Contra Costa Ferry Under Construction

One of the largest wooden hull ships, if not the largest. I think there's only one model, in HO, that's ever been built. I've gotten so crazy I'm doing it in both Z and N scales. It's 433' long and 116' wide--a baby aircraft carrier. I'm doing the Z scale for a customer, and it has a zillion parts, and it's nearly 2 feet long, so I'm wondering if there is any interest in a kit? A built-up is going to be more than $6000; a kit in Z would probably be more than $400, and more in N just because of the styrene cutting involved--and have instructions like "Keep the 36 hull braces in order by length, the way they were laid out on the sheet, which may have fallen apart. Use the template to apply them in order from the center to the bow/stern, keeping them square. Now repeat three times." Or, and I'm joking here, "Take the 40 bits and pieces and make a paddlewheel that look like this. Make sure it is not warped, nor warps while the glue sets. Now make a second one."



I think this one is for serious modelers only, who can look at it and joke along with me.

I do believe these have never been made before. I would compare them to a Triplex, except they were very successful for more than 50 years, with a crossing time of less than 15 minutes.