Great Eastern

[Christian]

Hi all,

Today I ordered plans of the Great Eastern. I finally found them. The
Greenwich National Maritime Museum in London wrote to me. Their Web address
is:

www.nmm.ac.uk

I had to sign that I agree to NOT share or copy the plans EVER. Well in any
case hopefully I'm done researching for now.

Now begins the quest for the right method of scratchbuilding. I will do my
own research and trial and error. I already have some very good ideas about
what to use where. My only two concerns are the hull (solid hull,
plank-on-bulkhead?) and the paddle wheels (styrene strips, cast resin, p/e
brass?).

I am still working on my superdetailed 1/350 RMS Titanic based upon the
Minicraft kit. So It miaght still take a while before I actually start
building the GE.

In any case I will keep you informed about my progress. Please be patient,
it might still take a while and I can not guarantee that my first attempts
at scratchbuilding a paddlewheeler with an iron hull are successful. but I
am determined to meet the challenge.

Cheers, Christian

[Paulrjordan]

CONRATULATIONS Christian..great news! ..ya finally found 'em..felt
they HAD to be in Greenwich somewhere. I'm still waiting for a reply
to three emails I've sent the Science Museum in London regarding a
list of their PADDLEWHEELER PLANS/EXHIBITS/MODELS.

I'm not surprised Greenwich says you can't copy the plans. I do hope
they have the deck arrangements and rigging layouts you need so badly!
As soon as you receive them, please advise us what quality they are
and what is their provenance. i.e. who drew them and WHEN..oh and also
the COST??? Your assessment of the quality of these plans will be very
useful to those who want to build the GE in the future.

You're well on your way now with the research aspect...Ahem!! you DID
say you were going to make her a fully operating R/C ship didn't
you??? So why the solid HULL ?? (okay...just kidding!!)

I am optimistic that in our group we are going to explore and find
answer to the best materials and method for building paddle wheels
efficiently (feathering or non). By the way if you have any pics of
your "Titanic", feel free to upload them as "general interest" files
to our server under MISC folder.

Let us know as soon as the plans arrive.

PJ

[Christian]

Hello PJ

> You're well on your way now with the research aspect...Ahem!! you DID
> say you were going to make her a fully operating R/C ship didn't
> you??? So why the solid HULL ?? (okay...just kidding!!)

I am planning on a static model in 1/350 scale. I guess a R/C model of the
GE should be modeled in a larger scale. No lakes here in Lisbon, just a
mighty river (Tejo) leading straight into the Atlantic. It only would make
sense if I built the GE in 1/2 scale :-/

> I am optimistic that in our group we are going to explore and find
> answer to the best materials and method for building paddle wheels
> efficiently (feathering or non).

As this is my first attempt at a paddle wheeler, I'm not familiar with the
terms. Could you please explain what "feathering" means?

> Let us know as soon as the plans arrive.

I will try to provide as accurate a description as I can.

Cheers, Christian

[Christian]

Hello all,

Paul Jones asked me a while ago to comment on the Great Eastern plans when I
receive them. A few days ago I did. The last days I have been busy cross
checking everything with actual photographs of the Great Eastern. There are
some differences between what's in the plans and what existed on the actual
vessel.
The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London has twelve different
plans of the Great Eastern for sale. Most are of interiors. I ordered the
three most important ones for modelers: Spar deck (main deck), Lines (frames
and water lines - indispensable info about the hull shape), and rig. The
former two are to the large 1/96 scale. The latter is non-scale but the
proportions look correct. The Spar deck plan is of course very detailed. It
contains the life boats and the two steam launches for passengers that
didn't become a reality. The plan shows not only the main deck but also the
surrounding bulwark and the rib pattern thereof around the stern area where
it is visible from above. It shows the exact locations of the masts and the
funnel cross sections. It shows double steam pipes fwd and aft the funnels.
On construction photos single pipes are clearly evident. Together with
photographs this plan is of most importance for those who wish to scratch
build.
The lines plan shows frames and water lines. There is also a vertical cross
section through the hull exactly through the paddle wheel axles. It shows
the double hull and the iron plating.
The rig is simplified, but this plans shows nice detail of railings, hull
portholes etc.
It is most likely that these plans are copies of the ones in the 1860 Scott
Russel publication of three volumes. Scott Russel designed the Great Eastern
together with Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The latter has to be given much more
credit though.

As an answer to my email I received a personal letter by snail mail with an
offer regarding the Great Eastern plans from the NMM in Greenwich. So I
don't know if prices are changing. All I can say is that the plans don't
come cheap but the data combined with photographs is crucial for a sucessful
Great Eastern project.

I just want to inform everyone that my cooperative Great Eastern project is
going full steam ahead. I will inform the Paddleducks group as soon as our
Site is up. This might still take a while since research has to be done
painstakingly.