PS Maid of the Loch

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The steamer PS Maid of the Loch was the last paddle steamer built in Britain, and is the last of a long line of Loch Lomond steamers that began about 1816, within four years of Henry Bell's pioneering passenger steamboat service on the River Clyde.

PS Maid of the Loch at the pier at Balloch, Loch Lomond where she is undergoing restoration.

In 1950 the British Transport Commission of the newly nationalised railways made the decision to replace the Princess May and Prince Edward with a new paddle steamer, to be the largest inland waterway vessel ever in Britain. The Maid of the Loch was built by A & J Inglis of Glasgow, dismantled, and shipped by rail to Balloch at the south end of Loch Lomond, where the sections were reassembled on a purpose built slipway. She was launched on Thursday March 5th, 1953, and entered service later that year. The weight is approximately 555 tonnes, and the length is 208 ft (63 m). The two cylinder compound diagonal steam engine is less advanced than had become usual on steamers like the Waverley, but was considered suitable for the limited area of operations.

The Maid of the Loch was painted white with a buff funnel and provided a service from Balloch, initially to Ardlui at the north end of the loch, but later her last call was a few miles short of this at Inversnaid and she would cruise to the head of the loch. She was transferred to the Scottish Transport Group in 1969, then in 1973 to Caledonian MacBrayne.

As with other steamers, cost pressures led to her being laid up after a last commercial sailing on August 31st, 1981. One problem was that some of the piers on the loch would become unusable, either because of poor state of repair, or silting making the area around them too shallow. A series of attempts to bring her back into service under a succession of owners was unsuccessful, and she presented a sad sight gradually deteriorating at the side of the loch. Then in 1992 the Maid of the Loch was acquired by Dumbarton District Council and restoration work started. In 1995 the Council supported a group of local enthusiasts in setting up a charitable organisation, the Loch Lomond Steamship Company, to take over ownership and carry on restoration, and the ship became ready for static operation with a cafe/bar and function suite in autumn 2000.

The key to the restoration was the repair and refurbishment of the slipway adjacent to the pier at Balloch.There not being any connection to the sea it was not possible to take the ship to a dry dock for repairs to the hull so a slipway with a cable towed platform had been built.This had fallen into disrepair by the 1990's and eventually a Heritage Lottery Fund grant was awarded along with assistance from local and Scottish governmental organisations.This enabled the paddlesteamer to be lifted out of the water on 27th June 2006.

The Maid of the Loch is open to the public every day Easter to October,and weekends only through the Winter.Volunteers are working to bring her back into steam operation. She has a new livery of red, white and black, the funnel now red with a black top. Repairs and servicing are now earnestly underway to ensure that she will soon be providing a steam paddleship sevice on Loch Lomond again.