Ships and Boats

Though small in size, the Wrightsville Port is a busy port with lots of traffic. This port will represent a variety of ships and boats, and  here you will find a brief description of each of the vessels.

All these ships, vessels and boats - that you can see here and those that are yet to be built are scratchbuilt models. My primary material for scratchbuilding is cardboard.

Sirius: The Oil Tanker

The 'Ancient' Oil Tanker. The oil tanker was built in 1920s in Europe, primarily a medium size steamer. Then it was bought by an American Company in 1930s. The ship is still in good condition and is serving small oil businesses around Wrightsville Port. The ship stands aside with her long smokestack and classical design among her relatively 'younger' diesel fired colleagues.

The ship is a coal fired steamer and serving pretty well, but the maintenance and operation cost is increasing for her. The shipping company is not too worried yet, but a couple of people close to the head honcho is pushing him a little too much to get rid of this 'old haggard'. The truth is, it's just a matter of time before this little, hard working oldie is out of commission.

This is the first ship model I have built and primary material was poster board/cardboard. Used single strand electrical wires for railings and ladders. Other material includes - toothpick, matchsticks, galvanized wires, drinking straws and Kato brake wheels. for a detailed description of building techniques and methods, please visit All Model Railroading Forum

Severus: Small Cargo Ship

Severus is a very commonplace 30 meter long, small cargo ship serving local businesses around Wrightsville. Doesn't have a colorful history like Sirius. But she is definitely a cute little ship.

For this model special attention was given to the derrick and hatch detailing. Again primary material cardboard. For details on construction please visit All Model Railroading

Betelgeuse: Container Ship

Betelgeuse is the largest vessel in the layout. It's an old cargo ship, remodeled to be a container ship - a wind of change in the 1960s. Though it's not yet widespread and Wrightsville is a pretty small port, the port authority  has decided to be an early runner to provide right infrastructure for modern age container shipping services to the businesses around. This is Betelgeuse's third visit to the port in last 7 months.

Container Ship was not in the original plan. During the visit to Andaman islands in 2009, my wife asked for a container ship in our layout and I definitely agreed without much pestering. This is the largest ship on the layout (That's why the name Betelgeuse - after the red giant) - 320 scale ft long. For construction details please visit All Model Railroading

Goj: The tug boat 

Goj, named after a real tug boat we saw i Andaman's, is an old railroad tug that used to ferry carfloats even 10 years back. Since the carfloat service is withdrawn by the port authorities in 1958, Goj is towing barges to and from the coal and grain loading portal.

For detail description on construction, please visit All Model Railroading Forum

For all the ships, provisions are made for lighting (As you can see in one example of Betelgeuse).

This page will also show ships and vessels to come. Still in the list: Barges, one/two more tug boats, and quite a few small and medium sized boats for the boat yard.