EMPCCCC Container ship

EMPCCCC
This page last updated: December 21, 2012 as of December 2017

Container ship Building instructions

The crane code is posted to SourceForge

Container ship could be made from the laker : unifeeder is about 7 40' containers long (5.5 + front and rear superstructure): 280' and about 6 wide. [HO: 280'=38.6", Containers: 5.5: 30.25"L, 6: 6.5"W ](5x6=30 containers per level + 6 20') Wikipedia photo info... here is a good site: Ship Photo Albums From Dennis Shum and Tylon Leung. Wikipedia Container ship has images of the hold and general information.
unifeeder does not list a Rita, however their ships look similar in size.

RC Container Ship kits (these prices are a few years old and the current prices are about twice these listed :( )

Sydney Star - Graupner - RC Container Ship video

prices are dated and flucuate but they give you a range. ALL CONTAINERS would NOT WORK with HO scale 1/87 devices :(
Graupner
Sydney Star Scale 1:200 Length approx. 1135 mm Beam approx. 140 mm $333.91
Deans Marine
Timrix Scale 1/75 Length 965mm Beam 153mm Sailing weight 2kgs $333.13
M.V. Fairwind Scale 1/76 Length 1.01mt Beam 165mm (40"x6.5") $415.22
M.V. Fairwind seems to be close to workable size and structure
Trein Maersk Scale 1/100 Length 1.6m Beam 318mm (63" x 12" moulded glass fiber hull) Sailing weight 18.2kgs $1,152.44 .. you are paying for those containers which you cannot USE... well also the larger ships have reinforced decks, according to the site information.

model-dockyard - RC Container Ship ... their prices are lower ... UK site
loyalhannadockyard - RC Container Ship ... their prices are higher ... US site
or you can also do your own searching and shopping :) I cannot really say, not having purchased from any of these.

deansmarine - RC Ship ... deans marine itself
graupner - RC Ship ... graupner itself

There are also Tankers, automobile ferries, ...
Tanker: Liz Terkol Scale 1/96 Length 905mm Beam 150mm $429.35
RO/RO Ferry: Celastine Scale 1/100 Length 1.62m Beam 240mm Sailing weight 10kg $1,152.50
RO/RO Ferry: MV Muirneag Scale 1/100 Length 1.11m Beam 205mm Sailing weight 6.1kg $431.01
? Ferry 86 forty foot trailers: Maersk Anglia Scale 1/100 Length 1.24m Beam 203mm Sailing weight 6.5kg $473.64

There are 25.4 millimetres in one inch. Therefore, rounded to two decimal places, 165 millimetres is equal to 165/25.4 = 6.50 inches.
a meter is 39.37" so these are ?small?
Waterline : 3 foot ships or 71" ~ 6 foot ships...
RC watercraft 3 foot ships
scaleshipyard - RC Ship hulls-only use battleship, cruiser or carrier hulls and make your own deck and hatches... these can be up to 11' long
greatlakesmodeling DIY scratch building

Ship construction

General Info...

I gotta say, i don't like water and the only reason i am doing this is to have a hull for the dock side crane to empty ...and dock crane to fill. These ships would never get wet unless I built an actual waterway for them to float in next to the trains.

Float in the air, swim through land, walk on water.

Coal ship has an internal and external conveyor, Oil ship has connnectors to simulate pumping, Container ship is mostly a flat top.. unless it has containers in the hold.. the little ones do not - the containers are all above deck., makes me wonder why they do not tip over.

Ship choices:

40” x 6.50” : Full kit M.V. Fairwind... Price: 750.00 Scale 1/76

50” x 7” : Hull only HARTMAN MODEL BOATS C-2 FREIGHTER... PRICE: $ 189.00 + 150 ++ for motor etc HMB-73

31" x 4..5"? : RC toy : Smasher Destroyer $52.98

Bought a RC 31" destroyer... Cheapo prototype rather than the $250+ hull or $800+ full kit

Does not work as it is only 2+ containers wide. Reviews said it was 4.5 - Nope, it is only 3.5" wide.

Removed all that stuff on top and made a flat support across the top and have 3 containers across. This will be more of a static display - go play in the pond ship as there is not room to make container supports so the crane can lift them. Made the containers from paper as they will not be moved.

Smasher Destroyer Construction 2017-8-25

EMPCCCC : Electro Magnetic Propulsion Combat Class Container Carrier

See Train_Intermodal for links to paper containers

See videos of Deconstruction and Construction

As of August 2017 am building an inner hull-container support for the 50” x 7” hull... seems the M.V. Fairwind would be paying for things that would not be used... Over $200 for the hull, over $100 for styrene, and 200 containers to fill it would be $2000 so it will be a while before it is finished. Ended up being able to hold 144 40' containers and 34 45' containers. Could have been built to hold a few more by having the areas that slope up made so they hold containers when they get wide enough. Did not do that, just made a flat area at deck height - so much simpler.

A scan of my plans for building the ship. Nyuck Nyuck Nyuck Container ship plans.pdf.

Built a base to hold the ship as the ship fore and aft have a ridge at the bottom of the ship and it will not sit level, the rest of the hull is flat bottomed.

3/8" Plywood covered with 1" foam covered with 3/8" soft foam and another 3/8" soft foam cut out at edge of ship to be the "water" and hide the bottom of the ship. 1x2 glued around the edge.

