Car Float anyone?

I have a project in mind, a small cabinet style layout. More on this project will be divulged later. The central feature would be a carfloat not unlike the one in this picture www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=404516&nseq=1
Has anyone tried to construct one in Z at all?

Ian

Ian,

That is a great idea that would certainly fit in with the right situation. I'm personally not aware of anyone having tried this before, but go ahead and give it a try if you have the setting where it would work. Shouldn't be a difficult project.

If you surge ahead, please share progress, as this is a brand new theme completely.

Go for it Ian.

I built this in the 90s for a small layout I had. It's made from index card and 2 pieces of Marklin 8500 straight track.It could be a little longer but this is all the room I had on the layout.
Thom

Oh great Thom, make me a liar.....:o)

Just teasing. Glad to see it has been tried, so there is proof Ian, that this a very doable project.

Remember, show us the money......uh, I mean pictures!

Looks great Thom.
I know it can be done now. I will report back.

Ian

Ian,- sounds like a neat project- Keep us posted. Here is a tug (Nassen Street Models) and a solid wood rail barge..maybe 20 years old..

Found a couple of more pics..Barges are easy- no fancy curves- mostly flat steel. That is why I used solid wood- This barge has a walk over to direct traffic. The crossing gates and bumpers are not really accurate- but it gave the barge a rail road look one thing to think about--If loaded with rail cars, the barge will be sitting low in the water, empty she will look much higher.

We at NSM are working on a car float and hopefully will have it released by mid-year 2013.

John

Great inspiring pictures. It looks like I'm not doing anything all that unusual.

Ian

I didn't mean to make you a liar, Loren...you just answered too quickly. You've probably forgotten that I've been in Z scale since it came out in 1972. At the very least, you should have suspected that Fred would have one with all of his ships.

Nice RUST Thom!! Makes me want to break out the crew and some paint!
I think John Kellett also was thinking of a RR car float.
John B - I'll be looking for your future release.
And Joe D was making a real serious RR Ferry.
Oh, and Loren is the Tooth Ferry

If you want to see something slightly more amateurish take a look here - this is my first attempt at a car float. It takes 12-15 cars on three tracks and I have just recently mounted pollards and drilled for hawses.
I am inspired by photos like the one you posted and it's going to be served by a tug. The foundation is 5mm balsawood (softwood) dressed in a 0,5mm plasticard coating and MTL tracks. The dimensions are approx. 30cm long and 6cm wide.
I will paint it in a navy grey tone in order to fit my idea of traffic on my little fictional island in one of the Great Lakes (beware - that is just my uninformed excuse for combining both Canadian and US equipment).





Petter

Nice work Petter. I'm very impressed. It will be tough for me to match that standard of work.

So here then are my first thoughts about how I'd construct a car float.
My first thought centers around using a few sections of roadbed track and building the car float body around that. I think it might make for greater rigidity and I also have a lot of styrene sheets lying around. I think it would be pretty easy to build up e styrene body to the level of the track making it look like just the rails are on the surface of the car float.
That's the idea anyway. Best laid plans of mice and all that ...

Fred wrote: Nice RUST Thom!!
Oh, and Loren is the Tooth Ferry

That does it Fred.......no more sugar for you