As a small boy I grew up in a logging camp and was surrounded with steam locomotives and steam yarding donkeys in the early 50s. In High School I often watched a US Army Corps of Engineers snag boat steaming by my little town on Puget Sound. it was thrilling to paddle out in my kayak intercepting the W. T. Preston and furiously paddle alongside watching the big paddlewheel churning up a washboard wake behind her. At 8 knots, I couldn't keep up, but got a close-up experience of a live steamer I've never forgotten. For decades I'd forgotten Preston until retirement 2 years ago. W. T. Preston was retired in 1981 and sits in a museum display 60 miles north of me. I decided to build at a scale allowing me to make it steam powered, highly detailed with many working features. She is 63" long, 13" at the beam and draws 1 1/2" of water. The model displaces 37 pounds. Work began on February 17, 2011 with construction of the hull. I used plank-on-frame construction starting with a 1/4" thick marine plywood bottom. I've added a small keel, departing from the full-sized boat to give better tracking. The W.T. Preston was built on a steel barge and was notorious for her poor handling in wind, often backing into the wind to her destination. I was able to make many visits to the Preston taking over 400 photos and measurements of the actual vessel. The museum staff also gave me a DVD with thumbnail photos of all 200 blueprint sheets used in 1929 to build her. I selected 7 sheets for printing at 1/32nd scale and set up my miniature saw mill to custom cut lumber from 70 year-old 1" x 6" x 6' Alaska cedar fencing. This makes the wood in the model almost as old as Preston herself. Since you will be viewing 204 images spread over two years, I will spread this over many entries. The model is nearing completion at this writing and represents over 1800 hours of work. Shop trials are rapidly approaching. If all goes well, I move to dockside trials, and then on to first launch and christening. Thanks for your interest. You can learn more about me and the projects I work on at: mjonesfamily.com. So don't mind the sawdust, Here we go.
Snagboat Mike
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