Sir William Wallace - Second build

[Talisman]

So now I'm patiently waiting for the unpredictable British weather to play ball for once!

When the hull is painted and the drive system is installed, I'd like to give the model a first test sailing, just to see if everything works as intended!

Regards
Eddy

My fingers are crossed for better weather.

My Dad had a theory that the best place to paint is the bathroom as there is less dust. Both he and I have never tried it. I did suggest to the wife that it would be best, her face went a strange colour of red, perhaps i will hold out for some better weather

[Eddy Matthews]

I'm not sure about the bathroom theory Kim - My wife and daughters like to cover everything in talcum powder after a bath, so our bathroom certainly isn't dust free! Mind you I could end up with a model that smelled nice!

We've had a couple of heavy showers this morning, but I did manage to get outside and spray the paddlewheels... The hull is next!

Eddy

[Eddy Matthews]

In between the showers I did manage to get a couple of coats of primer onto the hull, and that has shown a couple of areas where it needs some more epoxy applying...... Hopefully if the weather holds I'll get that done tomorrow, and then get the paint applied on sunday/monday.

So not as much done as I would have liked, but at least some progress has been made

Eddy

[Eddy Matthews]

The weekend progress on SWW will be a bit slow, as there is the Monaco GP this weekend.....

Saturday, practice 09:55-11:05. Qualifying 12:10-14:15, and on Sunday coverage of the race itself from 12:10-15:00 on BBC.

I don't miss the F1 grand prix for anything!! So somewhere along the way between practice, qualifying, and the race, I have to get more paint, and get some work done on the hull.

With a bit of luck, next week should see some reasonable progresss, as the week after that is filled with various hospital appointments

Eddy

[scotfriend]

Hi Eddy,

i hope you will enjoy the Monaco GP, for it will be more fun to go to my workshop and work on the "Bloody Oak"

regards Hans

[Talisman]

The weekend progress on SWW will be a bit slow,
Eddy

Similar story here Eddy.
I took my newly re-wired Saint Columba out this afternoon for a trial sail and a battery shifted and the model almost sunk   ( Thanks to Ian McGhie for his help getting the mess sorted out)
This eve rather than working on my Talisman i'm drying out electrical items on the radiator.
Fingers crossed i haven't written off 3 Speed controllers and a reciever.

Enjoy your GP
Kim

[Eddy Matthews]

Hi Eddy,

i hope you will enjoy the Monaco GP, for it will be more fun to go to my workshop and work on the "Bloody Oak"

regards Hans

You know you'll be watching the GP Hans, even if the BMW Saubers are at the back of the field 

Eddy

[Eddy Matthews]

The weekend progress on SWW will be a bit slow,
Eddy

Similar story here Eddy.
I took my newly re-wired Saint Columba out this afternoon for a trial sail and a battery shifted and the model almost sunk   ( Thanks to Ian McGhie for his help getting the mess sorted out)
This eve rather than working on my Talisman i'm drying out electrical items on the radiator.
Fingers crossed i haven't written off 3 Speed controllers and a reciever.

Enjoy your GP
Kim

I'm sure we've all experienced similar little mishaps in the past Kim!

I managed to get another coat of epoxy applied to the hull of the SWW today, and I got the bridge painted with primer - Hopefully I'll have time to call into Halfords to get a few cans of paint tomorrow, and then I can eventually get the hull painted!

Eddy

[Eddy Matthews]

Today I managed to get the hull painted....

Sitting on top of the hull are the two rudders that have yet to be fitted, and the bridge assembly, so we're getting there slowly...

Eddy

[amdaylight]

Eddy,

Now I am even more confused  (this not diffucult), I thought that the WW was a ferry, how did they load the vessel? All the ferry's ihave ever seen loaded over the stern.

Andre
over yonder in Portland Oreogn

[Eddy Matthews]

Eddy,

Now I am even more confused  (this not diffucult), I thought that the WW was a ferry, how did they load the vessel? All the ferry's ihave ever seen loaded over the stern.

Andre
over yonder in Portland Oreogn

The SWW had twin loading ramps at the side Andre - If you look at the photo in the first post in this thread you will see them....

Eddy

[amdaylight]

Eddy,

I see what you meant by the twin loading ramps. Did they back the cars on for a quick unload or did they back off or for the third option did they turn the cars around on board?  I also am assuming that they did not load much that had a trailer behind it. Looking at this arrangement it looks like it took a while to load and unload at each end. Why did they pick this loading arrangement when other more efficient methods were already established?

Andre
over yonder in Portland Oregon

[Eddy Matthews]

Hi Andre,

The boats had loading ramps on each side, with a turntable on the deck between them - They could load and unload pretty quickly, turn around times were generally about 15 minutes.

The boat had independent paddlewheels (diesel electric power) and a bow and stern rudder, so it could happily run in either direction - In fact it's debatable which end of the boat was the front!

Also remember that the boats ran from the 1930's until the early 1960's, so there wasn't the volume of traffic we have nowadays! By the 1960's the boats were struggling to keep up with the increase in traffic, but the Forth Road Bridge was opened in 1963 which made them obsolete.

Regards
Eddy

[mjt60a]

I should think it would be easy enough to arrange for the boat to land with the ramps in front of the vehicles onto the pier, eg. they drive onto the starb'd side and off of the port side, and use the turntable only if that wasn't possible for whatever reason...

[Eddy Matthews]

In the last couple of days I've managed to get the drive system and paddlewheels installed, and the rudders fitted....

Because of the flat deck on the SWW, the drive sprockets have to be tucked up inside the paddleboxes - This may look quite neat, but it's a pain in the proverbial to fit! Trying to get tiny grubscrews into sprockets when your doing it all by feel alone is enough to make anyone swear!!

Although it looks like a solid shaft right across the boat, the piece in the middle is actually brass tube that the inner end of the paddleshafts fit into to support them.

Only some on the water testing will prove if the motors have enough power, I think they will as it was never a quick boat, but we'll see when it hits the water for the first time - Hopefully sometime next week if the weather is kind?

Eddy