-
Announcement
-
Simtropolis Returns! 05/26/2026
See here for details about our site recovery efforts.
-
Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'emden'.
Found 1 result
-
Chapter 47: The Photo Tour 03
Dreadnought posted a City Journal entry in IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN
IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 47: THE PHOTO TOUR 03 THE WEST LOCH – Part 03 In this chapter we will explore the Repair Docks in the West Loch. While major work requiring heavy lift capacity, or dry docks, could only be carried out in the Neu Hafen, it was deemed expedient to provide workshops, machine shops, and a foundry to accommodate the day-to-day maintenance needs that could be handled by the crews. This image presents an overview of the larger area of the Repair Dock. At the water’s edge are the docks themselves, and just behind are two large warehouses and the rail line supplying them. Beyond that are the foundry and workshops supporting the machinists and mechanics. SMS Blucher (English spelling) is moored at the repair dock. She is the last armored cruiser commissioned into the Kaiserliche Marine. Fresh off her fourth day of sea trials, the mechanics are “tinkering” with her triple-expansion engines. This was a time before mass-produced, inter-changeable parts existed. Each engine was hand-crafted. Though built to a basic template, no two were alike. During the “running-in” period, some engines required extensive “tinkering” to get them to run smoothly. But once “broken-in”, German engines were extremely reliable. The highly detailed model of Blucher is courtesy of @AP. “AP’s” superb model of Blucher is historically accurate and has been constructed in his usual intricate level of detail. The barge crane has been moored alongside Blucher, abreast of “E” turret. When the main battery turret’s mechanical operation was tested, a fault was detected in the elevating mechanism. Repairs will require the armored roof to be lifted off and it may be necessary to remove the gun tubes to repair the hydraulic elevating assembly beneath. The barge is borrowed from “PEG’s Bubba’s Bulk & Barge” lot. The metal shed on the barge is one of the old Maxis “Dirty Industrial” props. The crates and large barrels on the barge were taken from “SimCoug’s Historic Harbors Series”, and the sailors are, of course, by “AP”. The crane was borrowed from the “PEG SNM Dry Dock” lot and modified for steam. The dockside cranes are by “AP”. The white steam tugs were “gifted” by “WofZe”. The ship was “plopped” individually, while the barge and tugs were created as a single lot. They are arranged to be used with any ship. The light cruisers SMS Dresden and Emden (moored inboard) are tied-up at the Repair Dock undergoing engine overhaul pending departure to join the German East Asiatic Squadron. (Both ships spent the bulk of their careers in the Far East). The cruiser models were provided courtesy of @Barroco Hispano. The docks were re-lotted from the “PEG SNM Battleship Pier” and modified with “WMP Seawalls” placed along the front. The “WMP” caissons resemble wooden docks found in photos of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, circa 1929. To the left are two Odin Class diagonal tugboat models “nested” along the “NBVC Seawalls”. The diagonal tugs were scratch-built by “AP”. The Dresden Class cruisers were commissioned in 1908 and 1909, and though they were not as sophisticated as ships commissioned a decade later, they had already assumed the basic characteristics of all German light cruisers through 1918. There is a wealth of detail in these models provided by “Barroco Hispano” and they are well worth a close examination. The detailed dockside cranes are the always excellent work of “AP”. This is a detail shot of the docks and the warehouses that serve them. The warehouses were taken from the “PEG Seaport Series”. I wanted a long row of warehouses along the docks, so I duplicated the warehouse and joined two of them together to make one long building. As you can see here, I have populated the scene with dozens of props, hundreds of people, and a wide variety of activity. A scene without people looks horribly “sterile”. And busy harbors should be full of busy people. In a previous scene, you saw SMS Blucher at the Repair Dock for mechanical adjustments during her “Trial Period”. In this scene, the Admiral commanding Scouting Forces (presumably Hipper) is arriving to make a formal inspection tour of the new armored cruiser, and doubtless, will enjoy luncheon with the ship’s officers. You can see the large formation of sailors at the center of the picture. Two side parties have been mustered to “deliver the salute” as the Admiral’s party arrives. The “ceremonial Kisbee” is displayed in the center at the base of the two side parties. Behind that Blucher’s Kapitan stands in front of the large formation to formally greet the Admiral and his staff. This shot gives you a good look at the “ceremonial Kisbee” (by AP) with two sailors standing alongside at “parade rest”. No navy would be complete without some sort of ceremony – especially the Wilhelmine Navy – and this was about the best we could do. We never figured out how to make such a small figure with the flamboyant look of the Kaiser – so we settled on an Admiral. You will notice the small anchor maintenance yard just to the left of the formation. Here is an overview of the rear of the warehouses – the “cargo line”. This is where the trains