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Topic: HIGGINS TRAIN |
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Jerry Gilmartin
TOP BOSS
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 Posted on: Jul 23, 2014 - 10:08pm
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Hi,
I think Jerry Strahans bio of Andrew Jackson Higgins might cover this subject. I know that Higgins had several plants in different locations, starting with the City Park Plant, and then the larger one on the Industrial Canal and or Metarie. I remember reading something about the City of New Orleans allowing Higgins to temporarily move the boats across a graveyard adjacent to the factory since things were so crowded and tight around the City Park Plant. They had so many boats waiting to be launched they ran out of room on the factory grounds. I am pretty sure they transported the boats over to the "fitting out pier" at the Industrial Canal Plant at first by flatbed trucks (see the photo of PT6 below) and then by rail. There was simply not enough room to do the fitting out at the City Park Plant. They used a big crane over at Industrial Canal to pick the boats up from the railcars and place them into the water. Once things got more organized, the Industrial Canal Plant had the production line come out right next to the big crane that would simply pick the boats up and place them into the canal for completion between launching and commissioning. You can see a similar arrangement at Elco, where they had a "Fitting Out Basin" that was used to install the final armaments and equipment between when the boat was launched and completed for commissioning.
If you read the telephone transcripts you can see that Higgins was set to produce 12 boats/month at City Park (downstairs) and 8 LCVP/day upstairs. Then at Industrial Canal he was set to produce 14-16 PT Boats per month as of Sept 1942. Truly amazing industrial output!
Here are some pics of the Higgins facilities
Bayou St Johns mostly LCVP's and LCM's
1000th LCM
7000th LCVP
City Park front office
City Park from Higgins Clinic across street
Industrial Canal aerial view note big crane
Industrial Canal Plant crane launching PT82-PT85 on &Sept42 during Labor Day Rally and Ceremonies
Boat hull leaving Industrial canal ready for launching by big crane
Two Higgins Industrial Canal Production Line output by big crane
Higgins phonecon transcript to CDR Rawlings pg1
Phone con transcript pg2
Phonecon transcript pg 3
Phonecon transcript pg 4
Jerry Gilmartin
PT658 Crewman
Portland OR |
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Tracy White
New Member
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Posted on: Jul 24, 2014 - 12:06am
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Sorry to blow your margins out....
PT-201
PT-209 (Al's posted this one before)
Tracy White
Researcher@Large |
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TED WALTHER
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Jul 24, 2014 - 7:33am
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Tracey;
WOW! with those two photos Frank can even let Stan count the bolts on the flat car!
Take care,
TED
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Frank Andruss
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Jul 24, 2014 - 10:14am
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Wait till he hears this Ted, are you going to post the photos I sent to you Ted.
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Dick
Moderator
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Posted on: Jul 24, 2014 - 1:18pm
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AL, Jerry, Tracy . . . .
Thanks for the nice posts, great Google map find Al.
Some photos of the main Higgins building in Park City NO, not to be confused with the huge Canal plant, posted earlier:
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DAnconiaLead
New Member
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Posted on: May 19, 2016 - 4:58pm
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@ Frank Andruss,
I actually joined this forum to assist you with your project, inform the group that I'm planning to embark on an identical project, in a different scale, and thank the members of this forum for the pictures and information they've provided in this thread.
I build model trains in S-scale (1:64 scale) and discovered that Lindberg produces a model of PT-109 in this scale.
Having found the pictures that were posted on this forum, and found it an interesting enough prototype to build, I'm currently in the planning/research phase of building a model, in S-scale, depicting PT-209 loaded onto one of these flatcars.
1:64 model trains are actually divided into S-scale models and S-gauge/American-Flyer toy-trains. This is an important distinction if you or anyone else also wants to build this model in 1:64.
I intend to build an S-scale model of this prototype.
The flatcar that most closely matches the ones being employed in the prototype is manufactured by a company named 'Rex models' which, unfortunately went out of business.
http://www.nasg.org/SProductGallery/RexEngineering/REX1_01.jpg
However, they made thousands (if not tens/hundreds of thousands) of these white-metal models, and they are relatively easy to locate (on e-bay, etc.).
Keep in mind, however, that there were two 'variants' of this model produced. The first was the S-scale model, which included the unpainted metal car-body, scale trucks, scale couplers, and detail parts. For the other, they dipped the identical metal car-body in paint, and attached American-Flyer wheels and couplers, and no additional detail-parts.
The easiest (and cheapest) way to get one of these models today is to purchase one of the American-Flyer variants, remove the couplers and trucks (wheels), and strip off the horrible paint job.
You are then left with a very nicely detailed metal casting which you will need to paint and purchase S-Scale detail parts (mostly, the brake system), trucks, and couplers to complete.
I realize that it sounds complicated and expensive, but it really isn't, with the American Flyer Rex flatcar likely costing about $15.00 and you spending an additional $15.00 on the scale trucks, couplers, and a brake system (then there will be the cost of the Lindberg PT-boat).
Feel free to message me if you have any questions.
DAnconiaLead@yahoo.com
We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.
~Ayn Rand |
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Frank Andruss
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: May 19, 2016 - 7:40pm
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Thanks very much, will certainly look into this. I hope you will post photos of your project as well.............
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Michael Engelmann |
New Member
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Posted on: Jul 20, 2016 - 2:43pm
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These images of PT Boats on rail cars brings back a lot of memories for my family!My Dad would tell me he'd ride his bike to City Park to see the boats 'float' down the street. To him it was like a patriotic Mardi Gras float! I showed the photos to my mother (now 81) and she too remembered the 'Parade of Boats!' Thanks for posting!
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Gary Paulsen
MASTER
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Posted on: Jul 20, 2016 - 3:15pm
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Are there any photos of how they shipped the Ron 18 boats (Elcos), I believe they were boats 362- 367. They were manufactured at the Elco plant and assembled in California. I believe.
Thanks Gary
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TED WALTHER |
TOP BOSS
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Posted on: Jul 20, 2016 - 4:09pm
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Gary;
I believe they(PT 362-PT 367) were shipped knocked down and assembled at the Terminal Island facility.
http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/5small/inactive/harbor.htm
Take care,
TED
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