Belle of Louisville/Cincinnati

Hi Tom, The Belle of Louisville is listed as 191.2 feet in length but i am unsure if that includes the wheel. It is listed as 33.4 feet wide. When it comes to sternwheelers, the demensions given are usually the hull only and do not include overhang of the decking and the wheel so you may want to investigate further. I am a model builder also and come across this fact many times. There are so many knowledgable and generous people on this site to help with all the details you need. What scale are you building them at? I build steamboats and towboats and would love to see your build so keep us posted.

There was a set of plans for the Belle of Louisville available from Alan Bates. I would suggest contacting the Howard Steamboat Museum and see if they have copies they could sell you.

Alan's Steamboat Plans

Indeed, we DO have a limited number of copies of Alan's steamboat plans available (including those of both the BELLE and her early life as the IDLEWILD) in the Howard Steamboat Museum gift shop. You can peruse the list of those we have by clicking on museum, Howard Steamboat Museum Jeffersonville, IN Home and then clicking on the gift shop button and then going to BOAT PLANS.

Thanks!

PS We had a visit this week from a man (from Michigan) who has recently drawn the plans for the J.M. WHITE. They are wonderful! More about these and their availability soon!

As Keith said they are a beautiful set of drawings for the J.M. WHITE geared for the model maker. The gentleman who drew the plans is, no doubt, an accomplished model builder because he included in the set of plans all the detail drawings necessary to build an accurate model.
It never ceases to amaze me that at the museum every so often someone, whom you've never heard of before, will show up with something like this.
Hopefully they will be available for purchase at the museum sometime in the near future. They are truely historic.