Calling all Oregon City-class (CA-122) fans

[Cliffy B]

WOW, nice find sir!!!! There a treasure trove of photos there along with a large amount of concept art Thanks a million!

[gtbred]

Yes! Thank You very much!

[SebastianP]

Does anyone have any decent pictures of the midships area of these ships as built? I need to know where things like searchlights etc were (or would have been) installed, both on these and on the Fargo, Worcester and Des Moines classes. I'm shooting for as close to how they'd have looked serving in WW2 as possible - which means searchlights, 20 mm guns, 40 mm guns in place of 3-inch mounts, etc...

(I've got the Friedman cruiser book on order via inter-library loan, but it will take a week or so to get here...and I don't remember if the pictures in there showed the searchlights anyway. )

[gtbred]

at this time work has started on Columbus(CG-12).

[fred_sirois]

Greetings all. After a long delay, I am reviving my plans to build a 1/700 USS Albany CA-123. Of course, I will need to purchase one of the Oregon City kits to accomplish this. Before I do, I have a few questions.
1. Which kit is the better value, the Niko Models kit or the Admiralty Model Works kit? I know which one is less expensive, but which is the better kit?
2. Were there any major or noticeable differences between the Oregon City and the Albany that I may have to incorporate into the build?
3. Since I will need different hull number and ship name decals, what would be a good source?

That's it. (That's enough!) Thanks for the help.

[Dick J]

I will admit that I don't know about these specific kits, but Admiralty had a better reputation for accuracy.

[D-Boy]

Albany (NY) Times Union newspaper shared news today of a 1:48 scale WL model of the USS Albany (CA-123), now on exhibit at the visitor information center in downtown Albany.

Pictures of this model, built in brass, was apparently used to determine the location of antennas and radar arrays.

Pictures and article about the model are here: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article ... 781813.php

For a video of the model ship, go to http://bit.ly/14TWz1z

There's also a reference to former attempts to bring the USS Albany up the Hudson as a museum ship (Hudson River draft and bridge clearances strike me as an immediate issue for that past effort!).


Restored to former glory

Model ship will be unveiled at visitor's center next week

By Matthew Hamilton

Updated 7:10 am, Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Albany

In 1962, Wayne Van Amburgh helped commission the fourth USS Albany.

In 2013, he's set to do the same � just on a much smaller scale.

Van Amburgh will help unveil the brass model of the CG-class warship Monday at the Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center as part of the center's 20th anniversary. It will join models of the first USS Albany, the current USS Albany submarine and memorabilia from the CG-class guided missile cruiser.

The model is 1/48th the size of the actual ship, which was decommissioned in 1980 after nearly two decades on the water. It's not a show replica, though, because the Navy had an actual use for it.

Van Amburgh, USS Albany Association exhibit chairman, said the Navy used brass models of the CG class ships in San Diego in the late 1950s to help determine where antenna arrays would go on the actual-size ships.

"It was a lot easier to do it on a test pattern than to send a ship out and find out the antennas didn't work," he said.

Afterward, the brass model was tossed outside and left to decay in a San Diego scrap yard. While Van Amburgh sailed on the real ship from 1962 to 1964 and then for nearly 45 years after, the model greened from sea air before some of Van Amburgh's shipmates from San Diego found it in 2007.

So began six years of work for Van Amburgh and others to bring the USS Albany model to its namesake city. He said the group first contacted the Navy in 2007 about obtaining the ship and a few years later Van Amburgh and shipmate Brent Hutchins of Maine were in San Diego to pick it up and talk to model makers about restoration work.

After bringing the model to the East Coast, they found a metal-restoration business in Maine that Van Amburgh said loved the project and got to work returning the brass ship to its former glory. Now the model is ready to go on display in Albany.

As for the real USS Albany, Van Amburgh was part of the commission that tried to bring it to the city's shores in the 1980s to serve as a floating memorial for New York veterans. But that plan never fully materialized because of political opposition, he said. The ship was dismantled in the 1990s.

"She's cut up and was sold for scrap," Van Amburgh said.

mhamilton@timesunion.com � 518-454-5431 � @matt_hamilton10

Meet the USS Albany

The USS Albany name has been used for five ships, including a submarine still in service. Here's a look at the fourth USS Albany, a model of which is on display at the Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center.

Background: The fourth USS Albany began its life as a CA-123 heavy cruiser in 1946 and was converted to a CG-10 guided missile cruiser in 1958.

Commissioned: Nov. 3, 1962

Decommissioned: August 1980

Length: 674 feet

Speed: 33 knots

Crew size: 75 officers, 1,187 enlisted sailors

Source: www.ussalbany.org

[DrPR]

These were called "antenna test range models." They were placed on a turntable at the center of a large flat area. High frequency RF was focused on the models and the reflected energy was analyzed. Moving the antennas changed the electromagnetic interference pattern, and an optimum position for each antenna was determined.

Here is a picture of the current Shipboard Antenna Model Range in San Diego:

http://www.spawar.navy.mil/sandiego/fac ... range.html

There was a warehouse full of these test range models in Port Huneme, California. I think they may have been moved to somewhere in Texas. I know a fellow who worked at Port Hueneme who is helping restore an antenna range test model in Texas.

I also know a fellow who served on the Chicago who worked at Port Hueneme who tried to figure out how to take home the Albany model years ago. It was too big to carry off base in the trunk of his car.

