Good evening all ,
Has anyone come across the attached Paddle steamer before ?.
It operated between Dover and Calais for a few years.
I am wondering if it would make a good model.

Hello Peter.

I think you are wrong about the date I'm afraid, as the photos are of the "Castalia" of 1874.  By coincidence I picked up "E.W.P Veale's "Gateway to the Continent" (Ian Allan, 1955) yesterday, and there is a less tightly cropped version of the second and third image you have posted in there.

If so, she was built for the LCDR marine department by the Thames Ironworks and had a pair of paddle wheels in tandem between the hulls, powered by four engines each with its own boiler room and funnel.  Four seems to have been her special number, as she had four bows, each of which had its own rudder.  She was not, according to Rixon Bucknall ("Boat Trains and Channel Packets", Vincent Stewart Publishers, 1957.), a good steamer and left the railway's service in 1884 to become an isolation hospital on the Thames.

Catamarans seem to have come in threes, as they also operated an almost identical vessel, but with only one paddlewheel and without the bell-mouths to the funnels, the "Calais-Douvres" (ex "Empress") built by Leslie's of Hebburn in 1877, and of course the infamous "Bessemer".  None of them were particularly manoeuvrable, or good sea boats, (the Calais-Douvres being the best of the three) suggesting that she might make a better static than working model.

Having said that, I would love to see a model of her on the water.

All the best
Brian Gates
Gillingham UK

Whoops - I should have checked Wikipedia first, there is a very good photo of her as a hospital and a detailed history of her service
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS_Castalia

Brian

Many thanks for your reply, I actually got the date off the good old net, stating that these ferries were built up north somewhere, and were ordered by the London and southeastern railways.
Must check Wikipedia in future.
All it needs now is for me to find some plans or drawings for them.

Quote from: Peter amey on November 30, 2015, 07:22:54 PM
All it needs now is for me to find some plans or drawings for them.

You'll find plans for the Castalia in our downloads section Peter....

Regards
Eddy

Many thanks Eddy, perhaps one day I will use my noodle first and think of looking there.

Eddy , I have just located the plans , thanks for your assistance.