Swiss Steamwheeler RIGI under construction

[Gerhardvienna]

Hello @ all PD`s
As i wrote in my short introduction, I`m trying to build the swiss Steamboat RIGI. For her are no plans available, so I will reconstruct everything from Photos, the card-model, and other sources I found on the www. But a short look to the history of the ship at first; the RIGI was built in London around 1846/7 from Dithborn & Mare, because the swiss Escher Wyss had a fixed contract with another company. She was used as a postship, an lies now as a museums item in front of the Verkehrshaus in Luzern/Switzerland. As machines was a Penn 2-Zylinder oszillating Steam Engine in use, wich was replaced by a Compound-Engine in 1894. I will try, to reach the arrangement from bevor 1860, where the RIGI was lengthend around 4 meters.
for more informations take a look at   http://www.paddlesteamers.info/Rigi1848.htm 
My model will be equiped with a 2-zylinder oszillating real steam engine, wich is constructed by Georg Held, a extremly good constructor of model steam engines, and built by myself.

How can such a ship be reconstructed? No plans, just one picture from the ship in its original shape, and few stuff from later periods. I took a drawing fron the swiss ship JURA, wich has almost the same lines as the RIGI, rescaled that in 3D-Cad, and so I got new lines for the RIGI, as she seemed to look at the Photos. Next step is, to redraw the decks lines in CAD, and the frames, on this i`m working at the moment. The rear frames are already done, tomorrow I will do the front frames, and control everything with a "Straklatte" (Sorry for the word in german, I dont know the english translation for this! )
And; of course, there are some pictures of the first steps
Greetings from Vienna
Gerhard

[Brian Gates]

Hi Gerhard

Are the round portholes intended for Rigi or from Jura?

The earliest clear photo I have seen of Rigi http://www.bauberger.ch/html/images_verkehrshaus/rigi3.htm shows her with rectangular windows in the hull, as does this model http://www.bauberger.ch/html/images_verkehrshaus/rigi_press.htm (I assume this is in the Swiss transport museum) and the only drawing I have found http://www.shiptec.ch/en/oldtimers/projects.html (at the bottom of the page).

From photos it appears that she was built with rectangular saloon windows and by 1910 the forward saloon had been changed to larger round portholes http://www.schiffe-schweiz.ch/bilder2/dsrigi1gr.jpg and that between then and her withdrawal the same was done to the aft saloon, leaving the hull in its present form.

All the best

Brian Gates
Gillingham

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Brian
Thanks a millon times for this great links
I did`nt have that until now, so this means to me, i will have to redesign my plans what will happen right now! The portholes were taken for planning only from the JURA, but when squared portholes are correct, they will be made like the original was. The drawing from the "oldtimers" link is just the most worthful for planning, it is the first clear sideview from RIGI that I have seen.
Thanks again for that, going to work on plans now
Best regards from Vienna
Gerhard 

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's....Gerhard.....I think we must realise that most vessels.....if not all paddle wheelers went through a series of modifications in size, format or and design    during their lifetime

From this I suggest if you have documentation images that support round port holes & you have progressed with this......then ...so stick with it

If you presented your completed model [along with an image] with round port holes........who could criticize 

Please post images of your build as you progress.......Derek

 

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Derek
YES; most of them did have lots of changes, but I took the round holes just for example, to see how they fit between the frames. The correct holes from the period before major redesigning the ship were square, and to fit to the time before 1860 I will make them square. I just intend to stay as close to scale as possible!
I have just finished the redraing of silhouette plans, and clearly made some screenshots again, as I do with every ship model I build. For example, from the german Schnellboot i did make more then 200 photos only from the building stages.
So; here are the latest shots
Greetings
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

Work in progress
The last two days were used, to reconstruct the new lines to fit the correct silhouette of the RIGI. Now they are ready for further drawing of the inside lines, and then the frames will be lasercut by a friend. BUT I will have to construct a brand new steam engine, the projected one will be too big for that hull. The RIGI is in correct measures about 3 cm`s lower than the JURA, so there is not enough space for the planned engine!
So far for now
Greetings from Vienna
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

Hello again
As I wrote at the first post here, the RIGI should be driven by a lifsteam engine. BUT; there is no steam engine to buy, that will fit the original place between the wheels. So I have to draw the comlete thing at my own, what I started yesterday. It will be a 2-Zylinder oscillating engine with 18mm stroke and 12mm bore, with reversal gear. The first page of drawings is done, so I can show to all PD`s. If you would like to build that machine, I will place the complete set of drawings at "Downloads" when everything is drawn. For those who can`t  wait, here is the first sheet,
Greetings from Vienna
Gerhard

[RHartinger]

"Straklatte" (Sorry for the word in german, I dont know the english translation for this! )

sheer lath?

Best regards
Richard

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Richard
Thank you, this might be possible.

Hi also to all other PD`s
the engineering of my steamengine is still in progress, some smaller changes had to be made. I hope, the drawings will be finished this week, if so, they will be uploaded at "DOWNLOADS", free for all to use.
Regards
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

Back again
The last few days I was busy with the drawings for the new Mini-Steam engine. It will be a very small engine, with 12mm bore and 18mm stroke. The first two pages of the planset are ready now, you may have a good impression, how I will build that engine. 2 or 3 more pages will come, with a look at the complete engine too.
Best regards
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi PD`s
Still at work with the drawings for my new small engine, but I`m making good progress, Page 3 is ready now, I will make the 2D-drawings at the computer tomorrow, all looks fine until now. By end of this week all of it will be finished, so the building of the ship will start very soon. Here some infos to the machine: It will be 84 mm wide, 42 mm from bottom to crank, and 44 mm long. That size will fit to most smaller paddlesteamers, but I have to think about the boiler and the gastank. I just hope to find some good solutions for this problems!
Regards
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

HI All
Still at work with the engine, a few parts are still missing, but there is an end to see! By constrocting the Engine i was also searching for the correct boiler to the RIGI, to build her as close to original as able. I found just one photo of the boiler, but can`t find any description. Does someone know, what kind of boiler it it as shown oh the photo??
Thank you for reply
Gerhard

PS.: What does that cylidric thing on top of the boiler???

[Doonie]

First guess would be a secondary boiler?

Doonie.

[Gerhardvienna]

I don`t think so. The RIGI had a relativley small engine of 110 HP, wich replaced the original 32 HP Penn engine in 1894. The boiler was replaced as well by a so called high-pressure boiler from Escher-Wyss, same fabricant as the engine.
Gerhard

[Brian Gates]

It could be a steam separator, similar to the dome on a locomotive boiler (and some scotch boilers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch_marine_boiler#mediaviewer/File:ZylKessel2007.JPG)?  There certainly doesn't look like much headroom above the tubes for a relatively narrow boat, and the cylindrical shape might allow it to contain a proper separator rather than just relying on the distance above the water.

Brian