Suter - more information

[george britnell]

My first name is George and I live in the Cleveland, Ohio area. I
have been building models for many years, mainly operating steam and
inernal combustion engines but miniatures of any sort interst me.
When I had gone to the Riverboat Regatta on the Ohio river last year
I got interested in the riverboat project that I had in my mind for
years.
The "Suter" was a flat bottomed snag boat. I'm not that deeply versed
in riverboat history so all I can say is that a snag boat looked like
a sternwheel towboat. It had a main deck with complete structure the
full length of the vessel enclosing boilers to the bow and engines to
the stern. The second deck had living quarters structure but these
didn't run the full length of the boat as some models did. On top of
this structure toward the bow end was the pilot house. On this
particular boat the pilot house was about 14 ft.tall. As I said on my
original note I had intended to make this an operating model so the
hull was consructed with ribbing and sheeting all of basswood. The
model is about 38 inches (965mm.) long and 6.50 inches (165mm.) wide.
All of the structure is created from .062 basswood sheeting with .187
plywood formers to shape the curvature of the decks. All of the small
parts, exhaust pipes, flag poles, whistle, spotlights etc. were
machined from brass. The book that I mentioned in my original note
had a had painted photograph in the introduction page. I assume that
the person doing the coloring on the photo used the colors of the
original vessel. ( I hope ) The main part of the boat is white with a
medium blue main deck and roof. The hull and rudders are black. All
of the trimwork is red. The paddlewheel and sternwall are orange
with some yellow trim. Even if these weren't the correct colors they
make for a very attractive model. The biggest problems were what to
build first so that I didn't build myself into a corner. I am
currently finishing up the smokestacks. They have a lot of detail
with platforms about halfway up with spotlights on them and all kinds
of bracing and rigging. As soon as I can get my friend with his
digital camera to come over and take some pictures I will post them
for others to see.
Till later, George

[Joe E Brown]

I believe the Suter was a Corps of Engineers Snagboat. Most snag
boats have a double hull simular to a catamaran. The hull streaches
out past the mail deck to add more buoyancy for the crane to like
trees and snags from the river bed. That's what it's primary job was,
to keep the channel clear of debris so a snag couldn't puncture a
hole in a hull.

The colors seem right, except that most decks and painted roofs were
like a smoke gray. Most roofs, back then, were black tar and roll
roofing.

http://www.dragg.net/jbrown