Cathead

Made some nice progress this weekend. It helped that the outdoor temperature got down to -13ºF (-25ºC) last night and never went above -3ºF (-19ºC) during the day today. Good thing we have a nice stock of on-farm firewood on hand. I made a momentous decision regarding the boiler deck. Having built all the framing off-model, I'd intended to also plank it off-model before installation. But I began to realize that installing a fully-planked deck would make it very difficult to do certain other tasks, and decided to go ahead and install the framing now. I had one shot at doing this right, because I had to glue the back of the framing onto the solid engine room structure, and clamp it down tight, while making sure the rest of the deck was as squarely aligned going forward as I could. Since I'd left holes in the deck planking for the support posts, there was little margin for error; I had to get this lined up exactly right. So I did a few test runs without glue, and convinced myself I could get the alignment right before the wood glue started to grab. So I went for it! Once this was solid, I cut the first three support posts on either side and installed them, along with gluing down the boiler assembly. Now for some of the details I decided were better done before the decking went down. First, the access to the boiler deck. Way back in this log, we'd had a discussion about where the staircase/ladder would have been between the main and boiler deck, and settled on a location near the engine room, just behind where the boiler deck cabin would be. I'd already framed out an opening for this. My original plan was to scratchbuild some kind of enclosed staircase, but while rummaging around in a scrapbox, I ran across a nice package of HO-scale plastic staircases that I decided would do quite nicely since I hate building stairs. So I cut one segment down to size, painted it white, and weathered it with gray pastel. I figured these should be pretty grimy since they'd be primarily used by the crew. You'll see this installed in a minute. Next, I moved on to the steam lines connecting the boiler with the engine room (one line for each engine). These would have been suspended from beneath the boiler deck beams, and I'd realized would be very hard to install after the deck was planked. As it was, this was a very fiddly job that had my nerves all jangly by the time it was done. To hang these, I intended to use very small wire loops run through the deck beams to simulate some sort of bracket. I drilled very small holes in the beams, working very slowly so as not to crack a beam, then ran a longer loop of wire through. Getting these up through the bottom of the holes involved a very small tweezers, a lot of patience, and a diverse vocabulary. I intentionally left fingertips in these photos for scale. I did two initial sets of these loops, one near the engine room and one near the boiler. Then I took two lengths of brass rod, which I'd already painted black, threaded them through the loops, and pulled the loops taut to hold the rods in place. Here's their "connection" to the engine room, where they presumably pass through the wall and then diverse to their destinations on either side. Where these met the splitter I'd installed above the boiler, the connection wasn't perfect, so I used blobs of glue to "seal" the joint. Once this is painted black and in the shadow of the deck, it'll look fine. A bit of paint was scraped off the rods during handling, I'll go back through and touch all this up. Here are wider views of the installed steam lines, ladder, and rear three posts. And an overhead shot: You might also notice in the previous photos that I gently weathered the whole boiler assembly using rust-colored pastels. Further details to install including a couple more support loops along the steam lines, and some form of railing or enclosure for the stairs. Sharp and knowledgeable eyes might detect two nit-picks: one detail that's not quite right, and one I intentionally left out, both for convenience and practicality. Can anyone find them? From here I think I want to do more detailing of the main deck first, adding some cargo and so on, anything that would be easier to do while I can see or reach down through the boiler deck framing. There's no reason to suspect that I'm procrastinating on milling a lot more deck planking to careful tolerances. Nope. Thanks for all the interested comments, questions, and likes that provide such useful inspiration to keep plugging away at this project!

I get the sense more people build the whole thing off-model, but I've only built one vessel with this feature so am not an expert.

Ken, you near gave me a heart attack when I saw the phrase "barn burner" show up in the preview of new posts in this thread, knowing how recently Brian built his new workshop.

I might have to steal this phrasing, well put!

The shots lots of passengers up on the boiler deck were almost certainly special daytime chartered excursions rather than regular packet service. By the early 1900s, boats like this had mostly been undercut by railroads in terms of general freight service, and such charters were a creative way to bring in money. The lack of railings on her boiler deck probably relates to her not being built for regular (especially overnight) passenger service, such that passengers would normally not be up there. I don't think she had any (or more than maybe one or two) passenger cabins, the cabin is just too small. That photo was clearly staged with the vessel motionless; I'd bet they weren't up there while it was in motion, or if they were it was for a gentle day excursion. Most steamboats had railings anywhere passengers were expected to be. Look at this image of Bertrand (foreground) and Arabia (background); both have full railings around their boiler deck, because both carried passengers and had cabins there. No railings on the hurricane deck (next one up) because passengers weren't supposed to be there. Both these vessels pre-date most safety regulations (mid-1800s), whereas Peerless was built ~50 years later when far more regulations were in place. So I don't think it relates to a safety culture (or lack thereof) but more just a different vessel in different service in a different era.

