Calliope Commemoratives

Great stuff, the sketch of the AQ's calliope is just wonderful...Travis, you had quite the vision as a young buck, and in semi-perspective view, no less.

But Travis, I gotta ask...Did you really expect a very uniform, curved, bent into a horseshoe, Schedule 40 black steel steam distribution pipe for the AQ to be a peice of cake to make? My Gawd...what a job. Step one, heat pipe red hot. Step two, somehow, anyhow pick up red hot pipe and pray that the horseshoe bend across a form will go smoothly. Step three, curse profoundly when it doesn't. Repeat steps one through three until satisfied...or overly frustrated...

First time I crawled up to look down on the whistles with Phil Westbrook doing his incredible magic, I spotted that steel pipe...OMG!

The look of the AQ's calliope, especially when looking down on the whistles, is just wonderful.

Bruno,

Thanks for the great compliment!

I have to admit, the design was not just my own. For Dave told me what he expected and wanted. What I did was take the drawings which existed for the calliope area (and from what the vessel designer had put together it looked more like a circus wagon back there in the conceptual drawing with whistles rising from a straight line manifold like the DELTA QUEEN, cantilevered over the bar area with some nipples over 4 feet long in some cases and some even featured two whistles!) and created a manifold which went with the flow of the deck in the area they specified the calliope to be located. You could say I tamed their design a little...okay alot!

The conceptual drawing had the calliope suspended from the edge of the deck over the heads of the passengers in the Calliope Bar. I can only imagine what the USCG would say if it had been installed that way! A live steam line of several hundred pounds of weight with the added weight of electronic selonoid valves! It would have never flown! Personally, I thought it was a dangerous and rather precarious idea when I saw the drawing of the stern of the boat.

The manifold aboard the boat today was supposed to have removable end caps so you could get in there and clean out scale and rust. Unfortunatly, this did not come to pass on the end product and there is no clear way in there to clean. Thus, after a couple of extended periods with the instrument out of service, many problems have arisen.

Dave addressed all the problems he could with the construction of the calliope...but, in the end the buyer had their say and not all went according to plan. Budgets constrained some of the ideas, rules and laws caused some changes. And believe it or not, designers almost cost the whole job when their hand got in it! But in the end, the calliope was built and what you see on the boat is what came of the drawing I posted earlier today. I am still proud the basic manifold I saw in my mind is there...for I think it is a sound design!

Dave Morecraft really built a wonderful instrument there! Those whistles are some of the best he has ever constructed. When you consider they are out of doors 24/7 and have been exposed to every possible weather extreme, not to mention extended periods of non-use, they have held up amazingly. Quality and craftsmanship are the reason they are doing so good some 14 years after they were built. I believe there is no reason at all they can't outlast the whistles on the calliope of any boat...for they are built to the same specs and with the same materials, quality, and craftsmanship as the originals built over 100 years ago!

Oh, and the Mc Dermott Yard made the manifold to the specs Dave set forth. Dave supplied the valves and they installed and did the basic wiring on them. Dave built the keyboard and hand wired it into the basic wiring harness he designed for the shipyard to install.

The fact the current "service" provider has chosen to remove Dave's name from the console of the instrument is unfortunate. Because this person was approached about building the instrument and bowed out of the contention to build it.

However, Dave did mark whistle #1 with a builders name and place of business stamped in to the top of the whistle, it is prominantly marked there for all to see! Go up there next time you are on the boat and the top of the big whistle in the middle tells the story better than anyone else can!

If you look at the two pictures I have attached, you will see on the whistle to the left there is lettering on the edge of the top of the whistle. This (if enlarged) is the builders identification Dave stamped into the top of the whistle. On my original pictures they are very easy to read. For some reason, I guess they were compressed when I posted them here? They are a little hard to read! If you save them to your computer and enlarge them, you can read it clearly!

That is all I shall say about that!

~Travis~

I find it to be at least "bad form" if not downright criminal (at least it's vandalism) to remove the builder's plaque from the keyboard! Can you imagine if I pasted my business card over the piano maker's name everytime I tuned a piano??? However, I did take the builder's plate off our Church's original organ console and transferred it to the new one (also made by the same company)--after all the organ is still mostly the original opus 191 (opus numbers are to organs as VIN numbers are to automobiles).
Enough ranting on my part. Travis, great "imagineering" Dave, great work building!
S'
David D.

With our company and many others, it is common practice with pipe organ builders, when restoring or rebuilding an instrument, to retain the original nameplate on the console along with an additional nameplate of the company that carried out the project and the year. Sometimes, when original nameplates are beyond salvage, the new nameplate contains the information as to the organ's original builder, etc.

I have the nameplate from the Henry Pilcher's Sons pipe organ from the church I grew up in at New Albany. However, the original 1868 church building was razed in 1990 and the new building contains an electronic substitute. EEEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's one for posterity;;;,,...

I ALWAYS stamp the top and bottom of the lowest whistle or (#1),
on every CaLLiope I have made
with, company name, year built and a serial number, for example the AQ's CaLLiope is "37-005" ,,37 notes or whistles ,,005,, 5th CaLLiope manufactured,, year 1995 ,,..
However the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE'S CaLLiope is only stamped on the bottom,,..#32-002
So many times I've done restoration jobs on diffrent NICHOL CaLLiopes and wished thay had done that for historical sake,,!!!!
The Pics are of the ANNA MARIE'S CaLLiope ,top of the lowest whistle..
SER.# 30-001,,
Thanks everyone, for all your support ...
DAVE,,,....
photos by Travis,,..

KEITH;;;

SEE,, I told you so, , You GOT something started here,,,...:)
LOL,,,....;)

Dave,,,...