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Chapter 62: The Photo Tour 18
Dreadnought posted a City Journal entry in IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN
IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 62: THE PHOTO TOUR 18 NEU HAFEN INDUSTRIAL ZONE Nestled in a corner, surrounded by docks, piers, and warehouses is a variety of workshops, foundries, and machine shops – all necessary to provide the mechanical support to keep the warships battle-ready. Though the facilities were limited to, more or less, minor repair and maintenance, a surprising amount of work fell under the banner of “minor”. Some naval bases were nothing more than a “safe anchorage” (i.e., Schillig Roads), but most of them had some sort of dockside establishment to support the warships. Above is a shot of the industrial area behind the East Basin of the Neu Hafen. The surrounding landscape is a combination of hills and sand dunes, with a mix of clear terrain and thickly forested areas. Along the roads and rail lines are a series of 1x1 custom-made “Tree Filler” lots, some with lighting – some without – specifically created as borders along transportation routes (roads and rail lines). The heavy forest is a combination of 1x1 custom-made “Tree Filler” lots designed to blend in with MMP work. Again, I use landscape MMP’s to “paint” the scenery and highly recommend @Girafe. Along the top end of the mooring basins, you see a cluster of industrial buildings. Since Cuxhaven was only intended as a “home port” for the Scouting Forces of the Hochseeflotte, it is not as large as Wilhelmshaven, nor does it have a large range of support infrastructure. Regardless of the intentions of the Admiralstab, dreadnoughts were complicated machines requiring constant repair and maintenance. A dry dock was provided to take care of minor hull repairs and the constant need to clean and paint the warship’s bottoms. And over time, various machine shops, workshops, and factory buildings were added. This building housed the electrical engineering shops. Everything from repairing dynamos to electrical switch panels, and winches to any sort of electrical motor, could be repaired or manufactured here. If the electrical problem was aboard one of the warships, an engineering team would be sent out. This building was an early addition to the custom material imported into SC4. I cannot remember the name of the lot, but it is a fine model and fits very well with other imports to the game. The building had the added bonus of a rail siding linked to Maxis rail, and the box cars are timed props that come and go at intervals. I modified the lot by adding smoke effects. As you can see in the lower right of the picture, the area around the actual building has been dressed-out with 1x1 custom-made lots – to include the trackside crane. They blend the building right into the scene. This is another of the Maxis Dirty Industry buildings. The steel-shed-construction look is perfect for a naval dockyard. In this case, I have used it to represent a “Mold Loft”. The building is largely open inside, with large overhead gantry cranes used to lift heavy steel prefabricated pieces. “Jigs” – actual size forms -- are bolted to the floor, against which, steel girders and plates can be bent into shape by high-powered hydraulic jacks. This process is mainly used to bend armor plate to fit the shape of the ship’s hull. A “Mold Loft” is absolutely essential to the construction of a new warship, but is also necessary for repairs to shaped armor plate. The building was re-lotted on a 6x3 base, as seen here. The props in front of the building are all on the lot. But the props on the left end of the building are individual 1x1 custom-made lots. The modular concept starts with the larger base lot, but is finished-off by surrounding it with the custom-made 1x1’s to blend it into the surroundings. The building on the left is made from one of the Maxis Dirty Industry models, but if you look closely, you will see it is a single model that has been duplicated and pushed together in the Lot Editor to make a single, long building. The lot is a 4x2 with minimal props added, but can be used for almost any purpose by simply “dressing” it with surrounding 1x1 modular pieces. In this different angle, you can get a good idea of the visual appearance of the lot. This structure is so typical of early 1900’s industrial buildings, you might actually call it a “stereotype”. I have used it in all of my naval map tiles because of the unique configuration and its natural appearance. It just seems to belong. This is a foundry – a small one. In the early 1900’s dreadnought warships were very much hand-crafted affairs. Each shipyard followed the basic blueprints, but not all things would fit together seamlessly, and often required improvised engineering of an individual nature. The practical concept of “interchangeable parts” and “assembly line” ships was still far in the future. Pipes, valves, brackets, housings, and even small quantities of armor plate could be individually manufactured to fit the need. I was working in a tight space with this one, and the foundry building was already a 3x3 I had relotted, so I was somewhat limited. I dressed-out the space between the two buildings with modular 1x1 lots creating a scene with forklifts loading trucks, and placed additional “IRM” filler lots alongside the foundry building. Even with the lack of space, it still allows for the foundry building to be used in a number of different situations while the modular pieces prevent repetitive scenes. In the center is a 7x6 “Gun Tube Storage” lot. Cuxhaven does not have the industrial equipment to cast, turn, and line gun barrels, so new gun tubes are brought in by rail and stored here until needed. Old worn-out gun tubes (a bit rusty) are kept here