Introducing Longbow

[John S]

Actually not sure if this is the right place to start as it is a long story and will need to be in more than a few parts. It started some 2 years ago when I for no known reason decided to build a paddle steamer so I started looking for ideas. The initial thoughts were for a pleasure steamer that eventually led to my joining the Medway Queen Preservation Society from where I purchased plans some of which are reductions of the original 1924 building, the magazines and website include the build record of her new hull, pictures of the cleaned up engines and all in all enough information to start building. As I wanted a miniature of the full size ship it naturally started with the engine and having a Stuart Turner compound launch engine cylinder block ready machined (some 50 years ago but never finished as the engine bed went on a 7 1/4 gauge locomotive) schemes were made to use it as the basis for a diagonal engine. After a bit of machining and hand work a part finished engine was produced and would sit nicely within a 4 foot hull along with a real Scotch boiler but then I started to consider stability of a narrow shallow draught ship so changed tack or would have if sail;s were to be involved.
On comes Strongbow, wide enough plenty of draught but not enough room for the engine and 5 inch diameter boiler if I increased the size. Slight problem next as the inclined engine needed to be raised up off the floor plates  which sort of defeated the idea of stability to some extent so the search for an alternate power plant began. This entailed hours of internet searching for an engine design that had a low centre of gravity or in other words weight as low as possible and it became obvious an inverted oscillating engine would be needed. Naturally it needed to be with slide valves instead of waggling ports so began another long search for the Penn Valve Gear as fitted to the engines of PS Empress now in a Welsh museum. Engine plans altered and a oscillator engine drawn up and part built using basically plans  of a model engine contained in The Shop Wisdom of Jesse Livingston a copy of which was obtained from the US. Perfect I thought, sits inside on the bottom of the hull and crankshaft exactly the same position as the paddle shaft so production was started. Cylinders completed, crankshaft fabricated and a suitable entablature constructed to support the crankshaft. Some parts from the original inclined engine were used and it all looked good so decided to have a break from metal working and move over to hull building.
I had doubled the Strongbow plans size but was still short of room for the boiler so a section added to the middle of the hull where there are parallel sides and constant bottom shape. Frames drawn and cut using the home built CNC Router, a building board made with slotted blocks at each frame position and a keel cut. Many sticky fingers from glue later I had a frame that looked like a dinosaur's rib cage and in anticipation an 8 channel R/C outfit purchased and the engine mock up fitted perfectly. Next the Westbury feathering paddle wheel frames were cut. Sadly a computer death has caused all the build photos to be somewhere in Cyber Space unless I can retrieve them from the old hard drive so I need to know about picture size and format before starting any sort of build pictures. Further development next issue.

[John S]

