The Reading Tug – Schuylkill
Barry Hensel
2013

My Reading Lines – Central Division layout has needed a tug boat for the Port Richmond coal dock scene for some time. I finally found a Walthers Tug kit for a reasonable price at a local train show. And that has started this journey and clinic…. I am not trying to model a Reading Tug precisely, but make this model enough of a Reading Tug to be recognized as a Reading Tug.

Here is the kit which is the starting point. The Reading Railroad had a tug fleet of 6 tugs in two different classes. This kit closely matches the first class, of which the Schuylkill is also a class 1 Reading Tug. Here are two pictures of the different classes -

Note the differences in the upper deck and pilot house areas.
Class 1 – left photo is very much like the model with a pilot house in the front only.
Class 2 – right photo has an extended pilot house with stairs on both sides to a side door.

I’m also taking a bit of modelers/layout owner license, as the Schuylkill tug did not operate in the Port Richmond area, but it will be stationed there on my layout.

Now that some basic research has been done (Thanks to the members of the Reading Modeler web-forum!) we can get started with the build.

OK, next installment....

Here’s some of the basic kit components… these are the hull parts, which is built first.

The right side of the hull gets glued to the bottom after some supports are glued in. The bottom edge between the hull and bottom does not have tabs so be careful when aligning these parts. I used some ACC to hold them together more quickly.

One would think you glue the left hull to this assembly – NO!! the deck must now be glued to the right side and bottom. This is because the hull sides are wrapped over the decking and you would never get the deck installed if the hull was glued together. BE VERY careful lining up the deck with the hull side!! (don’t ask me how I know…)

The deck is curved so some weights were added to help hold it down while the glue dried. My mistake was not being careful when aligning the desk and it was too far forward – See how I did not get the front lined-up properly!

Gluing the left side hull on I again used ACC to tack it in place, as you have to line it up and there are no good tabs to do that. Now when you try to glue the left side hull on, you end up with a gap at the front -

One possible solution would have been to trim the deck to a new point to match the right side hull piece. But I figured that tug boats would not need a sharp hull point, plus when you add the fender (the large mass at the front of a tug that it uses to push with) it would help hide my mistake. I proceeded to fill the gap with some strip styrene and putty -

Again, it doesn’t look too bad and most will be covered anyway.

no harm no foul! was the gap your error, or is it a quality control issue? nothing a little putty and styrene can patch regardless.

HI Turbo... it was my mistake, just didn't take the extra minute to be sure it was lined-up correctly.

The deck piece does not have any tabs to help lock it in place. It looks OK at the rear, but you have to double check the front... as I found out!

Live and learn...I guess that's why they call it modeling.

Looking forward to your end results Barry.