Liberty Belle Steam Powered Model Sternwheeler Test Float and Run ! 

Thanks ! It was a lot of fun to build. It is based off of pictures I found of the full scale engines from long ago. Here is a video of the boat on the water under steam. There are several more videos of it on my channel ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BSn42yYE9_A.html

Thanks for that !! It came out looking and running better than I expected

sorry for the delay I missed this comment somehow, Thanks it was a LOT of fiddling with valve timing to get it to run that well.

Thanks !!

If you do I’d love to see it !

@@DeltaAPmech thank you! cant promise, but once i get these manualscript done. i may try.

+xKmotx Thanks a lot !

Thanks! The little motor is there to spin a little propeller that’s in a pipe. It’s there as a backup to get the boat back if something goes wrong with the steam engine or boiler. It has been used a couple of times. Keeping a boiler and all that linkage happy isn’t always easy.

Do you still have this boat id like to buy it

@@kristafoster7190 Yep I still have it but I doubt you want to pay what its worth to me :-)

Me too! Steam engines have a lot of character.

Yes the connecting rods are at 90 degrees to each other. Its setup that way to enable the two cylinder engine to self start at any position the paddle shaft/paddle happens to be in at rest. Because of orientation of those rods the power output of the system was not very even through the cycle. I had to play with the cam timing and valve durations of both the intake and exhaust to try to get the paddle to turn at a consistent rate. The other fly in the ointment was the boiler water feed pump. It takes a good bit of energy to operate and it loads down the engine on its compression stroke quite a bit. It took lots of fiddling and trial/error to get it all turning at a consistent rate. Turns out putting the paddle in the water smoothed out the movement of the paddle even further. That was a nice accidental find :)

​@@DeltaAPmech I bet you pleased with yourself now it all turns about that workmanship you have explained well. Thank you for sharing this. I just bought a book called Rivermen and that was published in the 70's, in which you may agree a good find - all leather coated too. It had one neat drawing inside of a steamboat paddle wheeler she was called Far East, well I build model boats for a hobby and it was intriguing to find online RU-vid of the mechanics of this newer as first seen insightful contraption to which yours I found was the best video thanks. Yes I agree with what you are saying the precision must be spot on; plenty food for food on the engine type however is that one stroke? With what you are saying also I guess there were quite a lot of trees cut down to run the steamboats momentum, perhaps not the ideal solution nowadays though no one can ignore the steam powered engine. A very simple design in Engineering anyhow you maybe interested to know even further President Lincoln was involved in the first designs. Though these boats never lasted long typical of habitat nature surroundings and, those grasshoppers were something else to low river bank warnings get over almost all.

@@glennnicholas1602 Sounds like a neat book. This is a twin cylinder double stroke setup. Each cylinder pushes and pulls. Yep, I'll bet lots of wood was needed ! Coal was used too and now the few remaining ones use fuels like oil and cng. These things aren't the most maneuverable boats and rivers full of logs stumps and sandbars took their toll ! Still with all their inefficiency's and short comings compared to todays standards they cant be beat for character !!!

Not sure what kind of engine you are asking about. This one has two double acting cylinders driving the paddle, so I know how they work