Railworks America

OK, y'all know my Avatar and my Signature. Well I put this together for some friends over at the Steam/ RW forum, I got lots of behind-the-scenes (areas not open to public yet) photos on a recent crew tour of the USS Iowa.
http://www.abithelp.com/open-discussion/topic1845.html
Yes, the Iowa does have boilers, four to be exact. Four steam turbine engines work thru reduction gearboxes to produce 53,000 SHP each, top speed (at 10% over max) is 42MPH, at 53,000 tons. Most other specs you can get online, but I think the pics are pretty good (camera had a tough time with focus in some dark areas) She gets 800 gallons per mile from diesel #2. (carries 2.6 million gallons)

I'll be going on two more crew only tours this month and next month so I'll upload more pics as I get & edit them. 9/25 is the "03 level and steering gear" tour, 10/9 is the "superstructure" tour.

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

I remember when I went on the USS Alabama years ago, I always wondered why the built the doors so high up off of the floor, what's with that?

jpetersjr wrote: I always wondered why the built the doors so high up off of the floor, what's with that?

Easy, to keep small amounts of water out without completely closing the watertight door. Also clearance for the door to open and close. Reason the doors are oval shape is for strength. Outer doors have a taller sill and have stronger latch mechanisms. In heavy seas, outer doors are closed as waves can reach up to the 04 level decks at times! That's the reason the Iowa's 04 level bridge was enclosed in 1943. Waves over the bow would soak the bridge crew.

When on battle alert, all watertight doors on the entire ship were closed, hatches, too. In case the ship was hit and water was flooding in, it could be contained easier.

Got some new pictures up from last Wednesday's "deck 3 and steering gear" tour: http://www.abithelp.com/post17562.html#p17562. If that link doesn't "jump" you to the new pics, scroll down to where the topic says new. Enjoy!

The staff on the USS Iowa thought it would be a nice gesture during the gov't shutdown (please, NO politics here!) to allow free admission to all US veterans and all active duty US personnel. Just FYI, I know not many here are even near where the Iowa is berthed.

arizonachris wrote:The staff on the USS Iowa thought it would be a nice gesture during the gov't shutdown (please, NO politics here!) to allow free admission to all US veterans and all active duty US personnel. Just FYI, I know not many here are even near where the Iowa is berthed.

Good on them! How's that for non-political?

It worked darn well, too, we were swamped over the weekend, even with temps in the low 90's!

Apologies for the quality, it's my cell phone, didn't bring the camera because of rain. Anyways:
http://www.abithelp.com/post17658.html#p17658

http://www.abithelp.com/post17699.html#p17699

These are just super. Thank you again for sharing.

OK, y'all, uploaded another batch of pics. Bunch of stuff off my phone; couple big tours, Veteran's Day and a new section of the tour opened up:

http://www.abithelp.com/open-discussion ... tml#p17975

I'll have more soon, this Saturday is Perl Harbor Day, we'll have a memorial ceremony, plus that night is the 51st annual Christmas Boat Parade, all lit up, 60 or more boats going past the Iowa in the main channel. Should be good!

Once again thank you for sharing.

One of my favorite pictures of the Iowa firing broadside. It does look like the ship moves judging by the way the water looks, but the truth is, that ship doesn't move an inch even with all 9 guns firing. It's just the percussion from the guns, and from the sides of the ship reverberating.

Posted some videos for your enjoyment: http://www.abithelp.com/open-discussion ... tml#p18252

I'll try and put up more pics as I get them. Christmas lights boat parade was a bust, camera didn't want to work in the cold, cell phone pics were awful.