Solano - Largest railway car ferry in the world

[Tony Mattson]

Greetings PDers,

while wasting an hour recently, happily surfing the internet I
stumbled across the following site:

http://cprr.org/Museum/Ephemera/Solano_Ferry_Model.html

According to the .pdf article at the bottom of the site, the Solano
still exists today - as an island breakwater near Antioch,
California.

What an interesting challenge for a PDer!

cheers
Tony
Auckland, NZ

[Dallinson]

Hi there.
WHAT a model!! The internal braced framing in the 5th (I think) photo makes
my fingers ache just to look at it!! Cutting and sticking all those ribs and
little bits!! (AND keeping it all straight!!)
Interesting the staggered paddle wheels. Presumably because the ships
engines had to be down the centre line, to allow the train tracks to get
around a narrow engine casing.
Tony, thanks for the link, great.
Regards
David

[Paulrjordan]

Hi Tony:

And thanks for posting that fascinating URL. I surfed around a
little further on that site and found a complete history of
the "Solano" with some extremely good photographs. Take a look at:

http://cprr.org/Museum/Solano

I also found another site with an interesting series of postcard
images showing the real ship and some of her "fleetmates".
Quite the ferries they are..slide down towards the bottom of the page
and take a look.
http://shastaroute.railfan.net/SF-Oak.html

Boy..it never ceases to amaze me how much I learn from PD's...so,
thanks again, Tony...and to everyone else who keeps that paddler
information coming through whenever the mood takes you to surf the
net. It's not only fascinating information but also a great way of
providing ideas for possible future modeling projects.

Cheers

PJ
Victoria, BC Canada

[John Roberts]

The Photos are really something!!! To think that this is in HO gauge is mind-boggling. Thanks, Tony, for sending us this site so that we could see and appreciate the train ferry, Solano.
John