Evening steaming on the river Barle on Exmoor last night. Was great till the prop hit a rock and luckily some wading girls brought it in for me!!! Good fun playing in the current. Les Breame

And now for something different !!! My experimental coal fired steam turbine outboard boat on test for first time in the bath outside !! Stand back over there !!!

Tony Birds TANWEN paddle steamer at Tilford this year. Les Breame

One of my Old Trafford paddle steamers enhanced by my mate Duncan Laurimer and sailing on the put up pond at Tilford Rural Life Centre yesterday. Good fun was had by all !! The boiler is tablet fired [3 halves ] and is half filled with 65ml of water. Engine is single oscillator with 16:1 spur gearbox. Les Breame

Video of the first start-up and test of "Sweet Sue" in dry dock. All went well ! Had two sails on water since.I built this vessel from scratch using a pre made clinker fibreglass hull purchased from Mini Steam Australia. The engine is an oscillating twin cylinder and the boiler is a 3" Centre Flue Gas Fired Vertical Boiler from "Miniature Steam". The gas tank is a 1-1/2" vertical refillable GasTank also from Miniature Steam Pty. Australia. The vessel is radio controlled with the skipper appearing to control the rudder. it has a smoke generator and a rc controlled steam whistle.

Perfect conditions to sail "Sweet Sue" at Kowhai Park, Feilding. New Zealand.

A pleasant day out on the water with my mate Rod and his steam tug Imara and Sweet Sue.

Sweet Sue steam launch has another lovely day sailing at Kowhai Park. Feilding, New Zealand.

HELP !
I still can't seem to work out how to a post a video on the Video site.

Looking for a new project i decided to try to make an outboard steam launch. The engine and drive took a while to work out but in the end it all came together well. The boat travels at a nice speed fueled by tablets for lightness as the boiler and engine are quite heavy for the boat size which is about 22"long. There is a brief glimpse of my paddle steamer that i also made. Pictures taken at TILFORD rural life museum Farnham. Next show is Easter Saturday Les Breame

These little corvettes were the backbone of the Atlantic defence of the supply convoys from Halifax Canada to Britain from 1942 to 45
Here she is with steam engine engaged for checking before recent sailing complete with Asdic sound
This was used to echo signal of enemy submarines to pinpoint their position

A couple of new pics taken yesterday of "Sweet Sue" second time out and under steam.

I built this one from a Caldercraft kit and powered it with a twin screw steam engine
Model has steam horn sound together with bilge pump and fully equipped lighting system
Have extensively weathered the model to create realism to imitate what it probably looked like after many years steaming and working round the world in the 1930's
A smoke generator has also been fitted which together with the twin screw steam engine gives a realistic look when on the water