Dortmund Modellbau 2008

[Eddy Matthews]

Walter Snowdon (and other members of my club) visited the Dortmund Modellbau last week.... In the phot gallery you'll find lots of interesting paddler models from the show. Walter will add captions to them in due course....

You can find them at: http://www.paddleducks.co.uk/mkportal/modules/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=47

Please note there are SIX pages of photos, so don't forget to browse through all six pages and not just view the first page as a lot of people tend to do! 

Regards
Eddy

[Dinosaursoupman]

Hello Pd's,

 A lot of awesome models there. The one that caught my attention was the ZEELAND. The unusual bow on the vessel gave me pause. I thought perhaps she had been used as a mine sweeper and this was some sort of protection from a dead on hit on the bow. Then I thought the way the bow is designed it would lift and push aside what ever it was designed to encounter; that would fit the purpose of ice-breaking. Tell my I'm right and what's my prize!

Randy the Dinosaur Soup Man

[Eddy Matthews]

Yes Randy, it is indeed a paddle icebreaker!!

Your prize is a big wet sloppy kiss off Walter.... He'll be round soon 

Regards
Eddy

[Dinosaursoupman]

Uh..Did I say I was Randy?    Uh...I meant to say I was Derekwarner_decoy!

[Bierjunge]

Yes Randy, it is indeed a paddle icebreaker!!

What the Zeland carries on her bow looks very much like the Eispflug (ice plow), invented 1865 by the bavarian Wilhelm Bauer (also inventor of one of the first submarines, the Brandtaucher) and re-invented 1894 in Flensburg by E. J. Weedermann as Weedermann'scher Eisschuh (ice shoe); in both cases a device strapped in front of the bow of a vessel in order to convert it into an icebreaker.

Regarding paddlers as icebreakers: Not very common, and not suited for polar ice of course, but they had some success in harbor and river pack ice though, especially in North America:
The Detroit River sidewheel railway ferries were considered excellent icebreakers, crushing the ice with their big wheels and keeping the ferry slips free of ice due to the churning and draft caused by the wheels. Even up to the 1970ies, the Canadian National used the propeller ferry Huron as summer boat, and the sidewheel ferry Lansdowne (just currently being scrapped) as winter boat, especially due to her icebreaking capabilities.

Regards from Michigan, Moritz

[Walter Snowdon]

Hi folks, you got it right. Its an icebreaker PLOUGH. This type of plough with the very wide wings was designed for paddlers, the very wide flared wings threw the ice  sideways and clear of the wheels. (If you haveever seen a field being deep ploughed you will know what I meen, the flare of the wings turning the soil over ontro itself).This particular model would lend itself to a reasonable conversion from the Graupner GLASGOW kit. If any of you visit the ROTTERDAM maritime museum you will see a more basic type of add-on icebreaker bow for screw tugs moored amongst the preserved tugs and barges. For details of the locatiion of the ZEELAND and many other tug models, see the research section of this site.

[Hankwilliams]

Hello

The big sidewheel tug "Friedrich Haschke" (first photos of Walter) I know from my childhood.
This fascinating tug was in use until 1962 by Braunkohle shipping company in Wesseling, Rhine river, where we lived.

I specially remember one time - I was about 8 years old - when she was heatet up in Wesseling harbour: From both funnels  thick black coal smoke rised to cloudy sky. Some time later the whistle blew and the wheels began to turn.
She was the second last sidewheel tug on Rhine river.

The vessel was built in 1921 and coal fired until his end.
The similar "Oscar Huber" which is now museum ship in Duisburg harbour was converted to oil firing in the 1950s. She was the last big sidewheel tug on the Rhine and in operation until 1966.

regards

Thomas

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's....in Walters .jpg 26/72.....I see the beautiful wheel again from Elde-Modell-Bau   ....but what is the gray/green rectangular device just to the lower left?

50 square x 150 long??? with a hand wheel...?