are unloaded, goods sorted, and then moved into the warehouses for storage and distribution. The scene is crowded and cluttered with a dozen different things going on at the same time. The props are not quite what I wanted – but they were the closest thing I could get. The object was, after all, to re-purpose as many existing props and buildings as possible. In this detail shot, the locomotive unloading cargo is the “PEG Steam Tank Engine”, while the individual rail cars were pulled out of the Maxis Lot Editor’s “prop-box”. Unfortunately, I have no idea where they originated. I did modify the locomotive for steam. As you can see, the “cargo pad” is crowded and a beehive of activity. This image gives you a good view of the dockside cargo cranes. These particular cranes are very versatile and can be used in a variety of applications. They are taken from the “PEG SNM Dry Dock” lot, and are very similar to “medium lift capacity” cranes found in several US Navy dockyards in the mid-1930’s (notably Brooklyn and Philadelphia). Here is an overview of the right end of the industrial zone behind the docks and warehouses. At the extreme end of the line is the Chemical Storage building. Many of the chemicals used in the manufacturing and maintenance processes are solvents and other compounds, which are dangerously flammable, and they are required to be stored separately to reduce the fire hazard. The building was re-lotted on the smallest possible base and then the surrounding area was filled in with custom-made modular 1x1 lots designed to be used in a variety of different situations. Another view of the Chemical Storage Building. On this side of the facility, work details are loading two trucks with barrels of heavy-weight oil and solvents for use in the tempering process in the Foundry Shop. The building is another of the Maxis “Dirty Industry” props. These are the Cordage Warehouses. The long, narrow warehouse is what was known as a “ropewalk” – the workshop where hemp fibers were twisted into ropes of varying thickness. The standard length of a hawser, sometimes referred to as a “cable”, was established by the Royal Navy as 1,000 feet. In Nelson’s day, the average three-decker ship-of-the-line required 31 miles of ropes, cordage, and hawsers. When canvas and rigging gave way to steam engines, the need for rope did not diminish. Every dreadnought still used a good deal of rope, though some of the lines were replaced by steel cables. Several towing hawsers were standard equipment aboard every warship, and there was no substitute for a good hemp hawser when it came to mooring lines. Both warehouse types shown on this lot are from “Nob’s 1905 Naval Series”. The red-roofed warehouse on the left is for hawser storage. Working parties can be seen inspecting long lengths of rope before other sailors coil the ropes for storage. These buildings are, of course, smaller than the actual facilities – purely for game purposes. In reality, hawsers might have been stored in a warehouse twice or three times as big – while even modern ropewalk buildings measure 1,000 feet or more. (A small footnote: Every naval power worth its salt possessed ropewalks – the largest one in Wilhelmine Germany was in Hamburg. Long since moved to a modern facility in Kiel, the old neighborhood was rebuilt after WW II to become the most famous – shall we say “amusement” district -- in the world: “The Reeperbahn” (German for “ropewalk”.) This is the rear of the Cordage Warehouses, an officer has come with a truck to draw supplies from the warehouse and sailors are loading the boxes onto a truck. Again, the area around the original warehouse lot has been filled in with custom 1x1 modular lots and “IRM Industrial” fillers. This is a small Machine Shop where basic repair parts can be fabricated, parts from the foundry can be machined and finished, or small pieces of equipment might be brought for repair. Inside they have lathes, drills, punch machines, grinding wheels, etc, etc, -- everything that might be used to finish a hand-forged metal part. This is another Maxis “Dirty Industry” building. On the left end of the Industrial Zone you have the heavy industry – a small smelting furnace, a forging and hammering shop for small metal parts, braces, and even mild steel plates. On the left end the large warehouse-like building is a “form loft” – where full scale templates are laid out and metal is hydraulically bent to fit curves or right angles. One end of the large red brick building is a “punch shop” for plates and parts requiring overhead lifts. Basically, anything not requiring a dry dock, or heavy lift cranes, can be repaired, custom-forged, or scratch-built in these shops. The “Union Crane & Shovel” was borrowed from “Simmer2”, as were the two “Middlefort Pottery” buildings – and modified with external props and additional smoke from their chimneys. The large red brick factory is the “Morgankirk Organ Works”. I do not have the expertise to remove their signage, but they all have the basic appearance of early 1900 factories. Another view of the factories showing the great clouds of smoke rising from their chimneys. The fencing and entrance gates along the edge of the woodlands are from the “NBVC Modular Seaport”. These are, for the most part, 1x1 modular pieces that are very flexible and come in handy for many things. Another view showing how modular 1x1 pieces were used to create a truck-loading scene to fill the gap between buildings. These pieces are