HOO-BOY :
I just realized I got sucker punched .I sold my " N " scale trains some months back ,because I didn't have anyplace to mess with them . Now , I find myself involved with a real TRAIN museum and the miniature stuff that goes with it .
I know , what's the problem ? Well , I thought I wouldn't need the WALTHERS catalogue .Now , here I am playing with these things and maybe will allow myself to be talked into doing an " N " scale harbor , with rail barges and tugs and a container ship or two .
What did I do ? H,mmmmm - - Let's see if i get the "N" scale architectural pack then I can do an 1865 era MISSISSISSIPPI river steamer with all those windows and doors and ladders , stairs and so on ......
Now , you all know I do my own ships in train scales.(the smaller scales that is ). This means they are 1/160 and 1/87 . Now extrapolate that to shelf size . in " N " scale ,the ship ,if an ocean going tanker , is almost 4 1/2 FEET long . A post-panamax container ship is a little over seven and a half feet !
That's a lot of ship ! So I have been restricting myself to certain eras and certain types (inland water and river transfer types (they are smaller ) . The average length for ships I saw going up the SAN JOAQUIN and SACRAMENTO rivers are a good example . There is the STOCKTON ship channel or course. Thing is four or five HUNDRED foot seems to be the largest I've seen.
Now , there's an interesting thing in that the older steamships and freighters are in the five to seven hundred foot range .That's still a large ship for model railroads to use ,WITHOUT the ship DOMINATING the whole layout !
This has turned out to be a real dilemna .I think I'll go read , it's easier . Tankerbuilder