{"id":135,"date":"2022-04-04T19:31:23","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T19:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quilkin.co.uk\/meccano\/?page_id=135"},"modified":"2022-04-04T19:31:25","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T19:31:25","slug":"a-paddle-steamer","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/quilkin.co.uk\/meccano\/index.php\/a-paddle-steamer\/","title":{"rendered":"A Paddle Steamer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This steamboat was inspired by a Marklin model from 1992. I once considered buying the Marklin kit, when during casual browsing I found one on offer for sale in the Netherlands. But the shipping cost was too high! So I decided to make something similar in Meccano. From a quick glance, my version may seem to be very similar to the Marklin one but the fittings are different and the whole thing is about 15% bigger \u2013 that\u2019s because the Marklin model is based on a whole load of 8.5\u201d girders for the width. Mine had to be 9.5\u201d wide! All the components of this model are genuine Meccano, save perhaps the narrow angle girders used for handrails which were only made by Exacto in Argentina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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f I understand correctly, Mississippi boats generally had a single rear paddle, rather than twin side paddles, because of the very shallow waters they needed to operate in. The paddle here is driven by a Powerdrive motor. I did consider driving it with a Meccano steam engine but was advised that operating steam engines at indoor events was inadvisable!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the Marklin version, this has working derricks for lifting the gangplanks, working winches for the lifeboats and hinged cabin doors. Extras on my ship include droppable anchors and working rudders, controlled from the bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten years ago, when I first got back into the hobby, I bought a very large set from eBay. When it arrived I found that all the parts had been repainted, in reasonable quality but the green was totally the wrong colour! I discovered later that it\u2019s actually nearer the Marklin green, so decided to make use of all those 12.5\u201d strips for this model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another colour \u2018oddity\u2019 is the nuts & bolts. They used to be badly tarnished zinc ones, but I stripped off the zinc then chemically blackened<\/a> them, along with an equivalent number of M4 washers (so I suppose these are also a non-Meccano part! \u2013 but some Meccano washers are so badly dished I don\u2019t like using them on painted surfaces).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Note the use of multiple small black Meccano hooks in the rigging. This enables the boat to be partly dismantled easily, for transport.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This steamboat was inspired by a Marklin model from 1992. I once considered buying the Marklin kit, when during casual browsing I found one on offer for sale in the Netherlands. But the shipping cost was too high! So I decided to make something similar in Meccano. From a quick glance, my version may seem… Read More »A Paddle Steamer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-135","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quilkin.co.uk\/meccano\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quilkin.co.uk\/meccano\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quilkin.co.uk\/meccano\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quilkin.co.uk\/meccano\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quilkin.co.uk\/meccano\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quilkin.co.uk\/meccano\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142,"href":"https:\/\/quilkin.co.uk\/meccano\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/135\/revisions\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quilkin.co.uk\/meccano\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}