Colbert's Ferry & Chickasaw Rail Road: Yankee Gunboat on Wheels Build

Federal Rail Monitor - Yankee Gunboat

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An editorial in the New York Times dated March 11th 1900:

This following description I found in the annals of the Twenty Third Massachusetts Regiment. This was the Unit that is mentioned in the veterans article above. It helps with color and the mention of a canvas roof makes more sense when I read other descriptions referring to some cars as a "Tent on a Flat Car".

A search of records of the "Ninth New Jersey" daily reports shed no more light on this car or cars. No mention of any details of the cars came to light, although they/it was mentioned in passing about patrols etc. being performed. Noted in the Ninth's journals as "the Monitor".

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My build of this car.

15 degree sides and ends. Scale height is 9 feet. Paper template for rough feel of shape and size. No other dimensions besides the mention of 15 degrees on the sides and ends leaves room for lots of personal conjecture. I am assuming that his mention of angle was 15 degrees from vertical as I have done here.

15 Degrees from Horizontal doesn't make much sense in these given car sizes. At the Horizontal placement the height of the armor at midpoint of the car would have been only 1 foot. The description states that there was a gun port in the front of the car. One foot would not have necessitated a port or embrasure. Nor would it have needed rifle ports along the sides as written.

The sides are a cast off hopper to simulate the "Boiler Plate" description.

This will be the front of the car. I used the side of a caboose so that I could use the window as the embrasure/gun port.

***NOTE***

As I re-read this article over and over, I tune into things that I miss. The front of this car was NOT boiler plate. As I read the description now, the "Old Rails SPIKED on side by side". That leads to them being spiked directly to the wooden superstructure or "house" as the veteran calls it. So my boiler plate front end will be painted to look like wood and Strap Rail will be "spiked on side by side".

The rear of the car. As mentioned in the article, ALL sides were at 15 degrees. I will be imagineering the entrance and exit to the car from a trap door in the floor. The 2nd Maryland rail gun battery was so equipped and could be a logical access point.

Caboose Chassis with wood coffee stir sticks cut for decking then I'll use a mini rasp/file to align the sides and distress the deck.

Timber and planking inside the casemate. Scale outside dimensions at widest points of casemate:
Width = 10'6"; Length = 33'; Height = 8' on the vertical.

Side sills are on the flat car base. End sills forthcoming.

Test fit of upper case mate to flat car platform.

Test fit seems to be good.

Test fit from top showing placement of trap door access to and from this car.

Roughing out the Navel Gun Carriage design.

Penciled onto a tongue depressor, the 2 sides and the bottom to the right. A piece of sprue from a model for the barrel. The wheels are found in a cast off butane lighter. They are under the screw wheel nozzle, 1 per lighter. It even has the appearance of an axle. I drilled the holes for the canon trunnions in the framework and using a spring clothes pin, glued the sides to the base with white (PVA) glue allowing the barrel to pivot up and down to some extent. The butane lighter wheels are held on with super-glue (CA)

6 pounder in naval style carriage. As done as I'm gonna' do!

On trucks to get a rough look at fit.

Entry/Exit hatch, right-rear roughed in for fit. A description reports the opening as being 2 foot by 2 foot (.610 meters by .610 meters).

The still unfinished gun was test fit in "porthole" embrasure. Barrel fits comfortably through and has some traverse.

A line from the records of the 23rd Mass:
The Monitor, an iron-clad battery, accompanies each train. It's black sides, relieved with red ports whence peep rifled guns, make a formidable show.

It is as close as I could find out of the bottle for the "Gun Deck Red". These pix make it look like chinese red but it is plain old flat red.

The Reference to a canvas roof helps. Now to do a card stock mock up to see how it will look and how it will fit.

Paper "dummy's" are a real help in figuring out how things might fir or what problems I may run into. I have looked at loads of canvas coverings on Monitors and other ships of the time and I believe that the roof would have been raised up to allow air circulation and smoke clearing airflow. A train traveling at 25mph will make some preventative lashing necessary but not unfeasible to a Navy Crew used to working sheets of canvas in ocean winds. I don't believe this car was meant to be fired from full steam in hostile situations.

My brain hurts from thinking about the style and how they may have accomplished the canvas tent cover on this car. It couldn't have been flat for the rain would build up and either drip or at worst collapse into the confines of the Monitor. A center post tent structure would have interfered with the combat efficiency and created a bottleneck inside. My solution was a "pup tent" style roof. Made from a strip of 80# cover stock, lightly scored inside for a crisp fold down the center. A wire from a "Twist Tie" is glued down the crease, the ends becoming the poles for the tent. A coat of light tan brushed over the top side, the underside will not be seen.

Roof done, Interior done, Last item was truss rods. They are carpet thread soaked in Elmer's (PVA) glue to stiffen them up and mounted over pieces of popcicle stick. NO! I didn't put on Link & Pin couplers on this as of yet.

Note floor/deck warping. I am spending most of my waking hours outside on the deck. The Florida humidity is intense and has caused the defect. It will be hidden from plain sight and shouldn't cause any problems.