Peerless 1893 by Cathead - 1:87 - sternwheel Missouri River steamboat

[Keith Black]

 Eric, I can see reworking the pitman arms but leave the opening as you have it. One photo in the early history of the Peerless doesn't mean that at some point the opening wasn't enlarged for ease of access and maintenance, exactly as you have it portrayed. I would think the structure on those old boats was pretty fluid.

Edited July 9 by Keith Black

[Paul Le Wol]

55 minutes ago, wefalck said:

I think on earlier boats these connecting rods (as they would be called on locomotives and the likes) were indeed baulks of timber.

 

I gather the opening in the cladding would have been kept as small as possible to keep spray from the wheel out. Wouldn't have been there be quite a bit of repair on those boats, so you may be able to patch up the existing hole a bit.

The University of Wisconsin- Madison library has a photo of the Myrtle Corey tow boat that shows what looks to be a large patch or access panel in the wall where the arms go through. I think that wefalck’s comment is right on the money. Your Peerless is looking great!

[Cathead]

Paul, that's an adorable ugly duckling of a steamboat! Here's the link for those who want to see it: https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/A73NDFPF5Q6HWG8M

 

I definitely see the "patch" you mean and like the idea of seeing if I can come up with a version. That vessel also appears to use a pipe-shaped pitman arm. Thanks for calling that to my attention; it's even a Missouri vessel as it was built on the Meramec River near St. Louis and probably worked hauling rafts of logs. Just my type!

 

EDIT: there's a model kit of Myrtle Corey! Who knew? https://www.harbormodels.com/dum1253.html

 

 

Maybe this is a sign of aging (I'm only in my 40s!) but I swear I've made more mistakes on this build than any other, in terms of having to go back and redo things that in restrospect I don't know how I missed or got wrong. Feels like a constant theme in this build and I don't know why. Other than the excuse that off-model life has been particularly busy, stressful, and distracting through much of this build and my mental bandwidth probably isn't as focused as on some past builds. But it just feels annoyingly sloppy and may be driving some of you crazy!

Edited July 9 by Cathead

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, mbp521 said:

I agree with Keith, I believe the arms were black as well. It’s so hard to put color in those old B&W photos but the could be red as well, but definitely not white. 

Cold-hearted orb that rules the night
Removes the colours from our sight
Red is grey and yellow white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion.

 

Also applicable to black and white photos!

 

The last line of the previous verse is also pertinent:-

 

"Senior citizens wish they were young". 🙁

 

 

Edited July 9 by KeithAug

[KeithAug]

24 minutes ago, Cathead said:

Maybe this is a sign of aging (I'm only in my 40s!)

How did you get to be so young? I'm jealous again!

[mbp521]

54 minutes ago, KeithAug said:

Cold-hearted orb that rules the night
Removes the colours from our sight
Red is grey and yellow white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion.

Love that song!

[mbp521]

2 hours ago, Cathead said:

Brian, I had never run across that idea before so I don't know! Not a change I'm going to make, though

I don’t blame you there. You could just say the oversized buckets are the ones in the water and not seen. 😁
 

-Brian

[LJP]

The Nautical Research Guild has an  article on the "Myrtle Corey—1898 Memphis Riverboat: Research and Model Construction" BY WILLIAM R WISEMAN.  Not certain how many years ago but certainly worth the read.  Wiseman also had another NRG article and model of the Far West - also excellent. You can order the articles from NRG - but in my old age I have forgotten how I did it.  You may now replay Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues again. 

 

LJP

[KeithAug]

2 hours ago, LJP said:

You may now replay Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues again. 

There you go man, keep as cool as you can.
Face piles
And piles
Of trials
With smiles.
It riles them to believe
That you perceive
The web they weave
And keep on thinking free.

 

Unfortunately Eric is only in his 40's so probably hasn't heard of the Moody Blues. 🙂

[Cathead]

Keith, I may be "young", but I grew up listening classic rock. 

