It's probably been asked a million times but what is a feathered wheel and how does it differ from a normal wheel?

Please don't tell me to go search and find out, I've tried that. I'm moving to boats from railways and the terminology is completely different. Some things on here have me completely stumped.

Welcome to Paddleducks Andy,

The feathering mechanism on a paddlewheel in simple terms keeps the paddle blades vertical as the wheel turns and they move through the water, so giving more thrust. In model sizes I don't feel it has any great effect on performance (others may disagree?), it just looks "right".

Having said that it looks "right", bear in mind that the top half of the wheel is covered by the paddlebox, and most of the lower part of the wheel is in the water, so any feathering mechanism cannot really be seen!

I've built models with feathering mechanism, and none feathering wheels, and both perform equally...

Hope that helps?

Regards
Eddy

Eddy - in this case I must contradict. From my experience also at a model the feathered wheels perceives more thrust, even when the diameter isn`t large. But one more reason for feathering wheels are the truth of original, when this kind of wheels were installed at the prototype.

Regards Thomas