New 610' Great Lakes Bulk Freighter in Production

[pnolan48]

This model is the USS (United States Steel) William A. Irvin, built in 1938, in service until the 1980s, and now a museum ship in Duluth, Minnesota. It is 610' long, 60' in beam, and held many records for tonnage, speed, and loading and unloading until superseded by the 735' Fitzgerald class (also near production).

The model is so long (46") that it exceeds my photo setup, so this picture was taken on the living room rug, with the background masked out in Photoshop. Some mast details were lost in the masking. I will be building a larger photo setup!



The eighteen hatches of the six holds are the correct size and spacing for the loading docks around the Great Lakes. The deck, hatch coamings, and hatch covers are cambered (curved) as the camber was a distinguishing feature of the Lakers. As shown, the hatches are removable to show the holds beneath.

The model features custom photo etch railings and stairways, and many custom-built details, including windlass, winches, deck ventilators, quadrant davits, life boats, skylights, and much more.

A built-up model, custom painted and decaled is $1850.00 US, plus shipping and insurance.

A complete kit containing all details (but not commodities like paint and glue) is $625 US, plus shipping. These will only be sold to customers who recognize that the cambered hatch coamings and hatch covers are finicky but still within their modeling capabilities. The styrene parts come in sixteen sheets of up to 48"x 12" in size.

I will be showing this ship at the N Scale Convention in Milwaukee in late June. More information from peterknolan@gmail.com. My web site is in production.

I'll have more pictures later.

[MichaelWinicki]

I'll tell ya, that's pretty slick Pete!

[fredmoehrle]

Any chance the topside details will be available separately?
I've got some old wood model I was going to use for a grain hauler, but nicer hatches would be a plus.
So would the fore & aft superstructures.

[pnolan48]

Here's the stern view:

[PGE-N°2]

It's a beautiful ship. I've always had a love for the graceful lines of the old lakers.

[pnolan48]

Any chance the topside details will be available separately?
I've got some old wood model I was going to use for a grain hauler, but nicer hatches would be a plus.
So would the fore & aft superstructures.

I'll have to think about that. It may have to be on a case-by-case basis. I may be willing to sell a top side kit (i.e., everything but the hull) but I leery about offering that, since the hatch coamings, hatch covers, and superstructures are cut to fit the hull, and I'm not sure how they would fit on other hulls. Each hatch coaming is eight pieces, and reducing or increasing the camber on the long sides would be a real chore, if possible at all. Each hatch cover is four pieces. The two flat pieces of styrene have to be laminated together with roughly the correct camber, and then the outer brass support beams have to be curved to fit. Of course, you could just build the hatch covers flat. The front and rear houses also  are cut with camber and sweep, and I'm afraid it might be totally frustrating to get them to fit another hull.

Contact me at peterknolan@gmail.com with more details about what you are thinking of doing.

[pnolan48]

It's a beautiful ship. I've always had a love for the graceful lines of the old lakers.

That's an interesting point. I used to think of them as long boxes with pointy ends, although the sterns were indeed graceful. Then I actually drew one up. While the bows are not as graceful as ocean-going freighters, the old Lakers were elegant in their own way. Those with passenger accommodations were certainly a fine way to cruise the Great Lakes. The dinner menus on some of them had five-star restaurant selections.

[WBRRVP]

Growing up in Michigan I love these type Bulk Freighters. Looking forward to the Fitzgerald class.

[pnolan48]

The Fitzgerald in N scale will be 55 inches long by 5.6 inches wide. That will take a boatload of styrene and be more than a handful on my worktable.

[fredmoehrle]

 
Look at the bright side, Pete!
The 1000 footers are pretty much vertical lines!
(Unless one goes beneath the waterline.)

[keeper]

WOW, fantastic!

How's the tug Edna coming along?

Thomas

[trainforfun]

A master piece Pete !!!
Is this a loaded ship or empty like that ?

[3DTrains]

Is this a loaded ship or empty like that ?

Looks to be empty.

Tried to post over at TB, but the forum is still acting wonky.

Beautiful model, Pete! This should help inspire anyone wishing to model LS&I, C&NW and a host of others in and around Duluth (personally, I would love to see someone model the LTV/Erie loop trestle~dock area).

Have you considered a write up of the road to creating your ships - not a step by step, mind you, but a bit of history of the vessel and how you came to chose which to model?

Cheers!
Marc - Riverside

[pnolan48]

Trainforfun,
The holds are empty, ready to be filled with whatever you want your ship to carry. The hatches do not have to be glued down--the hull is very rigid without them. I replaced the normal center vertical keel of most model construction with two vertical keels near the edges. Using a digital cutter allows me to cut all the parts precisely--without it, this construction would be a bear to carry out.

Thomas,
The Edna G is nearing production. A corrected second prototype is ready to be cut and assembled. I'll be building shipping boxes starting tomorrow and, after that, see how the second prototype goes together. I may have to cast the stern, as there is not much depth to it for bending styrene and keeping things straight.

Marc,
I've been getting errors over at Trainboard, but found that I could post with a little persistence and using the quick reply rather than the reply to thread route. I've tried to include a little history of the ships in each write-up and, when I get my web site up, I'll do much more. I can say that much of my choice depends on feedback, the availability of plans and good images, and how hard I think a ship will be to build. The 210' Reliance-class cutter was a bad choice, with curves that are complex to model. It took me eighteen months to get that one ready for production, as I had to periodically put it aside due to frustration. I chose the Irvin because it is a museum ship, representative of its class and I had a directly overhead satellite image to derive the plan. An existing ship means I can get the detailed info I need to make a good model. It took only three months from first drawing through a prototype to production, because they are fairly simple ships.

I'm still interested in what you folk out there want for ships. I am hustling to get my line of parts ready for the Milwaukee show. I consider small boats up to about 40' as "parts" for bigger ships.

[Kisatchie]

Trainforfun,
The holds are empty, ready to be filled with whatever you want your ship to carry...

Hmm... bananas!!!