Heroine 1838 by ggrieco - FINISHED - Scale 1:24 - Western River Steamboat as she appeared before hitting a snag in the Red River

[Jim Lad]

The further this build goes, the more I wonder whether it should be on MSW or Model Engineers - absolutely stunning boat building and engineering!

 

John

[mtaylor]

I think we're all just stunned at this...  a Wow!!!!!!  from me also.

[ggrieco]

I finally finished planking one side of the deck but, I'm running low on wood.  I have a new shipment coming in this next week that should be enough to finish the two models.

 

I decided that I am going to include the repaired cam frame in the model.  This vessel was in such bad shape at the end and there is a possibility that other cam frames were also repaired.

 

 

 

 

 

Progress on the flywheel flanges and shafts.

 

 

 

 

Completed port flywheel flange and shaft.

 

 

Completed starboard flywheel flange and shaft.

 

 

Kevin and I have been discussing the boiler arrangement and we came up with some good information.  In Kevin's research, he came up with several examples of early sidewheelers with 4 or more boilers.  Although many writers mention that Yellowstone had only 3 boilers, her original contract called for 4 boilers 36 inches in diameter and sixteen feet long.  Yellowstone's engine and flywheel shafts were identical in size to Heroine's.  The important piece of information that I had been overlooking is that many early boilers only had a single large flue.  At the end of the 1830s, most boilers were being constructed with the more efficient two flue configuration.  With similar dimensions and approximately the same date, there is a good chance that Heroine had the same 4 boiler arrangement that was planned for Yellowstone.  If she had single flue boilers, she most likely would have had 4, if she had two flues, there is a better chance that she only had two or three.

 

 

 

 

[dvm27]

It looks like a floating bathtub, yet you've managed to make it beautiful. Is your lab webcam permanently disabled. It was fascinating watching you build in real time.

[wyz]

Just as the Greek Hephaestus was the blacksmith for the gods in Olympus so too are you the king of metalworking in a forum full of great model builders.  Your work is incredible!

Edited January 23, 2016 by wyzwyk

[Cathead]

Nice update. Interesting research on the boilers, that's something I hadn't considered either. Thanks for keeping us informed and learning. Looking at a couple paintings of Yellowstone, it does appear that the boilers (if represented accurately) stretch across the entire width of deck above the main hull, contrary to my concern that such an arrangement would take up too much of the narrow deck space available.

 

I, for one, heartily approve of including the repair. Whether or not it's literally accurate, it's highly representative of the boat and its times, and isn't that the core function of an educational model? People will learn more by seeing that repair represented, and will not be misled in any meaningful way.

 

Question: looking at the two flywheels, do you know if the spokes lined up or not? Was there any reason to arrange them that way, versus to not care? In what I assume is a test-fit in the photo, they're not quite aligned, and it made me wonder if it mattered one way or another. 

[druxey]

I'm now completely hooked on your Saturday updates, so please keep them coming, Glenn! I like that you decided to include the repaired cam frame, but don't yet see the iron wedge. Planning on including this?

[ggrieco]

Thanks everybody,

 

 

Greg, yes, unfortunately the webcam is down for good. The university has gone to a campus wide internet system and we no longer have our own server. Word is, it is very difficult to get permission to link up a web cam. Privacy issues I suppose.

 

Cathead, no, the spokes don't line up. It is interesting that the hole for the crank pin is offset by the same amount in the same direction if you look at the face of the flange. I think the offset is 6.5 degrees if I remember correctly. The result is that the spokes are out of alignment by 13 degrees. Early on I wondered if it was possible that they were not a matched pair and possibly that they were both right hand or left hand flanges. The styles seem to be different as well -- the shape of the webbing between the spokes, the buttresses on the crank pin hub and the certain dimension don't seem to be consistent between the two.

[Jim Lad]

Just delightful!

 

John

[Cathead]

Is there any mechanical reason it would matter? I assume the flywheels are equally balanced/constructed around their circumference, so in theory it wouldn't matter, but it seems an interesting quirk.

[ggrieco]

I don't think it would matter as long as each flywheel is balanced individually.

[dgbot]

A very interesting build of a nearly forgotten piece of American waterway history.  Your log could be developed into a book for the university if they were to pay for it.

