What kind of ship?

What kind of ship are you building? What era? There were alot variations that were found in ships even in the same era. 5 decks doesn't say much of anything as that woud make a very small passenger ship since decks are built in both the hull itself and the superstructure.

Scale model ships can be very large even in small scales. That is why the most common scales for commercial ship models are 1/350, 1/400, 1/500, 1/600 1/700 amd today you even find them in 1/1200. Building one in 1/87 (HO) or 1/160 is going to give you very large model that is going occupy a significant amount of real estate.

Irv

building a container cargo ship

I'm building a container cargo ship, my ship, is about 6 feet long. i have laid out my containers on the deck, i have them five rows wide and 6 rows long. to the rear is cabin area, and atop will be a wheel house, I'm presuming the ship will be a current version,70-80's, I think the smallest commercial one,  I plan on having a container yard and a port to off load and load containers and sometime down the road a ore dock. I tried to import a picture. but not sure how to.

the original has 10 containers wide, and six or seven rows long and can haul 100+ containers, I only want to do 5 rows wide.and yes I plan on filling in as many unseen containers with foam or something as much as possible, I think it would still look ok. I just dont have any measurements for cabin areas and wheel house. and yes, I plan on having up near back drop.

you should look up container

The ship in this photo is one of the smallest and only carries 3000 containers of which most are above water and on dack with 3 containers in each of the seaward boxes that you see on deck.

you should look up container Ships on the Net The largest carries 29,000(29Thousand)containers and the smallest of 20 years age only hold 2,000 containers. build one even in 1/4 it's size would carry 500 and be 20 feet long in HO scale. A Harbor Container Barge will carries upward of 250 containers and that's for inner harbor transfer. so Good luck I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Her are some Dimensions for you hope they help.

To further strengthen Maersk Line's global network placed an order for 4 container vessels of approx. 4,300 TEU These vessels delivered to Maersk Line early 1998. Being 292 meters long(958 ft), 32.25 meters wide(105ft) and having a depth of 12.7 meters (41ft)the vessels feature Panama Canal dimensions this would be a small version compaired to the super Ships of today.

Dan

Is this the kind of ship

Is this the kind of ship you're planning?

This ship is 321.5 feet so in H0 it would scale to about 45 inches long. These are commonly referred to as "feeder ships". They connect smaller regional centers to larger international terminals. It would have a capacity of a couple of hundred TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units). A variation of this type of vessel has it's own loading cranes so that containers can be handled at any dock.

Hi Dan, I think you got your

Hi Dan,

I think you got your photo and text mixed up. The ship in your picture is one of Maersks' T-class of the '90s. They were about 528 feet long (6 feet in H0) and had a capacity of about 1300 TEUs.

Deans Marine in the UK actually makes a 1/100th (63 inches) scale kit of this ship. A bit small for H0 but it could be used to do a bit of forced perspective. Oh and the kit retails for about a thousand dollars U.S.!

Some pics can be found here: flyingscalemodels.co.uk/radio_controlled_t_class_conta.htm

actually I copy and pasted

actually I copy and pasted the imformation right off their sight along with the photo.

Dan

I am planning on converting a model for my N-Trak Module

I am going to use an old model of the Revell T-2 tanker to represent a coastal container ship. This model is 16 inches in length and it is going to be coverted to a container ship by only using the hull that I am also going to waterline. There are lots of possibilites for this. I am in N-Scale so this 1/400 scale ship is about 2 1/2 times smaller than it should be to represent the real thing.

For those who don't it, most early container ships were converted from ships built during World War and were sitting in the various reserve fleet anchorages until they converted in the 1960s and most lasted well into the 1980s before being scrapped. Some of them may still be around but I doubt they're as useful today given that most of the newer container ships can carry several thousand containers of various sizes.

One should also realize that there are various size containers in use in the use. They range in size from 20 feet all the way up to 53 feet. So you really need to consider what size containers your containers ship should be able to carry. If you are doing the 1980s, you will find a combination of 20 and 40 footers would probably be carried.

Irv

My father in law had an interesting story to illustrate your

point Irv.  He was in the merchant marine during WW2 and was an engineering officer.  In 1948 he was a first engineer and had just passed his test for chief.  He was married with a baby daughter at home who is now my wife, and decided he didn't want to go to sea anymore.  He had his papers for chief, but just put them in a drawer, but he kept up his union membership.  In the 1970's as the Vietnam war was winding down we were going through a recession, and he was out of work.  He needed work so he went back to sea.  He went to the union hall to sign on and was assigned to the exact same ship that he had last served on in 1948!  The difference was that in 1948 it was a break bulk ship, but in the 1970's it was a container ship! 

