The Steamboating Forum

New to this forum

Have been interested in designing and building all kinds of steam-powered models for many years. Always wanted to do a small steam launch -- something in between an Elliot Bay and a large model that two persons could comfortably manage. Last May, I started a project to build a 13.5-foot fiberglass/mahogany launch powered by a home-brewed 2-cylinder, double acting 2" x 1.75" vertical engine. Boiler is coal-fired, 22" x 8" dia. with 45 3/8" (.5" o.d.) fire tubes. Just finished the engine and boiler and ran the first test (shown in attached photo). Other than a couple minor plumbing leaks, everything performed nicely. Although I designed the boiler just barely big enough to continuously run the engine flat out (to keep the weight at a minimum), it made steam to spare fueled with good old Welsh steam coal. This winter, I'll be gutting a fiberglass sailboat hull (Flying Junior International) and redoing the interior and decking in mahogany and teak. The boat has a nice wide beam and plenty of room for the engine, boiler, and auxiliary gear and a crew of two adults.

Hope I've figured out how to post photos here

Closer look from side:

My lift table legs were uneven, causing a bit of a wobble. But, for the first test run, I was pleased nothing serious popped up.

Good evening Weber,

Nice lagging on the boiler and very neat engine, it runs smoothly. What are the cascading gears intended for? Some kind of reversing gear?

The gears are for forward and reverse. Used this arrangement once on a Tom Thumb locomotive and it worked well there. So, used it for this engine rather than a typical Stephenson system. Hoped to end up with a simpler design, but in hind sight, I should have gone for the Stephenson. I also started out building a inflow design, then chickened out half way through and went to a conventional piston valve arrangement.

Nice looking engine and boiler. Welcome to the forum.

To get these YouTube vids to display, have to remove the "s" from https.



-Ron

Thanks for the advice, Ron.