Paddle Steamer Bilsdale

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

My paddle steamer Bilsdale is now pretty much complete at long last, just needs pond trials with Ashley's help.

Hopefully it will appear as a magazine article before too long.

Colin

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Completed at last!

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

That looks splendid Colin with lots of nice detail, you must be very pleased with it.

It hasn't taken you too long either.

Chris

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Thanks Chris, it has essentially been an excercise in constructing the mechanism. The model itself is nearish scale with some modifications to make things easier. It should look OK from a few feet away on the pond.

The original vessel had independent paddles and mine is the same which complicated things quite a lot including taking up a lot of internal space. However, I'm not likely to build another paddler so decided to go the whole hog. It has been an interesting project and I have learned a lot, very different from a conventional screw propulsion setup. Very much a learning exercise in many ways. All wil be explained in the article when it appears.

Colin

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Great model Colin. I will look forward to thrashing it around the pond while you take pictures….

Ashley

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Colin,

Your paddler looks very sharp, I hope it goes well, blue sky & sunshine at last

Regards Ray

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

It looks absolutely beautiful Colin. If it performs as well as it looks you will get some superb pictures of her.

If the paddles are independent just keep your eye open for the potential for a rocking moment if you are very unlucky enough to create a resonant frequency between the two sides. If it happens just upset the resonance with the trim adjustments.

[neil hpParticipant @neilhp]

I agree with all your comments gents, and Colin you have mede a beautiful and very obscure model of a lovely prototype.

Having sailed on the P.S. Waverley many times over the last 20 years holidaying in Largs, one of her summer sailing venues, I have grown to love the experience of a totally different style of cruising on such a vessel……..the sound and thump thum of the steam engines, and the pat pat pat of the paddles is just wonderful to experience, and to produce such a lovely model must really swell the chest. Superb model, AND a credit to you.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Now added passengers which improves the appearance no end. You may recognise the time travelling lady on deck!

Colin

[John W EParticipant @johnwe]

Hi Colin,

Lovely model, and, I do like the extra detail with all the figures. The lady in blue does remind me of our late Queen.

Also, the 2 people in the black suits remind me of John and Paul from the Beatles unless they are the Queen's bodyguard.

Look forward to pics of your model in the water.

John

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Yes John, the lady in blue is indeed a replica of HM the Queen. She comes in various scales, 3D printed.

**LINK**

Colin

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

Having now seen the article in Model Boats I want to add my appreciation for what is a lovely model with great atmosphere.

I very much hope that she goes as well as she looks.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Thanks Chris, however I am a bit cross at the moment. The image of the PN Thomas plan in the print edition has a hull length of 127mm which is 1/7th of the full size model. This would enable anyone wishing to build the model to scale it up as I did. Either directly or by scanning and enlarging it.

For the benefit of the digital edition subscribers I supplied a pdf scan of exactly this size to be appended to the digital edition. It would sit inside a sheet of A4.

I have just checked the digital edition and despite my very specific instructions, someone has decided to expand the image to fill an A4 page so not only is it the wrong size but it is distorted as well. A short fat paddler has become a long thin one! Hopefully I can get this changed with Darren's help.

Colin

 

Edited By Colin Bishop on 19/07/2023 20:32:49

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

……..sombody who knows nothing about scale models or……….. .

This explains why the cross section looks so much beamier than the plan!

If nothing else is possible can you give us the correct dimensions of the plan (the black frame line that surrounds the plan) so that we can correct the distotrion in editing software?

Edited By Chris E on 19/07/2023 18:41:57

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Let's see if Darren can remedy the problem. In the meantime, the frame should be 140mm high by 150mmwide. The hull length of the vessel should be 127mm.

I provided all this info very specifically and stressed how important it was on several occasions so I am rather disappointed!!

This was an opportunity to provide a semi feature plan article using the original plan image as opposed to just a descriptive build article which I thought added useful value as it would enable readers to build their own model if they wish.

Colin

Edited By Colin Bishop on 19/07/2023 19:28:00

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

Thank you Colin. The plan does look different when the proportions are corrected.

I assume that you are aware that the frame isn't actually "square" The edge that is the bow end of the boat has a slight curve. The bottom edge is thus shorter than the top as a result. The plan is more than good enough to think of building one if anyone wants to do so. Might be a general problem with plans of this age or it might be the Canada connection.

The 127mm hull length shouldn't really matter much other than for checking the scaling as if printed you can ask for the size that you want.

Edited By Chris E on 19/07/2023 20:56:36

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Yes,I appreciate that there are minor variations but as the article makes clear, this was intended as a semi scale model. The print I got from Canada included these but overall it is still possible to make a decent model; as I have done. It is a pity that the original prints seem to be long gone.

The Thomas plan is quite good but has a number of omissions if you want to build a true scale model, probably because the relevant information was not available in his day. For example there is no indication as to how the ship was steered. The bridge is perched on stilts and there is no apparent connection from the wheelhouse to the rudder quadrant.

Again, as tha article makes clear, the plan was basically a vehiicle for an experimental paddler project and I'm happy with it on that basis, There is more info in part 2 of the article on this.

I do agree that the overall effect is attractive despite its minor scale shortcomings.

As you say, the print image and hopefully the corrected digital version should permit a prospective builder to reproduce the model at any size they like although this does introduce other factors as covered in part 2.

Colin

 

Edited By Colin Bishop on 19/07/2023 22:11:37

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Darren has now fixed the digital edition and archives. Apparently the pdf file I provided was loaded on the assumption it was an A4 page and not an image embedded in an A4 page so the system expanded it to fill the space available! I did originally stress that the print and digital images needed to be the same size but something seems to have got lost in translation and no check was made until I did it myself.

Re performance of the model, this is covered in part 2 but essentially there is more than adequate thrust, the boat is inherently stable and looks good on the water. It does seem to be a bit sensitive to the mixer which is currently set to 100% mode with the fine control at 50%. This can cause it to dig in on one side at full speed under helm although it recovers quickly. John Elsey did warn of this. The solution is probably either to dial the fine control right down or switch to 50% mixer mode.This is a bench rather than a pondside job. The other thing we noticed was that one paddle seemed to be lagging slightly behind the other when starting up causing a slight yaw. This could be due to friction in the drive train or perhaps the two speed controllers in the ACTion unit being slightly differently calibrated. I need to spend a bit of time chasing these down but am building a Greek fishing boat at the moment!

Colin

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

Colin

That is good.

Very good to hear that the performance is what you hoped for. A little tweaking is all part of the fun.

 

Edited By Chris E on 20/07/2023 13:21:08

[Alasdair AllanParticipant @alasdairallan37423]

That is a lovely model, Colin – as a paddle steamer fan, I am very impressed.  How did you manage to ballast her? i have found that to be no simple task on a paddle steamer!

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Yes, ballasting can certainly be an issue with paddlers.

I started at the beginning to get the odds on my side! I chose a chunky hulled prototype with plenty of buoyancy. The model was built as light as possible, particularly the superstructure. I used aluminium tubing for the davits etc. instead of brass. Funnel is lightweight electrical conduit. The bottom of the hull is 1.5mm plywood which enabled the motors and batteries to sit as low as possble. As the centre of the hull is filled with the drive mechanisms, the batteries are split fore and aft of that and combined as one battery in parallel. After all this the model was stable but sitting a bit higher in the water than I wanted. It wasn’t really practical to introduce lumps of lead down in the bowels of the boat at this stage and they would have got in the way of maintenance access so I added self adhesive motorcycle wheel balance weights to the bottom of the hull and epoxied over them which did the job.

Colin

 

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