Kevin Kenny Posted December 23, 2019 Share #1 Posted December 23, 2019 General History The vessel was ordered by the Crown Agents in Trinidad which operated the Trinidad Government Railway. She was designed in 1904 and built by J I Thornycroft and Co. Ltd. of Chiswick. The construction was under the inspection of Sir Edward Reed. She was launched on the 7th March 1905. She was purchased to run from end of the railroad at San Fernando down to Cedros, a journey of some 40 miles. Further details can be read in Glen Beadons notes included in the appendix on page 23 of this report. She left London on the 19th May 1905 arriving in Barbados on the 16th June and motored on to Port of Spain Trinidad the following day arriving at 2.00pm, some 28 days after leaving England. There are a number of advertisements placed in the newspaper over her life showing that she traveled to Tobago on occasion particularly during holiday periods such as Easter and Christmas. This means that over time she took on an expanded role by becoming a true coastal steamer for both islands instead of simply an extension to the railroad service from San Fernando to Cedros. The photograph above no.7 shows the remanence of the jetty at Cedros the most southerly point of her route. The ship was designed to accommodate 40 first class passengers on a promenade deck which also offered a refreshment department and dining room. The kitchen was on the main deck connecting to the promenade deck by a lift. The main deck catered to 100 second class passengers. Details of the ship. Length 140 ' Width 21' Depth 6' Freight 42 tons. We were able to find a reference at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich in box No. THY B0137 No. 367 which contains the original plans for the coastal steamer. They have been very helpful in the past in providing copies of a number of the ships that are part of the history of Trinidad and Tobago. There are 7 plans which are available for purchase. The cost of the plans is £370 as such we will only purchase these just before starting the build project. "We do charge for the digitization of our ship plans which for private use is £70 for the first plan and then £50 per subsequent plan placed in the same order. This process takes 2-3 weeks to complete and we supply exact scale 300 dpi jpegs via ftp link via email. The total cost therefore with all the ship plans below would come to £370 +VAT (if applicable)." In the past I have purchased plans from various sources only to find that they provided me with no additional information. I decided to take the plunge and order all the plans Ryland Craze, tarbrush, bruce d and 7 others 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce d Posted December 23, 2019 Share #2 Posted December 23, 2019 That is quite a ship. I will be watching with interest. thibaultron and KeithAug 2 Quote 🌻 STAY SAFE A model shipwright and an amateur historian are heads & tails of the same coin current builds: HMS Berwick 1775, 1/192 scratchbuild; a Slade 74 in the Navy Board style Mediator sloop, 1/48 - an 18th century transport scratchbuild French longboat - CAF - 1/48, on hold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 23, 2019 Author Share #3 Posted December 23, 2019 I am actually going to build two models. The first is a solid hull while the second is a plank on frame. thibaultron, mtaylor and tarbrush 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 23, 2019 Author Share #4 Posted December 23, 2019 Moab, mtaylor, thibaultron and 7 others 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 23, 2019 Author Share #5 Posted December 23, 2019 Ryland Craze, hexnut, Rudolf and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 23, 2019 Author Share #6 Posted December 23, 2019 yvesvidal, GrandpaPhil, bruce d and 6 others 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 23, 2019 Author Share #7 Posted December 23, 2019 Ryland Craze, Rudolf, mtaylor and 11 others 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 23, 2019 Author Share #8 Posted December 23, 2019 The plans are being drawn up by an architect friend John Otway at 1/4” scale. The photographs that i have posted before were from a first draft of the project. We had lots of problem trying to get the sections to line up. It was incredible that on the same sheet of paper there were major discrepancies . We had the same problem with the sections. It was then i decided to build two models. By building the first we would be able to figure the problems. Building a solid block model using auto body filler i could easily fill in and build up the hull to compensate for the errors. The tunnel hull was extremely complex. Also when we reduced the size of the plans it did not match the overall dimensions shown in the written specifications. mtaylor, tarbrush, G.L. and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 23, 2019 Author Share #9 Posted December 23, 2019 This is John Otway and the first draft of the Naparima plans. druxey, thibaultron, Mirabell61 and 9 others 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
