Keith Black

Thank you to everyone for the likes and for the support. Thank you, Mark. Last night while doing research for Lula I came across this great photo. What a project! Thank you to all for following along. Keith

Thank you to everyone for the likes and for following along. Thank you, Pat. I'm assuming that the supply boats would have taken on water fit for boiler use at one of the piers in the New York harbor area. In a modest 10,500 (20' x 35' x 2') gallon water tank, the water alone would have weighed almost 44 tons. I say modest because the supply boat needed water for her boiler plus the daily water needs for the pile drivers she would have supported. When researching floating pile drivers I had determined that water fit for boiler use and the water's weight was the most critical element in the dock building scheme. Researching supply boats has only emphasized my thoughts on the water issue. Is that much water weight plus all the other weight (boiler, coal, stem engine, and empty build weight) have been doable on a sternwheeler with hull proportions of 25' x 100'? If someone says "absolutely" I'm ready to move forward. Thank you and welcome, Eberhard. I envisioned the wheelhouse being above the steam engine with the boiler forward of both. Thank you for suggesting the boiler type. All insights are most welcome. Thank you to everyone for the support. Keith

A week in and all I have to show for myself is words, certainly no wood, not even pencil to paper. Going through Eric's Peerless build last night a realization took me by surprise. In the floating pile driver build we discussed the necessity for Lula to provide boiler water. The thought that hit me was, Lula also needed freshwater for her boiler! She wouldn't have been able to pull freshwater from the Hudson till 153 miles up river near Troy. This means Lula would have required a water tank large enough to supply her needs as well as the needs of the various pile drivers she would have catered to. I envision the need for a huge water tank. How large and where would it have been placed? I swear, the more I research the more questions I have. Freshwater requirements may well be a game changer.

Fantastic sails, Glen!

How about using a ballon? Place a ballon in the bottle, blow it up to desired size, pour catalyst around the ballon and once set deflate the ballon. You could put lead weights inside the ballon before blowing it up to keep it from lifting.

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

I went back to the photos of the model before you started the restoration work, John. What an impressive improvement.

I currently know so little (I stress the word little) about sternwheelers. I'm trying to do at least an hour's worth of research a day or more if I have the time. I suppose I could try and stupid build Lula but that seems like a recipe for disaster plus it doesn't make me a bit smarter and runs counter to the NRG motto. I plan on the boiler being somewhat exposed and I assume boilers were specific to the type of steam engine they were powering. Lula was an inlet vessel, not a river boat. How different were the engines on a inlet craft verses a river craft? The type of engine available during the mid 1870's that a small operator could afford? I need to know the engine size for accurate engine room dimensions. Engine and boiler size will be a determining factor in Lula's overall length. I'm getting there with the help of Mr Google. He's very smart, the trick is asking the correct question.

Roel, what is the model's length?

Steve Covered ship's boats are hung from the davits with straps. You'll have to enlarge the photo below. Keith

The link to Tom's Sophie build log.

Looks very nice, Tom. Good to see a Sophie update.

I looked for N scale as well without success.

Thank you, Tom. Please look a bit closer. Eberhard, are suggesting adding or asking what the unidentified objects are in the photo? If it's adding tools I searched for TT scale tools and what's supposed to be 1:120 is actually 1;87 or some other such. That leaves making them myself and I'd rather leave them off than offer up a dog's lunch effort.

He'll get it in there, he always does.

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

yada yada Thank you, Glen. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Keith Thank you, Eberhard. Gentleman, I've tried as best I could to make the model look like a brief moment in time using the below photo as a templet. Unfortunately there are things on the deck I don't recognize. From the photos mcb provided, the pictured driver is pretty exemplary of the floating pile drivers of the era. Keith

The Erebus deck looks lovely, Keith. Four months, wow. Time does pass quickly. I envy your ride on train, coal smoke and all.

