Lula by Keith Black - 1:120 Scale - 1870s Sternwheeler Supply Boat for Floating Pile Driver

[KeithAug]

The stern wheel looks excellent Keith. 

[lraymo]

The Engine Room looks terrific, as does the maintenance door.  QC comes thru on the trim! 

[Keith Black]

5 hours ago, KeithAug said:

The stern wheel looks excellent Keith. 

 Thank you, Keith. Beginners luck me thinks. 

 

3 hours ago, lraymo said:

The Engine Room looks terrific, as does the maintenance door.  QC comes thru on the trim! 

 Thank you, Lynn. You gave me a smile, TY.

[Keith Black]

 In the original photo of Lula, a pilothouse stove is not shown. On most if not all steamboats a pilothouse stove was a necessity "the stove was placed close enough to the wheel to singe the pilot's coattails"   

 

 I'm starting to lay out the pilothouse and I have a question, with Lula's pilothouse directly above the engine room, was there enough waste heat from below that with gratings, would there have been enough heat to warm the pilothouse? TYIA. 

[Knocklouder]

Just my thoughts, I would like to have my own little stove rather than  stand over a grate  of smoke and fumes from below, but back then lung safety was not an issue  lol.

Knocklouder. 

[LJP]

In re stoves. Later steamboats , like S. S. Moyie, had radiators in the pilot house.  Earlier versions had steam pipes that went back and forth to achieve the same result.  You can also look for a chimney in the pilot house roof. 

 

Love your build, 

LJP 

[KeithAug]

17 minutes ago, LJP said:

You can also look for a chimney in the pilot house roof. 

There does not seem to be any chimney - a steam pipe or two would seem to be the obvious solution - probably using exhaust steam.

[Cathead]

I don't know that there would be all that much smoke and fumes (noise, on the other hand...). Vessels like this used tall chimneys to carry away smoke and create sufficient draft for the firebox. I have no knowledge of whether there might have been gratings, but most of these boats (likely including original Lula) were so lightly built that there wouldn't be anything between the pilothouse floor and whatever's below other than some thin oak or pine planks. I'd go with the assumption, suggested by others, that there were steam pipes/radiators run up from the boiler immediately below, especially given the configuration you're using. Possibly with some kind of shut-of valve since the last thing you want in July is a hot radiator up there! Whatever boiler heat passes up there in winter, also passes up there in summer!

[Keith Black]

 

 

18 hours ago, Knocklouder said:

Just my thoughts, I would like to have my own little stove rather than  stand over a grate  of smoke and fumes from below, but back then lung safety was not an issue  lol.

 Thank you for your input, Bob.

 

18 hours ago, LJP said:

In re stoves. Later steamboats , like S. S. Moyie, had radiators in the pilot house.  Earlier versions had steam pipes that went back and forth to achieve the same result.  You can also look for a chimney in the pilot house roof.

 Thank you, LJP

 

18 hours ago, KeithAug said:

There does not seem to be any chimney - a steam pipe or two would seem to be the obvious solution - probably using exhaust steam.

 Thank you, Keith.

 

12 hours ago, Cathead said:

I don't know that there would be all that much smoke and fumes (noise, on the other hand...). Vessels like this used tall chimneys to carry away smoke and create sufficient draft for the firebox. I have no knowledge of whether there might have been gratings, but most of these boats (likely including original Lula) were so lightly built that there wouldn't be anything between the pilothouse floor and whatever's below other than some thin oak or pine planks. I'd go with the assumption, suggested by others, that there were steam pipes/radiators run up from the boiler immediately below, especially given the configuration you're using. Possibly with some kind of shut-of valve since the last thing you want in July is a hot radiator up there! Whatever boiler heat passes up there in winter, also passes up there in summer!

 Thank you, Eric. You're correct, there wouldn't have been any smoke or fumes coming up from the engine room. And you're also correct for the need to turn it off come summer. 

 

 

 I'm of two minds, floor registers or potbelly stove. Floor registers keeps the look of the original Lula but a potbelly stove is traditional. Plus, where the heck would the crew have put on a pot of coffee? Without a stove in the pilothouse there wouldn't be one. With a stove in the pilothouse, one could argue that was where the coffee was made. 

 

 I'm going to get out my 1/2 inch cordless lathe and see if I can successfully turn a potbelly stove. If I'm able to, Lula gets a stove, if not, then I'm going with floor registers though neither registers nor radiated heat plumbing would hardly be seen at this scale. 

 

 

 No real progress to note in the below photo, it's just a fun photo of Lula and the pile driver.

 

 Thank you to everyone for your comments, likes, and for being part of the journey.

 

   Keith

[KeithAug]

7 hours ago, Keith Black said:

 I'm going to get out my 1/2 inch cordless lathe and see if I can successfully turn a potbelly stove.

Should be an interesting turning project Keith and I could always make you one if need be.

[Jim Lad]

Surely it has to be a stove, Keith. There'd be a mutiny without coffee!

 

John

[Keith Black]

 

 

18 hours ago, KeithAug said:

Should be an interesting turning project Keith and I could always make you one if need be.

 Thank you, Keith, you are most kind. The difficulty in turning a potbelly stove is the size, 0.30 H X 0.21 W at the base and trying to show detail. I may waste some time in the effort but in material, not so much. 

 

 

17 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Surely it has to be a stove, Keith. There'd be a mutiny without coffee!

John, I absolutely agree.