Keith Black

Thank you, Pat. Thank you, Lynn. Thank you to everyone for your comments, likes, and for following along. I never thought I'd be making furniture for the Flea family. I can almost put five of the stools on my thumbnail. The legs are .0315 inches square, the seat is .15 x .175 inches and height is .225 inches. Amazingly enough, it's pretty robust for being as small as it is. I need to lower the stool height to .175 inches for a bit more clearance. The chart table is .30 inches wide x .20 inches deep, .25 inches tall at the front and .40 inches tall at the rear. The chart table legs are temporary, more later. The figure is one I randomly reached in and grabbed and is there for definition of space and scale. The port side of the chart table is not painted as that edge gets glued to the interior wall. The figure is one I randomly reached in and grabbed and is there for definition of space and scale. The pilot house is a crowded affair, the real Lula didn't have a stove so there would have been a little more room. Regarding the chart table legs, they are temporary but necessary for being the correct height once I glue it to the stern wall. If you look closely at the original Lula photo below through the PH door you can see the stool under the starboard side corner. For the stool to be in that position there couldn't be legs on the chart table, it had to have been wall mounted. And it makes sense because this would then have allowed the stool to be stowed under the CT and would have been completely out of the way. For the interior sheeting I'm using is Midwest Products .015625 inch birch plywood, the same material I used for the chart table and stool seat. It'll be easier to install vs planking and will give just a tiny bit more room. Because of the limited view and once painted white, one won't be able to tell what sheeting was used for the interior walls. When I've glued the chart table to the stern wall the legs will be removed. Now that all the pilot house interior elements are made it's time to start making the walls and adding windows. I'm pretty excited to reach this point because the pilot house is Lula's crown. Thank you again to everyone for your support. Keith

Moving right along, Paul. 👍

Looking very nice, Gary.

I wonder how those radiators would have affected the aerodynamics? I think the nine fin arrangement looks great, Greg.

That looks great, Bryan.

While your work on the Constitution is incredible another SIB in the works is music to my ears.

Our dear wives are absolute treasures for their willingness to put up with us for a minute let alone half a century, it boggles the mind. Maggie and I are working on 47 years, hopefully we both live long enough to see our 50th.

Thank you, Eberhard. I'm just going with an all white interior though I do need to test acrylic felt tip pens. They sound counterintuitive to my small brain but you and others have mentioned them so I need to quit being so bullheaded and purchase a sample lot to test them for myself. Thank you, John, I agree. Thank you, Glen. No alcohol onboard Lula, period! Not even a beer with lunch. I want a cold sober crew push/towing that pile driver I worked so hard on building. Thank you, Rick.

Craig, that looks fantastic. And it's a pleasure to see Vicky's willingness to be a part of the project. Go team!

Thank you, Bob. Unfortunately where you want the rum keg to go is where the chart table goes. No black trim on the inside, it's just too dang hard to cut straight paint lines at this scale. Trying to paint black trim on the inside would probably drive me clean over the edge.

Thank you, Keith. The only reason I could justify having the engine controls in the pilothouse is because the pilothouse sits directly over the engine room. Had that not been the case then an engine telegraph and engineer would have been necessary. Thank you, Tom. Tallow was used on wood decks as grease to make things slide about easier requiring less energy. Pile drivers use tallow to help in driving piling. Lula maybe delivering that barrel of tallow to a pile driver, not sure how story is gonna play out. As promised. Sorry, I should have included this photo in my first post of the day. The heck of it is, the only view inside the pilothouse will be through the open rear PH door. I was going to stain the interior but now thinking I need to paint the interior white and why not, with few exceptions everything else is white.

A little trim makes a huge difference.

Thank you, Eric Thank you, Eberhard. I used the photo below as inspiration for Lula's pilothouse interior and engine controls. I scaled the controls to match the height of the pilot to be added later. A US penny looks huge when placed on the floor of the PH. I'll make sure I get the photo taken and posted next time. And that's the last photo I will use to complete Lula with the exception of the original historical photo of Lula. No more boilers, steam engines, derrick cranes, or pilothouses, just little Lula the car ferry. I need to make a chart table and chair (we'll see how that goes) and once those are done all remaining work is on the exterior. I don't know why but it seems like I've been working on Lula for a very long time when in actuality i'm barely into my fifth month of actual fabrication. I find myself slowing down and reminiscing as much as I work as the end of my intimacy with Lula draws to a close.

Thank you to all for your comments and likes. Lula as she now sits, everything shown is glued into place. I added a tallow barrel against the forward coal bin wall. The pilothouse stove stack will be shortened once the pilot house roof is attached. The engine controls have been added. Center and bellow the ships wheel is a foot plunger that activates the steam whistle. To either side of the steam whistle foot control are foot levers and next to the foot levers are the throttle control levers. When in the foot levers are in the up position both throttle control levers are connected to one another and operate in tandem. When a foot lever is stepped on and in the down position that particular throttle control lever is disengaged. If both foot levers are down then both throttle control levers are disengaged. To either side of the throttle control levers are the engine forward/reverse levers. When the levers are parallel with the ships wheel the engines are in the stop position. A little bit better view of port side foot lever. Thank you to everyone for your support by following along and being part of the journey. Keith

There is a thumb button on top of the lever.....starter button? Also, the steering wheel did turn because of the different wheel positions in the array of photos which is curious if all it's meant for is to hold onto?

In the last photo of post #178 that Craig posted, the steering wheel tube appears to be just mounted to the seat board with no internal linksge out the forward end through the body to the rear or an external link for that matter. IMHO, the wheel was nothing more that something to hang on to

You should be extremely proud, John. The love you've put into the restoration is clearly visible.

Question, did the steering wheel actual steer or was it merely something to hang onto?

Welcome to MSW. Glad to have you aboard.

Coming along nicely, Mark.

The upper deck railing turned out sweet, Phil.

As if they need encouragement. Snake eating cows, Lordy what's next in today's crazy world? I really only like cows when placed between a bun. I've milked em morning and night for over a year, vaccinated, castrated (banded), and tagged what at the time seemed like millions of four month old calves (a four month calf weighs approximately 200 pounds and will kick your backside) on open land without chutes, watched em as one on cue raise their tails and without reason just start running, heads down and tails up looking like pennants flying from a hundred mainmast taking out every fence they encountered till the wind fell off. Yeah, between a bun.......with cheese.

I hate hearing about your fall, I know how painful those falls are. The plus side of all this is that you can ignore that white nonsense outside your front window. Doesn't Canada have their version of Florida?

Firstly, welcome to MSW, DS. Secondly, IMHO, Vallejo plastic putty is dang near useless on wood models. I wouldn't use it as planking filler.

The Tally Ho journey has been an important part of my life from the first episode. I've followed a couple of MSW Tally Ho builds that have come to naught. I hope you're more successful, Anthony.