HO scale

Train Troll is operated by Andy Small in Westerly, Road Island and specializes in narrow gage railroad products and model ships. Their ship kits are steam era ships from the period of the 1890's till the 1920's. Original designs, they are based on prototypical naval architecture of the time and are typical of coastal and tramp steamers that plied the world's oceans and bays.

This kit (No. HO-109-A) is of a prototypical western river small towboat design. While this version is more typical of towboats used from the 1890s till the 1930s, these small but very powerful steam powered wood hull paddlewheel vessels plied the western rivers up into the 1960s. For those unfamiliar with towboats, the term "tow" is used as a noun, with "tow" referring to the collective name given to the grouping of barges (a tow) these vessels pushed through the rivers from West Virginia across to the Dakotas. These vessels had to navigate very shallow rivers as well as deal with strong river currents while remaining maneuverable, so they were constructed to float more like a leaf on top of the water, than like the traditional deep hull of a vessel built for the open ocean. In additional to the transport of materials, towboats were used with transfer barges to transport rail traffic across rivers, and move "showboats" (theaters built on barges) from town to town.

This kit builds either a full hull version or waterline model. The length of the HO scale model (1:87) is 13.5" (34.3 cm) and a custom towboat name and homeport is supplied by the customer and added to the kit production.

It is available direct from the Train-Troll website for $159.95 (US) plus shipping.