David B

[EdT]

Gorgeous work, Glenn.

 

Ed

[Mahuna]

Hi Glenn - just found your log.  Wonderful work!  I plan to keep watching.

[ggrieco]

Thanks David, Ed, and Frank,

 

This will eventually be part of one chapter in a book that Kevin Crisman's is currently working on. It will be a book on the archaeology of the western river steamboat with contributions from many of the students and researchers that conserved and studied the remains of Heroine. I will be contributing to the chapter on machinery but I'm realizing that there is still much to learn about what we have. This forum is turning out to be a big help and really making me rethink many of the things that I was previously assuming.

[ggrieco]

The deck is finally planked on the first model and I've started on the second.  Another shipment of boxwood arrived and I hope I bought enough to finish this time.

 

I did a little more work on the cam frames and started on the spokes for the flywheel.

 

Soldering the spreaders for the cam frames.

 

 

Completed cam frames.  The cams were 24" X 24", the distance between the cam frames is 24 1/2"

 

 

Finally, one deck complete.

 

 

 

Flywheel spokes fresh from the mill.  The channels for the spokes in the flanges were of different depths on the port and starboard sides requiring them to be cut slightly different.

 

 

The outer face was beveled slightly from 5 inches at the flange to 4 inches at the rim.  The mill could only cut one side so the bevel was added later.

 

 

Test fitting the spokes.  The mill cuts the interfaces so cleanly that there is almost no hand fitting necessary. This will save a lot of time on the 96 paddlewheel spokes when I get to them.

[wyz]

More amazing work from you Glen.  I hope that the model's final resting place, wherever it may be, is some place where lots and lots of people get to see it.  This is just way too nice a model to end up in your den or some CEO's office.  Stuff this special should be seen by the masses. ;-)

 

Tom

Edited January 30, 2016 by wyzwyk

[ggrieco]

Thanks Tom,

 

One is going to be displayed at the Oklahoma History Center, next to the remains of the original Heroine, the other will go to the newly opened museum at Fort Towson. Fort Towson was the original destination of Heroine and only a few miles from where she wrecked. They also have a collection of some of the artifacts from the wreck.

[druxey]

Ah! Another Saturday 'fix' - I mean update on your exquisite work for us to enjoy. Thanks, Glenn.

[Jim Lad]

What can one say except, up to your usual standard, Tom.

 

John

[mtaylor]

Beautiful, Glenn.  I didn't realize there was to be two of these models.  That is a large project indeed. 

[ggrieco]

I've finally gotten around to making the flywheels.  I've been looking forward to it because it is the largest and most impressive piece of machinery that was recovered from the wreck.  Heroine's two flywheels were 14 feet in diameter and each was made up of 16 overlapping identical castings.
 

 

Some of the 64 flywheel rim sections.

 

 

Jig for drilling the 384 holes in the rims.  I'll have to re-make this in steel --  After only 8 rims, the hole is becoming distorted.

 

 

Milling a fixture to hold the rim sections in order to mill the pockets for the spokes.  The original rims had dovetailed pockets and two wedges were driven into the spoke to expand it into the pocket. 

 

 

Fixture in use.

 

 

 

 

Completed pocket.

 

 

 

$50 dollars worth of brass and 21 hours of mill time doesn't look like much.

 

 

Since this is a waterline model, the bottoms of the flywheels will have to be cut off.  To guarantee the alignment of the flywheels I printed out a pattern of each with the proper cut lines.

 

 

Test fit of one of the spokes.

[druxey]

Great stuff, Glenn! The original designer of these flywheels was very ingenious. To reproduce these in miniature you also had to be!

[michael mott]

Glenn outstanding detail and ingenious fabrication, i can see the merits of CNC with the work you are doing.

 

Michael

[Cathead]

Huh, somehow I hadn't caught on that this was a waterline model. With steamboats it can be hard to tell!

 

I'm running out of superlatives.

[albert]

Fantastic work.

[ggrieco]

Thanks druxey, Michael and Cathead,

 

Your right Cathead, there isn't really much of the hull missing.

[ggrieco]

Thanks Albert!

[Jim Lad]

More truly outstanding work, Glenn.

 

John

[gjdale]

At the risk of repeating everyone else - just WOW! Such ingenious fabrication, and a real joy to follow this.