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Any models of Ohio-Erie canal boats?

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  • Member since
    November 2005
Any models of Ohio-Erie canal boats?
Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, February 13, 2005 2:06 PM
Anybody know if anybody makes wood or styrene models of boats from the canal era? we live in cleveland, right by some history, and took a trip to cebntral ohio this weekend. I should have had a camera and tape measure with me.
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Sunday, February 13, 2005 5:55 PM
If memory serves (as it frequently doesn't these days) Model Shipways used to make a solid-hull wood kit for a twentieth-century, diesel-powered canal boat. That's the only one I can think of.

An old, nineteenth-century, mule-powered one would be a great idea. Imagine what a diorama organized around such a thing could look like: the mules on the towpath, the boat in the water loaded with people and cargo. Those things were small enought that such a model could be done on a pretty large scale.

Another possibility: a modern European canal barge. On my one trip to the Continent those things fascinated me. They're long, low (so they can go under bridges), and fast (so they can make money). They're found in numerous different configurations, from bulk cargo carriers to midget oil tankers. l got a close look at one of them. The superstructure at the stern clearly was the residence of the owner and his family; the windows had curtains, and the living room, complete with nice furniture, was visible inside. On the afterdeck was a Mercedes sedan, tied down beside a little crane that could hoist it onto the pier wherever the barge happened to dock for the night. I can think of worse ways to live.

C.S. Forester once wrote an interesting short story called "If Hitler Had Invaded England." Forester speculated that the Germans could have crossed the Channel only by converting a huge percentage of those canal barges to landing craft - and thereby wrecking the economy of Europe, which, then as now, depended heavily on that barge traffic.

Pease forgive the daydreaming. Verlinden - are you listening?

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

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