I assume that the harbor is to be on the outer edge of the layout table. Of course, you must depress the water level below the layout top. I found that it is best to adjust the water level after constructing the pier and the supporting pillars (which must rest on the water surface). Harbor boats such as the 6 inch Coast Guard fire boat, or Lobster boat would probably be your best bet, as to suggest activity in the harbor. I suggest Sam Cahoon's Fish Pier, and Wally's Water Works + Jack's Track Shack which are small enough to be of appropiate size. For the Dock itself, I suggest that you get the Heavy Harbor Pier set that comes in a plastic package. The set contains enough (simulated wooden) plastic decks and posts, of different sizes. I was able to construct a fairly impressive run down wooden buisness level top dock, and lower boat dock with small radiating decks where six small rowboats and cabin cruisers are docked. I put grey weathering solution in a cut-off plastic milk carton and dunked the docks in it. They turned out a great weathered grey. The water consists of a contoured piece of random rippled transparent Plexiglass. I spray painted the bottom of the Plexiglass a dark blue-green. That is about all that you have room for on a 8"x16" area. Of course you want to detail the scene with standing and seated fishermen, barrels,boxes,fish net,etc.
You didn't mention scale, so I'll answer for both HO and N scale:
Oceangoing cargo vessels start at 300+ feet and go up to ridiculous, and the shore facilities needed to handle their cargoes are humongous. Even inland waterway barges and towboats (which push, not tow) are sizeable. Your best bet might be to model a small Coast Guard station and post a photomural of a seaport on the adjacent backdrop.
In a recent issue of Tetsudo Mokei Shumi (the Japanese-language equivalent of MR) there was a photo article about a 1:80 scale diorama which included a boat yard and a very small inter-island ferry in a space about 300mm square. It looked very cramped - and I would have hated to be the skipper of that ferry! Squeezing into that slip would have been a bear.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - 100KM away from the nearest navigable water)
I think it was the March MR (maybe February) that had a featured layout with a harbor. It's worth looking at for ideas. It's along the edge of the layout, and features several boats.
I will be putting a small harbor on my layout, but the harbor is actually not on the edge. There is a waterway leading under a bridge to get to it.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I am planning a harbor layout, but it will be the main theme of a room size layout.
Early rough plan of overall layout for orientation.
One section, labeled "Dock" would be 13 inches deep by 4 to 5 feet long The back of the section holds three hidden tracks, one for run through and two for hidden storage of passenger trains. I feel it a priority to put passenger trains that are supposed to be hundreds of miles away somewhere out of sight. A long row of port cargo transfer sheds hides these tracks most of the length of the section.
Perspective rendering of scene--
This section is a condensed version of the operations AND the view of prototype scene in Galveston, as it appeared one block north of the Strand Historic District and the Railroad Museum (former ATSF passenger station)
An adjacent section, designed to fit a corner, represents an export grain elevator where wheat, sorghum and rice arriving by railcar are collected for transport by ship. (Ship not modeled but painted on the background behind the elevator...)
Section with open staging for mainline freight trains, disguised as part of port switching railroad yard...
Finally a sulfur dock. The dock itself is not moideled, only the rail tracks and some crane equipment and dockside storage. Ships painted on backdrop.
I'm building one right now on my layout. I just finished a container ship tonight and soon will start the pier. MRR mag has an advertisement in it for a company called SYLVAN which sells HO and N scale cast resin ships you can purchase and assemble. The ship kits are for advanced modelers and take a lot of hobby knife shaving, sanding, filing, drilling with pin vise bits, and fitting before assembling each part. I purchased the kit called the "Great Lakes Freighter" which is a coal ship but with some styrene and some scratch building turned it into a container ship. The ships they sell are about $200 - $370 and will take about three weeks to a month to build.
Now I'm going to build the pier using 1/8 dowel rod, strip bass wood, styrene, and various detail kits. Once that's done, I'm going to put in the water. First, I'll use a putty knife and fill in the wood grain plywood base with spackle. Once it's sanded, i'll paint the surface with a gloss black and dark green paint and then feather in tans and light greens paint to form the shoreline. After this dries, i'll use Woodland Scenics Water and apply it in thin coats until there are enough coats to represent the water. ...chuck
here's a picture
Hi Chuck,
Your container ship is gorgeous. If you haven't started the "water" in the harbor, as yet, might I suggest that you use random rippled Plexiglas, that has been semi-gloss painted with dark blue-greenon the bottom side. I used this technique on two large harbors in my HO layout. The water surface is then a little rippled and not glassy smooth. The track over the Bascule bridge at one end disappers into the long curved backdrop (with double passing track hidden, with a stand up crawl space). In one of the harbors is a 3 ft. long 4-track car ferry, with adjustable land-deck drawbridge, from Walthers. The other ship in the harbor is a 2.5 ft. long ore carrier, (supposedly on the distant side of the harbor!) To further the distance illusion, I have a single track N guage railroad dog-bone loop on the far side of this harbor. My other harbor originated because I had constructed a double track swing bridge, that required quite a bit of space. To justify the requirement of a swing bridge, I had to construct a fairly large mountain, blocking any other access to the near side of the required second harbor. This harbor features a moveable dock crane spanning two tracks, on the far side of the harbor, and a Bavarian Inn Resort with animated skating pond, and electified chair ski lift on one end of the mountain, and 3-track ore loading mine structures at the other end. There was also room to include Sam Cahoon's Fish pier, next to Waterfront Willy + Trackside Jack. The height of the pier on which these structures are located was dictated by the height of the small fishing boat dock pillars. I will post pictures, "one of these days". Bob