druxey Posted December 23, 2019 Share #10 Posted December 23, 2019 One always has to re-draft plans! There is, inevitably, distortion due to copying, paper movement with humidity changes etc. And that quite apart from actual drafting errors. Have fun! hexnut, FriedClams and mtaylor 3 Quote Be sure to sign up for an epic Nelson/Trafalgar project if you would like to see it made into a TV series http://trafalgar.tv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 23, 2019 Author Share #11 Posted December 23, 2019 Whats interesting is that these were not distortions with the paper or the age, these were actual drafting errors. Increadable mtaylor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 26, 2019 Author Share #12 Posted December 26, 2019 Installing the promenard deck frames and the king plank. FriedClams, G.L., GrandpaPhil and 7 others 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 27, 2019 Author Share #13 Posted December 27, 2019 Making floor boards from Caribbean Mahogany. Ninty 8” floor boards from 5 blanks . IMG_2184.MOV FriedClams, Rudolf, bruce d and 8 others 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 27, 2019 Author Share #14 Posted December 27, 2019 Boiler coming along FriedClams, bruce d, druxey and 5 others 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Cleek Posted December 27, 2019 Share #15 Posted December 27, 2019 She looks to be off to a great start, Kevin! Don't let the drawing errors get you down. It seems there are always errors in working construction drawings. That goes with the territory. In addition to her historic significance, the somewhat unusual "drive tunnels" promise to make this a most interesting model. mtaylor and FriedClams 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 27, 2019 Author Share #16 Posted December 27, 2019 Hi Bob i was just surprised at the errors as Thornycroft was a major boat builder and i did not expect to see the number of errors.anyway John is progressing nicely with the plans and i have finished the solid model including the twin tunnel hull. As you can see by the amount of filler it was a challenge to get it accurate. When i come to build the plank on frame finial model this is certainly going to be the greatest challenge. Kevin FriedClams, druxey, Mirabell61 and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 28, 2019 Author Share #17 Posted December 28, 2019 Floor boards being installed along with a modification to the boiler. boris279, bruce d, GrandpaPhil and 7 others 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 29, 2019 Author Share #18 Posted December 29, 2019 Any feedback on what a Thornycroft boiler of 1904 would look look like would be greatly appreciated. This is what i have been able to take off the plans but there were no visuals of the front and back just a side and top view. The steam engines were illustrated in an article from the Engineer but the boiler has been a challenge. mtaylor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 29, 2019 Author Share #19 Posted December 29, 2019 This is what i have been able to find so far druxey, GrandpaPhil, FriedClams and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce d Posted December 29, 2019 Share #20 Posted December 29, 2019 Kenny, page 152 of this NAVAL ANNUAL may help a bit. https://archive.org/details/CASGA_120403/page/n151?q=thorneycroft+boiler I tried and failed to upload the PDF, must be too large. HTH Bruce mtaylor and Moab 2 Quote 🌻 STAY SAFE A model shipwright and an amateur historian are heads & tails of the same coin current builds: HMS Berwick 1775, 1/192 scratchbuild; a Slade 74 in the Navy Board style Mediator sloop, 1/48 - an 18th century transport scratchbuild French longboat - CAF - 1/48, on hold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted December 29, 2019 Author Share #21 Posted December 29, 2019 Thanks Bruce, most appreciated. Ill add it to the file. mtaylor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted January 6, 2020 Author Share #22 Posted January 6, 2020 I got a wonderful present for the new year. My friend John Otway delivered the plans. Ras Ambrioso, GrandpaPhil, Ryland Craze and 5 others 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted January 7, 2020 Author Share #23 Posted January 7, 2020 mtaylor, Moab, GrandpaPhil and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Lad Posted January 7, 2020 Share #24 Posted January 7, 2020 An interesting looking vessel, Kevin. She's coming along really nicely. John mtaylor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted January 8, 2020 Author Share #25 Posted January 8, 2020 Thanks John. We have made lots of mistakes. Understanding this complex hull shape has really taxed John and i. When i got the finial plans from John last week they varied quite a bit from the NMM plans so we are adjusting the hull now and will proceed to build the first draft of this model. mtaylor, hexnut, paulsutcliffe and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share #26 Posted January 10, 2020 bruce d, yvesvidal, hexnut and 6 others 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted January 12, 2020 Author Share #27 Posted January 12, 2020 mtaylor and bruce d 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted January 12, 2020 Author Share #28 Posted January 12, 2020 Main deck planking is complete druxey, G.L., mtaylor and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted January 13, 2020 Author Share #29 Posted January 13, 2020 Termite treated and first coat of rub on poly to seal the chemical in. yvesvidal, Moab, GrandpaPhil and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Kenny Posted January 13, 2020 Author Share #30 Posted January 13, 2020 Mirabell61, jgodsey, yvesvidal and 5 others 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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