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Restoring an old tugboat

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Hankwilliams:
Hi, friends and neighbors,

again no paddlesteamer, but I think, it will be quite interesting to watch the restoring steps of this old tug.

In the age of 12  I made this tugboat, a Robbe kit named "Hamburg II". It seems to be an american tugboat very similar to Revells plastic model "Lucky". Scale should be 1 : 25 with a lenght of 990 mm. I found the boat like fathers "Thomas" some weeks ago in the cellar of late mothers home. It will be restored and improved, very much more work is necessary than the "Thomas" motoryacht. As you see, the boat was in original condition of 1966 and should be again in water. Most work is done now, I hope, in about 14 to 20 days to show some pictures of driving on a lake.

Thomas

Paddlemex:
Wow. Still a nice model. But what really caught my attention is the antique equipment.
Graupner Variophon radio, lead batteries and Märklin connectors. The reducer to shaft joint made with the red Märklin gears is quite unique. Haven't seen that before. The gear reducer seems to be Graupner too.
Cannot identify the motor. Seems like a motor from a mixer or similar.

Will you restore the radio too?

Regards Jurgen

Hankwilliams:
Hi Jurgen,

the motor is a British Taycol engine for models. In the sixties this engines were offered by Robbe modelling. There is a little collector scene for this engines - mostly in GB. The gearbox with several different transmissions isn`t rich in meaning. The antique Graupner RC is ok, I will preserve it, but not for further use in the model, because there is no motor regulation except forward, back and stop.

Thomas

Hankwilliams:
Model now is nearly finished, only some details must be made also installation of a new R/C. I used gravel for ballast, weight of the boat is nearly 11 kg. I hope, a test trip will be possible next week. New name is "Bullenbaum" means "Bulltree", the nickname of my late uncle Ulrich - think, this is a well matched name for the weighty boat.

Thomas

Hankwilliams:
Some trouble with the old Taycol motor. As a field winding engine there was only one direction, no reverse was possible. There is a interesting page about old Taycol motors in the net with some tips about reversing. It should be possible with an extra switch between the left and the middle pole of the engine. But this wasn`t succesful, direction didn`t change.
Fortunately I had an Graupner Nautocraft motor of same age. With this engine there wasn`t any problem of reversing. The power is rather good, but after 15 - 20 minutes of run engine became rather hot. In any case, the test run was succesful - this was the first contact of the boat with water since 54 years. I hope, an outside test run on a lake will be possible in the near future. In moment, weather is very bad, cold rainy days but no frost except in night.

Thomas

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