MQ Trivia

Don't know how many gallons were used, however the original paint was Porter Paint-then at least headquartered in Louisville. The deck crew hated it as I recall hearing. Eventually I believe Sherwin Williams Industrial paint was secured. The S-W (covers the Earth) Industrial Red was used in the wheel of the DQ----usually purchased at places out of NOLA as 'the Office' didn't take kindly to the cost of S-W. The S-W red of the era held up pretty well in the wheel.

Dan,

I have the article you are referring to...so I will leave the answers to others. However the calliope part...there are many prices bandied about for that calliope. The one you have probably isn't the actual one (I believe that publication listed it as $35,000.00...before the remote keyboard and player unit).

The actual installed price was $55,000.00 by Arthur Davis of Seattle, WA. The premiere performance of the calliope was at Seattle's Civic center in september of 1975. They couldn't find a portable boiler that would handle the thing...so it was played on compressed air. Vic Tooker was the Perfessor that day...there are some great pictures of him playing it out there. It didn't have the remote keyboard (which was removed to the dumpster in 2005), or the player unit. The player unit was in the Pursers Office and never worked. The remote keyboard was in the Pilothouse originally and later ended up in the Paddlewheel Lounge. I played it down there once...hard to play what you can't hear!

I never saw the player unit, so I don't know what type it was. It was supposed to run on magnetic tape...so probably some sort of cassette drive. Bet it was a huge affair and clunky as the day is long!

Travis

Last night I dug out three file folders full of MQ memorabilia that haven't seen the light of day in a LONG time. The 1976 booklet, issued by The Waterways Journal, was in there, along with many brochures, clippings about the 1985 sinking, etc. I plumb forgot that I also had some strands from one of the lines that held the MQ just before her launching on November 30, 1974.

Guess it's a good thing I saved all this "steamboat stuff", as it's still hard to believe that the 35 year old steamboat has come to the end of the line and is now in the hands of the scrapyard workers.

World's Largest and Loudest Calliope
The $36,000 calliope aboard the Mississippi Queen is the world's largest and loudest, containing 44 notes with a range of nearly 5 miles.
The calliope, a steam pianna, features a unique electronic outlay which allows the operator or anyone aboard the steamboat to record the keyboard signals on a digital tape and then play them back over the calliope.
The digital playback system can be operated from 3 areas aboard the Queen—the pilothouse, the purser's office and the calliope console. The console is located near the brass steam whistles on the stern of the riverboat's sun deck.
Constructed of brass and plated with 14-carat gold to resist tarnishing, the whistles range in size from 2 inches in length and 1% inches in diameter to 22 inches in length and 91/4 inches in diameter. They are installed in an area which stretches 27 feet across the stern.
The calliope was built by the Davis Calliope Works of Seattle exclusively for The Delta Queen Steamboat Company. When owner Art Davis received the 1971 contract for the riverboat's "steam-throated songstress," he formed a company solely for the project.
"I just haven't been afraid to tackle anything, I guess," said Mr. Davis, a computer programmer at the University of Washington. His 44-whistle creation is a full octave deeper than the calliope aboard the Delta Queen and similar to one aboard the City of Pittsburgh riverboat which was destroyed in a fire in 1902.

Printed with permission from A Special Salute to the Mississippi Queen for a Successful Maiden Voyage published by the WATERWAYS JOURNAL

Porter Supplies 7,500 Gallons of Paint
With more than 1,800 tons of steel used to construct the Mississippi Queen, each piece had to be precoated by an inorganic zinc coating supplied by Porter Paint Company of Louisville, Ky.
Officials at Jeffboat, Inc., estimate 7,500 gallons of paint and 3,000 gallons of thinner were purchased from Porter to finish all interior and exterior surfaces of the 379-foot paddlewheeler. About 20 types of coatings were used for major areas, including inorganic zinc-rich coatings, coal-tar epoxy and acrylic latex paints.
Printed with permission from A Special Salute to the Mississippi Queen for a Successful Maiden Voyage published by the WATERWAYS JOURNAL

The Queen will be propelled by a traditional stern paddlewheel turned by horizontal, tandem compound, condensing steam engines similar to some used aboard the last steam towboats built in the 1930s and 1940s.
According to Betty Blake, president of The Delta Queen Steamboat Company, "We considered practically every possible design and propulsion method in trying to find the right system to build a vessel which combines the best of 19th century beauty and appeal with the efficiency, reliability and safety that modern technology has to offer.
"We considered using gas turbine, jet engines decorated with gingerbread and underwater propellers designed like egg beaters, but we finally decided on a steam-powered, stern paddlewheeler of traditional design," Miss Blake said. "For our purposes, it is the most efficient and practical and, besides, it has the glamour and charm which passengers of the 50-year old Delta Queen have enjoyed so much."
Printed with permission from A Special Salute to the Mississippi Queen for a Successful Maiden Voyage published by the WATERWAYS JOURNAL

Capt Blum is correct, as deckhands we hated Porter Paints, the one with the orange and white diagonal stripes around the can and our paint locker, located in the forward engine room on the starbord side was chock full of the stuff and I remember using it for at least 2 or 3 years.

Hay All..
Travis: I had always heard the MQ's CaLLiope was 56,000. .. And Arthur Davis also supplied the first Whistle used on the MQ..

Yes, I was ask to supply a player unit for the AMERICAN QUEEN's CaLLiope and refused to build one for it..
As I explaned in a meeting at the Robin St. Wharf :
You have passengers paying over 2 thousand dollars to be on this boat,, they deserve to have a live person playing the CaLLiope !