Painted it with RUST-OLEUM 2X gloss "seaside".

Painted the ship, off center to make it appear deeper than it is, as it is flat bottomed kinda like a water line model.

Painted bottom with RUST-OLEUM 2X gloss "apple red".

Painted top with RUST-OLEUM 2X gloss "brilliant blue".

Painted the superstucture with Yellow and have not decided to paint the dividers and anything else. The 'T's the containers slide on can NOT get painted as they would always be 'sticky' compared to the bare styrene.

Building the styrene container supports is exploratory step by step, like the rest of the things built, not with an engineered plan nor any design.

Cutting 0.125 and 0.080 styrene is done with masking tape on the styrene , a piece of cardboard under it, all clamped to reduce vibration. The tape and cardboard knock the platic bits off of the blade so they do not become melted back onto the styrene.

I am using an old jig saw and Vermont American #30027 blades. There are special blades (not these, although these work great) for cutting plastic, the main idea is that the teeth alternate their edge and the blade is straight, not curved or wavy. Seach for more information and find things like plexiglas-fabrication-manual.

Styrene

2@ Plastic Styrene Plain Sheet .125x8x21 (1)

2@ Plastic Styrene Plain Sheet .080x8x21 (2)

2@ White Sheet Styrene .125 (2) Size: 7"x12" Thickness: .125

3@ Tees Styrene 1/4 (5) Length: 24"

3@ Angle Styrene 1/4 (5) Length: 24"

1@ Angle ABS 3/8 (3) Length: 24"

Cutting and glueing the styrene

There is a base with 0.125 sytrene and 1x2 strips of wood under it to avoid cutting all the ship bottom curves. All the inner dividers are flat bottomed and glued to this base.

The fore and aft decks make a flat surface to glue things to.

The dividers are supported by 5 3/4 inch long braces. The inner ship ones are 4" tall and the deck braces are about 2" tall and an angled piece left over from cutting the deck out.

Pieces of the destroyer were glommed together and used for the fore and aft deck decoration. The aft deck superstructure is styrene glued together in a box shape - to fit what is left of the deck.

Ended having a container space for 45' containers due to this that and the other.

Added 'navigation' lights to the fore middle and aft decks. Closed in the superstructure box before lights were added so they will be forever in the dark.

Ship Container build HO scale 2017- 9-20

Ship Container build HO scale... All ashore going ashore

Dockside Container Crane Construction

General Info...

well, being lazy, hopefully Walthers will re-release theirs with an adapter to make it longer in front...

Video link Container Crane Construction will attempt to copycat this or similar

5.5 LB (2.5kg) Electric Lifting Magnet Electromagnet Solenoid Lift Holding 20mm ... is not strong enough to hold through a plastic roof - made for direct to metal contact - 11lb works : get a pair... on E Bay ... 5Kg/11LB 12V 25mm Electric Lifting Magnet Electromagnet Solenoid Lift Holding. They get hot fast and I tested that the outside is not part of the circuit so they are connected to the metal frame and that might help dissipate the heat. If not they are easy to replace until I make a cover to disguise them into actual looking equipment.

Construction...

Using a drawer extension to extend the lower portion Out over the ship. Using sliders and rails to move the lift mechanism fore and aft. Using wooden spools on a pencil to lower and lift the electromagnet holding the containers. 3 continuous rotation servos move the bits... NO IDEA on how or what will move this contraption Along the dock. As of 2017November, VEX rack and pinion gear works ok.

Attached rollers to the side and the wheel from the departed rotary dumper. The wheel drives the crane at an angle since there is only force on one side and slips when it gets at too much of an angle, so if that cannot be fixed; VEX rack and pinion gear will be the next attempt at moving the crane along the dock. As of 2017 November, VEX rack and pinion gear works ok.

~~Glue 2 washers inside the top of a container... for mine they go 3/4" from the outside of the container to the outside of the washer.~~

~~The magnet force is only in the center, so using a metal object that has a hole in the center reduces the magnets holding power. Use solid metal discs.~~

OK i got no idea. The washers work great in the brand name containers - because they are light weight and the roof is thin. Some containers just do NOT hold - I put a bolt and nut in the open area and it did not help.

Some containers open on the bottom and some open on the top... be carefull prying them apart as some have knob and loops and some are only friction fit and some are glued together it seems.

20' containers could be lifted as pairs using one washer in each so that when they are paired they lift like a 40' container. In actual use they may have to be glued together so they do not become twisted sisters. Bought some Kibri? and glued them together to work as dual 20', they do not have lettering and are made kinda weird so I do not care. Turns out they do not lift - thick ceiling? i dunno, just do not work.

Electronics

2 relays were designed to power the electromagnets - only one was ended up being used - to reduce the wires going to the container lifter. And then changed back to two and thus 4 wires gong down to the lifter.

An Arduino mini pro on a board with several wall wart power inputs. 9V for Arduino, 6V for servos, 5V to power the relay board (to separate it from the arduino to reduce power backlash from powering the electromagnets on and off. The relay board has JD VCC / VCC / Gnd : Connect a 5V to JD VCC and its ground to ground), 12V for relays to power electromagnets.

3 continuous rotation servos rotate the spools to lift the containers, rotate shafts that are gear connected to pulleys to move the upper and lower shelves.