I'd agree with the chorus that, for the most part, both examples of weathering are too dark. More like rural barn wood. As for the rest, out of my league, but always fascinating to follow you down the various rabbit warrens of research!

Wow…that’s amazing. I didn’t realize you could DIY kit-like parts like that. I also didn’t need to know that (or rather, my wallet didn’t). Great to see more progress!

Here's some more progress on the boiler. I took a few of these overexposed to help the dark black be visible. Here I've added the steam vent into the breeching and a representative safety valve, a t-shaped pipe from which two steam lines will run to the engines, and a rough version of a "doctor" pump used to draw river water for the boiler. If you follow the piping you can see that the water runs from the pump around to the mud drum beneath the boiler, where the Missouri River's abundant sediment would settle out before getting into the boiler proper. This is a more simplistic version of the same setup I built for Arabia (see last post), but that was (a) at a larger scale, (b) intended to be a more open model with internal visibility, and (c) I just plain held myself to a higher standard for that one. This will work fine for Peerless. And here it is set in place on the main deck, with a brick-lined ash pan under the firebox doors (for hopefully obvious reasons). First photo without boiler deck, second photo with boiler deck loosely resting on top (but not bent to proper curve). There is no other superstructure to build; unlike all the other vessels I've built (and also unlike Chaperon, one of the few accurate kits out there), Peerless has absolutely no support for the entire boiler deck forward of the engine room, other than two rows of supports posts. I'm repeating myself here, but that's why I chose to have the breechings directly support the boiler deck even though it's not quite accurate. Otherwise it's a long, delicate run of mostly empty space. Also I chose to build the deck framing separately. I've said all this before, but I thought these photos really made the point.

I'm impressed! Can't wait to see these in place.

Yes, there would be a safety valve atop the boiler and the venting pathway runs through a pipe that connects to the chimney. Steam for the engines draws off the top, there's usually a cylindrical drum up there, from which piping runs back to the engines at the rear of the vessel. Here's a view of the full machinery setup on my Arabia. You can see the steam drum, the piping to the engines, safety valves on both sides, and the vent pipe leading to the right side of the breeching. : I'll be adding these features, though some of them can't happen until the boiler is installed (rather than ahead of time). What I meant when I said no more detailing was that I wasn't planning on subtle things like rivets (unlike Arabia above), sorry that wasn't clear. I'll also be adding the "doctor" pump you see right behind the boiler, which was used to draw river water up for the boiler. There's a mud drum suspended below the boilers that was used to settle out the river's high sediment load before entering the boiler. That drum is already installed on the Peerless boiler, you can see it if you look closely. Arabia was at 1:64, whereas this is at 1:87, so I'm being a bit more simplistic with the smaller scale for sanity's sake. Thanks for the good questions!

And one final update from a quiet New Year's Eve. I pulled apart the original boiler and used a dremel along with hand tools to carve and sand the breeching down to a slimmer form that I find more appealing. I also shortened the legs supporting the boiler. The final difference is subtle but I'm much happier with it. Here it is after priming and painting; also note I added a pressure gage atop the front of the boiler. Some of the dimensions don't quite match up to the original photo, but I'm ok with that. I don't feel like detailing it any further, as it is it'll blend nicely into the shadowed background of the overall model. Happy New Year to all of you!

That's definitely happening above the boiler deck. I thought Kurt was referring to the underside of the boiler deck, where the breechings go up through. Here's the one decent front view I have. You can see the single boiler, the two round firebox doors, and the breechings going up through the boiler deck to the stack. I've circled the heat shields above the boiler deck, which will fully obscure the connection between the chimneys and the breeching when viewed from above. What I thought Kurt meant was that, looking up from underneath, the breeching still shouldn't be in immediate contact with the wooden framing on the underside of the boiler deck. I agree, but am emphasizing structural support over accuracy since this detail won't be very visible on the finished model.

Thanks, Kurt, you're right but I decided that I cared more about increased structural strength than that particular detail. A close and knowledgeable eye will see that they're touching, but the vast majority of viewers won't realize it, and I'm more comfortable having the forward part of the boiler deck supported by something a bit more solid than a few spindly posts. This is especially true for Peerless, which unlike other steamboats I've built, doesn't have any solid superstructure anywhere under the boiler deck forward of the enginehouse. No staircase, no intermediate walls, nothing. So I just feel better using the breeching as a support and sacrificing a bit of accuracy.