I think in sea going container ships the container sizes are more often 20 footers and 40 footers.  he longer containers have corner posts set at the 40 foot distance allowing a 42 or longer container to be stacked on top of a 40 footer, but they will only work above deck.  Unless newer ships have longer holds below deck, the max size below deck is a 40 footer.  Until the 1980's Sea Land used only 35 footers.  Their attitude was the entire world was wrong and only Sea Land was right!  I've also never seen 20 and 40 footer mixed below decks on container ships.

container ships

yes this ship is close enough, the one I'm modleing is about 6 feet long, I plan on modeling above deck any way, so any thing below wont matter, I plan on creating a rack system for above deck, for the containers. but I dont have any demensions for the above deck cabins. yes I have visited the web and have found many pictures but no demensions. matter of fact your picture is a close picture of what my dock would look like. I have two of the cranes pictured. I'm building the bottom of my ship out of foam,then will glue the metal plates (plastic sheets) to the foam. its been a long project but all is done except cabin area, fine detailing also needs to be done

Ron

Container Ship Drawings

Ron,

I have an excellent set of drawings of a 750 foot container ship from the late 70s. The drawings are 1/100 scale so the whole thing is about 7.5 feet long but I could scan the deck house section if you would like and email you the file. I didn't mention it earlier because I have quite a few ships drawings in various storage locations and wasn't sure I would be able to find it.

container ships

Brian,

I would like that, if you wouldnt mind. I could at least take measurements, and convert to HO scale. at least it would put me closer than guestimating. also do you know of any good web sites for detail parts?

how big are drawings, and what format would they be in,

do you need my email

Ron

You can get pretty close from the picture of the Unifeeder.

The two containers on the deck directly in front of the wheel cabin are 40 footers.  Unless the ships have changed since I worked in the harbor in the 1980's, they always mounted 40's on deck.  A longer container if needed would always be loaed above a 40 on deck and there is not enough clearance between that last lashing spot and the house to allow for the overhang.  Knowing the length of those containers should allow you to use a ruler and measure out the dimensions you would need.

Charley Tidewater

Heck ofa name I know..but it places me,..forebearance asked...

Fellows...

I have a foto of a ship I took printed and pasted toa  wall...it is about a 300' ship   a liberty ship?..newer applainces than i would like..this one is at Mare island Cal SF bay area..an old navy yard...

Hopefully I can find a pitcher of it..

Cholly

Liberties were bigger

Liberties were closer to 400 feet than 300. From the lines it looks like a small seaplane tender. But I owuld have to see more of the ship.

Irv

great idea

I wasn't sure what you had in mind until I saw the picture of the ship pasted on the wall.  This is going to work out just fine and will be a really great feature.  I suggest you sacrifice the track closest to the wall to allow more beam on your ship and better representation of the containers.

Remember that whatever ship you end up with, 99% of your visitors won't have the foggiest idea whether it is the proper ship or a kit-bashed Queen Mary - the 1% who know a container profile from a tanker profile will be understanding and grateful to be recognized at all.

Art  

Container ship drawings

Ron,

I haven't forgotten you. Trying to get a good scan of even part of an 8x3 foot drawing is proving to be a challenge! I may have to tape it to the wall and use my camera. When I have something useable and can see how big the file is we'll figure out how to get it to you.

There are lots of good site on the web for ship pictures though you'll have to wade through them to get detail shots as most photos are of the whole ship

Here are a couple of my favorite sites.

http://www.ships.be/pictures/pic.php?id=814

http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/viewcat.php?cid=4

container ships

Brian,

thanks, the pictures are great, gives alot of good ideas, the close up of quarters is excelent, and lots of detail.

sorry about problems with pictures, I appreciate your troubles. do you build alot of large ships?

Ron

Container Ship Plans

Ron,

I have sent you an email regarding the scans. If you have any questions just email me.

And yes that's a swimming pool at the base of the superstructure!

I was born and raised in Halifax Nova Scotia; aka "The Big Harbour" and spent many hours watching the box ships come and go. Over the years I built a number of ship models of various sorts and sizes but never did do a container ship; they're deceptively complicated designs.

Eight years ago I relocated to the oil fields of Alberta and discovered that people here don't do much in the way of ship modeling! But the trains are everywhere! As they say "when in Rome do as the Romans do" so now I'm a train guy.

container ships

Brian,

I recieved your email, but I dont seem able to down load pictures. I dont know what program to download to. thanks.

Ron

Cobtainer Ship photos

Hi Ron,

The photos themselve are .jpeg but they are zipped together in a single file. If you're using windows you should be able to download (save) the file to your desktop and then simply double click it to access the folder with the photos.

If you can't get this to work I'll try something else; it's no problem.

container ships

Brian,

thanks for your help, the info was very helpful and exact. once I get ship done I will post picturs.

Ron