By now anyone who has had the time to wade through my rambling account must have realised why I am trying to describe a Strongbow style model but adding a section has changed it into a Longbow so on with the sorry tale. It is amazing just how much wood I have used, about 400 feet of 8 mm wide x 2.5 mm thick strip so not possible to afford to buy that so some 18 mm thick pine furniture boards ripped down to the size I needed in 5 feet lengths. Of course I have not used that amount but do have lots of short pieces left after the 40 or so strips a side were stuck in place and having filled the kitchen with steam after many evenings spent boiling the strip ends to enable bending to fit the frames. Eventually the hull took shape but needed a solid counter adding and some near enough sanding of the outside more of which later. Then back to square one as I had cut the paddle box fascia from thin ply on my cheap Chinese 2.5 Watt laser. Next Sponsons cut from sheet ready for later processing and holes cut through the hull for the paddle shaft bearings. Since the plan involves a direct drive using a slow speed engine I needed bearing housings so some 8 mm id stainless steel rubber shielded ball bearings purchased and fitted into brass sleeves that are to be epoxied into the holes through the hull and being non rusting and shielded no problem with getting wet, needing lubrication and not letting water into the hull. and it started to look like a paddle tug with paddle boxes and wheel frames to rotate by hand.
Engine thinking again but although the oscillator looked good I still was not happy with it so reclaiming various parts a change made, now we have a near finished twin cylinder side lever engine 5/8 inch bore x 1 1/2 inch stroke that fits even better into the basic hull, No part alignment difficulties, low weight position and has ball bearing eccentric sheaves. Luckily I found some 4 mm wide bearings with metal shields large enough to fit over the eccentrics and following pictures of side lever engines I can attach the rods using simple strap round the outside of these thin row bearings that for all the world look like real  valve gear and will never wear out. Side levers machined from 3/8 inch thick aluminium alloy and bits mounted on a base plate. Cylinders chewed from brass bar but need vertical guides adding although the angular movement of the piston rods is very small  they are a prominent part otherwise I need a fiddly parallel motion to be made then cold weather descended upon us so as workshop is not heated  I need to wait for warmer and hopefully dryer weather.
Meanwhile boiler ideas have changed for easier construction and to a style more suited for early to mid 1800s paddle steamers. Now it is to be a version of the Napier Haystack using a modified gas camping stove or depending upon later developments maybe even a coal fired version can be made. The boiler consists of a stem/water drum 4 3/4 inches diameter x 2 inches deep. Underneath there will be the water pan connected to the main drum by 18 5/15 inch diameter water tubes. The design is basically that by K N Harris and found in his book on boiler making. I have added two small steam domes for safety valves and steam take off  which are added to the top plate of the boiler. To maintain the illusion of a typical boiler I have ordered a copper ball cock float of the same diameter that after a bit of de-soldering will provide the cosmetic hemispherical dome. Normal water level gauges fitted to the sides of the drum and as I am not fitting water walls to the firebox a lined stainless steel cup or pot will be used. At present I am in two minds as to whether I need a water base to prevent problems with heat under the boiler as it is a wooden hull. Earlier I had mentioned a poor finish for the hull, I have a problem with a shiny early 1800s wooden hull being glossy and with no marking on it so at best smoothing down will be more to remove furry bits of timber left from the sawn strips although some filling of deep marks has been done to my eyes evidence of many years service will show as damage although not to the extent of allowing leaks  but since my ideas have moved on from a working paddle tug to one saved for use as a pleasure boat I think maybe I will not use a more conventional plain black with possibly white paddle boxes . Colors therefore are at my whim or fancy when looking at tins of paint as one real tug at Great Yarmouth had a Lavender coloured hull above the waterline. If members can tolerate yet more of the almost unending saga I can continue but please say yes or no. John.

[Eddy Matthews]

Please keep posting John, but just one comment... A few photos are worth a thousand words, and we all like to see other peoples efforts to inspire us!

Regards
Eddy

[John S]

As I mentioned a dead computer had all the photos on but I have hopes I can recover some. In case of Haystack curiosity I did sketch up the general idea so will attempt to attach the picture, if successful then I can find some hull pictures but they are rather large so will need reducing in size. Out of interest for Medway Queen I made a steam steering engine otherwise called a steam servo, from what I was told I think I might have a better idea as to how it works than they do as anyone familiar with the engine has passed on and dropped their anchors.John.

[John S]

OK did not add picture descriptions.
My version of a Haystack boiler derived from the Harris simplification.
The Harris scheme from his book but I have omitted the water walls to the firebox.
Real Haystacks from PS Grenadier, lady carrying small chid passing by shows size.
Clamping planks to frames while glue curing.
Side mock up to see how it might look.
My inspirational picture. Ben More on River Thames, minimal superstructure suits me fine as less work needed or bits to get knocked off at the pond side.
Coffee time next. John.

[John S]

In response for more pictures I managed to find a few more so with luck these will show a few bits and pieces,
20 the mythical steam steering servo, needs a 6 turn sail wench for control connected by devious means to the vertical shaft with manual control wheel for local steering on the real engine. Works on steam as well but whether or not it gets fitted to the Longbow style tug remains to be seen.
24 side lever engine mock up.
25 side lever again all 8 columns have 6 flutes for no other reason than I fancied doing it.
27 cylinder end view shows the 4 eccentrics with ball bearings in place.
34 kitchen worktops ideal for hull building.
42 one row each side at top then one rpow each side at the bottom.
Now to see if I can add the pictures without having to reduce their size.

