Santa Fe in China Basin

[mstl 246]

Besides the whole project being amazing to see progress, the second coat for the water made it more realistic in my opinion.

Nat

[railnerd]

As I was completing my elf duty tonight, I got a cool Christmas present from one of my coworkers.

He took some HD video above the former ATSF ferry slip in China Basin with his nifty drone.  The video has already shown me things I've been unable to see from Google Earth, Apple Maps, or other web photography. Here are a few awesome screen captures:

[Chris333]

Very cool. When was the slip last used?

[LIRR]

Very impressive work on the pier.....that's some project!

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Very cool. When was the slip last used?

Mid-80's.
Ferry/barge service declined through 70's, & last boat sold in '84, IIRC.
The Warbonnet 1Q2011 is almost totally devoted to ATSF marine ops in SF Bay Area: http://sfrhms.org/publications/warbonnet/v17-2011/

Dave: amazing job, my friend!
The water's getting closer to the actual SF Bay Baby Poop Green 

Those photos of the ferry slip are awesome!
Would love to see the actual drone footage sometime, too.
Rock on, fellow Free-moNster 

[Spades]

Very cool. When was the slip last used?

1984 when the Richmond slip burned https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe_Railroad_Tugboats

In 1982 i  watched as they recovered a sunken whiskey tank car, complete with old timey hard helmet diving suit.: 

http://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/12/03/Salvage-crews-trying-to-recover-a-rail-tank-car/5575407739600/

[railnerd]

In 1982 i  watched as they recovered a sunken whiskey tank car, complete with old timey hard helmet diving suit.: 

http://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/12/03/Salvage-crews-trying-to-recover-a-rail-tank-car/5575407739600/

Do you know what the tank car looked like?  I'm curious, as I've only seen the old news articles, and they are pretty vague.

-Dave

[jagged ben]

Awesome stuff in this thread, as always.  That sunken whiskey load story is such a juicy piece of lore, I think Dave  should really plan on modeling a whiskey car.

Edit: ha, I just got the 'while you were typing' warning and it looks like Dave might be thinking the same thing.   

[railnerd]

Awesome stuff in this thread, as always.  That sunken whiskey load story is such a juicy piece of lore, I think Dave  should really plan on modeling a whiskey car.

Edit: ha, I just got the 'while you were typing warning and it looks like Dave might be thinking the same thing. 

Ayup.   

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Do you know what the tank car looked like?  I'm curious, as I've only seen the old news articles, and they are pretty vague.

-Dave

I seem to remember reading somewhere it was a single-dome tanker, because that's all that was visible above water.
The trucks had fallen off, but the tank was bobbin' along.

I think whiskey was transported in regular 6,000 gal tankers designated for alcohol-only service.
Here's one for wine:



Some good info & picts on Tony Thompson's blog: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2014_08_01_archive.html

I know it didn't look like this:



Which is a pretty clever way to hide yr booze on the layout itself.
A bit more subtle than:

[Spades]

Do you know what the tank car looked like?  I'm curious, as I've only seen the old news articles, and they are pretty vague.

-Dave

It was a single dome, looking very dated.  I tried searching YouTube KPIX, KGO and KRON website but no love.  I would try your local library  SF Chronicle on mircofiche?

[railnerd]

It was a single dome, looking very dated.  I tried searching YouTube KPIX, KGO and KRON website but no love.  I would try your local library  SF Chronicle on mircofiche?

 

Maybe a use for one of those mystery Bachmann single dome tanks...

-Dave

[jagged ben]

... I would try your local library  SF Chronicle on mircofiche?

This is a serious proposition.  I believe only the Main Library in SF would have it, but they do have it, or at least they did.  Nearly two decades ago I took a gig for a guy doing research on movie theater history and printed out copies of several months of movie listings.  I can't imagine they would have gotten rid of it.  So we are looking for early December 1982?  Anyone know what date the car was actually raised?  I would be totally willing to look for it although it might take me a while to find the time.

It looks like the Chronicle's own online archive services, which cost money, do not necessarily contain photographs.

[railnerd]

While work on Pier 52 continues, I'm finding that getting enough unbroken time to finish such an ambitious project is proving really challenging.  With my day job becoming even more busy, "spare" time no longer really exists.  Reading MRH from my model railroading armchair, The One Module Approach reminded me that starting small, and working through ALL of the steps might help me get revved back up and past my mental blocks.

Back in 2004, Byron Henderson devised neat switching layout (http://www.layoutvision.com/gallery/id25.html) which combined satisfying operation possibilities with and achievable plan. Inspired by San Jose, CA, the layout features a can company, an oil dealer, packing plants, and an interchange:



Similar industries also existed in my current San Francisco prototype, so I spent a bit of time adapting the track to represent Illinois Street. I decided to compress the layout depth to 12", but I kept the 72" length:



As of this weekend, I've gone ahead an printed out a full size version of the plan, and started "play testing" with rolling stock and a locomotive. It was a bit reminiscent of playing "Thomas the Tank Engine" with my son a few years back, but it was an excellent way to clear the cobwebs in my head.

In my case, each job starts with the switcher and three cars on the Santa Fe lead— in real life this represents the connection to the China Basin yard. The length runaround track and capacity of the Southern Pacific interchange provide the constraints on the switching puzzle.  After completing any work, the consist returns to the Santa Fe track.

Hopefully, this will help me get re-railed.

-Dave

[Chris333]

Getting a layout finished by starting another... I like it! 

Sounds like me