"Devonia" a large radio controlled model paddle steamer 62x14x26in(157.5x36x66cm)
Sold for £900 inc. premium
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Find your local specialist"Devonia" a large radio controlled model paddle steamer
Hull of hollowed timber with built-on paddle boxes. Painted cream/black to the waterline and red below with a green boot top. Pierced with portholes and saloon windows. Varnished laminated timber decks with inscribed plank lines. Deck saloon section with twin funnels lifts for access to interior. Highly developed mechanical setup with a "Navigator" digital transmitter with four proportional and eight switched controls for electric traction motor and geared drive to paddle shafts, feathering paddles, rechargable battery bank, smoke generator and horn, electric lighting, tannoy announcements and music. Radio receiver and servo for steering lines to rudder. Details include passenger seating, scale figures, ship's boats on davits, bridge with wheel, binnacle and telegraph. Mounted in a perspex glazed storage/display case. 62x14x26in(157.5x36x66cm)
Footnotes
Originally a static model, "Devonia" was converted to pond use by the late Gordon Wood for her owner Col. Christopher Jennings, editor of "The Motor" in 1955. Wood subsequently acquired her for himself, adding and improving her radio controlled accomplishments. She appeared at shows throughout the country and featured in the 1958 film "The 39 Steps" with Kenneth Moore.
PSS "Devonia" was built by John Brown & Co. Ltd. in 1905 for P.A.Campbell Ltd. She was fitted with compound steam engines of 2,000 ihp. During her career she was a popular sight in the Bristol Channel and the South coast. In both World Wars she was requisitioned as a minesweeper, finally being abandoned at Dunkirk in May 1940 after being bombed by the Luftwaffe.