[John S]

The good news is I have recovered everything thought to be lost when computer died early January. Not so good is my paddle steamer folder is 1.05 GB in size with 1802 files to sort through. However I did have a sub folder for Medway Queen that is much smaller only being 450 MB and 682 files in size. Many files and especially photos are more general regarding paddlers and for example the Medway Queen is surrounded by pictures and drawing of various schemes for engines as well as other vessels.
For someone wishing to make a fairly detailed model and who can sail on relatively sheltered waters maybe I can suggest building a model of MQ. She is 180 feet long and 24 feet beam so over paddles 50 feet. Decent plans can be purchased from the Medway Queen Society for a small cost some of which are reproductions of the original builder's plans which are still in existence. I joined the society for again a small cost money going towards the restoration and hopefully eventual return to life. Maybe best of all from a modelling point of view is she has a new hull built between 2009 and 2013 all riveted construction and there are many photos showing her being built so the bits never seen on model plans  are exposed. There are also videos showing such things as  the engine being reassembled in the hull and the crankshaft being lowered into position and there is a book on rebuilding the hull available from the society. I had planned to visit her in Gillingham last year  but of course that never happened but maybe this year it will be possible and we can add a few more ££ to the restoration funds. In the meantime I carry on with Longbow (need a different name to that though) and today I am expecting the 4 3/4 copper cosmetic dome to arrive for my imitation Haystack boiler, well in reality it is a copper ball float for a ballcock that needs  un soldering for the two parts. John

[John S]

And so the erratic saga on the extended Strongbow continues. I want a Haystack boiler to go with the twin cylinder side lever engine also part built. Many hours spent searching for ideas finally settling on the version shown in the K N Harris boiler making book but with a variation. No longer with water walls to the firebox just a basic water/steam drum connected to a water pan below by some water tubes and the uptake flue through the top drum. I added two small steam collecting domes for safety valves and steam stop valve and when building will of course add water gauge and water check valve bushes but they are for when we get hot weather again. All copper is to hand including the all; important thin copper dome rescued from a copper float valve ball and un soldered.   Better talk through pictures next then.
Grenadier Haystack boiler.
My haystack idea.
Latest version,6 15 mm copper water tubes joining drum to water pan, stays not shown steam but domes that are under the pretty copper top are.
No longer a Strongbow but for me far more simple and a lot less to get knocked off at a pond side.
If there turns out to be a stability problem then I will revert to the 5 inch diameter Scotch boiler however the Haystack is far more interesting and is to be preferred.John.

[DamienG]

 

[John S]

Not a lot happening recently, hull construction put back a bit until I can start sanding the worst bumps off the planking, not a lot on the engine either. On the other hand the dome for the Haystack boiler came and was duly processed (melted the solder off the copper float so now have two domes to play with). Then the stainless steel biscuit barrel came which after some butchery will form the boiler case lined with high temperature webbing and as I fear the bottom will get a bit hot I will have to make a water  base for it to sit on and not burn  through the wooden frames. I had previously made paddle frames as seen in the Westbury engine drawings, fine but I was not too happy with the shape so today made a new set with to me a far more pleasing shape to them, sort of very loosely based upon the drawings of the Waverley wheels as seen in the downloads section. Better add some pictures that include if you all will excuse them Playmobil figures that are roughly the same scale as Longbow. Pictures next then.
s-1500 the copper ball float.
20 A DVD container about the correct height so will cut the stainless container to a similar height.
25 meanwhile down in the erecting shop engine parts and yesterday trial wheel.
33 the latest frames from today in the tin shed.
31 snug fit for the engine.
32 Now need a Playmobil Captain to stand in the steering box, he will need to be a hardy soul as his only protection will be a waist high canvas Dodger on front and sides.
John.