Project
Building WWII Bomb Racks in Oahu Sugar Company
Fields
By Nicholas Kalis
Prototype Photo
Fn3 (1:20.3) bomb
racks located in clearings in Oahu Sugar Company’s cane fields during 1944, my
layout’s setting. This sugar cane plantation railroad is located in Oahu,
Hawaii. These bomb racks were surprisingly simple – no legs were involved nor
were there any shelters from weather visible in published photographs.
When Prototype
Constructed
During WWII, the
US military requisitioned around Waipahu alone some 2,800 acres of Oahu Sugar
Company cane fields. It is thought these bomb racks were constructed after the
December 7, 1941 bombing at Pearl Harbor (which is also on Oahu).
Information Sources / Plans
Another photo (Source: Hawaii Plantation Village) on page 246 of
Chiddix and Simpson shows bombs stored in wooden racks in a cane field. A third
photo on this same page shows tunnel XT-10 (not modeled) built on Oahu Sugar
Land to store military materiel during the war. No diagrams of these Oahu bomb
racks have been found by this modeler nor are they thought to exist. Dimensions
of these modeled bomb racks were extrapolated from the size of the Larry G Scale bomb
models used.
How Bomb Dispersal Operated
A photo (Source: Hawaii Plantation Village) of bombs being carried
by flat cars to their dispersed destination appears on page 246 of Jim Chiddix
and MacKinnon Simpson Next Stop Honolulu!
The Story of the Oahu Railway & Land Company
Ancillary Facilities
On page 247 we see two Army sentries, a pedestrian gate (initially
mistaken for a guard shed), and a somewhat complicated wooden/barbed wire fence
guarding tracks into the Oahu Sugar Company.
Scratch built Features
My
entire Fn3 bomb racks are scratch-built of strip basswood of two sizes. My
strip wood was assembled using a WT-260 hot glue
gun and hot glue sticks.
Wood
chocks
To
keep bombs from rolling off my Fn3 racks, prototype wood chocks (visible in published
photographs) made of basswood with a smaller dimension are modeled.
Finish
In
published photographs, the prototype wood appears unpainted so that was
followed in my model. My modeled racks were stained in order to depict
weathering likely as the racks were all outdoors.
Commercial Components Appearing on Model
Larry
G Scale Number LG2033001
Two sets of ten bombs each - typical of the 200 plus pound general purpose (GP)
bombs used circa WWII - are glued to scratch built wooden racks. Each model
measures 1 7/8 inches long by 3/8 inch in diameter is similar in style to the
type of short fin bombs used for carpet bombing and detonating on impact.
Materials Used
1. Manufacturer Unknown Strip basswood
2. Manufacturer Unknown Wood Glue
3. Manufacturer Unknown Hot glue sticks
Tools Used
1. X-Acto® knife
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