 

Yanking this thread back on topic, you hard-driving taskmasters got your way. I made some thin covers for the pitman arm openings that better mimic the real vessel, and replaced the wooden beams with round pipes. Here's the result from each side:

Also, here are a couple more shots of the bow:

I think this completes the model itself. Only the addition of some superficial details remain. Here's some shots posed against comparable imagery.

Once my detail parts order arrives, I'll work on adding some fun final touches. Really getting there now!

 

[John Ruy]

Incredible work, Eric. Not only are the materials “home grown”, so are your plans. Very impressive. 😎

 

Cheers 🍻

[mbp521]

Once again you have produced a beautiful work of art. Sometimes giving into peer pressure yields beautiful results. I can’t wait to see the details you have in store to dress it up even more. 
 

-Brian

[JacquesCousteau]

Very well done!

[LJP]

Excellent model - just like the other two you shared with us.  Absolutely love that you use your own lumber. I can hardly wait for your next one.  You always choose great subjects.

LJP

[KeithAug]

10 hours ago, Cathead said:

Here's the result from each side:

Well worth the effort young Eric. She looks just the job. What next?

[Ras Ambrioso]

Fantastic job. Congratulations 

[Cathead]

Don't get too ahead of yourselves, folks, the planned detailing will definitely change her appearance and she's not "done" yet. But I appreciate the, well, appreciation nonetheless. As for what's next, I'll leave that until she's truly done. 

[FriedClams]

Your paddle wheel turned out great as well as the connecting rods and cams.  I think caving to peer-pressure on the connecting rods turned out to be a good call.  Beautiful work, Eric - especially for being such a young lad!

 

Gary

[Keith Black]

 Eric, stern paddlewheel vessels like the Peerless could push but were they able to tow? If so, where were the bollards mounted? Because of the wheel a tow line would seem to be greatly hindered? TYIA.  

[Cathead]

Keith, good question. To the best of my knowledge, towing was very briefly attempted in the early days of steamboating and generally abandoned quickly. Sidewheelers could have towed, but it was just too hard to control a heavy load dangling off the back end, on curving and narrow rivers, for vessels whose steering was already somewhat limited. Pushing also meant you could naturally monitor the behavior of your "tow", rather than having to constantly look both ahead and behind you from the pilot house. Think of how most people prefer to push a shopping cart rather than pull one behind them when navigating narrow and crowded grocery store aisles (same for a baby carriage or stroller).

 

The phrase "towboat" managed to hang on somehow. In fairness, even modern maritime helper vessels are called "tugboats" although their primary action is to push large ships.

Edited July 18 by Cathead

[Thukydides]

Great job

[Keith Black]

2 hours ago, Cathead said:

Keith, good question. To the best of my knowledge, towing was very briefly attempted in the early days of steamboating and generally abandoned quickly. Sidewheelers could have towed, but it was just too hard to control a heavy load dangling off the back end, on curving and narrow rivers, for vessels whose steering was already somewhat limited. Pushing also meant you could naturally monitor the behavior of your "tow", rather than having to constantly look both ahead and behind you from the pilot house. Think of how most people prefer to push a shopping cart rather than pull one behind them when navigating narrow and crowded grocery store aisles (same for a baby carriage or stroller).

 

The phrase "towboat" managed to hang on somehow. In fairness, even modern maritime helper vessels are called "tugboats" although their primary action is to push large ships.

 Eric, I'm thinking ahead on my pile driver project and the need for a paddlewheel helper boat/tug. The tug had to be able to tow some because the pile driver barge had to be pulled away from the face of the dock under construction. I did some searching and I think I've located an image of a vessel that will work, I'll PM. Thank you.

[Cathead]

Out of curiosity, why couldn't the helper vessel tie on with bollards on the bow and simply go into reverse, rather than towing? A longer discussion of this should probably occur over in your log, though.