Yes, riverboat boilers are single-ended; the firebox is fed at the same end as the exhaust, unlike a locomotive.

The steam locomotive is a good comparison and a fun question. I'm not sure how much a small steamboat like Peerless weighed, but was it significantly more than a single-locomotive freight train of the 1900s? And she was probably carrying most of her heavier loads downriver (like bulk flour/grain). Her boiler looks smaller than a locomotive's, but again she's a lightweight timber craft operating on water.

Companies like this don't care much about accurate details or rigging. That's a ludicrous way to lash down a cannon. One option would be to rig them at the gunports like any normal naval cannon. Guns could also be tightly lashed sideways, as in a severe storm or just for a ship that really didn't intend to need them very often (like Beagle). I went looking for a diagram for you and had some trouble, but this post on MSW shows one possible way to do it (click the link to see the drawing; the third illustration is what you're looking for).

I thought to check Alan Bates' definitive reference (foolishly not doing so before), where he refers to that structure as the breeching. Guess I'd forgotten that, not like I haven't perused that book ten times. After sleeping on it, I think I'm going to pursue the usual modeler's curse and partially tear down this first draft to improve it a bit.

Started working on the boiler today. I don't have any good photos from the side and only one from the front that can be zoomed in but is grainy. Way's Packet Directory says Peerless had only one boiler, which makes sense for such a small vessel. So I just started laying out a basic generic boiler design based on the larger ones I've built for bigger vessels, with a single boiler tube surrounded by a rectangular casing. Here I'm using a wooden dowel and some thin pieces of farm-milled basswood. I then drew out a pattern for the complicated piece that connects the boiler to the chimneys (not actually sure what this is called; anyone know? @Roger Pellett? It took two pieces of basswood glued together to get the right thickness, though I then had to cut it down again. Then I used a bandsaw and hand tools to rough out the shape I wanted: And used scrap wood to build two basic round doors, which can be dimly seen in one original photo: When I was reasonably happy and had sanded everything pretty smooth, I added legs. Then glued the two main parts together. Here's the full assembly with a person for scale: And here it is on the model, with the deck loosely held in place: I think it's a bit too tall; I might try to carefully cut down the legs just a bit. The tops of the chimney-attachment-whatevers are slightly notched so that they fit into the square holes I framed within the overlying boiler deck (you can see this in the preceding photos). This not only helps them hold the deck in place, but also lets the deck rise at a slight angle to the boilers, as it should. So that's the loose idea. If I decide to keep this version, I'll prime it and then give it a nice coat of black and then some pastel rust. I think it's good enough but want to sleep on it. It looks kind of rough in raw wood, but when painted black and hidden in the shadows below the deck, I'm not sure there's much point in trying to make it too perfect. It also needs a few more details, like a mud drum and so on. Thoughts? Specific concerns or improvements?

I enjoyed visiting this vessel a few years ago, will be fun to see how you make the kit your own. Great work on the boat so far!

Just a quick Christmas Eve update, since I had a relatively quiet weekend to get a bit more done. Here's the final boiler deck structure, with the edge glued on, and all painted up. I didn't paint the top since it'll be planked over. Top view: Bottom view: Set loosely on the model with a prop at the bow: Though I'd assumed the next step would be planking, I'm realizing I need to build the boiler assembly first, so I can be sure it'll fit nicely underneath. The flues connecting the boiler to the chimneys need to slot into the appropriate gaps in the deck structure, and this will actually help support the deck, giving it more solidity than just the thin support posts. So that's the next step, and honestly it sounds like a nice change of pace from all the framing and planking that this build has mostly consisted of so far. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or whatever other best wish works for you!

Hey, great to see you back at work! I hear you on how modeling interacts with bad times; I've paused work a few times for the same reason. Sometimes a hobby is an escape, other times it isn't. Merry Christmas to you too.

I've always hated making staircases, I can never get them as even as I like.

Great job, that's a beautiful ship and model and I quite enjoyed following along and learning from your build.

Siggi, vielen dank for that wonderful photo. I'm clearly a cat person (see username and photo) so that just made my day. And it's nice to be able to attach a face to a builder I respect. I especially enjoying following a build from Germany as my wife still has family there and we both speak passable German. We're hoping to visit them next summer (they live in a small town near Würzburg). Frohe Weinachten!

Yeah, I'm anxious too. Never done something quite like this before.