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ť Forum Category: PT Boats of WWII
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ť Forum Name: PT Boats - General
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ť Topic: Straight pipe question
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In the on-going PT-61 project that Stan is doing, I had the pleasure of one of my visits with him to go over paint colors. As you know the boat is being done in honor of Lt. Ken Prescott. My question is, what type muffler system was on this boat, in fact was it the Elco Mufflers we all see on the 80 footers, or did she retain her straight pipes from the factory. Our good friend, Wayne Traxel said she retained the straight pipes throughout her service, but I can find no photos to actually show what she had, in fact in going through some photos, I could not find any good straight pipe photos for Stan to replicate for the build, should she carry these pipes. I know that Pat Matthews has the straight pipes on his wonderful build, but it was built to replicate a new boat from the Factory.

Posted By: Frank Andruss | Posted on: Jun 1, 2015 - 10:35am
Total Posts: 3964 | Joined: Feb 9, 2007 - 11:41am

Frank;
Here you go.

[image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Ted%20Walther/RON%201%20funafuti.jpg[/image]
RON 1 boats, Funafuti (from Gene's site)

[image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Ted%20Walther/PT%2050%20MTB%20308%20RN.jpg[/image]
PT 50- aka: MTB 308 RN (from Gene's site)

[image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/Ted%20Walther/PT%2061%20RON%204%20Melville%20model.jpg[/image]
Pat Mathews model of PT 61 RON 4 Melville

Take care,
TED

Posted By: TED WALTHER | Posted on: Jun 2, 2015 - 5:50am
Total Posts: 3059 | Joined: Oct 16, 2006 - 7:42am

Thanks Ted for the photos which will help Stan..........

Posted By: Frank Andruss | Posted on: Jun 2, 2015 - 6:42am
Total Posts: 3964 | Joined: Feb 9, 2007 - 11:41am

Frank;
My guess is some boats made the change to the later mufflers and some didn't, depending on condition/corrosion. I have a photo of the PT 59 taken May 21, 1945, showing no mufflers, but the photos do show a reinforcement plate on both sides, yet photos of PT 47 taken the same day, show no reinforcement plates, also, 47's exhaust ports look slightly different from 59's(maybe it is just the angle and the baffles are still in place).
Photos I have showing PT 66, post burning at Samar 1945, show the same reinforcement plates that 59 has. Since they are not present in the PT 50/MTB 308 photo, I venture to say this was a field modification.

Since, PT 59, PT 60, and PT 61, were all modified at the same time, Sept-Oct 1943, it is possible that the three were retrofitted with ELCO 80 mufflers at this time, but until some photos of documents crop up, this is just an assumption.....and you know the old saying here.
PT 47, was not modified to gunboat status(side note, not really relevant here, but this boat did do field rocket testing). so it appears it never received this reinforcement modification.
I would ask Stan to stick with the factory originals, just my two cents.
Take care,
TED

Posted By: TED WALTHER | Posted on: Jun 2, 2015 - 7:20am
Total Posts: 3059 | Joined: Oct 16, 2006 - 7:42am

Thanks Ted, we are doing just that. I could find no concrete evidence of any change over for PT-61, so my call to Stan today was to build the straight pipes for her.................

Posted By: Frank Andruss | Posted on: Jun 2, 2015 - 2:02pm
Total Posts: 3964 | Joined: Feb 9, 2007 - 11:41am