waiting to be sent out to get the tube liners replaced. (Old gun tubes never die – they just get relined.) The large warehouses are from “Nob’s 1905 Japanese Naval Series”, while the smaller pair is from the “PEG SNM Naval Series”. Across the tracks to the right are the Boiler Works. At the bottom of the picture, “WolZe’s” steam tug is standing by as gun tubes are being brought in by lighter. One old gun tube has been lifted out and replaced with a new tube, while preparations are made to lift the remaining older tube. The crane is from the “PEG SNM Dry Dock” lot. The base texture of the lot is Paeng’s Grunge Concrete. The sailors, gun tubes, “100 ton” cranes, rail cars, shuttle engines, rope coils, and lighter are all by “AP’. This is a view of gun tubes brought in by rail. Note the two flatbed rail cars with gun tubes on them – they are “articulated” so the long gun tubes can negotiate tight curves in the track. You can find pictures from the period that look just like them. A small blue switch engine is used to shuttle the tubes along the rail line, as well as moving them in and out of the storage depot warehouse. Beside the switch engines, in front of the warehouse, are two gun tubes with work details cleaning them, servicing the breech mechanisms, and preparing them to be sent out. Notice the two “100 ton” cranes (by “AP”) moving the gun tubes around. In case you’re wondering, the gun tubes have two wooden transportation cradles attached to them. This is, actually, the front view of the Boiler Works – but all the activity is in the back by the rail line. Here, boilers are built and shipped to the Dry Dock, repair docks, or even to other shipyards or naval bases, as needed. The work barge and crane tied-up in the basin are by “AP”. The dark brick workshop is borrowed from “SM2”. I cannot, for the life of me, remember where the large brick factory building comes from (it’s been in the game forever). I modified both lots to add a few incidental props and more industrial smoke. Dockyard pictures from around 1910 always had a smokey haze. I have used various 1x1 custom-made lots to fill in around the buildings. This shot is an overview of all the activity at the rail siding behind the Boiler Works. In this close-up, a work detail prepares to load a third boiler onto a rail car and secure it. Another detail of sailors is preparing to hook up a hoist to the boiler on the left. On the right, another crew of workmen are making repairs to another pair of boilers. You will note there are two types of boilers visible – the standard, circular type – and a new type with angular sides. The boilers developed by Blohm & Voss, and installed in “Grosse Kreuzer F” closely resembled the angular type. The circular boilers were patterned after those aboard RMS Titanic. Sailors, rope coils, and boilers are by @AP. This is a rear view of the engine works. On the left is “Prairie Star Foods” with “Dead Forest Paper” on the right – repurposed for use as industrial buildings. I used a lot of in-game 1x1 lots to fill in around the buildings. Some filler lots are from the T-Wrecks “IRM Industrial Set”, while others are custom-made from random props found in the Maxis Editor. I’m afraid the “modern” shipping containers have popped-up yet again. This is the Cuxhaven “Machinen Werk” (Engine Works). The building on the right is where the engine parts are cast and forged before being moved to the building on the left. The building on the left is where the parts are machined, drilled, and punched before being hand fitted as they construct the engines from full size templates. A triple-expansion engine had hundreds of bolted or riveted pieces that had to be fitted with hundreds of other moving parts that were precision machined before fitting. The construction of battleship engines could take months of hard, intricate work, and even a bit of trial and error. Heavy industry had already come to Germany, and they excelled at it. But much of the advanced machine technology of the day was accompanied by a lot of manual labor. In this close-up, you see the finished product of the Machinen Werk – several three cylinder, triple-expansion steam engines. Two of the engines have been lifted onto flat cars and crews stand by to shackle them down. Some sailors have climbed on top of the big engines to help secure the retaining cables over the top. Another flat car has a cluster of men waiting for an engine to be swung aboard. The rail-side crane is preparing to lower the hook so it can be attached to the engine below. To the left of the loading pad, you can see heavy crankshafts in traveling cradles that will soon be loaded-out. The crane on the left has been lifting the heavy parts to test-assemble the large, three cylinder triple-expansion engine beneath it. Once all the parts have been properly fitted, and a manual operation test done, the engine will be disassembled and shipped out to its’ destination. At that time, interchangeable parts were a thing of the future, and each engine had to be hand assembled. The large engine on the left is a propulsion unit for a capital ship, while the smaller engines could be used in smaller ships, or as auxiliary engines aboard the big ships (steering engines, dynamo engines, pump engines, etc.). There are two different sized engines – but notice the size of the engines in relation to the sailors nearby. “AP’s” sailors, engines, and ships are all carefully crafted to be “in scale”. This gives you a really good idea how huge these old engines were. The sailors, rope coils, crankshafts, condensers, and beautifully detailed engines are by @AP. (His engines are just one “first” among many unique creations.) NEXT TIME…… CUXHAVEN: THE PHOTO TOUR 19 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- 2 Comments
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