[kurtvd19]

I agree 100% with Eric on the pulling off a pier by attaching forward and then reversing.

Kurt

 

[Keith Black]

9 hours ago, Cathead said:

Out of curiosity, why couldn't the helper vessel tie on with bollards on the bow and simply go into reverse, rather than towing? A longer discussion of this should probably occur over in your log, though.

 Well duh on my part, of course. Sorry for the senior moment, Eric. 

[Cathead]

No worries! Nothing wrong with exercising the brain by thinking out loud. Who knows how many other people might have had the same question and have now had it answered because you were willing to ask it?

[Cathead]

And on to the final detailing. I ordered some items that I either couldn't or wouldn't make by hand. This is where working in 1:87 comes in super-handy, since the HO model railroading world is chock full of useful detail parts. Here's my order: 252 burlap sacks, a set of resin-casting crate stacks, and a steam locomotive headlight that's extremely similar to the one featured on Peerless. But the real fun came in painting and weathering these items.

For the sacks, I divided them into two sets and painted one whitish (like a flour sack) and the other a darker brown (like a generic burlap sack). I did three layers of paint washes followed by some light pastels to build up a complex weathered look. When I liked the individual appearance, I built them into long stacks by starting with double-sided tape (to hold the base together) and then using glue to hold the pile together. When complete, the stacks came off the tape nicely as a coherent whole.

I used a similar approach for the crate stacks, with multiple paint washes building up complexity and then a final dusting of pastels. The first photo below shows the initial step from raw resin to coloration, and the second and third photos show the final result. I drilled and drove brass pins into the base of each stack so it could be held from below, allowing full painting without handling.

 

I forgot to take any photos of working with the headlight, but I painted it black, used wood glue to fill in the lens opening (giving it a nice subtle rounding as the liquid dried), then painted the "lens" silver. You'll see it installed in the next post.

 

Finally, I grabbed a bunch of barrels I had left over from other projects and used the same approach as all the other stuff. I took one photo partway through coloration and then forgot to keep up. To work with these easily, I used a similar method to the crates, drilling a series of small holes through a plank of scrap wood, then driving small brass pins up from underneath. Each barrel (also pre-drilled through the bottom) sits on a pin that holds it snugly in place while I paint and weather. 

 

Those are all the in-progress photos I took. In the next post I'll share the final look of all these details as they're installed on the model, along with two additional surprises that I hand-built instead of buying (I also failed to photograph these in progress).

 

 

Edited July 19 by Cathead

[mbp521]

Beautiful work Eric. These details are definitely going to bring the boat to life. 
 

Out of curiosity, where did you get the crates and sacks from?  
 

-Brian

[Cathead]

Brian, all those detail parts were ordered from Walthers, the big model railroad retailer. 

 

And here we go with the final detail tour. First, closeup views of various sacks, crates, and barrels. My inspirations were shots like these two, showing long stacks of sacks running along the guards:

 

You can't see behind the sacks in those shots, but I just decided that I wanted to put all the crates in the interior part of the main deck

When I do final photography I'll set up a light to shine in among the shadowed crate stacks to show them off better. I aligned them to leave a central walking aisle all the way down the deck, figuring that'd be wanted for a variety of reasons.

 

Sharp eyes will have noticed a new detail in that last photo. Harkening back to a long-ago discussion on this log, I decided that the "forecastle" area was too empty and decided to add a little free-lanced coal bunker. There's no evidence for this, but neither is there any proving its absence, and I like it as a detail. In my theory, the coal is brought on board in sacks (the two small stacks of brown sacks on either side of the firebox) and dumped into this open bunker to allow for easy stoking into the firebox.

 

You'll notice that I used black pastel to darken the whole work area between the bunker and the firebox; coal dust gets everywhere. Speaking of which, the coal in that bunker is my pièce de résistance of locally sourced material: it was harvested from a coal bank on my rural property. I collected some small pieces and manually crushed them to get a range of appropriate sizes, then glued down a mound of the stuff within the bunker. Here it is in raw form as I crush it:

This particular coal seam was mined in my county from at least the 1870s through the 1970s. So seeing it here on Peerless ca. 1900 is pretty darned realistic.

