PS Marchioness of Lorne 1891

[Mercury]

A bit of a bone of contention the Caley colour scheme. While the dark blue hull seams to be agreed although I have heard it was black after WWI, I've seen reference to green, red and brown boot topping, pink saloons, white saloons and white with pink and blue lining. Some boats have white deckhouses, others painted brown and other varnished wood. The Caley scheme is also particularly poor at showing up on photos. What conclusions have you managed to come to - I'd like to do a Duchess of Argyle at some point so quite interested in this topic.

[djcf]

Yes there were several changes I have found out about. The green underbody was short lived for a few years in the 1890s, then reverted to a red/brown shade. The upper part of the hull was dark blue/gold lining until 1923, then black (LMS livery). Saloons pale pink with pale blue lining & some white lining around the window area. I have a detailed description (somewhere!)of this part, but its difficult to visualize, so I will probably paint up a "test saloon side" to see how it works out. I will let you know how I get on....
Marchioness of Lorne had white deckhouses, with some sort of lining on them, as did Duchess of Hamilton.
I'm open to correction, but that is the general description in several articles I have read so far.
 Clark

[Mercury]

Clark,

This pretty much matches what I have read. Gavin Johnston on his Duchess of Rothesay has built up the saloons and windows to give a relief effect which is very successful and would allow lining relatively easily. You may be able to see this in some of the pictures from the 2009 paddler day. I think he used the great picture of the Rothesay from the circa 1996 Clyde Steamers magazine of the CRSC.

[Mercury]

Found a pic of Gavin's Rothesay:

http://www.paddleducks.co.uk/smf/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=1403

Appologies to Marinemole - the pic is from his gallery.

[djcf]

I have seen the pictures, the Duchess of Rothesay is a lovely model, and, I have been planning to do that for the lining on my saloon sides....funnily enough I was just looking at that photo the other day on the cover of the CRSC mag, shows a good bit of detail.

Re the Duchess of Argyll, I think she differed in her scheme, eg no gold lining, and maybe the saloon sides were white not pink. Cant remember how I heard that, so I'm not definate about it!!

[Mercury]

Yes - I think this was common to all the turbines - i.e. they didn't have the gold lining.

The photo's I have found so far are just too poor to determine if she had lined saloons or not. In some they look pinkish and in others white but the colour quality from that era is not good enough.

[djcf]

Hi PDs
Haven't had much time for paddler building recently, so not a lot of progress on Marchioness of Lorne. Im hunting for a GA drawing of a similar fleetmate, (Caledonia 1889) to double check main deck level and height of saloon sides...as this involves cutting 60+ windows I want to get it right 1st time! I have drawn my own plan for Marchioness of Lorne & just want reassured before cutting! Pics show saloon sides taped onto temp supports on hull...they will be trimmed down when i'm happy with dimensions!

Anyway I've made the rudder & epoxied rudder tube into hull, rudder is removeable by unscrewing bar fixed to keel.
Which leads to my question....on the real ship rudder control was by chain down the inside of the hull & round a pulley/block to the rudder quadrant. Pics show a quadrant I bought...& can butcher if nesessary, so, has anyone used fine chain for a rudder linkage? is it even possible...ie the chain is bound to have slack in it on a model? or do I stick to tried & tested linkages? there is not a lot of room & a conventional servo linkage would be visible at the rope handling area where the 2 rather bemused figures are standing!! Any advice/ideas would be appreciated, (There will be a grating over the quadrant)  heres a few pics
regards
 Clark

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's.....djcf.......if the steering chain were even partially visible on the real vessel...nothing would be better than displaying the scale representation on your model of the Marchioness

There are basically 3 types of plain model chain [without studs as in anchor chain]
1. brass formed
2. brass formed & fusion [resistance] welded links
3. steel formed & brass plated

Option 2. would be OK, however I would be concerned with the security of the plastic steering quadrant to the rudder vertical shaft....a brass T POST soldered in position  may be an alternative ..... .....Derek

[steamboatmodel]

Hi Clark,
I haven't used fine chain, but I have used cord. I make sure that I incorporate a spring/O-ring/elastic in the linkage to take up the slack.
Regards,
Gerald.

[R.G.Y.]

 I have used necklace chain in this situation works well is strong. Cheep if bought at a boot sale. On my latest build Duke of Devonshire I am using cord from a scanner. R.G.Y.

[djcf]

Thanks for the replies and advice, guys.
Derek, as you say, the plastic quadrant is just a push fit & not very reliable, I will just use it for a mock-up, and make something more permanent and secure later....I seem to remember someone using the earth pin from a British standard electrical plug.
Gerald, Geoff, good ideas, I will see what materials I can find and get experimenting
regards
Clark

[mjt60a]

A model of a clyde puffer in model boats (years ago) had  something like that using a pulley with two thirds cut away and a chain soldered in the centre of the remaining third of the pulley. Tension was provided by a spring (the type you used to get with futaba transmitters to replace the one inside - it removed the self centering feature on the throttle stick) attaching one end to the servo, the spring was hidden inside the boiler casing.

[sandystrone]

Fitz
I use the earth pin from a 13amp plug for my tiller arms. thinned down with a file and the screw replaced with a grub screw - get more purchase on an Allan key!
                                                                                                        Sandy

[djcf]

Hi Sandy,
Yes as you say the earth pin is perfect, I attacked one with a file a couple of days ago, just waiting on some materials to continue with the rudder linkage....meanwhile 60 saloon windows are waiting to be cut!!

[djcf]

Hi PDs,
I have managed to do a little mock-up for the rudder linkage. Thanks to Gavin (marmion) for all the advice regarding the linkage on his Duchess of Rothesay model.
Firstly I used the earth pin from a 13amp plug for a tiller, and drilled it for two 2mm bolts, the chain is attached to the bolts via ferrules from the end of electric guitar strings...they slip over the bolts and are free to swivel. The chain goes round plastic pulleys, (I will replace these with brass ones eventually) and into 3/16" tube, bent gradually inboard. I have made a join in both these tubes, so I can fine tune them later to suit connection to servo arm.
Quite surprised it all feels smooth & little friction when working the chains by hand. A grating will eventually cover the tiller & pulleys.
A few pics of the mock up, everything is just wedged in place just now
Clark