Steve Harvath
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Wefalck, Yes This dredge must have pivoted on the single spud on the starboard side stern. There seems to be a timber off the centerline of the stern that could be used to push the dredge around the axis of the spud maybe even push it forward to the next line of attack. That is a nice model dredge -- bucket dredges are complicated. I wonder if it had a prototype. Here is the update for my dredge. I have done a rough cut of the hull form using a plane and a keyhole saw. I will plank the sides and build false decks in the wells in the deck that contain the pump and the boilers. I grew up around the harbor in Santa Barbara, California. They have a suction dredge there kind of like this one that has to constantly work to keep the harbor open.
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I have drawn the outlines of the dredge on the edge-glued boards. I didn't have a curve template that was anywhere big enough to draw the curves. I used the top of an oval wastebasket. and that seemed to give me reasonable simulations of the bow and stern of the dredge. The curved bow and stern must have had a function. I think that they allowed the dredge to sweep back and forth to a greater degree within the channel it was digging. A squared-off bow and stern would have limited the sweep.
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I have drawn a sketch plan so I have the waterline dimensions in 1:48. The deck-to-waterline distance is only 18". So at 1:48 I decided to use some clear pine 3/8" boards for the hull. I glued and clamped two boards edge to edge and have marked out the deck plan. The dredge had openings in the deck for the huge pump and for the boilers. I am going to model these pieces of equipment. The image of the dredge shows there are large openings in the sides of the deck house so the interior details that will be visible.
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Kurt, Good to hear from you. I looked closely at the drawing. It is a small reproduction here I know. It looks like that is a beam that angles off to the canal floor behind the stern. It has an iron spike at the end. The beam is attached at the upper end to what looks like a piston. So I think you are right that the single spud acts as a pivot when they put a little steam in that piston. The discharge pipe is represented by an elbow above this contraption. The contractors who had this dredge had contracts for about two miles of the canal. I am not sure where they were working. John, That is quite a machine. Have fun. I read that the techniques that were learned on the Chicago canal played a big part in the work on the Panama canal. Steve
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I am building a model of a hydraulic dredge that was used to dig part of the Chicago Sanitary Canal (the rather infamous project to reverse the flow of the Chicago River and send that city's sewage down to St. Louis). I don't know if this qualifies as a nautical vessel. It was basically a barge with a steam operated auger-suction device and a huge pump. In a curious way it was self-propelled. It had a leg at the stern that allowed it to pivot and move forward as the work advanced. I found a rather detailed plan and elevation of the dredge along with a small image of the 'as built' dredge in Engineering News, Sept 6, 1894.
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Thanks all. I found silkspan and it is just what I needed.
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I was using this silk material that wasn't woven. I think I got it from one of the ship model supply houses years ago. I think it was labeled as silk.
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Hi all, Glad I found this group. It looks like a great place to learn. I model in 1:48 scale to match my O scale model railroad stuff. I am building a diorama of a waterfront scene set at around 1900. So my ship and boat models are waterline and pretty grubby from all the coal smoke and other industrial scum. I also build model boats for the pure fun of it. My latest model is a Florida sharpie from a Howard Chapelle plan. I ran out of the silk material I was using for sails. I want to show them furled. Any recommendations? I have attached some of my models including the sharpie, a San Francisco Bay scow schooner called the Crockett, the Grand Banks schooner Lottie Haskins, the steam tug Philadelphia which is towing the railroad transfer barge D&I No. 1.
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