Sternwheeler From the Susquehanna River's Hard Coal Navy by Keith Black - 1:120 Scale

[Keith Black]

In the past I've concentrated my builds in the 1851 to 1900 time period around the New York Harbor area with the idea that all my models could have been seen plying those waters together during the same time period.

 

 The difference with this model is the time period. Yes, I could try and shoehorn this build into the 1851-1900 time period but what I don't want to do is take away from the story of the Hard Coal Navy whose story is well worth the telling.  

 

 There are three photos of this sternwheeler though the last one posted here is pretty useless for any detailed observations. I believe this sternwheeler was fueled by coal because of the smoke coming from the stack. Because the wheel is split into two sections and because pitman arms cannot be seen on the outside edges of the wheel, I believe this vessel was powered by a twin cylinder steam donkey engine. Because of the way a twin cylinder steam donkey engine is built it makes sense that the the two cylinders were connected to the inside edges of the two halves of the wheel. Because the two cylinders could operate independently of one another it would make the two wheel halves independent meaning one wheel half could go forward and one wheel half go in reverse meaning.............it could do donuts!  I think.

 

 I'm early into my research and much more is required before I start cutting wood. After building the pile driver and hiding the steam donkey engine inside an engine shed, I wanted to build an open air twin cylinder steam donkey engine. I now have my chance.  

 

 

 

https://unchartedlancaster.com/2023/06/17/scraping-the-bottom-dredging-for-coal-on-the-susquehanna/

 

https://susquehannagreenway.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Danville_Hard_Coal_Navy_Sign-for-web.pdf

 

 

 

Edited 21 hours ago by Keith Black

[Jim Lad]

A very different looking paddle wheeler, Keith. She looks like she's had a hard life.

 

John

[GrandpaPhil]

Keith,

  Looking forward to seeing this one!

[JacquesCousteau]

Great choice for a build, I'm looking forward to following along!

[Keith Black]

3 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

A very different looking paddle wheeler, Keith. She looks like she's had a hard life.

 She is very different looking indeed, John. There's not a pretty thing about her, she is the essence of an ugly duck.  

 

2 hours ago, GrandpaPhil said:

Looking forward to seeing this one!

2 hours ago, JacquesCousteau said:

Great choice for a build, I'm looking forward to following along!

Thank you, Phil and Jacques. I hope I'm able to do the build and the Hard Coal Navy story justice.

 

 

 

[Cathead]

As we've discussed privately, I have some personal history along this part of the Susquehanna and am very excited to see this build come to life!

[Keith Black]

7 hours ago, Cathead said:

As we've discussed privately, I have some personal history along this part of the Susquehanna and am very excited to see this build come to life!

  Eric, thank you for your willingness to follow along.

 

 

  A few interesting observations made since we last spoke on the subject,

 

 1) No stern upward sweep. This vessel was built like a shoebox, a level deck with squared ends.

 

 2) The drive shafts of two wheel halves sit high above the deck by two to three feet. The wheel halve buckets seem to  also sit high in the water as the wheel halves are relatively small in diameter which would help explain the lack of a normally needed stern wall.  

 

 2) There's a smaller exhaust stack visible next to and to the rear of a steam whistle at the rear edge of the pilothouse. In the first photo only a wisp of smoke can be seen but in the last photo the amount of smoke is much more pronounced. Question is, why type of engine does it lead to? I don't think an electric generator would create the amount of exhaust seen in the last photo but electricity was used based on the forward light atop the pilothouse along with a working light on the port side plus a light bulb that can be seen at the top edge of forward engine room wall 

 

 What appears to be a high pressure water hose can be seen on the forward starboard side engine room wall.  Could the engine be a high pressure water pump? Piping can be seen through the engine room near the base of where the smaller exhaust stack would end. 

 

  This was one quirky ugly beast. 

[Glen McGuire]

I'm on board for round 3 of these unique builds!  Looking forward to another interesting trip!

[Canute]

She's definitely a soft coal burner, with that plume. Hard coal -anthracite- was a major mining industry on the east branch of the Susquehanna and was a major home heating fuel back then. When the US Navy was building dreadnoughts, they began buying hard coal to remove the giveaway smoke plumes, since there was a lot of it available.

[wefalck]

He doesn't take a breath before starting a new project ...

 

Good thing that this is a historic ship, otherwise one would wonder, whether it would stay afloat long enough to complete the model 😲

Edited 1 hour ago by wefalck
Typos

[Cathead]

It honestly looks like something a model railroad company would invent as an overly quirky layout detail. 

[Keith Black]

3 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

I'm on board for round 3 of these unique builds!  Looking forward to another interesting trip!

 Glen, thank you for being part of this journey. A heavy application of pastels is gonna be required when it comes time to weathering this model. No worries about "too much". 

 

49 minutes ago, Canute said:

She's definitely a soft coal burner, with that plume. Hard coal -anthracite- was a major mining industry on the east branch of the Susquehanna and was a major home heating fuel back then. When the US Navy was building dreadnoughts, they began buying hard coal to remove the giveaway smoke plumes, since there was a lot of it available.

 I didn't think beyond the end of my nose on this matter and assumed she burned hard coal as it would have been free but your statement of the obvious makes me wanna dope slap my forehead. Thank you for your valuable input, Ken.

 

39 minutes ago, wefalck said:

He doesn't take a breath before starting a new project ...

 

Good thing that this is a historic ship, other wise one would wonder whether it would stay afloat long enough to complete the model 😲

Eberhard, I don't think I have time to waste. A steam donkey engine weighed between 4,000 and 10,000 pounds. An average of 7,000 pounds would seem an almost impossible weight for that wretched looking vessel to carry yet it did and more!

 

 

 More research information....

 

 https://colcohist-gensoc.org/wp-content/uploads/rivercoal.pdf

[John Ruy]

Looks interesting Keith, count me in…