Paddle steamer SS EXPRESS

[Walter Snowdon]

Hi Folks, yet another obscure search! Whilst searching the St. Albans model engineering society site I found a  picture of the model of a small sidewheel coastal steamer, SS EXPRESS  which was full of character.
I did my usual trawl and could only come up with a five word reference on Tiscali -PS Express 1897- Morecambe Bay- and no picture. Has any one heard of a PS Express?.

the St albans website is:    www.stalbansmes.co.uk/      and the picture is in the exhibition section.
Meantime I have mailed their webmaster to see if he can throw any light on this pretty little coaster.   regards, Walter.

[AlistairD]

According to Duckworth and Langmuir's  "West Coast Steamers" she was owned by the Morecambe Steamboat Co Ltd, was  202.5ft long, 426gt, was built by Scott of Kinghorn in 1872 and was sold in  1897. She had two disconnectable two-cylinder compound engines.
 She probably ran to Grange over Sands
 No mention in the recent book on Lancashire Coast Pleasure  Steamers
 Â 
 Alistair
 

  ----- Original Message -----
   From:    Walter Snowdon (research@paddleducks.co.uk)
   To: research@paddleducks.co.uk (research@paddleducks.co.uk)
   Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007 6:42    PM
   Subject: Paddle steamer SS EXPRESS
   

   
Hi Folks, yet another obscure search! Whilst searching    the St. Albans model engineering society site I found a picture of the model    of a small sidewheel coastal steamer, SS EXPRESS which was full of    character.
I did my usual trawl and could only come up with a five word    reference on Tiscali -PS Express 1897- Morecambe Bay- and no picture. Has any    one heard of a PS Express?.

the St albans website is: www.stalbansmes.co.uk/    and the picture is in the exhibition section.
Meantime I have mailed their    webmaster to see if he can throw any light on this pretty little coaster.    regards, Walter.



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[Walter Snowdon]

Thanks Alistair- that was quick!  As I suspected, the model bears no relation to an existingship, certainly not 202ft long! It looks to be about large tug size about 120ft? with a single hatch forward and a short raised quarter-deck. Looks like the builder has seen a picture and apapted it to fit a tug hull! Still looks nice though! regards, Walter.

[Walter Snowdon]

Found out a little bit more about this pretty little paddler. She was built about 1885 by William date at Salcombe. A wooden hull 102 ft long to serve as a small passenger cargo ship. A few years later her engine was removed and she served as a sailing ship until sunk in WW1.

Was anyone at the ME exhibition at Alexander Pallace in 2006. DID ANYONE GO THERE AND IF SO DiD YOU TAKE ANY PHOTOS OF EXPRESS?. iF YOU DID, CAN YOU POST THEM ON PADDLEDUCKS FOR ME? thanks in anticipation, walter.

[Waverley]

There is a little bit about the Express in Grahame Farr's "West Country Passenger Steamers (2nd edition) and rather more in Alan Kittridge's "Passenger steamers of the River Dart and Kingsbridge Estuary" - the latter book includes a photograph.

She was built at Date's shipyard (Kittridge says Kingsbridge, not far from Salcombe) in 1885 to run for local owners to provide a passenger and cargo service along the coast to Plymouth. Farr refers to most of the vessels in this trade as "market boats", primarily existing to carry market traders and their produce to the markets of Plymouth.    (Similar work was performed by a number of paddlers on the River Tamar at the same time).

When the railway to Kingsbridge opened (later 1893) she was withdrawn and sold to Plymouth owners (Feb 1894) who ran her on excursions for "at least two years". In 1900 she was sold again and, as Walter says, converted to a three masted schooner and remained in service till sunk by a U boat in 1915.

As a side note, the Victorians did not seem to worry (unlike today) when there was more than one vessel registered with the same name, which can make life difficult now when trying to dig up information - it's not difficult to get the "wrong" ship with "right" name. At one time there were four separate paddlers on England's South coast, all named "Alexandra" - must have been confusing at times.

Regards to all

David

[Walter Snowdon]

Thanks David, that has filled in a little gap in my info. I have read the details in FARRS book but they are pretty sketchy. I need to dig out my River dart book to find the picture. To date I have located three photos of the same model but nothing of the full size. I am hoping for more details ( from the builder of the model) so watch this space. It would make a nice model as at 1/36th scale it would only be 33 inches with a very broad beam and chunky robust detail.   I believe the model in the picture was built using a fibreglass RELIANT hull. Regards, Walter.

[Eddy Matthews]

The following photos were sent by Malcom Beak via email - I cannot tell you any more about the model, hopefully Malcolm can add some detail?

The builders name is Alan Hawkes and he is a member of the St.Albans
society.

[Walter Snowdon]

Hi folks. The thread for PS EXPRESS exists already in the RESEARCH section, starting February 7th which has a little more information on this model and the full size ship. Its a bonny little thing isnt it?. regards, Walter

[malcolmbeak]

Hi all
I've finally managed to find the information sheet that Alan Hawkes wrote about Express. It is reproduced below.

""The paddle steamer Express had an amazing history. She was built at the shipyard of William Date, near Salcombe, in 1885 with a wooden hull 102 ft. 6 inches long and a 2 cylinder compound engine. The ship was, in effect, a paddle coaster, carrying both cargo and passengers. The coming of the great Western Railway too away much of this trade and Express was sold. The new owners, working on the precept that "coal costs money but wind is free" had the engines and paddles removed, and the ship re-made as a 3-masted  barque. In this guise she scraped a living for some years, but in 1915 was sunk by a German U-boat.

The model has a fibreglass hull marketed by ABCO as for the Reliant. This has been modified for shape fore and aft and the plating lines removed. The scale is 1/48th.

No plans of drawings of Express appear to have survived and the model is based on two photographs plus the bare details of the hull as in the contemporary Lloyds list. Inevitably there is a certain amount of conjecture in the parts of the ship not revealed by the photographs but published plans of similar vessels of this period were helpful.

The model has a 6 volt 2.5 amp battery and 2 channel control. The paddles are purly functional but of scale dimensions. Many of the fittings are scratch built. It stears and sails remarkably well.""

He mentions two photographs - I have a poor reproduction of one of them, but will try and get hold of them so I can put them here.

Malcolm[/i]