Page 48: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 1994)

Trinity's recent delivery, the Queen of New Orleans.

Hilton's Queen Of New Orleans 234 Days From Contract To Delivery

Trinity Industries, Inc.'s sub-sidiary Halter Marine (Lockport, La.) recently de-livered the Queen of New

Orleans riverboat casino to her owners, Hilton New Orleans Corp. and New Orleans Paddle wheels,

Inc. (as reported in the March 1994 issue of Maritime Reporter / Engi- neering News).

John Dane III, president of the

Trinity Marine Group, said, "Total time for this new boat was 234 days from contract signing, through con- struction, to Coast Guard approval and delivery." The new genuine sternwheeler is 245 feet (74.7 m) long, with a 62-foot (18.9 m) beam and 12-foot (3.6-m) depth.

Maximum draft is six feet (1.8 m). The Queen of New Orleans can carry 1,500 passengers, 300 crew members and has 20,000-sq.-ft. of gaming space, which includes 700 slot machines, video poker and spe- cialty games, and 32 table games.

It is powered by two Cummins

KTA-38M diesel engines developing a total of 1,600 hp for the propellers.

Electrical power for the ship's hun- dreds of gaming devices, as well as air conditioning and heating, is pro- vided by three Onan generators driven by Cummins diesel engines developing a total of 2,040 kW.

The paddlewheel is driven by two 200-hp electrical motors, for a total of 400 hp. Maneuverability is en- hanced by a 400-hp Schottel bowthruster.

In accordance with Louisiana gaming laws, the Queen of New Or- leans is designed and built to re- semble a 19th Century paddle- wheeler. It is actually an interim vessel, as it will be replaced in No- vember by the larger, 322-ft. (98.1 m), 2,400-passenger, permanent

Queen of New Orleans, under con- struction at Trinity s Equitable Ship- yards, Inc. in New Orleans.

It will have 30,000 sq.-ft. of gam- ing space, or one-third more rev- enue-producing space.

When the larger vessel is com- pleted, the current Queen will be moved to another Hilton location.

Another, nearly identical sistership to the interim Queen is under con- struction at Halter Marine-Lockport for the Hilton in Kansas City, Mo.

Delivery of this boat, the Kansas

City Queen, is scheduled for May 1994.

The two Trinity 245-ft. gaming boats were designed by Rodney E.

Lay & Associates, and the larger 322-ft. vessel was designed by

Trinity's in-house Engineering De- partment.

Mr. Dane said Trinity's rapid delivery is made possible by the advanced construction techniques and the company's 14 shipyards, most of which can supply pre-fabri- cated components to the main as- sembly yard.

The Trinity Marine Group,

Gulfport, Miss., is owned by Trinity

Industries, Inc. of Dallas, Texas.

The group includes 14 shipyards in

Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Mis- souri and Pennsylvania.

For more information on the gam- ing vessel building capabilities of

Trinity,

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