Information on the American Inland River Towboats


A specially designed type of push tug working on the American Inland River Systems

*The 'Tom Behringer' built:1977, Length:128 ft. Horsepower: 5600 (HP)*
All Towboat photographs on this page courtesy of Bill Alden
Although called TOWBOATS they push barges, the term 'TOW' being used to describe a group of barges fixed together (with steel cables) to form a single unit
Specially designed to work in the shallow rivers (9ft or less), they are steel hulled, flat bottomed and powered by diesel engines giving up to 10,500 HP.
Hull length's range from 50ft for small harbour boats to over 200ft. They push large numbers of barges that range in length (195ft being typical) and move anything from a single barge to more than 50 (as a single 'Tow').
To increase manoeuvrability Towboats have "Flanking" rudders in front of the propeller which are used when going Astern, these are in addition to the conventional rudder behind the propeller. See Towboat Rudders in my Hints and Tips Section.
Click on THUMBNAIL PICTURE to enlarge


I am building two Towboats both from plans obtained from America. 'George F. Wills'. based on 'Towboat Joes' plans of the Debi Sharp. 'Daisy B'. based on the 'Taubman' plans of the Lake Charles.

For a lot more information on these very unusual vessels visit these Web Sites
'Towboat Joe'	Joe Brown is a Towboat Modeller with a very comprehensive site full of information of the full size vessels and models, he also produces a large number of plans.
'Bill Alden'	The Photograph site of Bill Alden, with dozens of high quality images of Towboats, taken at different angles. Absolutely ideal for 'Model Making'.

Contact Me