Wow what a lot of help and responses from the readers. Thank you all. The links are very helpful. I figure that this will be my first and only layout. My wife wants me to sell my classic cars because they are too much work for this old man. She wants me to concentrate on my HO Empire as I have tons of kits, and rolling stock which will doubtlessly consume the rest of my life. I'm sure I have inadvertently picked up some out of era pieces. I also realize that I can't be an absolute purest with regard to the roads which served the area during the war. I have been told that during the war there were lots of locos leased to other lines and to the government. I was born in November 1942 and remember my dad who worked in the Kaiser shipyard in Richmond CA. taking me to watch trains when I was aged between 3 and 6 years old. After that we moved to Sonora-Columbia in the gold country of the Sierras. So it has been 60 years and this is my first layout.
Re the liberty ship: I am planning to model the deck one side and the viewable parts of the bow and stern. The Liberty Ship being loaded with troops and military equipment. The vast majority of the layout will be industrial sidings, switching and mainline loops. I want to include an engine facility round house turn table etc.(not the Oakland prototype). I want to have a freight and passenger station. I want to make head end servicing facilities to include:
Other services:
The main lines to loop around to these industries.
I bought a lot of big steam (over the years and don't really have an inventory):
I also bought Diesels:
Electrics:
Rolling stock:
I do not have any brass but have tried to get good stuff off eBay.
I have lots of buildings and kit bashing supplies. I think I want to make the track fit the buildings so the majority will be street railroading, switching etc. I am sure I have too much stuff already so I need to get it together.
I am also hoping to make the bench work kind of modular so it can be moved aside if necessary. I plan to use hollow core doors topped with several layers of heavy duty foam so I can run much of the wire above the table between foam layers. I am planning to build the buildings on individual plots made up of masonite base with a foam layer and attach with Velcro, making them removable. I want to make a pig tail to light the buildings with a modular plug (maybe CAT 5 or phone wire). I have a lot to learn about wiring sizes and quick connects. I really need help figuring out turn outs and loop backs. So I am open to whatever help and suggestions and deeply appreciate the input. I think when this gets started it will be my entire occupation until the grim reaper catches up with me. I have been trough a lot of tough times so as I slide toward the cliff I want to have something to be proud of and get the feeling of accomplishment that was lacking as a community college teacher.
I am in the East Oakland Hills about 2 miles from the Oakland Zoo. Anyone wishing to contact me regarding this project please feel free: michael94605@yahoo.com . Please put "Oakland WW2 layout" in the subject line as I get about 300 emails a day on this account. (Various yahoo groups).
Thank you gentlemen,
Have a Happy Holiday season.
Michael (the retired guy).
Hi Michael: I'm doing a model of an iron ore hauling railroad so I know what the size of the Liberty ship would be like. My ore boat is about 6ft long and 7 inches wide. It does take up some space. Try looking at Sylvan Scale Models for ship fittings. Clare makes three ships in HO scale and N scale. You are trying to get alot in a small space but it can be done. I've got 12 x26 and a side bay about 20x11. The best thing to do is get out the drawing board and plan, plan, plan. Somethings will work and some won't but you will end up with a plan you can use, it just may take some time.
Good Luck to you.
If you have money to burn, the folks in the below link will custom build you a ship out of brass. The Liberty Ship model they have for sale looks awesome, although it is little small for HO...
http://www.maritimereplicas.com/index.htm
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
markpierce wrote: SP, ATSF and the Richmond industrial railroad which I can't remember the name
SP, ATSF and the Richmond industrial railroad which I can't remember the name
Today it's called the Richmond Pacific Railroad. It's also been known as the Parr Terminal and the Levin Terminal.http://www.levinterminal.com/Rail.htmlIt was highlighted in the May 1996 issue of Pacific Rail News magazine (published by Pentrex). There is also an article on the area that's been sitting with a commercial magazine (not MR) for a couple of years, hopefully it will be seen soon.
All of these comments are correct, by the way. The original poster's ambitions could prove to be 10 pounds of sugar in a five-pound sack. Especially with the idea of moving all the benchwork out of the way periodically.
Focusing on the area around Richmond would be one good approach. Another would be the Oakland Harbor area served by the Oakland Terminal Railway and its Class 1 connections.
If possible, a good practical alternative for the design itself would be to have a substantial area fixed in place, including the harbor and major yard trackage, for example. Then the removable sections could be used to add other elements.
ByronModel RR Blog
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
R. T. POTEET wrote:Shortly after I retired from the Air Force in 1978 MR had an article on the Alameda Belt -
MR April 1980.
Finding scale maritime fittings for the ship. (Ship building materials.)
Model Expo; they concentrate on ship building, and have a huge anmount of tools and kits, including stuff in 1/87, 1/95, and 1/100 scales.
http://www.modelexpo-online.com/
Correctly eliminating post war rolling stock. (The only clue is "Built date").
The built date won't help. Freight cars had an average life span of 40-50 years, and went through several paint schemes in that time. You have to look at the built date AND the paint job AND research the specific car type to see if both the built date and scheme are appropriate for that carbody (most model rolling stock is painted inaccurately for the body. There are lots of 1950s-built PS-1 boxcars out there in 1940s paint schemes!)
To get a start on figuring out what's right and what's wrong for various freight cars, head over to the Rensselaer Railroad Heritage Website:
http://railroad.union.rpi.edu/
It's a pay site ($8 a month) but it's well worth it. It's THE single best place, on or OFF line, to find a general reference for all freight car types running between about 1880 and 1960. You'll find corect roster information, paint scheme information, car body type information, etc. And don't overlook their scenery section: it too is the best out there!
