A tow boat for the river barges

[Ralph]

I made this tow boat out of blocks of wood and cardboard (I intentionally used a ceral box so I could join the club of venerable breakfast container modlers!). The pilot house is made from a small clear plastic box that some screws came in. The stacks in the back are fashioned from hand held pencil sharpeners. The red life rings are tiny washers.
Ralph

 

[Ralph]

Another shot as it goes down river..... Hey Huck!

 

[Tyson Rayles]

Man, that's one more impressive tugboat!!!!

 

[Clerk]

Ralph, Great job on the tugboat.

 

[Blake]

Very cool.

 

[Drew1125]

Excellent!!

Great job, Ralph!


(I hope the cereal mfg's don't get wise to you guys...I can barely afford the stuff now! )

 

[TrainClown]

Welcome to the "Cereal Box Builders Club"

A worthy entry I must say. Reminds me of my days on the ol' Fraser River. Now your bit by the bug. I think that tug is over workin' pushin' that barge! Could catch fire! I think you better wip up a fire boat now!


TrainClown

 

[TomPM]

Very nice. Great looking boat.

 

[sumpter250]

Hmmmm, I'll bet the tugs engineer knows all the "fine points" of maintaining the powerplant, but I've heard that four hours at the wheel "screws" with your mind!
Great use of common items to craft (no pun intended) a superb tow boat!
Pete

 

[kettlestack]

That's a top notch model you built there Ralph.
You must have a super knack of looking at everything and thinking how it's shape and size can be used to fit a model ... great innovation Sir with very impressive results.
I love the details like railings, ladders, antennae, lifebelts, flag etc etc.
I bet it get's a "pride of place" on your layout .... and so it should.

Errol

 

[spitfire]

Ralph, that is so cooooool! Ranks right up there with your shampoo bottle blast furnace. I love the way you take ordinary things and turn them into great models. It's an art in and of itself I think.

cheers
Val

 

[Ralph]

Thanks everyone! This really was a fun project. It came together pretty quickly too except for a two week period when I was stumped for what to do about the stacks. Then I saw those pencil sharpeners in the Dollar Store (2 for a buck!). Since everything else on the boat was left over from other projects, that dollar is about the total cost of the model!
Ralph

 

[shaygetz]

I know I've seen that one...pushing coal shipped in by the UP R.R. from the Port of Pensacola up the Escambia Bay near my house to the paper mill. It must have replaced the one that ran into Three Mile Bridge some time back. Great work.

 

[philip]

Very nice!! Come help with mine!

philip

 

[brakie]

Ralph,Get job on modeling that tow..

 

[Matthyro]

Wow that is one powerful looking tug Ralph. What's her name?
Very nice modeling.

 

[UP_STEVE]

very cool, and creative