"Mount Washington" with functional walking beam engine,

[Hankwilliams]

Hi, everyone,

now I want to show you some pictures of my "Mount Washington" with functional walking beam engine.  A few days ago I made a replay of the topic of bancroft - walking beam engine.
The model I made in 1996, after some minor faults in the beginnig the steam plant is working reliable.
As I wrote, the engine was made by parts of Regner`s 12/36: Cylinder, slide, excenter, flywheel and some other parts.
It`s simple and reliable to reverse this engine by valve, as the slide is piston.
The boiler is a flame tube type with 80 mm diameter and 200 mm lenght.

The main problem was the stability of the boat, normally it´s rather labil because the toplast of the superstructure.
As one can see, between sponsons and water level there are removable bulges made of balsa, painted and formed according the hull and the sponsons. This give sufficient stability, the bulges one can remove in seconds, when the model is out of water.

It also was necessery tho enlarge the draft. I cut the hull above the water line in two horizontal parts. In this space  I glued two ABS strips of 25 mm wide. The high of hull now was 25 mm increased - enought for the additional weight of engine and boiler. When this parts were accurately sanded and painted there no difference to the original hull except the proportion was visible.

With this alterations the Mount is rather stabil, it´s no risk to drive curves, also light wind cannot be dangerous to the boat.
The force of the engine is sufficient to made a speed of approximately 1 meter/second.
First I intended a direct drive to the paddle shaft, but the stroke of the single cylinder wasn`t sufficient, the engine was overstrained and the running was rought.
This was stopped with a gear reduction of 1 : 2,5 by belt drive.

Of course some improvments are possible - for example by additing a further horizontal cylinder. Probably then it would be possible to make the engine direct driving and renounce the small electric starter motor which is pushed by radio control against the flywheel, if the crank shaft is near dead centre.

I hope, you will enjoy my pictures!

Thomas

[steamboatmodel]

That is absolutely fantastic. I have seen a number of "Mount Washingtons", but that is the first with live steam. Any chance of you doing a video of it under steam?
Regards,
Gerald

[bancroft]

As I said ,a picture is worth a thousand thanks,.
There's so much eye candy there I just have to get moving on my beam engine project.
Rich

[Hankwilliams]

Thanks a lot...

A fantastic, however expendituring projekt with improved walking beam engine (1 vertical cylinder, 1 horizontal like in the sketch of mit60a) would be the Hudson river steamer "Mary Powell" in 1 : 48. Plan is available by John Fryant.
However the problem of stability will be even increase - compared with the Mount, because the boilers are located on the guards of the boat.
But it would be possible to handle it by enlarging the breadth, draft and adding bulges in front of the paddlewheels.

In the moment I' m working at the ironclad "Choctaw" in 1 : 48. I will drive it with a direct driven diagonal steamengine, also with Regner parts. Here I expect no stability problem.
I will put in some photos, when the projekt ist advanced.

regards

Thomas

[kno3]

Wow, impressive boat.

Do you have pictures of the Choctaw too?

[mjt60a]

Now that (mount washington) looks lovely, I didn't even notice the extra buoyancy until reading all the text again! We need more U.S. sidewheelers 

USS Choctaw....what an unusual vessel! I think I've seen a model before (years ago) in one of the magazines, have to check (if I still have it, that is)....
..in the meantime,..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uss_choctaw_h55218.jpg

[Hankwilliams]

Hi, kno3, mjt60a,

photos of "Choctaw" I will put in, when the boat is more advanced.
Next time I will start to make the boilers: A twinboiler, two boilers of 60 mm diameter side by side with a common 28 mm flametube, only one burner.

To the Mount: In differece to the original, the engine base sits on the bottom of the hull, not on the main deck, because centre of gravity should be as low as possible.

Thomas

[kno3]

Please start now with the photos. I like to see the work in progress.

[greateastern]

Hello Thomas,
 Your Mt Washington is a very beautiful model indeed. When you get around to the Mary Powell, there is a wonderful book The Mary Powell by Donald Rignwald ( Howell-North Books, 1972) filled with photos, including one of her walking beam, a photo of a model of  he engine and Mystic Seaport,   and many useful details and a color artwork opposite title page and on cover.. I certainly look forward to seeing the completed model.
dave

[Hankwilliams]

Hello Dave, kno3,

thanks for your kindly replies.

I have several projekts in my mind and one on my workbench. The "Choctaw"  makes good progress, in about 10 days I will present some pictures, because the boat is now rather finished except the paddlewheels, masts, engine and boilers.

In April I've bought a drop in paddle engine for a steam canoe with boiler and wheels (was in category "ebay" in end of April) from Canada.
To build the steam canoe (15 - 20 feet) will be a long time Projekt within the next two or three years.

The "Mary Powell" also would be an ambitious projekt - but with the difficulties of stability. However I have the plans of the Denny built Irrawaddy steamers "China" (1888, 310 feet, see in "downloads") and "Mindan" (1946, 200 feet) with normal diagonal engines. This boats wouldn't  expect stability problems,  probably they are the better live steam models.

Regards

Thomas