Besides, a player unit would be frowned on by the CaLLiope Players Local 249.. LOLz

A Modern Power Plant Built from Old Designs
The Mississippi Queen is propelled by a traditional stern paddlewheel about 35 feet wide and 25 feet in diameter. Constructed of 20-foot oak beams, specially obtained from a West Virginia strip mine, the 73-ton paddlewheel is turned by horizontal, tandem compound, condensing steam engines similar to many used aboard the last steam towboats built in the 1930s and 1940s.
According to Robert W. Greene, vice-president of Jeffboat, Inc., and project manager for the Queen, the plans for these engines were located in old shipyard files.
The two 1,000 hp. engines for the Mississippi Queen were built by Pine Tree Engineering of Brunswick, Maine. "The engine parts were delivered to Jeffboat, and shortly afterwards, Pine Tree went out of business," Mr. Greene said. "This required Jeffboat to assemble the engines from 1937 drawings of similar engines."
The engines by Pine Tree are identical to those built by Marietta Manufacturing Company of Point Pleasant, West Virginia and used aboard such towboats as the old Jason, Alexander Mackenzie and the Jack Rathbone. The Jason, built in 1940, was the last steam-powered sternwheel towboat built on the inland waters. No longer in service, the Alexander Mackenzie was built in 1939 and the Jack Rathbone in 1937.
The main power plant aboard the Mississippi Queen utilizes steam generators developing 400 psi. by oil-fired boilers. Burning an estimated 335 gph., the oil-fired boilers are much different than the wood-burning boilers of steam packet and passenger boats of bygone days.
Printed with permission from A Special Salute to the Mississippi Queen for a Successful Maiden Voyage published by the WATERWAYS JOURNAL

A "steam generator" to me is a coil of piping that a flame impinges on. A variable-speed pump supplies water at exactly the rate that steam is wanted. There is no cauldron of boiling water...only a variable flame and variable pump to handle swing loads. They are much smaller (and lighter) than conventional boilers. The controls have to be somewhat sophisticated but they are inherently safer. Can't say about reliability. We had a small one at Emery that made about 6000 #/hr of steam which we called the "tea kettle" for use in emergency and we seldom ran it. It will be readily apparent that it cannot use a fuel/flame that is not instantly variable like natural gas, propane, oil etc. But coal (unless pulverized) cannot be used. A degree of superheat can be designed into it to assure dry steam at the engine/turbines. Is this what the MISS Q has?? Do turbines power the generator/s? If the MQ supplied enough steam for both generation AND propulsion it could supply MUCH MORE steam than the DQ could use. The condition that it is in is quite another story perhaps. Cap'n Walnut.

Where's KPH When You Need HIm?

When the HERBERT E. JONES (JASON) was removed from active service, the story that went around in those days was that Amherst Industries, owners of the HEJ, contacted the Greene Line and offered them the engines for scrap price, and although a certain licensed officer urged the company to buy the tandem compounds for pennies-on-the-pound for future use, the generous offer from West Virginia was refused and the historic JASON engines were torched.

Moving forward to the planning of the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN:
The engines chosen were, as the Waterways Journal explained, ones "identical to those built by Marietta Manufacturing Company", and when Pine Tree, builders of the new engines, went out of business, "drawings of similar engines" had to be purchased from the owners of the JONES at a price, wags disclosed, far exceeding what the GL could have bought the complete set of engines for in the first place.

The illustrious Chief Engineer, Kenny P. Howe, Jr., gave a superb talk at S&D, not long ago, and he went into considerable detail about the assembly of the JASON-style engines on the "new boat". How I wish he would comment, on here, about that historic event.

It wasn't Amherst that offered the engines. In June of 1967 the H.E.J. was in Pittsburgh being converted to a restaurant boat. It was those owners who offered the engines for scrap prices...they wanted to convert the engine room into a dinning room. Fred Way, Betty Blake and Bill Muster went to look at the engines when the DQ was in Pittsburgh. At that time they knew the DQ would have to be replaced because of SOLAS, but they were undecided whether or not the new boat would be steam or diesel, they were leaning toward diesel. On the advice of Fred Way, the engine offer was declined because he reasoned that since the new boat they were talking about would have to be over 300 ft. long, no stern wheel boat of that length had ever been successful (bow thrusters were unheard of on riverboats at that time).

Shipyard: Chief Kenny tells me that he rarely visits this forum. However, I'll see him at the museum this evening for a meeting and I'll tell him that his expertise is being sought!

Good Stuff ...

Jim: Thanks for establishing ownership of the engines at the time, but there was some support for the acquisition in the GL office that fell on deaf ears, I heard. But, who, then, sold them a copy of the engines plans?

Keith: Yes, please tell him this stuff is a “different category” and in his “bailiwick”, and he may see the importance of his immediate attention.

I always thought they were the same thing; boiler, generator, tea kettle. Yes, the MQ was entirely steam, provided by whatever you want to call it.

There is a definite difference between a boiler and a steam generator--although a boiler does generate steam! AFAIK, a generator creates steam as needed--on demand, and has no reserve capacity, no large containers (Such as a Mud Drum, or an Accumulation/steam drum). Typically it is made of coils of tubing connected together--sometimes from end to end, or "monotube." Some think that because of this design, it is not a pressure vessel as such. (Therefore not regulated like a boiler is--I'm not saying I agree with this position, just that some have it.)
BUT!! I am not an engineer, although I have played one in a video! (Itgo and the Time Trains).
So, as is often said here; "What do I know?"
S'
David D.