After reading the replies and looking around at various photos on the net, I think we've decided on one of the large American rail ferries. With some rolling stock on the deck it should look magnificent!

So, can anyone help with any plans for one of these boats? Of course we'll happily pay for any copying and postage costs etc.

Gillian

Gillian,

I have just the thing for you. Introducing the Railroad Ferry Steamer Solano! The accompanying link will give you plenty of background material and plenty of leads for further information.

There are even some line drawings to  start the planning process.

Of course given that the Solano was the world's largest railroad ferry, you'll need to clean out the garage to make room for your model!!!

http://cprr.org/Museum/Solano/


cheers
Tony

Thankyou Tony!

The Solano would make a fantastic model - At 1:87 scale (HO railway scale), it would give a model just under 5 feet long with a beam of about 16 inches - I now need to go searching for HO scale rolling stock, preferably Airfix type plastic kits to keep the weight to a reasonable level, as I don't need working locos etc! :-)

So, now that Tony has got us a starting point, does anyone know of a good source for 1:87 scale plastic rolling stock of a type suitable for an American railroad ferry of the 1920-1930's??

Gillian

Returning to american sidewheel carferries in general:

I just found in the gallery of this site the pictures 457 to 466
( http://www.paddleducks.co.uk/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=457 ff )
of a model of a three-track sidewhee ferry under construction.

Guessing from her overall layout, I think it is the Detroit River
carferry Transfer, of which  a set of model plan blueprints is
available by chance.

I did however not find any related postings in the forum.
Does anybody know anything about the history of this model
(e.g. who built it, and if there any pictures of the finished model
available)?

Thank you, Moritz