PRESIDENT'S calliope

Good question! Not sure offhand, but some sleuthing of old photos of various excursion boats and even showboats could tell you. I have photos of BRYANT'S SHOWBOAT in which the calliope was sometimes on the towboat VALLEY BELLE and sometimes on the roof of the showboat. I've heard that some calliopes were moved from in front of the pilothouse because the steam fogged the pilot's vision, etc.

Here's a view of the calliope being played on the Streckfus Str. WASHINGTON on the Ohio River. Note that the instrument was aft of the Texas -- well away from the pilothouse!

JUDY;; I've had the privilege of working on the WASHINGTON's CaLLiope twice ,,in 1985 ,I was regrinding new valve-seats and remanufactured some new tracker linkage,, that was missing at the time,,..
In answer to your other question Judy ;;
The WASHINGTON's CaLLiope was a 28 note ,,,the ADMRIAL was a 32 note,, and the PRESIDENT's a 28 note,,,..
Their is a pic of the WASHINGTON's CaLLiope on our website Morecraft Manufacturing
and go to manufacturing and restoration,,..
I'll have to do some digging and find some other pix ,,,...

Dave,,,....

Dave,

The ADMIRAL was also a 28 note. To my knowledge, the Streckfi never had anything but 28 note calliopes. Does anyone have any information to the contrary on this?

Of course, one could say the BELLE OF ST LOUIS was a 43 note instrument...however, she came after the renaming of the company to Gateway Riverboat Cruises.

~Travis~

Herewith a couple more cally-ope photos which came to light. The first one is another view I snapped in March, 1972 aboard the PRESIDENT at New Orleans. The other calliope is from Billy Bryant's Showboat and was taken at the River Museum in Marietta, Ohio by Miss Ruth Feriis when the river collection was housed in the basement of Campus Martius Museum.

LOL Keith that is sooooooo Rip Ware. Mel, whats for breakfast? Eggs Cap. Well I'm havin oatmeal.....ahhhhh the Blessed light o' day!

We do plan on fully restoring the calliope during the restoration process, along with all the other historical pieces left on the President. Our goal is to preserve all we can of the wonderful historical parts the President.

Restoring the calliope

David, you've got your person for the calliope job right here on the board, and not far from the PREZ' new site: Dave Morecraft of Indiana.

I agree Judy. I talked with David's Son, I think his name was (Zach), a while back & he gave me David's phone number. I do intend on talking with David about the restoration soon. I have been out of the loop for a while during my fathers illness. My father passed away last week. Once we get things squared away & I feel my mother is okay it will be full steam ahead for me once again.