Scratchbuilding a B&O RR stick lighter: Pt. II 9.
10. Rail Scuppers Tow bitts
Wales
9. All that needs doing now to complete the hull is to install the cap rail, stain all those bits of raw wood, and paint the hull. As per the prototype barges, the author only painted those areas on the sides of the hull that were protected (recessed) between the wales. The towing bitts extend down thru the deck alongside a bulkhead, and are glued to that bulkhead. This makes the bitts much stronger than they would be if they were glued solely to the edges of the decking. 10. This view from astern shows the deck planking
pieces of the 9″×9″ material to fit be- tween the pieces already in place. I found that I was able to form the cam- ber into these pieces by gently “crack- ing” the wood every ¹₈″ or so. This makes it much easier to glue them to the deck. I capped the rail with some scale 4″×12″ material, after gently easing the edges with fine sandpaper. Before adding the wales I made and installed the chain plates for the stays. I had some flat brass wire (source and size, unknown) in my supplies and formed the chainplates from this. I cut a piece about 3″ long and folded it in half around a length of wire, forming a small eye. I held the ends together in a pair of pliers and glued the straps to- gether with a drop of cyanoacrylate. Seven of these are needed. Measure down from the eye 3′-0″, and make a 90-degree bend in the straps. Trim this bend to about ¹₈″ or so. Locate the positions of the chain- plates and measure down from the top of the cap rail 3′-0″, then drill a hole just large enough to take the “pin” that you formed on the bottom end of the chain plate. Notch the overhang of the cap rail so that when you slip the pin of the chainplate into the hole the plate rests flush with the hull and the side of the rail. The eye in the chainplate should be just above the top of the cap. If you look at the drawings, you will note that the various chainplates are pointing towards the top of the mast. This angle does not have to be exact. This is a case where close is good enough. Put a drop of thick cyanoacry- late in each hole and glue the chain- plates in place. Set everything aside and let the glue dry hard. Next come the wales. I used scale 6″×8″ material for the wales on the
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trimmed flush at the ends. The low bulwarks around the edge of the deck are in place, and the cap rail is being installed. The chain- plates for the stays are in place, and the wales have been installed. The recess in the deck is where the deckhouse will sit. The trim boards on the side of the deckhouse will follow the line of the deck. The square fender timbers on the sloping portion of the ends will be trimmed vertically to make them flush with the outer face of the wales. Note that the final painting has been started on the hull.
barge, always gluing them flat to the hull (the 8″ face to the hull). The first runs around all four sides of the barge, flush with the top of the deck planking. You will need to cut a shallow notch where each chainplate is located, so that the wales will lie flush. The wales will help to anchor and strengthen the chainplates. Glue a piece along each side of the deck first, keeping the top of the wale even with the top of the deck planks. Sand these flush with the ends, then glue the pieces across the ends. Trim flush at each end, then round off the corners a bit with sandpaper. I pre- formed the ends by gently “cracking” the material at about ¹₈″ intervals, as I did for the end bulwarks earlier.
This
formed the end wales into a gentle curve that came close to the curve (camber) of the deck at the ends. The curve of the deck at the sides (the sheer) was gentle enough so that the wale could just be pinned in place until the glue dried. Working down from the deck, the second wale is located at the bottom of the vertical face of the ends. This is a straight run across each end, just at the lower edge of the end bulkheads. Cut a piece of the 6″×8″ material and glue it in place along that edge. Make any necessary notches to cover the bot- tom end of the chainplates. Sand the ends flush with the sides. This second wale does not, however, run the full length of the sides. Cut four pieces 13′- 0″ long and bevel one end at 45 de- grees. Glue these into place with the square-cut end flush with the outer face of the piece that runs across the ends and the 45 degree end towards the center of the barge. These pieces should roughly parallel the first wale. On my model they wound up about two scale inches apart on the sides. Again,
you want to round the corners with some sandpaper.
Cut some short lengths of the 6″×8″ material and trim the ends at an angle and “wrap” each of the four sloping cor- ners with them, one piece on the side of the hull and the other on the sloping face of the end, which should overlap the piece on the side. The top ends of these should fit tightly under the second wale. See the photos if this isn’t clear. The third wale is located 2′-0″ below the first one. I cut some spacers to use when gluing it in place. The ends need to be trimmed at an angle to fit snugly on the upper surface of the pieces just installed at the corners. The fourth one is located about 6″ below the third and will probably extend ‘below the water- line for part or all of its length. When the glue on these is dry, you can trim any excess that extends below the bot- tom of the barge from the lowest one. Turn the barge over and mark off the locations of the 6″×6″ “fenders” that run vertically on the sloping ends of the barge. (I admit that I do not know the correct term for these timbers, but I needed to call them something and settled on the word fenders.)
I spaced
mine about 2′-6″ apart. You want to wind up with them roughly equally spaced across the ends. These timbers provided protection to the hull plank- ing from debris in the water, as well as ice in the winter. They should be glued to the hull planking. The upper end should be cut at an angle to fit tight under the lowest wale on the ends. Once they are all glued in place you can come back and sand them flush with the outer face of the wale and trim the lower end flush with the bot- tom of the barge. This is a good time to sit down with
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