Topic starter
22/10/2006 3:27 pm
Having forsaken the engine room many decades ago for the deck, I'll take a stab at what Chief Jim McCoy's about. My feel is that he is holding onto the handle of the manual ship-up that controls the direction the paddlewheel will take. Look right below and to the right of the gizmo Jim's wrestling and you will see the forward half of an X-shaped part, painted gray, that's the "sawbuck". In the Up-Position the boat will back; down, of course, the BELLE will come ahead. The BoL has a steam-assisted ship-up jack that raised the valves before the engines are made to come-ahead or back with the long-handled lever (name?) that puts the engines ahead or astern. My take is that the handle Chief McCoy has hold of, is the manual version of what steam-assist makes so much easier. It's been nearly half a century since the last time I handled those engines, and I was entrusted with the privilege when I was only 17 y/o... and that's a brag.
22/10/2006 7:17 pm
You have it right, Sam. If the steam jack fails or the ship-up shaft breaks, Jim need not despair. . .he can still reverse the engine as shown. This only happens when facing up to a lock gate or bridge pier. When Jim reverses the starboard engine, he only needs to run across the engineroom and do the same on the port side. And be quick about it, too.
Topic starter
23/10/2006 2:17 pm
Steamboat Thrills
One correction concerning my first posting: there is no "long-handled lever" on the BELLE'S Rees variable cut-off engines. It's the DQ that has such a directional lever. To change directions on the BoL engines, if I remember correctly, (1) close the throttle; (2) the valves are lifted with the steam-assisted jack; (3) the engines are shipped-up with the steam gear or else by the manual lever that Chief McCoy was rasslin' while remembering that when the sawbuck is in the up position the boat will back; (4) when shipped up, lower the valves, and (5) apply throttle accordingly.
Of course you have to keep a close watch on the level of the boiler water by watching the position of the needles on the Vanduzen pie-plate gauges on the back side of the boilers. The Jimmy Rees engines can be compared to a standard shift engine on an automobile where lifting the valves is similar to depressing the clutch pedal before shifting gears. The QUEEN's Evans cross-compound engines function more like an automatic clutch does on a car in that the valves are not lifted in the shifting operation, however that "long-handled lever" must be in the proper setting to go in the desired direction. And if it's not, then that ain't good.
Manually handling a set of steamboat engines, for those who haven't had the thrill, is as exciting an experience as anything a steamboat can offer. It is nearly as much fun as cleaning the hot well. Although forty-seven summers have passed since I was first entrusted with handling the AVALON's Rees engines, the fragrance lingers.
23/10/2006 3:44 pm
Ship-Up Gear on Str "Belle of Louisville"
Gents, I'd like to expand upon this if I might.....
Just to port and slightly aft of the throttle stand, a rectangular receiver peeks just barely up through the raised decking. By fitting a big ol' cheater bar into this receiver, one can rotate the ship-up shaft and reverse the engines in the event the steam ship-up jack fails. While this would be some serious grunt work, it pales in comparison to the process you have described of using the short handle on each engine.
Was this "intermediate" contingency method added to the boat at some point in her history? ...or was it always there also?
Topic starter
23/10/2006 4:48 pm
Wagner in the Engine Room
Where's Chief Kenny P. Howe, Jr. when you need him? I do recall that "rectangular receiver" thing peeking through the deck, but never had the pleasure to see it used. One time, on the Illinois River, miles from nowhere, we broke a cam on the port engine, and after many hours of back-breaking labor the AVALON was made to run on just one engine until we got to somewhere where we could get the cam brazed.
Surprisingly, Captain Ernest E. Wagner, the Master of the AVALON, was a very handy and knowledgeable man in the engine room, for he had been a Striker on the ISLAND QUEEN and other Coney Island boats earlier in his steamboat career. Cap was invaluable that day and he did more than his share to get the starboard engine shipped-up to take the full load. Has anyone else seen this sort of steamboat engineering wizardry and can further elaborate on how it is done?
23/10/2006 5:35 pm
Keith: In watching the landing yesterday, I was surprised to see that the throttle was not touched during such backing and filling as was done...rather, the engineer apparently simply left the throttle open to a "slow" position and did the shifting with the steam-assisted ship up jack. Evidently the ship up gear has a neutral postiton with no intake valve open and hence, no steam is admitted and the wheel comes to a stop. The engineer is plenty busy with the telegraph, having to acknowledge each change with his left hand, and work the ship up valve lever with his right. I think that you will agree that there are two great places to be as a passenger on the BOL at a landing. One is at the bow end of the Hurricane Roof where the ballet of the mate and deck hands can be viewed from above, with the Capt out on the wing bridge a bit above you, giving instructions to both the pilot and the deck crew and, back at the landing of the stairway on the starboard side of the engine room, watching the engineers respond to the signals from the pilot house...don't get in the way of the deckhands as they race to the fantail to tie her off! Cap'n Walnut.
23/10/2006 6:00 pm
Tom: the "neutral" position is achieved not with the ship-up gear (which is either up for backing or down for comin' ahead), but rather with the lever jack. The steam cylinder for the lever jack sits right on top of the cylinder for the ship-up gear. It achieves "neutral" when activated by lifting and holding all the admission levers up simultaneously.
29/10/2006 10:29 am
Tom sent some pictures to illustrate the details this thread is discussing. Sorry, Tom, for posting them so late, this was an extremely busy week ...
So here are the pictures and Tom's comments (click on the pictures to enlarge):
Here is a picture that show the port side engine (white lagging) and the "buck" (slightly above and left of center) that Alan speaks of. The starboard engine is a mirror image of this. Again, photo taken 10-22-06.
Here are two photos taken October 22, 2006 which you may care to post so that folks can better understand what is being posted about handling the engines. In the one, looking to port, the seated engineer is facing the throttle valve handwheel and you can see the "ship up" valve lever above him. I know not what the lower one is for. In the other view, looking to starboard, the engineer has his left hand on the acknowledge lever of the enginroom telegraph and his right hand (out of sight) on the ship up valve lever.
30/10/2006 5:02 am
There are two handles on the ship-up stand that are used while handling the engines. One is the ship-up lever and the other the valve jacks lever.
Some where in this string Keith Baylor posted about the use of the valve jacks when handling the boat, so I won't bore anyone by repeating it. Shipyard Sam hit the nail on the head describing what it's like standing in the foot box with a job to do, and the feeling that one gets doing it for the first time!
30/10/2006 2:45 pm
In the picture of Chief Howe at the throttle, the levers just to his right are:
ship-up jack (the lower one)
valve lever jack (the upper one)
30/10/2006 4:25 pm
Tom, the throttle is never fully closed when handling the BoL engines. This is to keep a continuous flow of steam through the feedwater heater so no cold 'slug' of water enters the boilers.
30/10/2006 4:29 pm
It may be of interest that good engineers always keep their eyes and minds on where the boat is. They are not trying to criticize pilots - rather, they want to anticipate the next move and be ready when the pilot signals. This can lead to trouble if the engineer lets his mind get too set on what will happen. Chet Foster told me one time that the Belle would never hit the wharfboat while he was handling, because he had marks all up and down the wharf. It also pays for mates and masters to know how to handle the engines in emergencies.