Full size printed plan to Build a thames steam launch 1:12 Scale 42" for radio control

Listing is for Full Size Printed Plans
Thames steam launch
42in. and Twin Cylinder Oscillating Steam Engine

FULL SIZE PRINTED PLAN on a SHEET 45” x 36”
ONE STEAM ENGINE and BOILER DRAWING on a SHEET 36” x 20”

Fifteen PAGES OF BUILDING NOTES, and PHOTOS(Not All Pages Shown)

SCALE 1/12 or 1inch = 1foot
LENGTH 42”
ENGINE STEAM
TWO CHANNEL RADIO CONTROL
Designed by Basil Harley
A freelance model of a typical Thames steam launch of Victorian and Edwardian days and what elegant boats they were with their sweeping sheer lines, clipper prows and counter sterns Essentially of course they were fair weather boats – day boats - and were very much family possessions. The technicalities were left to father (or the chauffeur) while cabins, saloon furnishings and the picnics were the concern of the ladies.
I hope that Miranda will serve just such family interest today since she can almost be thought of as a floating dolls house as well as having all the fascination of a live steam powered craft. What happier com¬bination of family skills could there be than the creation and sailing of such a boat?
Although a freelance design she owes much to Waterlily built in 1866 and now restored and displayed in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. The hull lines are very similar but since Waterlily is fitted with a single cylinder engine and vertical boiler I have had to modify the proportions of the forward saloon and passenger well. The scale is 1 in. to 1 ft. which makes a model boat some 42in. overall. It was gratifying recently to have her carefully inspected, and l'm glad to say, fully approved by a number of members of the Steam Boat Association.
The engine room
Miranda's power room unit consists of a twin cylinder double acting engine so that she can be fully controlled - direction, speed ahead and astern running - by radio without any "danger of the engine stalling" For simplicity of construction and control I have designed the engine with oscillating cylinders reminiscent of many 19th century marine engines.
A combination of skills
Building Miranda will make use of two quite distinct traditional skills- metalwork for the power plant and woodwork for the hull and the cabins etc. Although the build¬ing of engines and boilers is often thought of as the province of the skilled model engineer, today there are many model¬makers with small and beautifully designed lathes like the Unimats and the Cowells who can easily acquire the skills (if they do not already have them) to build a twin cylinder oscillating steam engine.
For those who just can't face it there are commercial engines available.