The Steamboating Forum

Greetings folks,
I'm an experienced live-steam railroader with a 1.5" scale Allen mogul but I'm hoping that on this forum to find folks who have interest in stern wheelers (?). For 24 years I was a missionary bush pilot in Dutch New Guinea (now called Papua, Indonesia) and had landed my float plane hundreds of times on that vast slow moving and shallow river system. It appeared that a shallow draft stern wheeler would be ideal to help the isolated tribal folks there, so I built a twin cylinder steam engine and was working on plans for a boiler and catamaran platform. But family health concerns sent us back to the US. So...any stern wheelers out there?
JohnM

Welcome, John.
Where are you located?
You can add that info to your posting and likely attract more useful responses.
RussN

Thanks Russ,
I'm located in southeast Michigan between Lansing and Detroit. Would be great to locate a sternwheeler nearby! Russ, I presume you might be the same railroader RussN on Chaski (?).
JohnM

JohnM wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2025 12:01 am Thanks Russ,
I'm located in southeast Michigan between Lansing and Detroit. Would be great to locate a sternwheeler nearby! Russ, I presume you might be the same railroader RussN on Chaski (?).
JohnM

Yes, I am.
'Keeping steam alive on all fronts.

And you can add your location by your name on your posts, from your Profile.
RussN

Welcome John

There's currently a large-ish stern wheeler for sale in Washington on the Northwest Steam Society website. Cheng Tze is a a good running boat. Al has taken her all over the US. She's a bit to handle in a crosswind though, and to single hand just so you're aware.

https://www.northweststeamsociety.org/classifieds

Hi John

Welcome to the Forum.

Whilst it is not a stern wheeler, have a look at Walkin' Belle which is for sale here: https://www.steamboatassociation.co.uk/page-1854572, It is the very last entry so scroll to the very end. Given the US Dollar/GB Pound exchange rate buying a boat in the UK is so cheap. There are RORO ferries that ship cars back and forth so you could get it to the USA easily enough. I imported a 'Rose' hull that way, (but got ripped off by the US shipping agent).

For other readers, the boat is driven by a walking beam engine and is an amazing sight under way.

Regards

Pete