Gilley's Small Boat Repair

This is the new HO Gilley's Small Boat Repair kit. It's shown here on the revamped Sea Port Model Works display. 

The display will be in Springfield at the Amherst Train Show on January 30 & 31, 2016. You can purchase this kit at the Sea Port table in the Mallory Building.

This is a nice small building representing many of the structures you'd see along the coast that were made from found wood and materials from the dump. In the old days there was very little money in small boat repair, and this building reflects that fact. If you get to Springfield this year check this out. You may want one for your waterfront.

Williams Ice Company

When I worked on an off-shore lobster boat the first thing we did before every trip was load up on crushed ice. We'd pull along side the dock, grab the big rubber hose and shoot the ice into the hold. We didn't use the ice for the lobsters, they were cooled and kept alive with seawater, but we did put it on the crabs and fish that were a by-product of lobstering in deep water.

Here's the HO Williams Ice on the Sea Port display. Just a simple building with a walk-in cooler on the first level and an ice maker on the side.

Capt. Hook rear view

Here's the rear of the new HO Capt. Hook Lobster Company kit. The prototype had large signage on the rear similar to what I've modeled here. A stencil is provided in the kit. It's self-positioning so everything lines up correctly. 

The Fiddletown movie

Here’s a little movie of the Fiddletown & Copperopolis project I made in 2014. This is an HOn30 display layout made for MiniTrains in Germany. It was based on the Carl Fallberg railroad cartoons that appeared in Railroad magazine in the 1940's and 50's.

I spent about six month designing and building the project. I used mostly unorthodox techniques to achieve lightweight scenery - it had to be shipped to Germany and lugged around Europe to various train shows. I ran the little trains over 40 hours continuously to make sure they were okay for an all-day show.

Hook lobster permanently mounted

Here's Hook Lobster as it looks today. I've added the little dock on the rear of the structure just to see if I like it there. It cuts down on the space on the front of the display but it gives Sea Port a place to put one of their HO lobster boat models.

The top photo shows another little dock I placed near the pass-through so trucks unloading would have a place to turn around.

There are four LED's in the structure - I'll have to post a night shot.

Capt. Hook Lobster Co.

Sea Port Model Works asked me to design a structure for their HO waterfront trade show display. I built the display in 2008. Thousands of people had seen the display and it was time for a "new look." 

I removed some of the structures, rebuilt some, and scratchbuilt several others. I created a long empty pier area by removing several little structures. This is where Capt. Hook Lobster would go.

I remember when I owned my lobster business occasionally going to Boston to sell lobsters to Hook Lobster Company. They were on Atlantic Ave. next to the water. It was an interesting building that unfortunately burned down just after I retired.

I took my recollections of the structure and several newspaper photos and created this fanciful representation of Hooks. It's presented as an easy to build kit consisting of three separate structures. You can build each one as a free standing building or joined, as shown in the photos. It can be on the water or on land, or anywhere you need an interesting building.

The photos show it before any roof detail or signage was added. When I mount it permanently on the display I'll post a finished view.