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After building a Tug it was perhaps a good idea to give it something to
Tug.
Looking through some books I came across a drawing of a river Thames
Lighter or barge. The full size lighter is 88' x 21' x 22' and carries up
to 245 tons of cargo. At a scale factor of 1:24 this will give a model
lighter around 996mm (35.5") x 130mm (5.5") x 266mm (10.5")... and a cargo
area of 600mm (23.5") x 208mm (8.25").
So far three of these lighters have been built from plywood & a forth is
on the stocks.
The result is a very light model which is most useful for transportation,
but useless for serious towing work. This was expected to be the case in
the design stage. The cargo area was adjusted so as the cargo is two rows
of one pint plastic milk bottles, which are filled with water pond side,
thus giving a real load for the Tug. Even on rough water with a full cargo
& the cargo area also filled with water they can still be towed & will not
sink!!
Another form of cargo has been tried, but with haphazard results!!......oh
the cargo...Tins of John Smiths!!!!!!!!..
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