Keith Black

Thank you, Glen. The only wood used thus far is the base and beam column, brass wire, and brass bits from my fittings stash. I thought about taking a photo of the bits used before starting building but i still can if you're interested. Thank you, Eric. I envision Lula as having been built on the cheap in the late sixties, early seventies. Walking beams were a common design from that time period and I would think they would have been available in the used equipment market. So little information is available from that time period and lacking something definitive I went with a walking beam. I could be wrong in picking that design and being that it's early in the build, should someone have a recommendation for another design I can certainly change the water feed system. Thank you, Eberhard. Lula's owner was white paint happy and anything not covered in white paint would be out of character, IMHO. A lot of a walking beam was cast and those pieces will be painted white. For those pieces that would have steel I have steel color paint. I have silver wire from my wife's jewelry making days and I'm going to change the drive shaft from brass to silver wire. The engine will have a fine coat of coal dust and the engine is so small, one would have to look closely to see any parts not being as they should. Also, I don't solder because I stink at the process, this all put together with CA.

Thank you to everyone for the comments and likes. The past ten days have been a blur. Between caregiving, pool, receiving in fittings orders, and the reorganizing of same there's been little time for Lula. But now I'm finally able to get back to work on the ole gal. When I made the Donkey engine for the pile driver I really wanted to go into more detail but it didn't make sense as the boiler and engine would be enclosed in the engine shed. Lula is different in that with the exception of the wheel engines, all the other machinery will be exposed. With new bits to work with I started building a walking beam steam engine for the boilers's water feed. There are hundreds of images of walking beam steam engines (unfortunately most are models) and after hours of looking at images like the one below I started in. i feel like I've made good progress. The only items that are permanently attached at this point is the wood base and pillow blocks.. Everything else will be disassembled for painting and final adjustments and attachment. I still need to make the cylinder, steam chest, and connecting rods. Of course the axle shaft will get trimmed back and filled. I've left it long as trying to run the shaft through the bearings, valve rod and flywheel is a bugger, I fear if it were trimmed to length before final assembly I wouldn't be able to run the shaft through the above components. I'm pushing my limits making these itty bitty pieces but it's a challenge I'm excited to accept. The engine is 0.75 inches L including the flywheel, 0.35 inches W, and 0.75 inches H. Some of the brass bits will get painted and some won't, only when I start painting will i know which it will be. I want the look to be worn and scraped as Lula would never have won a beauty pageant. Thank you to everyone for your support and for following along. Keith

Tom, nice to see the space above Sophie's deck filling with line.

Only by someone with your modeling and rigging abilities and I dare say it would be anything but easy.

Kenneth, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours.

Roel, thank you for the insight.

Ras, congratulations, she's a beauty.

Good stuff, Roel. What do your shipmates think of your modeling?

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

Ras, she looks great!

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

Incredible detail at that small scale, Glen. Very nice work.

Thank you, Gary Thank you, Tom. Thank you, Rick.

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

Thank you, Eberhard.

Bob, you've got a regular ship building opera going on there. The served line looks the cats meow. Gabe is awfully good people.

Thank you, John.

Thank you, Bob. Ian, having a 3D printer would definitely make modeling life easier but alas..........

Thank you, Glen. Eric, I'm glad you were looking forward to it because I wasn't. Old stubby fingers gotta think outside the box.

Hoping all is well with you and yours.

A huge thank you to everyone for the likes and the support. John, thank you for your support. Thank you, Kurt. These vessels were crudely built, I need to learn to be less sandpaper happy. Thank you, Pat. It's going to be a fun exercise. Thank you, Gary. Keith, thank you. I was much more confident building the pile driver than Lula as sternwheeler information seems harder to come by. Seven years ago when I was trying to find wheels for the Tennessee's signal cannon and gatling gun carriages it became evident that wheels of any type close to 1:120 was almost impossible to find. Since then I'm always keeping an eye out for wheels in the 1:120 scale range. A couple of weeks ago when I was in the process of placing a fittings order from Cornwall Model Boats I came upon these 28mm Amati yacht wheels. I almost jumped out of my chair. I didn't see a yacht's wheel, what I saw was this! I think they're great framework on which to build Lula's paddlewheel and they're the perfect size, 1:102 inches in diameter. I had designed Lula's wheel to be 1.40 inches but i can and a tenth of an inch without ill effects. Unfortunately CMB was out of stock and mild panic set in but I came across ModelNet (I'd not know of them beforehand) who said they had stock. I thought maybe I only needed three but I ordered six of the little buggers just in case! They didn't have stock in the UK but they did have stock in their Australian facility, they arrived yesterday. The current setup is very temporary and it's more an exercise to insure the concept is feasible. I've also added templets on Lula's deck to establish that my layout plan is okay. The coal bunker templet is 16 feet in width, I debate with myself between 14 and 16 feet. Thank you to everyone for following along. Keith

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

john, I'm so sorry to hear about your wife's fall but glad to hear she's doing better. I have indeed missed looking over your shoulder and look forward to your return to work on the Klondike. Happy Holidays!

John, I miss seeing updates on the Klondike plus I could follow your lead with Lula.