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Side-Wheeled Paddle Steamers
Paddle Steamers with Turbine EnginesAbove : Rhine turbine paddle tug Dordrecht at Kaub. Photo courtesy of Felix Brun / Alstom Power archive Turbines
were
fitted to three experimental paddle tugs built for use on the
River Rhein in the mid 1920s and one on the River Rhone, but it never
caught on and as far as the
webmaster knows, was not attempted elsewhere. The above photo and
drawing show the turbine and reduction gear fitted to the tug
"Dordrecht". Photo courtesy of Felix Brun /Alstom Power (successors to
Brown Boveri) archive.
PT Zurich (1922) : Escher Wyss (Zurich) / EW Zoelly turbine PT Dordrecht (1925) : Schiffs- und Maschinenbau Gesellschaft (Mannheim) / Brown Boveri Company PT Toulon (1929) : Sachsenberg (Rosslau/Elbe) / Parsons PT Rhone (1931) : Escher, Wyss (Zurich) / EW Zoelly turbine
Escher,
Wyss of Zurich were renowned engineers and shipbuilders. Long-serving
Chirf Engineer Heinrich Zoelly developed a turbine design which his
company adapted for the transportation sector, railway locomotives
as well as ships. The company also investigated the use of turbines in
paddle steamers with the two tugs Zurich and Rhone beingthe only
operational examples
Dordrecht was built for Dutch owners and with collapsable funnels so as to
be able to sail beyond Basel in Switzerland. She was one of the
longest Rhine tugs at 77.81 metres and was 22.20 metres in breadth.
Steam was fed at 300 degrees celsius from twin Scotch boilers to
two turbines, one high-pressure, the other low. There was one reverse
turbine. The turbines generated 1500 ships horse power. Double
reduction gearing reduced the revolutions from 3600 to 38. Reboilered
in 1954 she was withdrawn in 1957, parts of her boiler reused in
another vessel and the forward part of her hull used as a clubhouse for
the Seafarers-Club at Bonn
See below for more information about Dordrecht's engine kindly supplied by Felix Brun / Alstom Power Toulon Built by Sachsenberg for the Compagnie General pour la Navigation du Rhin (CGNR) based in Strasbourg. Length 69.2 m. Breadth 9 m (hull) / 18.6 m (over sponsons) Coal fired but later converted to oil Transferred to Switzerland in 1939 under the ownership of Compagnie Suisse Comptoir de Transports Rhenans (CSCTR) Damaged in 1945 at Strasbourg but repaired and reactivated Converted to oil fuel in 1952 Out of service from 1959 and scrapped in 1961 Below : Toulon in service