Thank you to everyone for the likes, the kind comments and for following along.. i've added some of the remaining props. I still have a ladder to make that was used to open and shut the upper cable tower doors. It will get mounted horizontally on the left side of the shed, that and the addition of a couple of figures and this little project will be done. The next photo post should be the finally. I darkened the deck a bit more, I hated doing so because less of the brown tones are visible but that's the why the guys were, nothing more than floating pigpens. If they had been toilets you wouldn't have wanted to sit on one. A small overflow woodpile added. Lula delivered a pile of firewood that needs to be carried into the shed and stacked. Friction drum line coil added. This is he line that would have been used for tying the piling and dragging them up into the hammer slide. Old drum line stacked outside the door. I adhered some single wood bits to the deck trying to represent the general untidiness. Overall view, in the near future there'll be a ladder hanging on that shed wall. Everything is glued down, when the model is turned upside down nothing falls off......hopefully. Thank you to each of you for your support. Keith

Thank you Pat for looking in. You're not late by any means, I'm still trying to find with both hands. John, I know so little about these vessels. It's going to take me awhile to get a grasp of the why of things.

Thank you, Eric. After looking more closely I see that The New Era's stack is centered. I researched boiler stack offsets, offsets require being cleaned out more often and are less efficient. Lula's boiler will be run center keel so the stack will be centered. I will try offsetting the ship's wheel and place the boiler more forward than first planned. The open question is whether the firebox is forward or aft. Thank you, Mark. Popcorn is always a welcome treat. Thank you, John. It seems there were numerous examples where the stack was forward of the pilothouse. In your example the stack is extremely close to the pilothouse. My question is, is that an advantage? Thank you, Phil. Though I think you just ruined Mark's popcorn. Thank you to everyone for the likes for supporting my Lula build. keith

Thank you, Phil. Not quite done, a few bits remain to be added plus a couple of figures.

Thank you, Dan. I had no worries about finishing the pile driver, it's the pile driver, support boat, now piling barge, tower crane, and dock diorama vision along with the Tennessee that I worry about not having time left to finish. Thank you, Keith. The garbage scow was tongue in cheek. I did do some research on the subject and the below is a most interesting peek back into the "way it was" https://www.google.com/search?q=new+york+historical+film+clip+showing+garbage+scow+being+loaded+by+horse+and+wagon&client=safari&sca_esv=5a02a879fec8af02&rls=en&ei=7jAVZ-XpI861ptQP45SPWQ&ved=0ahUKEwjlmJLPsZ2JAxXOmokEHWPKIwsQ4dUDCA8&oq=new+york+historical+film+clip+showing+garbage+scow+being+loaded+by+horse+and+wagon&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiUm5ldyB5b3JrIGhpc3RvcmljYWwgZmlsbSBjbGlwIHNob3dpbmcgZ2FyYmFnZSBzY293IGJlaW5nIGxvYWRlZCBieSBob3JzZSBhbmQgd2Fnb25IAFAAWABwAHgAkAEAmAEAoAEAqgEAuAEMyAEA-AEBmAIAoAIAmAMAkgcAoAcA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:1d3fa88b,vid:dGs9Ve-Pw74,st:0

Absolutely, Eric. These were some fairly narrow vessels to begin with.

Thank you to everyone for the likes for this new project. Thank you, Bob. Thank you, Glen. Thank you, Grant. Thank you, Jeff. The plan that rattles around in my head has cargo space forward of the boiler. Because Lula supplied pile drivers she didn't require a large cargo area. Most importantly would have been a water tank to top off the boiler water tanks on the pile driver barges. I'm somewhat loathe to bring this up as it requires more work but I'm pretty sure the supply boats would have been pushing a barge of piling from driver to driver. Eric, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to provide the invaluable photos. Having the stack or pilothouse/ship's wheel offset may not be the plan I first envisioned but it certainly provides a clean easy solution. No worries as to not being here for a couple of weeks as it's going to take me that long to get my act together. Thank you, Ken. Thank you for coming aboard, Ian. I think it was a matter of distributing the weight of the boiler along the keel thus determining the stack location. What I need to research was it possible/practical to offset the boiler stack. Lula having an offset stack would be another neat little quirk. Thank you, Gary. I'm glad you like Lula, she looks like something you'd take a fancy to in one of your projects. Yes, the New Era option is that which I'll explore first. Thank you to everyone who has signed on to follow Lula's journey. Keith