Keith Black

This is a very cool vid of starting up a 1928 steam tug, well worth the watch. New information regarding the Hard Coal Navy and push boats from the 1920's to 1930's is getting harder to find. I was hoping to come across more nuggets of information because the area between the engine room stern wall and the wheel halves is a mystery. I may have to resort to filling that void by guessing the how of things in that area but I don't like doing that. I've started cutting out mockup pieces of card for laying out (I have to come up with a name) the ugly sternwheeler configuration. So many questions, so few answerers.

Found this image on FaceBook. Caption reads " This is a tugboat also, this is one of the ones that works the water in Lake Aldred, above Holtwood, a little bit older then No. 7, this photo was taken in 1945"

Wes, welcome to MSW. There are several Swift build logs that you can view for helpful ideas. Glad to have you aboard. https://modelshipworld.com/search/?q=Swift&quick=1

Congratulations, Glen. The bell and frame are incredibly well done as is the whole model. I applaud your selflessness efforts and thank you for making me proud to be a fellow MSW/NRG member.

Grant, thank you for being willing to follow along.

Andreas, welcome to MSW. Glad to have you aboard.

Beautiful planking, Vaddoc.

That's nice stuff, Chris.

Senior moment. I read the Safe Harbor history to mean Pennsylvania Water & Power CO changed it's name to Safe Harbor Water Power Corp. Duh. No doubt the sternwheeler in question is operating on Lake Aldred. And I dare say there was one and ONLY one push boat that looked like the Lake Aldred vessel. As I said, senior moment. Back to the sign and first word, sounds like? If you can get Pennsylvania squoze in there I'm all over it. Interesting but Penna doesn't seem to work either.

I let out a howl when I read that. Too funny, Yves.

LJP, that looks great.

Thank you, Bob. I'm glad you signed up for the journey. I'll not be trying to replicate the smoke but have seen it done using clean, dyed, unspun wool. Tom I was searching for the names of Hard Coal Navy dredging companies when I came across Pennsylvania Water & Power CO. Trying to get 'Pennsylvania' to fit in that space is a stretch, IMHO. Eric I'm guessing the time period is 1930ish because of the deckhand's shirt, the electric lights, and the general feel of the scene. In the link immediately below is the history of Safe Harbor Water Power Corporation. Is it possible that's what the sign reads, Safe Harbor Water Power CO with the initials PWP (not an and sign) in a vertical line between Water and Power? https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1430/ML14308A219.pdf More history https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/hydro-power/hydro-hall-of-fame-2/ Power generator from 1930, it fits the time period. Related items on eBay.

https://unchartedlancaster.com/2020/07/22/brief-history-of-black-diamond-dredging-on-the-susquehanna/ The fourth image's title in the above link is "Reclaiming River coal from Lake Aldred by paddle boat." This is the sternwheeler I will be trying to replicate. I have tried making out the wording on the signage on the starboard side of the push boat. I thought I was seeing "Water & Power Co" as the last words but have been unable to make out the first word. I came across the below Wikipedia link which states the following... "the oldest of three major dams built across the lower Susquehanna River, and the middle location of the three. It was constructed as the McCalls Ferry Dam between 1905 and 1910 by the Pennsylvania Water & Power (PW&P) Company." 'Water and Power Co' fit for the last but "Pennsylvania" is too long for the first word. Tis a bit of a mystery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holtwood_Dam I started tonight trying to determine the dimensions of everything and early indications are that this was a pretty small vessel, something like 15 x 40 feet but as I said it's early.

https://anthraciteunite.com/2019/02/26/the-hard-coal-navy/ http://dauphincountyhistory.org/backups/research/photos/weeklyphoto/17

Thank you, Gary. This is the perfect candidate to build using castoff bits and pieces from previous builds. It's going to take all my meager skills to replicate this amount of ugliness.

What a grand palette for artistic expression, Eric. I love it!

Thank you, Gary. I enjoyed every minute spent working on Lula and miss not working on her terribly.

Welcome aboard, John.

Mark, Happy Birthday to your wife, enjoy your trip to Crete, and 5MM (0.196 inches), I guarantee the only person who is ever going to notice that tiny amount is you. Beautiful work.

That looks so nice, Paul.

Glen, thank you for being part of this journey. A heavy application of pastels is gonna be required when it comes time to weathering this model. No worries about "too much". I didn't think beyond the end of my nose on this matter and assumed she burned hard coal as it would have been free but your statement of the obvious makes me wanna dope slap my forehead. Thank you for your valuable input, Ken. Eberhard, I don't think I have time to waste. A steam donkey engine weighed between 4,000 and 10,000 pounds. An average of 7,000 pounds would seem an almost impossible weight for that wretched looking vessel to carry yet it did and more! More research information.... https://colcohist-gensoc.org/wp-content/uploads/rivercoal.pdf

Eric, thank you for your willingness to follow along. A few interesting observations made since we last spoke on the subject, 1) No stern upward sweep. This vessel was built like a shoebox, a level deck with squared ends. 2) The drive shafts of two wheel halves sit high above the deck by two to three feet. The wheel halve buckets seem to also sit high in the water as the wheel halves are relatively small in diameter which would help explain the lack of a normally needed stern wall. 2) There's a smaller exhaust stack visible next to and to the rear of a steam whistle at the rear edge of the pilothouse. In the first photo only a wisp of smoke can be seen but in the last photo the amount of smoke is much more pronounced. Question is, why type of engine does it lead to? I don't think an electric generator would create the amount of exhaust seen in the last photo but electricity was used based on the forward light atop the pilothouse along with a working light on the port side plus a light bulb that can be seen at the top edge of forward engine room wall What appears to be a high pressure water hose can be seen on the forward starboard side engine room wall. Could the engine be a high pressure water pump? Piping can be seen through the engine room near the base of where the smaller exhaust stack would end. This was one quirky ugly beast.

Thank you, Pat.

She is very different looking indeed, John. There's not a pretty thing about her, she is the essence of an ugly duck. Thank you, Phil and Jacques. I hope I'm able to do the build and the Hard Coal Navy story justice.

Thank you very much, Grant.