Billy 1938 by Keith Black - 1:120 Scale - Homemade Sternwheeler

[Keith Black]

 This has to be the quirkiest sternwheeler yet.

 

 This was a homemade sternwheeler built in 1938 by then 58 year old former ship carpenter "Captain" A.O. Engel of Pittsburgh, PA. His intent was to travel down the Mississippi towing a 62 foot barge carrying Engel's first boat, a 50 foot cruiser battered in a then recent Pittsburgh flood. Engel's plan was to repair the cruiser once he reached his destination. At the time, in 1938, Billy cost Engel $1,000.00 (approximately $23,000.00 in todays money) not including labor and was named for a grandson.  

 

 I discovered this image on e-Bay, it was a listing for the original press photo with writeup on the back. You know I bought it, right?! I am drawn to these quirky sternwheelers like flies to a dead mule. 

 

 The cruiser kinda looks like a converted canalboat and is every bit as ugly as Billy, maybe even more so. If that duo were to knock on your door after dark you'd call the police. 

 

 

 This should be a kick in the pants. 

 

   Keith

[Cathead]

This is just a hilariously quirky prototype. So many oddball details to see, as befitting a homemade steamboat. This thing honestly looks like an AI-generated image derived from prompts written by someone who had never actually seen a riverboat. "Uh...draw me a boat with two paddle wheels and a big boxy shape and a room with big windows at the top and two smokestacks and, uh...let's start with that"

 

I love how even the chimneys are charismatically off-kilter. I think this thing is the singularity for your quirky steamboat obsession!

[Keith Black]

34 minutes ago, Cathead said:

This is just a hilariously quirky prototype. So many oddball details to see, as befitting a homemade steamboat. This thing honestly looks like an AI-generated image derived from prompts written by someone who had never actually seen a riverboat. "Uh...draw me a boat with two paddle wheels and a big boxy shape and a room with big windows at the top and two smokestacks and, uh...let's start with that"

 

I love how even the chimneys are charismatically off-kilter. I think this thing is the singularity for your quirky steamboat obsession!

 It's a shame one of our 'like' choices isn't a smile.

 

 I'm not sure the stacks were for real, I think maybe ole AO stuck those on there as tongue in cheek. This tub (tub being the kindest term) didn't have room for a boiler and steam engines plus there are no pitman arms. It's 1938, it had to have had a petrol engine and I think it's right there at the stern between the two wheels. Maybe?? ......we have many fun days ahead to spitball this thing.

 

 Eric, thank you very much for throwing out the first pitch.

[Cathead]

I bet you're right. I was just rereading a history of the Ozarks earlier this evening, and in a passage on steamboating along Ozark rivers, the author notes that later gasoline-powered riverboats along the Osage River were still built with fake chimneys just for appearances. I honestly didn't think the 1938 date through when I noticed those wonky stacks.

 

28 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

Eric, thank you very much for throwing out the first pitch.

Funny you say this as I'm typing during a commercial break late in World Series Game 5.

[Keith Black]

 I'm having a devil of a time trying to figure out Billy's dimensions, Billy looks like a M.C. Escher creation. Is that a 7 foot door with 3 foot transom window or a 8 foot door in total. If it's 8 feet in total the wheels are super tiny and Billy is only about 14 feet wide. The window size offers no relief. I'm thinkin' Peyote is the only cypher to Billy's dimensions. 

 

 1. Appears to be a handrail but I don't understand the why of it?

 

 2. This almost looks like a companionway to below. If this wasn't how to get below maybe the handrail was at a companionway opening to below?

 

 3. Billy had a flat nosed bow and AO had Billy pinned to the barge. There wasn't any cutting the barge loose to save Billy, wherever the barge went, Billy went.

 

 4. There was a upsweep to the boiler deck from the bow to the stern. 

 

 5. There was a upsweep appearance to the wheels but I think that's just aesthetics as there isn't and structural strength provided, IMHO.

 

 6. The engine was placed between the wheels and sat inline with the wheel shafts. Engel built Billy as a oneway ride down the Mississippi. Once Engel reached his destination Billy's traveling days would have come to an end, IMHO. 

 

Billy's wheels were so small (3 x 10 feet at most) I don't know if she could have made two knots on flat water towing that barge? No way was Billy coming back up the Mississippi with or without the barge! This means the engine could have come out of a scraped automobile or it could have been a salvaged gas powered marine engine, Scripps, Hall Scott, or other. I kinda like to think since Billy was a oneway ticket AO stuck a salvaged six cylinder automobile engine and transmission between the wheels doing away with the radiator and running straight Mississippi water through the water pump. I'll not be modeling an engine so one is free to use their imagination has to how Engel had Billy powered. 

 

 7. Exhaust 

[Jim Lad]

Sorry I missed your first post, Keith. This must be just about the most 'original' paddle boat design ever. I'm not sure how you'll be able to top this one.

