- Joined
- Mar 31, 2012
- Location
- Central Ohio
I took a jaunt down to Marietta yesterday to address an oversight-- though having lived within two hours of the place for many years, I had never visited the Ohio River Museum. Glad I did. Though focusing mainly on the post-Civil War period, it's still quite applicable in many ways regarding the boats of the Western rivers...
This model caught my eye near the entry. Before being donated to the museum, it was an actual engined (small gasoline engine) floating model, with just enough room for a driver to sit at the bow! It is not modeled after a specific historical boat, but the detail is pretty amazing.
The plaque says that this is the oldest authentic riverboat pilothouse in existence.
A full-sized (f0rmerly) floating reproduction of a Western flatboat. (The guide said they had to take it out of the water because she wasn't very watertight and took a lot of daily pumping after a few years... the originals, of course, didn't need to last longer than one downstream trip.)
A compound engine aboard the W.P. Snyder, Jr, with both a high- and a low-pressure cylinder. These engines still work, though they're not run very often anymore.
The Snyder's engine room. Not so glitzy as the Belle of Louisville...
The guide in the Snyder's pilothouse. The boat is 100 years old this year, and a bit of a party is planned, with some other visiting sternwheelers.
One of the capstan/winch engines caught my eye...
(Cont'd)
This model caught my eye near the entry. Before being donated to the museum, it was an actual engined (small gasoline engine) floating model, with just enough room for a driver to sit at the bow! It is not modeled after a specific historical boat, but the detail is pretty amazing.
The plaque says that this is the oldest authentic riverboat pilothouse in existence.
A full-sized (f0rmerly) floating reproduction of a Western flatboat. (The guide said they had to take it out of the water because she wasn't very watertight and took a lot of daily pumping after a few years... the originals, of course, didn't need to last longer than one downstream trip.)
A compound engine aboard the W.P. Snyder, Jr, with both a high- and a low-pressure cylinder. These engines still work, though they're not run very often anymore.
The Snyder's engine room. Not so glitzy as the Belle of Louisville...
The guide in the Snyder's pilothouse. The boat is 100 years old this year, and a bit of a party is planned, with some other visiting sternwheelers.
One of the capstan/winch engines caught my eye...
(Cont'd)