 

The other surprise detail was some sort of utility boat. Vessels like this didn't carry lifeboats, per se, but they did have one or more working boats for all sorts of chores. A variety of types can be seen on various photos, from narrow-ended yawls (see the especially fancy one on an earlier photo shared above) to chunky boats that look pretty similar to Ozark johnboats. These latter were super-simple vessels that any hill-country carpenter could knock together for use on Ozark rivers; they needed to be strong and shallow but not particularly streamlined. Many were all but small barges. Here are a couple articles on them with some photos and drawings: article 1 and article 2.

 

I felt that a form of johnboat would be just right for Peerless, so set about making a rough version from thin scrap wood (in this case, Eastern Red Cedar, again cut and milled here on-farm). It's especially chunky even by johnboat standards but it gets the idea across.

 

The question is how to display it. Various photos show a boat turned upside down on the port side like this:

Upside down on the after boiler deck like this:

Or turned on its side in the same location like this:

You'll notice I haven't finished the interior yet with ribs and so on. That's because I haven't decided how to display it. Two of these three options mean I don't need to finish the interior, while the other does. 

 

I can't see any sign of proper davits in any photos, so they must have just manhandled their boats up there with a few strong men and ropes. Once again fitting the rough-and-tumble life of rivermen out here. So I'd be curious on thoughts about which display method to use. I have a personal preference but won't unveil it before getting some feedback.

 

A final detail involved making some rope coils and installing them at the bow. Oh, and I almost forgot the railroad headlight, which you can also see in the photos below. Here's another view of that:

 

 

Other than the final johnboat decision, I do believe that's all I'm going to do on this model in the near future. At some point I'll probably add figures but am not going to go down that road for now. In the next few weeks I hope to set up a proper photo shoot, including maybe out along the Missouri River. This post has gotten really long, so in one more subsequent post I'll share a few quick full-vessel shots taken this evening.

 

 

 

Edited July 20 by Cathead

[Cathead]

And three overall shots:

 

I don't have sufficient words for how much all of your interest and support has meant over the last year or so as I work through this build. I made a lot of mistakes along the way and you all did a great job gently pushing me to be better. I thought this was going to be a relatively easy project given  my past steamboat scratch builds, but it was very different than any of the others and once again I had to learn new skills and figure out new things. My heartfelt thanks for every like, comment, message, and so on.

 

As for what's next, which I promised to answer. I'll taking a bit of a break from ship-building to work on a ~12' long modular diorama depicting Peerless's home port of Rocheport on the Missouri River, arranged as a model railroad setting that may be expanded into an operational Missouri, Kansas, & Texas layout depicting that railroad's operations along the Missouri River in this area ca. 1900. Whether I go that far or stop with the Rocheport bit, Peerless will have pride of place on the foreground river with the railroad tracks clinging to the limestone bluffs soaring 300' over the river. Here are a few historic photos from the ~1900 period to give you a sense of the landscape I'll be recreating. All photos are public domain, from the State Historical Society of Missouri digital collections.

 

 A different steamer tied up at the Rocheport waterfront with river bluffs in the background:

MK&T passenger train along the river near Rocheport:

Another view of river bluffs with the railroad wedged between water and bedrock:

Rocheport town and riverfront, bluffs in background, railroad at left:

I was a model railroader long before I got swept up in wooden ship building, and that old love has been resurfacing over the past few years, so I'm going to give it another go. If all goes well I may end up building yet another Missouri River vessel anyway, because there's this photo of an amazing little ferry that operated at Rocheport:

 

Isn't she just darling? And look at those covered wagons. This view spans so many eras in American history.

 

Thanks again, hopefully I'll have another photo shoot to share in a few weeks.