FABULOUS JOB, as all your builds are. A true masterpiece.
Bob
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Congratulations on an outstanding creation and thank you for bringing us along.
Thanks folks. Hope everyone who celebrates had a lovely Christmas and got everything they asked for from Santa. We started the drive to the Philadelphia area on XMas eve day, and arrived yesterday. If you can do it, driving over the road on these two days was wonderful. No traffic, no trucks, and not much construction. Other than spending 11 hours in a car, it was totally stress free.
The model made the trip to my sisterâs house in perfect condition. The Buick is a very smooth riding car and the roads were in great condition. No major bumps and no parts were lying in the bottom of the case when we arrived.
Weather on the weekend is forecast as lousy, but temperatures with moderate on Monday (delivery day) and only light rain is expected. Ergo, all systems are go to bring the model to the ship at 9:00 am. I am also going to do some picture taking of the steering compartments in anticipation of the next build. John Miano said he has engineering drawings of them somewhere. As with the engine room, no drawings =.no project. Of course, I will keep everyone apprised of the situation.
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Oh, how did I miss the final entry in this very inspiring build log !
Very impressive workflow and result. I must admit I didnât read all the entries but the indepth explications and step by step descriptions were as interesting as they were inspiring.
Congratulations on a job well done and a terrific one at that !
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The engine room made the 700+ mile trip from our Louisville house to the Battleship New Jersey in perfect condition. That was a miracle considering the number of pieces and the complexity of its construction. Every bump we hit I was expecting to hear the sound of parts flopping onto the base. It never happened. Itâs now displayed in the same space as the other two models I created for the ship in the Officerâs Ward Room Lounge. Iâve suggested to Ryan Syzmanski that they put a mirror behind it so folks can view the aft side which also has important details to view.
The image shows me with Ryan going over some interesting aspects of the engine room design that had to be incorparated in the model. One of these was the 3Âș outboard facing angle of the entire propulsion train. None of the propeller shafts are parallel to the shipâs center line.
Iâm starting to gather information on the next project; the steering compartments. We spent about an hour photographing and scanning this equipment. Next to Ryanâs officce is the âblueprint roomâ which has banker boxes full of every drawing used to build the ship. I found the one labeled âMechanical Steeringâ and found all of the drawings needed to build the model.
As much as Iâm sorry to see it go, Iâm am relieved that the model made it unscathed and is in a great viewing place to be seen long after Iâm gone.
The steering gear consists of four compartments: 2 with identical hydraulic pumps and controls, and 2 with massive double-acting hydraulic cylinders pushing and pulling on the crank that tops the rudder post. I did a rough calculation to figure out the forces involved in turning a 25 foot tall rudder steering a 57 ton vessel at 33 knots and ccme up with around 600,000 pounds. Iâm contemplating a model that will have the rudder system oscillating to show folks how it works.
This is starboard steering room. The left and rear bulkheads are 17" armor plate. The right bulkhead is thin and separates the two steering compartments. Unlike all the other major armor installations in the ship, this area is the only space where the armor is a structural part of the ship and not an appliquĂ©. Itâs a place that needs a lot of protection. At the base of the rudder post is a handwheel and worm that engages in a ring gear surrounding the rudder post. The chances of manually cranking the rudder around are about the same as rotating a main turret with the handwheel in the electric deckâzero to none.
Looking from the other end, you see the connecting links from the cylinder crosshead to the rudder crank. There are four connecting links; two on top and two on the bottom. The size of the parts is a good indication of the forces being managed in this machinery.
This is the official last post of the engine room project. When I begin the steering systems in earnest I will open another thread. If youâre ever the US East Coast in the Philadelphia area, please take some time to visit the New Jersey. Itâs worth the trip!
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Congratulations once again on the completion and delivery of this amazing project. I canât wait to follow along on your steering gear build. The New Jersey is lucky to have you as a friend and contributor.
Builder_2010,
Incredible work! Where did you get all the Westinghouse propulsion plant prints? What are the drawing numbers for the plan lists?
Thank you,
jdm
I got scans of the Westnghouse drawings from John Miano. John is the author of âA Visual Tour of the Battleship New Jerseyâ and had obtained the microfilm from the National Archives. I can send you the prints I have via DropBox or Google Drive. The prints do not tell the complete story, but they gave me enough to get started and I filled in the blanks with photos and my own imagination.
For example: I had very detailed drawings of the main reduction gear housing, but lacked any information about the gears themselves. I had to guesstimate the gear diameters based on the total reduction ratio of the entire gear train and the approximate clearances within the gear box. i have no idea how close I came to the actual gear specifications. They just looked right!
Hereâs some drawing examples:
The drawings with the LP rotor profiles were very valuable and I drew the rotors directly over the drawing in SketchUp. The bearing details at the ends was too complicated for me to model as it was and I faked it a bit.
This drawing was of the LP stator fins. I attempted to include them, but quickly realized it was an exercise in futility and provided no additional value or understanding and made assembly almost impossible.
What are you planning to do with the drawings? Theyâre difficult to interpret and some are in bad shape. Plan on spending a lot of time reviewing them before building anything.
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I am not even a modeler, but I am into studying the drawings on old ships to see how things were done. My day job is working on ship propulsion and power generation equipment as a field service engineer. I follow the Battleship NJ YouTube channel which is how I went down a rabbit hole and ended up seeing this thread. Of course I downloaded the BB-62 general plans that they made available, and even printed them in their native size to cover the kitchen table.
If you wanted to share any of those drawings via the Google Drive, it would be much appreciated. (I think I am unable to send private messages yet since I just joined, but I think I can receive them.)
One more update. Ryan Syzmanski just uploaded another video in his Battleship New Jersey. This one features the Engine Room model. He did a very flattering job on this one.
âNext up will be the Steering Gear, when I can get my hands on the drawings. Stay tunedâŠ
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You do amazing work my freind!