Chesapeake Bay in 9 Modules, all in 1:220 // NEW MODULE

Western Pacific 725 is working the car float.....







....it pulls and pushes the hoppers on the barque with the help of a long flatbed car.....









.....and there are a lot of hoppers to be moved (thanks to Uncle Will, ......









and finally the WP tug boat "NOKOMOS" by Peter Nolan (

The layout was designed in such a way that we have a simple round course with some storage capacity for full trains behind the scenes and some tracks for manoeuvring single cars.
Here again an overview about the track layout of the "yard"-piece before the landscaping took place:






All tracks are connected in the curve outside the layout (we had to use custom made switches for this purpose), allowing the manoeuvring on all tracks.
After the landscaping has been done and some light vegetation is present, the tracks still can be easily recognized and dominated the first perception of the interested observer.



In addition, we learned that it is important to avoid any straight track line in order to achieve a prototypical look of the layout despite its small size and length:



When we in the next step planted the oak tree forest, most of the tracks at both sides of the layout vanished into the shadows of the trees, which created the perfect illusion of a "window of opportunity for train spotting" in the centre of the layout. (in analogy, the centre was the stage for the performance of the trains which come from the "off" and go into the "off").

Example given for manoeuvring a WP reefer:





WP 2257 comes and pulls the reefer out of sight.....,







and then disappears towards Niles Canyon!







Another example:

Here finally some shots from different angles of the "center stage":

















..the Zephyrette says "bye, bye"......


Hoping you enjoyed the photo session,

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!


       

Sven

Q: Are the shrimpers hand-built and which prototypes have been used?

A: When we reached out to Peter Nolan in early 2014, we asked him if he could custom build some ships for us as well. You may remember, at that point in time he had already constructed the car-float and the tug boat (which we then used for Niles Junction, www.spur-z-atelier.de/spur-z/niles-junction.php) and made them commercially available to all Zetties.



Peter started off from a picture I send him and built the ships exactly 1:220 as this comparison here shall illustrate. Please zoom in for the details.
Here are the three ships in the final version:







During the construction of the harbor we learnt that a single shrimper is not sufficient to create the "right fishermen flair".



So we went back to Peter and ordered two more. Here you see all three moored up at the harbor quai.



Here are a few shots of the ships "in action":









In the meanwhile, Peter made all Z-scale ships commercially available. Thus, please contact him directly in case you would like to own one of the ships yourself. More information including pricing and delivery at nscaleships.com/n-z-scale-ship-index/

Beside the area typical small boats, we needed a few freight ships as well.
Peter provided us with a medium-sized freighter, which you can really use in nearly every harbor.





The tug boat was a bang! Prototypically correct, our chessie cats on the rail now got a big sister on the water. I immediately fell in love with this tug boat............



Best,
Sven

Here are a few more pictures from the big CHESSIE:











Best,
Sven