US Standard River Barge Now Available in N and Z

[pnolan48]

This is not even up on my website yet, so it is a sneak preview. What do you think?

These are accurate waterline models of the standard barge for the Mississippi River system, measuring 195' long and 35' wide. I used engineering drawings to accurately model the dimensions and placement of the hold, and details such as the winches, bitts, ventilators, and exterior bracing around the coaming. Freeboard (height above water) is a scale 4.5'; coamings are a scale 3.5' high.

Z scale Standard Barge from the bow

N scale Standard Barge from the stern

In N scale, the barge is 380 mm (15") long, and 68 mm (2.7") wide. In Z scale, the barge is 277 mm (10.9") long and 50 mm (1.9") wide. The Z scale barge could serve as a smaller N scale barge; in N scale it measures 142' long by 25.5' wide.

N & Z scale Standard Barges compared

The N scale barge is primed in red chromate primer; the Z scale barge in gray primer. Unpainted models are available, as are models without mooring bitts attached. Availability in very limited until March 2014.

Price is $60 each for N and  Z. Discounts are available for multiple orders: 10% for three to nine; 15% for ten or more.

Upcoming for river modelers is a "Jeffboat": a 145' towboat from Jeffersonville Shipyards, the second largest supplier of barges and inland waterway vessels, and a smaller towboat (they are actually pushers) of about 75' in length. Here's the feasibility model of the Jeffboat, without the smoothed corners or deck details.



Contact peterknolan@gmail.com to order or for more information.

[Philip H]

Nicely done Pete. Two questions:

What's the lead time on these for ordering. 

Are you doing any details with these? If so I'd cast a vote for the segmented fiberglass covers you see on these.

[pnolan48]

I've got a small stock of these on hand, but I'm leaving for Alabama next Sunday, to return in February. I've learned that I just can't transfer enough production stuff between sites to fulfill orders for castings, so March 2014 is probably the earliest for production orders. If someone orders in the next day or two, I can get out undecorated kits before I leave. Undecorated kits means you have to glue on the eight bitts and one capstan yourself--not a big deal for some modelers but a huge deal for many others--and then paint it in the color of your choice--black or rust.

This is a bad time for me to be leaving, but family troubles demand it.

I will be offering a whole line of barges and accessories. The segmented covers are first on the list, and have already been drawn and cut, but not assembled (and then molded, and then cast). The issue here is whether I should offer empty barges at $60 and then segmented covers at $30 (or more, since they would be a pain to cast), or just offer covered barges at $60! That is, I can make separate covers for the empty barges, which entails making masters and molds for the covers, or just take the existing master (or a copy) and make a covered barge and then mold and cast that. I think the latter would be preferable for most modelers. Although an empty barge with stacked covers would make a mighty attractive model, so I might just do that for the real river barge afficionados.

I never realized the size nor variety of inland waterway traffic, and now am fascinated by it. I think I've spent 8 hours a day for the past few days just looking at barges and towboats.

[SkipGear]

Something else to consider would be an unloaded barge. They are going to float higher and some of the taper of the hull would be visible.

Then there are also fuel/gasoline barges. We see those often running up and down the Ohio while setting in the cheap seats at a Cincinnait Reds game.

[OHCR 4218]

Is the Jeffboat DCC ready, a 16-645 sound decoder would be a nice touch.

[pnolan48]

Unloaded barges run about five feet higher, definitely showing the bow and stern taper. I saw a whole train of them on the Ohio recently, with covers stacked on top, meaning they were 15 feet high--the pilot must have had a blind spot in front of a mile or two. The giant power company, AEP, runs a whole fleet of Jeffboats, mostly with coal trains, but also fuel. The variety in barges is virtually endless. There were at least fifteen trains stacked up upstream of Cincinnati early yesterday, waiting out the storms, I guess.

For now, it's one barge at a time. 

There's probably enough room inside the superstructure for working turboed diesels, let alone a decoder. When these boats accelerate out of locks, the turbo whine is pretty impressive.

[nkalanaga]

OHCR:  Unless you plan on modeling real water, I'd say it is "DCC ready".  Just cut a hole in the river, hardwire the decoder to the layout bus, and stick it through a hole in the bottom of the boat.

[MRLX1020]

Will covers be available?  I'd like to model a larger rail to river grain terminal, covers would be important, and also figure out a way to have the loading barge kneeled to one end, that would be neat!

Thanks for offering neat products!

[pnolan48]

Yes, see above. I think I'll do a covered barge first as a one-piece casting, then do separate covers for those who might want a half-covered barge. Separate covers are going to be a challenge. I think I'll leave the kneeling up to the individual modeler. As Tony suggested, I will do an unloaded barge sometime in the future, which might be best for a loading scene. But don't hold your breath waiting. . . one barge at a time.

[Philip H]

Pete,
At the rate I'm going an order in march sounds about right. Looking forward to the option.

[basementcalling]

Don't barge into any major decisions.

[pnolan48]

Looked into the covered barge today, and came to a different decision. I'm not going to make a one-piece covered barge. While I could use an existing barge and slap a cover on top, that would result in a very large mold, and a quite large casting, unless I made the mold a squish mold. I'm not up for making a new large mold, and then the squish mold (the plug) that would be almost as large. Those molds would be in the vicinity of two quarts of material. Plus some rather large new mold boxes: one for the outer mold, and a second for the squish part. And that size mold would have to be reinforced.

So today I made a master of a cover for the existing barge, and the mold box, and poured the mold. Even that mold took 20 oz, of material. But the master looked fabulous, and fits like a glove onto the barge. No pics yet, as the master is covered with the RTV goo for the mold; perhaps tomorrow. The cover has nine sections, all of equal lenght; seven are serpentine, the other two are the ends--but it is all one piece.

I know I can do individual section covers of the correct serpentine shape and even correct thickness, but those are going to be very expensive.

[nkalanaga]

For those who want a partially open barge, would it be practical to cut the cover apart?  Even if the cut ends had to be thinned to hide the thickness of the casting, it's dark under there.

[pnolan48]

Yes, very practical, as the sections are clearly marked. I'll do individual covers for those who want them stacked, although I suppose you could make a stack out of cut up sections. I won't see the flat mold until later today; perhaps a plug for that wouldn't be too hard (although, every time I say that, I find out differently).

[pnolan48]

Eh, the first casting of the covers looked lousy, with fish eyes all over it. It often takes two or three castings for extraneous oils to be drawn out. I'll try again later.