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[mickyrubble]

Hi,
 having  finshed my seaport tug,i was thinking of building a steam launch.I have a Midwest fan tail with a single oscillator  (which got me hooked on steam!) and now would like to try something more ambitious.
I was thinking about buying a Wilesco D49 and building something suitable along the lines of an open Edwardian launch.I don't know a lot about steam and was wondering if any of you lot have any opinions about the D49 or can you suggest a better alternative.The criteria i have would be:-
Reversing under RC
Self starting
Fairly simple to work at
Power a hull about 600mm up to 1m
Not too expensive (I'm skint)
Boat to be prop drive
From £0 upto about £250
Don't mind using fuel tablets
Second hand engine OK
YES I KNOW ITS A TALL ORDER ,BUT ANY IMPUT GREATLY ACCEPTED

[HS93 (RIP)]

My personal suggestion would be to keep away from brass boilers and go for gas fired especially if you want an open boat up to 1m .

Peter

[Bunkerbarge]

I would go for a Graham industries TVR1A engine and a Macsteam boiler.  Significant savings can be made by building the engine yourself however it is a machined kit so should be within the capabilities of most of us and the Macsteam boilers can be purchased bare so you can fit them outover a length of time and again lag them yourself to keep the costs right down.

http://www.grahamind.com/

http://www.maccsteam.com/index.html

[kiwimodeller]

If the budget is tight and you do not absolutely have to have the ability to reverse then go for the Graham VR1A single cylinder engine. You can then get away with a smaller boiler which will also save some money. I have one in the 875mm long River Queen and it has ample power for a hull of this size. It would easily push a 1metre hull if it was a slender design. Another reasonably priced alternative is the PM Research V twin oscillator with built in forward/reverse and throttle control off one servo. A bit hungrier for steam but a good price, heaps of power and easy to control. I built one recently for a customer and fitted it in a Kingston Mouldings 1912 Yacht Tender hull (about 1.15m) and it will easily do well over scale speed. At the moment it seems like the best value combinations are American engines with a British boiler. Cheers, Ian.

[mickyrubble]

Hi,
thanks for the advise  now i must raid my bank account