Western Rivers Steamboat Engines

[Dick Morris]

About 45 years ago I had the opportunity to take a cruise on the Delta Queen and spent several hours in the engine room watching the lever operated poppet valves and California cut-off valve gear. I started on a model of the engines (I don't have an interest in building a boat), but challenges to building it along other life distractions got in the way. Last year I started again.

I am only aware of two or three of the lever style of engine that have been modeled. One was a beautiful close scale model that was displayed at a Model Engineer Exhibition in the U.K. in the late 1970s. Another was a working model that was designed for function rather than appearance by Sam Hodgeson. A very complete set of drawings was advertised in Live Steam in the late 1970s and I believe they are still available. The third is a well done steamboat with working engines. A Youtube video shows the engines being tested. This engine doesn't allow variable cut-off, but is reversing.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQHisuJegus" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQHisuJegus</a>
There is also a build log on the web for a beautiful model the W.T. Preston steamboat with engines, but it uses piston valves. My preference is for the lever action valve gear where everything is out in the open. 

Posted are drawings of a couple of examples of engines with lever operated poppet valves. The top one has California cut-off valve gear and the bottom uses three cams for the valve gear. One each for forward and reverse with full stroke steam admission and another that cuts off part way through the stroke for forward only These are what I'm using for general guidance. I'm not modeling any particular engine, but do want to have a good representation of what they look like and how they operate.

The aluminum plate and grey 3D printed cylinder in the third photo are to allow me to mock up some of the valve gear parts.

I've investment cast quite a few of the smaller parts, including the pillow blocks and standards that go on top of the engines and the cross heads.

I had to upscale my casting equipment before I could cast the cylinders and the first (failed) attempt is shown. Both of those are going back into the pot and I will try again to get better castings. These were actually 3D printed in three pieces, each end of the cylinder and the center section. It worked, but took a lot of effort to put the parts together and make sure the seams were filled so there wouldn't be any unwanted voids. Since I printed those I got a bigger printer and for the last few days I have been redrawing them as a single piece.

[tghs]

fun to watch I take you have the 2 Bates books on western steamboats and engines?

[Dick Morris]

Yes. Both are good references. Easily the best reference I have found is a turn of the century (the real turn of the century, not the one we just experienced) text on Western Rivers Steamboat Engines. My copy is published in "Elements of Marine Engineering" Vol II published in 1900 by Colliery Engineering Company, but the same text was recycled by International Correspondence School as both a stand alone lesson and as a part of other books which contained chapters on a number of topics.

Here is the address for a web page with a bit more information that I created 23 years ago, so long ago that I no longer have the password or a way to access it to make any changes.  http://www.alaska.net/~rmorris/steamboat1.htm

[gbritnell]

I started my machining hobby making steam engines. I had always been fascinated from the first toy engine I had. Over the years I have built many engines of different types and the paddle wheel riverboat engines are really interesting from a mechanical point of view.
I live in Ohio and in the city of Marietta is a museum dedicated to steam boats and they have a boat, the Snyder, as part of their museum presentation. On one of my trips there I found that they had a complete set of drawings for the Snyder so I bought them with the intent of building a model.
When the project started it took a turn from the Snyder to a picture I had seen in a fictional novel. The book was fictional but was interspersed with actual photos of sternwheel riverboats used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Missouri and it's tributaries.
The one boat in particular, The Suter, caught my eye and so I started making drawings for it. At the onset I didn't know exactly which way the finished vessel would go. Meaning steam powered, electric RC or just static.
Riverboats were built with a bow in the hull. I'm guessing so that over time when they would age and settle down they would become flatter, if they lasted that long. Kind of like looking at a flatbed trailer for a large semi truck. Unloaded they have a pronounced bow to them so when loaded they flatten out.
So on to the model. With the scale I was building and the detailing I wanted to incorporate the compound curves of the decks and roof structures I decided to just make a static model.
The scale is about 1/43 and the finished model is about 32 inches in length. It's built mainly from basswood with plastic, brass and other woods used.
In doing all the background investigation I found that Ageless Engines out of Cincinnati, Ohio has drawings for building a riverboat engine. Maybe one day I'll get that done.
Attached are some pictures of the stern wheel riverboat, The Suter, that I built. 

[Dick Morris]

gbritnell - Nice!

Ageless Engines has the drawings done by Sam Hodgeson. I have a copy. It's not obvious from the photo on the web site, but he used a single casting for each section of the flange and arms for the paddle wheel.

I see you put the work into making a proper paddle wheel. That represents a lot of work!

The shape of the bows varied by the use. Packets offered less drag than towboats and snag boats, probably because of the speed at which they would be operated. The tow boats had a bow more suited to towing (actually pushing) a tow of barges.

I was a member of S&D for 20+ years and always enjoyed the magazine, but downscaled my memberships and magazine subscriptions a few years ago.