BELLE Gets New Pitman

Thanks for the interesting posting about the pitman arm replacement. That is a part of equipment that I never thought much about the need for replacement. Although being of wood and in contact with water should mean that they would have to be replace in time. Is this the first time the pitmans' have been replace on the Belle that you know of? What is the average life expectancy for a pitman? Does anyone know if the pitmans have ever been replaced on the DQ?

Hi, Ted & steamboating colleagues:
Ted, this is an interesting topic as posted by Keith. We've all seen the steel pitmans on the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN [At least I 'think' they are steel]. These are the devices by which horizontal back-and-forth motion is turned into rotary motion for the wheel. Well, I dont know all that much. On wood pitmans you see the metal straps with heavy securing bolts. Have any pitmans been 'laminated' wood members on wood members and then secured together? Would a 'laminated' pitman be stronger than one of solid wood? Yes, in this day and age any wood member that size, length would be a hefty chunk of change. I'd like to hear even more. Keith Norrington, Kenny Howe, Alan Bates, Bill Judd etc. etc....?

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

OK, I gotta ask the ignorant, "I know I'm an engineer but I'm landlocked" question...Why does the pitman have to be wood? Why not aluminum? And yes I know that wouldn't be very steamboaty, but it would be forever, and probably lighter too.

Does it have something to do with the ability to absorb shock, crunching up drift and all that, momentarily bending and snapping back to original staightness...wood is amazingly resilient...or does it have to do with the pitman's ultimate length being more easily "adjusted" for exact need in the field than could be done with a hunk of metal that has to be drilled exactly...

Or is it strictly a cost thing...

Bruno, pitmans CAN be made of metal....they are on the NATCHEZ, and a number of towboats had metal pitmans. I think the resiliency of wood has been mentioned here. Capt. Alan Bates will nedd to step in here.

The pitmans on the BELLE have been replaced several times that I recall. I have pictures of new ones being delivered to the boat by barge in 1972 while she was in winter quarters near McAlpine Lock. We had a set of the old pitmans in the backyard at the Howard Museum, until they deteriorated to the point of no return. The pitmans from the sidewheel excursion steamer ADMIRAL (labeled "Wimpy" and "Popeye") are now exhibited at the Museum of Transport in St. Louis.

The Str. MISSISSIPPI (now BECKY THATCHER) had steel tubular pitmans installed in the 1930's. These were removed at St. Louis in 1973 when the Gillette & Eaton steam engines were purchased by the New Orleans Steamboat Company.

By the way, here are two articles about the replacing of the pitman arm

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880128014

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008801290399

Carmen

Save Me A Piece...

My take is that wood was used to retain the authenticity of the antique steamboat. I doubt that a huge pitman arm has ever known to be "momentarily bending and snapping back...". The wooded bucketboards and arms would shear off before then. When the DQ backed into the bluff bank below Cannelton Lock, the wheel was 1/3rd destroyed, but the pitman arms received nary a lick.

By the way, I thought the pitman arms on the DELTA QUEEN were made of oak. Who knows for sure, and were they ever replaced from time to time like the BoL has done? That's a lot of pitman arms the old girl has gone through.

May I suggest that some of the wood removed from the BELLE's wheel is saved, cut into small chunks, the name of the boat branded onto each with a document of authenticity enclosed, and sold for souvenirs as a fundraiser for either the boat or the muse on the opposite shore.

Hi, Shipyard & steamboating colleagues:
"SAVE ME A PIECE" is right. The Ohio River Museum in Marietta, OH did this some years back with wood salvaged from the wheel of the Str. W.P. SNYDER. The sections, in manageable pieces for display on a book cabinet, mantel etc., were a hit. As I recall somebody had burned the name of the boat in the wood for authenticity using either a brand or electric engraving iron. When the DQ's wheel was replaced by all of you following the incident at Cannelton Lock I was later handed a couple of bolts removed. Well, a 'bolt is not a bolt' and I still have them here on my display case at home next to some salvaged rivets from the hull of the old QUEEN MARY.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

Good idea Sam! Selling paddlewheel pieces for souvenirs has been done previously -- even back in the 1960's when funds were being raised to put new boilers on the BELLE. We already have quite a collection of BELLE "parts" in the basement and attic storage areas at the museum, including old pilothouse windows, a nameboard painted by Capt. Doc Hawley, wheel parts, signage, etc.

Belle's Pitmans - SB 101 Again

A new Steamboat 101 question from one of the younguns is addressed to the the faculty of .org:

How does the "missing" pitman affected displacement, if only momentarily? Does the boat list at all?

