The Lagunitas
My layout was a freelance railroad based upon the North Pacific Coast and the North Shore Line, and set in the 1920's. As part of this layout, my ambition was to recreate the entire Sausalito ferry dock, and as part of that, I scratch built the Lagunitas. The entire boat took eight months to complete, not including the freight cars.
The model won First Place in the Non-Revenue category at the NMRA's 2000 National Convention in San Jose, CA. It also won the Testors Floquil Non-Revenue Award, and won First Place in the Photo Match Contest. Since I built the model ten years ago, and entered it on a whim, no one could have been more surprised than I was! You could have knocked me over with a feather!!
Drawings for a
selectively compressed model were created from line drawings
supplied in the book, "Narrow Gauge to the
Redwoods"
which is recently back in print. The hull and deck were created
by laminating board-by-board construction to a shaped, solid wood
core.
The power house is
scribed wood. Rails were hand-laid and spiked.
The handrails were
created from brass wire and soldered. The stairs are a commercial
part, and the freight cars are craftsman kits..
The only commercial
parts used were select nautical fittings - the capstans, cleats,
lifeboat and davits, tuba vents, searchlight, steering wheel, and
life preservers, as well as door and window castings and figures.
The paddle wheel was
scratch built using home made jigs, and was based upon the stern
wheel from the Petaluma, which I photographed on the dock of the
San Francisco Maritime Museum. Metal hubs and reinforcing rings
were turned from sheet brass on my Unimat. More than 2000 rivets
were individually embossed to simulate the small bolt heads
holding the paddle wheel together.
The drive rods,
eccentrics, valve gear, and bearing blocks were scratch built
from styrene.
This is the real Lagunitas. She was built for the North Shore by W.A. Boole and Sons in
Oakland, and was launched on February 1, 1903. She carried narrow
gauge freight cars from Sausalito to San Francisco until 1908,
when she was converted to handle standard gauge cars. She was
retired in 1921.
This is the Sausalito
ferry terminal in 1903. The Lagunitas, brand new at the time,
can be seen in its ferry slip. Two other ferries are also moored
in their slips, with another approaching the terminal building,
above the roof and barely visible through the fog. Note the
dual-gauged tracks and the electrified fourth rail. I still might
try and build this someday.