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ironclad gunboat CAIRO

Interesting stuff Dave. Maybe someday some answers will turn up on the engine. Surely it wasn't one of a kind. Do you think other engines were made of the same design or at least similar that might provide some answers. After all, how did they come up with the drawings that do exist even if they aren't complete?

Bob
 
Interesting stuff Dave. Maybe someday some answers will turn up on the engine. Surely it wasn't one of a kind. Do you think other engines were made of the same design or at least similar that might provide some answers. After all, how did they come up with the drawings that do exist even if they aren't complete?

actually the engine is sort of one of a kind because it was a design by the Hartupee company in PA so it is their version of the 6 column design.
kind of like todays car industry. Cars are basically all the same but each car company produces their "model"
Your asking the $100,000.00 question when the engine was drawn for the National Parks Structural report where did it come from? did the draftsman "see" the Cairo engine at one time? are there drawings and archives someplace on the engine? if the engine was lost how does anyone know this type and model steam engine was used in the Cairo? This is the needle in the haystack and among a 1,000 haystacks is there an actual Hartupee 6 column steam engine someplace that was used to draw the plan from? could the engine be lawn art in someones front yard that grandpa dragged out of the Yazoo river years ago?

another question is if the National Parks went through all the trouble to rebuild the Cairo and create a museum why didn't they go back and look for the engine?
 
another question is anybody out there?

I do know the Mississippi Agricultural and Industry has a photo collection as well as Jim Smeal from the NPS took a collection of photographs by this weekend it will be 6 weeks and still nothing no reply from anyone.
 
a major break through in research I tracked down the head man that was in charge of EVERYTHING that had to do with the Cairo

so lets see what this leads to
 
things are moving slowly forward more and more people are getting interested

and guess what SOS has become the epic center for everything Cairo and its steam power plant.
before you know it RC guys will be checking in model engineers will be taking a look, historians, model builders.


There's a really cool engine model out there. I saw it a bunch of years ago ago at Cabin Fever. I have to do some remembering. It was a model company I think in Ohio, not Myers. There was a whole series written in Live Steam about the engine and all to do to build it. Let me think....

Best regards,

Tim Lynch, Editor
Captain and Chief Engineer
 
DAVE, Do not fall into the trap of waiting for a responce, I understand this as my family does that ALSO, I AS YOU MIGHT GUESS DO NOT, IF A RESONABLE TIME GOES BY CONTACT AGAIN, AND AGAIN, BE A PIA SOMETIMES IT WORKS. Don
 
what I wanted to do was trace the salvage operation from start until the National parks stepped in. From the start salvage was done by the locals. My thoughts are if I can find enough pictures and check each one to see if that engine shows up in any photograph. If it does I will have a date when it was last seen. If it never shows up in any photo collection than maybe it was never recovered and sitting at the bottom of the Yazoo river. If it is there then start contacting people and organizations with deep pockets just for the thrill of the hunt. Today we do have the technology to pin point its location and go get it.

just look at all the locals and they took pictures somebody in the crowd knows something or has pictures.

who owns those cranes? do they know something, once this generation passes on all this will just dissolve into history because there will be no one to ask just incomplete archive information. Just ask any new generation park ranger at Vicksburg about anything and you get "I don't know"

Salvage-of-Civil-War-Ironclad-USS-CAIRO-Yazoo-MS-1964.jpg
 
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DAVE, Do not fall into the trap of waiting for a response, I understand this as my family does that ALSO, I AS YOU MIGHT GUESS DO NOT, IF A RESONABLE TIME GOES BY CONTACT AGAIN, AND AGAIN, BE A PIA SOMETIMES IT WORKS. Don


I love the research and creating projects for future builders, designers and 3D artists and the history of it all. Most of all it is the thrill of the hunt and the rush you get when you find it.

anyhow to a point you can push people for information but there is a point you get cut off and they no longer reply. Museums are great at this they will answer some basic questions but the more you ask the less you get. Perhaps it is the research fees they love to milk you out of.
 
Long time between these last two posts.


there are a lot of projects put back on the shelf for some reason or another. but as new developments come up these projects come back alive


Hey Dave, does this look familiar??? Took your drawing, rendered it, and toolpathed it.... ready for CNC or 3D printing!!!


yup it is the main frame for the steam engine of the Mississippi
 
So what was the original plan? Was there going to be a kit produced? Was it going to be wood, card, or plastic? Some combination like 3DP detail parts for a card model? Enquiring minds want to know : P
 
xanthar said:
So what was the original plan? Was there going to be a kit produced? Was it going to be wood, card, or plastic? Some combination like 3DP detail parts for a card model? Enquiring minds want to know : P
Click to expand...

there are a few good build logs of the Ciaro. as far as this topic i was looking into a possible kit but gave up on the idea because of the time and expense to create any sort of kit. There is just not enough interest in it To create a kit requires a lot of work including building the prototype.
 
the project went cold 6 years ago because those that were interested are long gone. At that time 3D modeling was just getting started as a tool in this hobby and finding people to create the 3D files were very expensive to hire.
To revive this would require a group to form with people with knowledge of CAD drawing and 3D modeling. Looking back on the posts like Bob Hunt posted it take a lot of work and if there is no personal profit in it count me out. There is a need for someone with a resin printer willing to print parts.
Zoltan posted a link to a build log by Gene Bodnar but that has been lost in cyber space. At one time i had the US government report and study of the wreck but it gave all that information away.
 
Here's a render of my WIP. Obviously there's a lot of detail missing but, it's starting to shape up.

UssCairo01.png
 
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