. My carfloat is a separate unit and can easily be removed and exchanged for another, but the solid cassette it's built into and the secure mount provided by the Walthers apron let it be completely solid, even though it rests on a fold-down shelf when "in port." I think the trick was being obsessive about keeping everything level. I also made sure the apron bridge was fixed to the benchwork, not floating like a real one would be for tides. That made the installation of a Tortoise machine to drive that turnout a piece of cake.
My car float will also be strictly a scenic feature. I needed a three track yard in that area, and I also wanted a waterfront scene.
Building a three track car float to use as a freight yard will give me the operational and photographic benefits I am desiring.
Back when I lived in Massachusetts, my house still wouldn't have been large enough, but I thought of getting an additional apron and having another carfloat terminal somewhere "across the water." It's a plan that never materialized.