Phil

[HvyCgn9]

Tim Amos of Southern Cross Models here in OZ is going to release a 1/72 Oregon City(700 $Aus) hull later in the year....he is working on a number of USN/IJN/RN hvy and light cruiser class hull plugs and is hoping to have some more hulls ready for production (which ones depends on demand I would think).

If anyone would like the pdf's of the catalog... send me a PM or PM Tim he's a member here too...

Bruce

[CLAA 120]

The USS Albany I found the Oregon Class at Free Time Hobbies I am trying to build the ships my Grandfather served on he was on the USS Albany and the USS Macon as far a Heavy Cruisers and he served on the USS Spokane CLAA 120. I found two Oregon City class model kits at Free Time Hobbies in the 1/700 scale.
The only model of the Albany itself was the guided missile kit not WWII era kit.

[CLAA 120]

If you google USS Albany CA 123 they have some great pictures of her. I have a few pics but can not get them to copy on here. but if you build the Albany the ship's numbers are also on the top of here forward 5/38 mount. hope this was helpful.

[navydavesof]

Considering a mid-to-late 1990s time frame, how do you believe the Oregon City (CA-122) and Rochester and (CA-124) be modernized to meet the following characteristics?

-Embark and perform volume strikes with Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles
-Perform offensive Harpoon ASCM operations
-Perform offensive and supportive 8" NGFS/Naval Strike
-Perform offensive and supportive 5" NGFS/Naval Strike
-Modern radar
-Modern GFCS w/radar
-Counter battery radar
-Modern AAW/ASW self defensive measures
-Electronic Interoperability between its battle group
-Embark an HH-60 wing ability
-Embark RPVs/UAVs
-Refuel escorts

Are there any suggestions?

[Fliger747]

I have Friedman's book, and as with the others in the series a great resource. I recommend searching used book stores, it is how I found all the Friedman and Garzke-Dulin books over the years except for the Brit battleships book which I ordered.

In the Post War navy one of the critical items in the line of specifications was the "Crew 2000", geez that was quite a bit heftier than HMS Hood's compliment! Of course the main offender was medium and light AA manning. I believe that the single trunking of the uptakes was an unpopular and space hogging effort to clear sky arcs again for the light AA, which was not considered as essential post war.

A guess, though I do recall Friedman making some comments about this.

Cheers: T

[aptivaboy]

Hi all,

Any ideas on why Oregon City was considered "defective" and retired from service so quickly? I've found a number of references to her being somehow wrong, including a one sentence throwaway comment in Friedman, but no details. Perhaps the story is apocryphal? Anyway, if there are any more specific ideas or facts on this, I'd be curious to hear them.

Many thanks,

Bob

[Rick E Davis]

Chris Wright, editor of WARSHIP INTERNATIONAL (INRO Qtr Journal), did some research recently and found no mention of OREGON CITY being defective. She just was in the wrong place when a cruiser needed to be decommissioned (in the post-WWII 1940s there wasn't funding for a large navy and cruisers were decommissioned to make room for the DES MOINES class units) and didn't get the straw to be recommissioned during the Korean War mobilization. She was studied/planned to be one of the first Guided Missile Cruisers, but lost out because of which yards were selected to do the Mod work.

[MartinJQuinn]

USS Rochester. Date and Location unknown. Photo BS120784, RG19-LCM, US National Archives.

[TZoli]

Regarding the USS Albany (and all of that type of Missile conversions) do she and her sisters retained the wooden deck of the Oregon Cities or it became full metal plated when the missile conversion finished?

[BB62vet]

Regarding the USS Albany (and all of that type of Missile conversions) do she and her sisters retained the wooden deck of the Oregon Cities or it became full metal plated when the missile conversion finished?

These cruisers were rebuilt WITHOUT teak decking as the removal of the 8" gun turrets eliminated the need for the wooden decks. When LONG BEACH (CGN-9) was constructed, a small section of the main deck on either side where the forward brow was located was planked with teak decking to symbolize the traditional "quarterdeck" for officers/dignitaries arriving/departing the ship. I've not found any photo evidence that this was in place on any of the other converted missile cruisers.

Hope this helps,

Hank

[TZoli]

Thanks that helps.

[DrPR]

Hank,

Can you explain "the removal of the 8" gun turrets eliminated the need for the wooden decks"?

I was told in Officer Candidate School (by an old Chief Warrant Officer who left a trail of salt where he walked) that wooden decks were used for "splinter protection." Not for internal splinters spalled off from armor but to catch shrapnel from topside hits. However, other "authorities" have discredited this idea.

Some people say wooden decks were used for insulation, and I can attest - from having served on a wooden deck cruiser in hot and cold climates - that it does work for this. Of course wooden decks were retained because of tradition - "real" ships had wooden decks.

But I don't understand the connection between wooden decks and turrets. The original Cleveland class cruisers didn't have the wooden decks forward of the #1 turret below the gun barrels. But after the CLG conversions the wooden decks were extended farther forward. They might have provided some sound insulation from the gun blasts, but not much. It wasn't enough to prevent the paint from flaking off the overhead above my bunk during fire missions in Vietnam (the wood covered main deck was my overhead, directly below the 5"/38 guns on the starboard side). We pumped bullets into the jungle every 30 minutes all night long, for up to eight weeks at a time, and wooden decks or not there was no way to get much sleep!

Phil