There seems to be no easy reference on which types of equipment was introduced and retired.
See above.
Railroads to include: Western Pacific, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, Frisco, Reo Grand, AT&SF and local shortlines.
Wrong. Railroads to include are ALL railroads running in the United States and Canada. Car interchange means that in general, any car can be found any where, especially boxcars. Don't just concentrate on the local roads, or your trains won't look realistic. As an example: in the 1940s, 75% of all manufacturing and 80% of the population of the USA was east of the Mississippi. The largest eight railroads in North America were all concentrated there. The Pennsy, for example, had more of a single type of boxcar (the X29) than most railroads had cars total! (they had 30,000 of them. They had 40,000 of a single type of hopper). You WILL find those cars in California!
Constructing the bench work which can be stacked when the space is needed for something else.
I'd suggest some sort of shelving method, where the shelves can be folded up or down if necessary. It's not something I'd ever recommend building (benchwork of any sort really doesn't like to move), but if engineered properly could work.
Wiring connectors that will allow for the movement of the tables and plug in like printer cables on a PC.
Use phone cable and RS connectors, both available in bulk at most lumber yards. You'll run into voltage drop issues though, which may ruin performance. Heavy duty, high voltage connectors are available through a variety of sources, and come in tens of thousands of varieties. I'd start digging throught he Digikey website for ideas:
http://digikey.com/DigiHome.html
Which control system to use? (What works with what).
Anything will work with anything, in general, but I'd take a serious look at DCC control. An explanation of DCC is outside the scope of this little email, so start digging through other threads on this forum!
A computer based track layout program to correctly specify turn outs curves etc.
Again, DCC.
nd of turnouts, switch motors and signaling.
What's your budget? What's your time? In general, Shinohara and Peco track elements are the best on the market, Micro-Engineering is the best looking track, and Atlas is the most popular and most widely available. Handlaying is also an option, but maybe not for someone with a bad back.
Ray Breyer
Modeling the NKP's Peoria Division, circa 1943
Poteet has it right. With your limited space, you need to focus on your most important element...perhaps the Richmond shipyards where Kaiser made his magic. There is room for other things...but Richmond should be your focus (with SP, ATSF and the Richmond industrial railroad which I can't remember the name.)
And why not include the Pullman shop in Richmond? Its transfer table is begging to be modeled.
Mark
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
If one wished to be historically accurate, as was noted, the Frisco, the Rio Grande, and the UP were not in Oakland during the desired period. Only UP arrived (decades later) through the purchase of the WP.
Details of some SP trackage in the area may be found in the East Bay SPINS charts found on-line. These maps are for a much later era, but may be useful.
Similar map books, called CLIC books, are on-line for the ATSF in the area. Again, these are for a later era, but many elements were the same.
There have been many articles in the magazines of the WP, ATSF, and SP historical societies on portions of the East Bay area.
The Oakland Terminal Railway, Alameda Belt Line, Howard Terminal, Parr Terminal and other shortlines and terminal lines are also all great modeling candidates, though it sounds as if you may not have a lot of room to include them.
Good information may also be obtained from the UC Berkeley historical topo map site.
For the SP side of things, I would highly recommend John Signor's book, Southern Pacific's Western Division (Signature Press, 2003). Although none of the WP or ATSF books I've read is so specialized on the East Bay, you'll probably find good information in some of them. For the WP, I think Norman Holmes' My Western Pacific Railroad (Steel Rails West Publishing, 1996) has a bit of East Bay info you may find helpful.
Friend Steve Hayes' WP-based layout site includes some background information on some of the Oakland locales.
My own modest layout effort is also based on the East Bay, but it's proto-freelanced and there may not be much of direct usefulness to you there.
There was (and still is) a lot of railroading in the East Bay -- I think it's a great subject for a layout. Sounds like you have a long wish list of features to include -- good luck!
Gary
1. Micromark (http://micromark.com) is a great resource for modeling supplies, trains, cars, boats/ships, etc.
2. Also look at the Rebuilt date on the car, some cars built prewar would have been rebuilt after. Simple way to eliminate cars is WW2-era was primarily 40' cars or shorter, with some 50'ers thrown in at times (I think)
3. Boxcars, flatcars, gons, stock cars, tank cars, and unit coal trains would probably be the most predominant rolling stock to use.
4. Don't know too much about these roads, I stick to the east (NYC)
5. Modules with removable/folding legs would probably be the best option in that respect
6. good plan, if you're going to use DCC, keep the cables as short as possible, so they don't melt (high amperage and small wires don't mix that well...)
7. DCC lets you run the trains (and is easier to wire than DC), DC is the tried-and-true method of wiring
8. sillub's xTRKCad (http://www.sillub.com) or Atlas' RTS (http://www.atlasrr.com) are both pretty good computer trackplanning apps
9. Turnouts - the best are handlaid, if you aren't up to that then Walthers/Shinohara, Atlas Customline, Peco are all good. Id reccommend #6 or larger for the mainline.
10. awesome
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
I am beginning to design a layout set in the port of Oakland during the Second World War. I want to include a Liberty ship to scale. I plan to include a model of the Ford motor assembly plant which assembled military vehicles in Richmond California and the track between Oakland and Richmond (about 15 miles apart). The problems are as follows.
I am 65 yrs old with a back problem so I want to make the bench work high enough that I can use a little wheeled roller to sit on while working below the table. I have a 2 Car garage with a 25 by 22 or so foot floor space to work with. I live in Oakland California. I am a retired pipe fitter and now a recently retired college professor. I would love to chat with anybody with ideas and interest in this project. I'd like to build this before I take the big dirt nap.