Wesley

Selling authenticated pieces of the wheel and or pitman arms is an excellent idea. I know I (like many others on this board) would jump to have these in our collection! We should do the same on the DELTA QUEEN!

~Travis~

Wesley Paulson;9462 wrote: A new Steamboat 101 question from one of the younguns is addressed to the the faculty of .org:

How does the "missing" pitman affected displacement, if only momentarily? Does the boat list at all?

Wesley

I sure doubt it. The pitman weighs less than a ton; the boat herself weighs 600 tons or so. You'd have to remove a lot of mass to produce a noticeable list.

The pitmans removed from the Belle were laminated. It is a near thing whether a natural log or a laminated beam is better. The wood part of the pitman resists the compressive forces and the steel straps on top and bottom resist tension. Wood is a great material for resisting shock. After a shock it returns to its original shape, more or less. Metal distorts and remains distorted. That is not a big problem. Steel pitmans have been successfully used for years. With a proper choice of alloy there is no reason why aluminum pitmans could not be used. They would be lighter than either wood or steel. Special arrangements would have to be made at the bearings to reduce of eliminate loss by electrolysis in a wet environment. The combination wood and steel pitmans last about ten years in service. The big question is what metal pitmans would cost over their lifetimes. My intuitive thought is that they would cost less. As far as I know the pitmans on the Natchez have served without replacement for 32 years and for some time before that on the Clairton, hence they are very economical.

Cosmetically, metal pitmans could be made to look like wood. There have been no esthetic complaints about the Natchez pitmans as far as I know.

Thanks, Alan, and this brings up another question that was asked by Ted Guillaum: are the DELTA QUEEN's pitmans original? I cannot recall ever seeing or hearing anything about them being replaced.

Hi, Alan, Bob and colleagues:
Thanks to Alan for the fine technicals on pitmans. Bob, I don't know about the pitmans on the DQ being replaced either but there may be others like Shipyard Sam etc. who would know for certain. When the boat 'ran through' herself that time at Rock Island I never heard what else had to be repaired or replaced. Judy and others may know. For a number of years there were two pitmans still painted white stowed on the one side of the old GREENE LINE wharfboat here in Cincinnati. They were there for sure in my memory but what happened to them after the wharfboat was moved to the Kentucky side at Covington during the Public Landing/stadium construction, and then sinking down river, is unknown to me. There was a lot of 'stuff' on that wharfboat and now I wish I'd paid closer attention. Doc Hawley and Virginia Bennett would know in a jiffy. Cap n' Bill Judd may have recollections.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

After mentioning in last week's discussion that the Str. MISSISSIPPI (now the BECKY THATCHER) had steel tubular pitmans, I dug out two photos which show them. The first image was taken in 1955 and that's Chief Engineer John Brewer on the fantail. The second view was taken in 1963 by Capt. Art Denkmann shortly after the MISSISSIPPI had been sold at auction by the Memphis District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ($35,110.) and towed up to St. Louis, where she was tied up alongside the GOLDENROD SHOWBOAT for a time. The pitmans had been disconnected from the wheel cranks for the journey.

An interesting bit of trivia about naming pitmans: On the Belle of Louisville they had the names "Push" and "Pull" painted on them for awhile. Later they became "Dave" and "Chet," named for Dave Crecedlius and Chet Foster, the engineers. The Monongahela's pitmans were named "Col. Charles A. Lindbergh" and "Spirit of St. Louis." No doubt many others were named. What would be good names for the new pitmans on the Belle - any suggestions?

How about "Now" and "Then".

Great suggestion, Ted! I hope to walk back to the engine room this spring and see your names in big black block letters with red shading on each one. Now the question we all have...which name is Port and which name is Starboard. I say "Now" on the Stb'd since this side is to town when she is landed and "then" on the Port as this side faces the river when landed....and the river is the trip back into time she offers!

Any other suggestions...votes? It is Super Tuesday (And Mardi Gras) after all!

~Travis~

I like it. It sounds very appropriate.

I vote for Lou and Vill...or maybe Lou and Belle...

The red and white candy striped pitmans of the ADMIRAL were labeled, if I remember correctly, Popeye and Whimpy, but I would never name the BELLE's that. Having the ADMIRAL's pitmans painted that way and named bothered my chief engineer father to no end. He said that it looked, "childish."

How about Huff and Puff? Or Gee and Whiz? Or In and Out? Or Back and Forth? Or To and Fro? Oder Ob und Zu? Or Paul and Harris? Or Forward and Reverse?