 

How is it that eccentrics seem to be drawn to rivers and paddle boats world wide?

 

John

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, Jim Lad said:

. I'm not sure how you'll be able to top this one.

 

 I can only try. 

 

 

 

 

[tmj]

Don't challenge Keith on this unless you are feeling unusually 'lucky'! Keith 'WILL' pull it off and easily 'top' you're saying that he can't! ☺️

[Canute]

Wahoo, quite the dog's breakfast today. The "Billy" looks like some old house boat with the hodge-podge siding, with a paddle wheel thrown in to sow confusion to we landlibbers. The car ferry looks OK, but what the heck is guiding the ferry?

[Keith Black]

46 minutes ago, Canute said:

Wahoo, quite the dog's breakfast today. The "Billy" looks like some old house boat with the hodge-podge siding, with a paddle wheel thrown in to sow confusion to we landlibbers. The car ferry looks OK, but what the heck is guiding the ferry?

 Ken, I think Engel bought a couple of buildings and a chicken coop and cobbled them together on the main deck. Kind of a sternwheeler crazy quilt. 

 

 The car ferry is just one of my many photos of ugly sternwheelers that was the closest one to grab and attach in answering John. It's not one I envision building but yes, what is going on with the wheels? It's gas powered but there are some extra large pieces at the stern of the wheels I'm unfamiliar with.   

[Knocklouder]

Could it be a cable system  that the car ferry works with. I have seen a couple of ferry they run on a cable, back and forth  across the river. Nobody steers 

Knocklouder 😁 

[Harvey Golden]

Nothing more delicious than an odd looking paddle-wheeler with a good back story-- "Billy" definitely fits the bill!

... and for future consideration: 

[GrandpaPhil]

As far as unique paddle-wheelers go, Fulton’s original designs were pretty unique too!

 

Looking forward to seeing this one!

Edited Sunday at 08:21 PM by GrandpaPhil

[Keith Black]

57 minutes ago, Knocklouder said:

Could it be a cable system  that the car ferry works with. I have seen a couple of ferry they run on a cable, back and forth  across the river. Nobody steers 

Maybe, Bob. I thought it kinda looked like monkey rudders but I'm not sure. For me it's just one of the many curiosities I have in my collection of ugly sternwheelers.

 

33 minutes ago, Harvey Golden said:

and for future consideration: 

 Oh my, Harvey.  

Edited Sunday at 08:30 PM by Keith Black

[Keith Black]

2 minutes ago, GrandpaPhil said:

As far as unique paddle-wheelers go, Fulton’s original designs were pretty unique too!

 

Looking forward to seeing this one!

 Thank you, Phil. Never in Fulton's wildest nightmare would Billy have appeared.  

[Keith Black]

 In doing research on canal boats for images that might suggest Engel's cruiser was a converted canal boat I came across this canal boat image. Looks pretty similar.

 

 

 The Erie Canal was an important part of American history yet very little of that history has been explored here in MSW. Hopefully someone becomes interested in that wonderful history and wants to model the great workboat subjects that ooze from the muddy banks of the Great Cut. I'd be that Huckleberry except my remaining time is too limited for an already full picnic basket.  

 

https://www.eriecanal.org/boats-2.html

 

 I think I'm going to model just Billy and not the barge and cruiser. I know that's telling just half the story but half the story is all that I'm really interested in and have time for. 

[Geordie Tyne]

A fascinating looking subject. Count me along for the journey.

[Keith Black]

10 minutes ago, Geordie Tyne said:

A fascinating looking subject. Count me along for the journey.

 Geordie, I'm glad to have you along for the journey. 

[tmj]

9 hours ago, Keith Black said:

I came across this canal boat image.

I was once considering the 'Canal Boat Life', after retirement, in the UK where it's big, however. I own too many toys that I'm not interested in parting with. It wouldn't work. Most folks 'downsize' when they retire but I'm thinking that I'll need to 'Upsize'! I'd need a large canal boat plus a barge or two! I'd look like a floating Italian string of sausage links trying to get through the locks 'one link at a time'! 🫤 LOL 

Edited 7 hours ago by tmj

[Keith Black]

29 minutes ago, tmj said:

I was once considering the 'Canal Boat Life', after retirement, in the UK where it's big, however. I own too many toys that I'm not interested in parting with. It wouldn't work. Most folks 'downsize' when they retire but I'm thinking that I'll need to 'Upsize'! I'd need a large canal boat plus a barge or two! I'd look like a floating Italian string of sausage links trying to get through the locks 'one link at a time'! 🫤 LOL

 I love British canal boating. I'm subscribed to Cruising the Cut, it's one of my favs and David John is a hoot. Had I life to live over I would have emigrated to England long ago and found out what living is like aboard a narrow boat.