set up so that they can be used in a wide range of scenarios. (Modular pieces created to specific scenes, that cannot be used in many other situations, should be avoided. They will fill your Plugins Folder with hundreds of single-use lots.) 023__ One last shot showing you how the docks, warehouse line, and industrial zones are all tied together. Now for some terrain shots for you tree-huggers out there. This is the main rail line running northeast to connect the West Loch with the Neu Hafen. On the right side of the tracks, the terrain has gone from semi-open areas cut by a ravine, to heavily forested areas with earthen slopes and small hills. In the upper right you can see a small hill with a stony slope and a semi-earthen summit dotted with a few trees. The “grayish” areas in the upper center are slopes sprinkled with a bit of MMP vegetation. On the left side of the tracks, you see a low ridge of sand hills following the rail line to the northeast. These sand hills have a little more vegetation on them because they are mixing in with heavy forest areas. The terrain opens up to more cleared areas as it approaches the back side of the Neu Hafen area. In the lower left, you can see a portion of heavy forest intruding into the sand hills. You will note – you can actually see the individual trees. These are custom-made 1x1 modular tree fillers. Each one is designed with a variety of tree shapes, sizes, heights, and colors. Each one can be rotated before “plopping” to present a different view (angle) of the individual tree lot, and there are about 25 heavy forest lots – with additional tree filler lots for other specific purposes. Just doing a little very poor math, this provides about 500 different combinations. With this arrangement, you would have to work very hard to be repetitive. AND – it in no way resembles a massive green carpet. I absolutely abhor “green blanket” forests totally lacking in “tree character”. And let me say that it is almost entirely due to the Herculean and splendid efforts of @Girafe that I am able to enjoy my forests. This is the lower end of the sand dunes. I contour hills and sand dunes using the “plop highway” method, which allows me to create unique and irregular features in the terrain elevation. I then use the “God Mode” tools (in varying sizes) to round and smooth the sharp edges. This produces almost perfect sand dunes and sand hills with interesting valleys and ravines. The MMP work here includes “Girafe” “Seasonal Berries” for brown scrub bushes, single trees plopped sparingly, a stand of dead trees, and “small straw” doubling as dune grass. “Girafe” Narcissus is used as a ground cover among the dunes, and is also excellent for blending the transition from sandy dunes to a forested area. My custom-made 1x1 tree filler lots are brought close to the edge of the sandy area and then tied together with MMP work to give the tree line an irregular look. This is another sandy area along the railroad tracks. This view shows the dunes as a sandy ridge line of irregular shape. Careful use of MMP’s will accentuate the shape of the sand hills and dunes, while too much MMP placement will obscure the natural shape of the terrain. Note the open area on the left of the picture. This is a diagonal rail line and subject to the horrible looking “saw-tooth” lines created by the track base. It is next to impossible to cover such lines with MMP work, so I created eight different 1x1 Tree Filler lots with overhanging trees to cover the ugly spots. If your wondering about the overhead lights – I would not put those on tracks out in the middle of nowhere. But since these are on a naval reservation, they seemed appropriate. This last shot shows the main rail line running across the rear area of the New Hafen – this one serving the coaling facilities. That’s the elevated “SFBT Koblenz Signal Box” built for the purpose of controlling the extensive rail traffic going in and out of the coal storage complex. The large stand of trees in the center of the picture is an old 1x1 “Paeng” tree filler lot (...can’t remember the proper name…) featuring mostly large fur trees. I use these in my large forested areas, and I always like to plop a few in open areas like this one – huge trees growing there for no apparent reason. One of my little “qwerks”. It has been blended in with MMP work, making it impossible to tell where the lot edges are. And on that note – I bid you adieu…... NEXT TIME…… CUXHAVEN: THE PHOTO TOUR 04 MANY THANKS to @Barroco Hispano for his beautiful warship models. SPECIAL THANKS to my friend and partner, @AP, for his talents, meticulous models, colorful imagination, and extreme dedication. If you enjoyed anything – please punch the “like” button so WE will know. A comment would be even more informative. Comments and critiques requested and gratefully accepted. All questions answered promptly to the best of our ability. THANK YOU for your visit! You may wish to visit these CJ’s as well…… SERIES I: IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: WILHELMSHAVEN SERIES II: IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN Appearing – Work In Publication SERIES III: IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: BREMERHAVEN Appearing -- ??? And please feel free to drop in at… THE SIMTROPOLIS SHIPYARD https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/761469-simtropolis-shipyard/?tab=comments#comment-1766496-
- 11
-
-
- replenishment docks
- repair docks
- (and 10 more)
