Landships II

Bunkermeister · Lieutenant

What Does the Top of the Steam Tank Look Like?

James H · Legend

Bunkermeister wrote:
What does the top of the US Army Steam Tracked Tank look like?
I don't know of any views of the top, but photos of the side and rear show a rear cupola, and it looks as if there was a hatch on top of the cab. Can't say more than that.
The little circular hole in the front of the tank, is it supposed to be for a machine gun mount? Or is that where the flame thrower was mounted? It looks as if it's the same size as the holes in the sponsons, so it could be for an mg, but I suppose it could be for a flamethrower.
Have we determined for certain that the "flamethrower turret" on the top of the tank is a hoax? I think there's general agreement that it is.

I am hoping to build a model of it, but I am having poor luck finding out this information.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

See if the article on Landships II helps: http://www.landships.info/landships/tank_articles.html

Click on Tank Articles, then U.S. Tanks

CharlieC · Legend

Tsk - there is a URL for each page on Landships II at the bottom of each page. The URL for the steam tracked tank is:

http://landships.info/landships/tank_articles.html?load=tank_articles/Steam_Tracked_Tank.html

I think the steam tank may have had ribs extending across the roof - it looks like the armour plates were secured by angle iron ribs - I guess these were rivetted to an internal frame. The front cupola looks pretty much a square box, it seems to have had a hatch in the top. The rear cupola seems to be a T-section the rear of the cupola is raised - I suspect this may have been the exhaust.

Regards,

Charlie

Bunkermeister · Lieutenant

Thank you all for your help.
Bunkermeister

James H · Legend

By the bye, acc to Jack Alexander the aperture in the cab front was for the flamethrower, and the steel was boilerplate, not armour, since the vehicle wasn't intended to fight, merely to demonstrate the principle.

Matt Heil · Lieutenant

I found this new (to me, at least!) photo of the front of the Steam Tank a few weeks ago on facebook. I've been meaning to post it for a while but haven't gotten around to it until your post prompted me. It seems to show a ball mount for the flamethrower.

Steam Tank, date unknown

Tonys · Field Marshal

Some photos appear not to have the rear superstructure (vide the flame-throwing turret pic) but this could just be the angle of the photo.

The others show a double-storey structure which could certainly be a funnel, with the steam exhausts coming up through it, although two pictures shows this item being pierced with a hole per side (too small for mgs on the sides, but big enough on the rear face? The very poor photo below seems to show some kind of detail on the rear face.). Despite being open in the pics, it also could have been closed at the top as evidenced by the rivet work. However, there must have been some kind of opening on the large rectangular part as the one pic shows a bloke looking closely at it.

There was also an opening somewhere around the middle of the roof.

One model shows the funnel arrangement, but this is conjectural and does not show the forward sloping face.

-- Edited by Tonys on Sunday 26th of June 2016 04:26:25 PM

vollketten · Lieutenant-Colonel

This image of it appears in AFV-G2 Magazine Vol.5 No.4 1975 by Baron Publishing in an article called 'Steam Power for Tanks' by Col.Robert J.Icks Ret.d. (their photo credit is in the caption)

The 'turret' appeared to have been drawn on later and indeed the original photo prior to alteration appears to be this one:

the doctoring has removed the troops, and then replaced them with a small turret, they forgot to put the rivets back onto the superstructure too.

vollketten · Lieutenant-Colonel

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can just make out a small round opening in the top of the cab

Bunkermeister · Lieutenant

Thanks Vollketten, that's an interesting photo I have never seen before.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek