by William Lafferty » May 6, 2021, 12:18 pm
The Watson at Cleveland and the Leon Fraser at Milwaukee were converted to oil firing with automated boiler controls during the winter of 1969-1970, and both have that small house aft the funnel which does not appear before that work as far as I can tell. My guess is it has something to do with the Bailey automated boiler control system incorporating a (by today's standards) rudimentary computer system that may have been sensitive to the heat of the engine room, forcing its relocation. I note the William G. Mather, the first such vessel so converted on the lakes, has a similar house appended to its funnel aft. The main control console was in the engine room, though.
The [i]Watson[/i] at Cleveland and the [i]Leon Fraser[/i] at Milwaukee were converted to oil firing with automated boiler controls during the winter of 1969-1970, and both have that small house aft the funnel which does not appear before that work as far as I can tell. My guess is it has something to do with the Bailey automated boiler control system incorporating a (by today's standards) rudimentary computer system that may have been sensitive to the heat of the engine room, forcing its relocation. I note the [i]William G. Mather[/i], the first such vessel so converted on the lakes, has a similar house appended to its funnel aft. The main control console was in the engine room, though.