Model studies on local scour in Baimaosha channel project of the first phase of the Yangtze River deep water channel project from Nanjing showed that: 1) It is feasible for adopting local normal model to study local scour on project in tidal estuary. 2) Choice of the test hydraulic conditions, determination of model shoreline and total variable slope of model, etc. are the key technical issues to be addressed for adopting local normal model to study local scour on project in tidal estuary. 3) The target test hydraulic conditions are well simulated in the local normal model of Baimaosha channel project and the model can be used for carrying out further tests. 4) This paper presents a simple and good method to determine model shoreline.