HOME | DD

Description

UPDATE 2021/10/19 - Removed the extra spurious pair of paddlewheels from the center of the hull, due to a porting issue at the time, now fixed for your greater pleasure. For those of you who still have the original release and don't want to download it again, all you have to do is delete the extra pair inside the hull.

--------------------

Ported to OBJ from the fantastic retail quality model by Erwin Welker for Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 2 (CFS2). Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. NO MODEL DOWNLOAD.

From 1837 to 1839, the brand new paddlewheel steamship SS Great Western was the largest ship in the world. She has gone down in world shipping history because she was also the first steamer to go into service specifically built for long ocean voyages. Later (and even bigger) oceangoing paddlewheel steamers were inspired by or modeled on her design. She was criticized by many at the time as being too big; however, her designers foresaw that a bigger steamer than was required (at a minimum) would actually be more fuel efficient and cost effective in the long run, and Great Western proved them right. She made her first Atlantic crossing from England to America with a full load of coal and making a full head of steam all the way, chugging along at respectable top speed of just over 8.6 knots (very fast for a steamer at the time), and still had 200 tons left once she arrived in New York two weeks later. She proved very successful in service and by 1843 had more than recovered her builder's cost in profits made. Three years later her owners, the aptly named Great Western Steamship Company, went bankrupt due to misfortunes with another one of their vessels, but she was subsequently purchased by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and was successfully operated by them on first the West Indies and later South American runs until 1855. Her last service for king and country was to be pressed into service as a military transport for the Royal Navy during the Crimean War (1853-56). By the time that was ended Great Western was badly showing her age, and she was sent to the breakers once that conflict was over. To find out more about the historic British oceangoing paddlewheel steamer SS Great Western, follow the links below:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great…

martinstevens.com/ss-great-wes…

www.thoughtco.com/isambard-kin…

Erwin Welker does it again with his beautiful retail quality model of this historic vessel. It is simply gorgeous for its poly count, and I don't think you find too many other free Great Western models out there that have the same winning combination of good looks and fairly low poly count. I know there's not a lot of call out there for old steamers like this, but surely someone needs and can use it for something. (grin)

Please note that Mr. Welker's model does not have a bottom or keel for its hull. This is not required for ship models made for the Flight Simulator series, as it treats all water surfaces as sold and ships as scenery objects (static or moveable) unless otherwise programmed. If you get anything below the waterline for a Flight Simulator series ship model, consider yourself blessed by its creator for the extra unnecessary effort. If you need a full hull model for whatever reason then you'll either have to go get another model or make one for this model yourself.

While I am not making my OBJ port of this available for public download, you can download it yourself from any one of several different Microsoft Flight Simulator series fan add-on sites and port it using the free ModelConverterX program. Please credit Erwin Welker as the original creator if you do. Thank you.

For non-profit, non-commercial use only.

Description

UPDATE 2021/10/19 - Removed the extra spurious pair of paddlewheels from the center of the hull, due to a porting issue at the time, now fixed for your greater pleasure. For those of you who still have the original release and don't want to download it again, all you have to do is delete the extra pair inside the hull.

--------------------

Ported to OBJ from the fantastic retail quality model by Erwin Welker for Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 2 (CFS2). Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. NO MODEL DOWNLOAD.

From 1837 to 1839, the brand new paddlewheel steamship SS Great Western was the largest ship in the world. She has gone down in world shipping history because she was also the first steamer to go into service specifically built for long ocean voyages. Later (and even bigger) oceangoing paddlewheel steamers were inspired by or modeled on her design. She was criticized by many at the time as being too big; however, her designers foresaw that a bigger steamer than was required (at a minimum) would actually be more fuel efficient and cost effective in the long run, and Great Western proved them right. She made her first Atlantic crossing from England to America with a full load of coal and making a full head of steam all the way, chugging along at respectable top speed of just over 8.6 knots (very fast for a steamer at the time), and still had 200 tons left once she arrived in New York two weeks later. She proved very successful in service and by 1843 had more than recovered her builder's cost in profits made. Three years later her owners, the aptly named Great Western Steamship Company, went bankrupt due to misfortunes with another one of their vessels, but she was subsequently purchased by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and was successfully operated by them on first the West Indies and later South American runs until 1855. Her last service for king and country was to be pressed into service as a military transport for the Royal Navy during the Crimean War (1853-56). By the time that was ended Great Western was badly showing her age, and she was sent to the breakers once that conflict was over. To find out more about the historic British oceangoing paddlewheel steamer SS Great Western, follow the links below:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great…

martinstevens.com/ss-great-wes…

www.thoughtco.com/isambard-kin…

Erwin Welker does it again with his beautiful retail quality model of this historic vessel. It is simply gorgeous for its poly count, and I don't think you find too many other free Great Western models out there that have the same winning combination of good looks and fairly low poly count. I know there's not a lot of call out there for old steamers like this, but surely someone needs and can use it for something. (grin)

Please note that Mr. Welker's model does not have a bottom or keel for its hull. This is not required for ship models made for the Flight Simulator series, as it treats all water surfaces as sold and ships as scenery objects (static or moveable) unless otherwise programmed. If you get anything below the waterline for a Flight Simulator series ship model, consider yourself blessed by its creator for the extra unnecessary effort. If you need a full hull model for whatever reason then you'll either have to go get another model or make one for this model yourself.

While I am not making my OBJ port of this available for public download, you can download it yourself from any one of several different Microsoft Flight Simulator series fan add-on sites and port it using the free ModelConverterX program. Please credit Erwin Welker as the original creator if you do. Thank you.

For non-profit, non-commercial use only.