It's mid-October time of writing, Geoff and I are a man down in the workshop since the school term started - number one son Sam worked most of the holidays in the workshop, saving hard for a new guitar. He toiled away on pretty much everything we threw at him for six weeks, cleaning engines down, steaming them, sweeping the floor, tidying up tools, dashing out for a pint of milk on his bicycle... I didn't realise quite how much he was doing until school started and he was gone! I've had earnest words with his mother to the effect that, at thirteen, he's probably learned most of the important stuff at school and should really be out working at a proper job. 

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It appears to have fallen on deaf ears, she's put her foot down that he has to stay at school.

I only live half an hour away from the Rutland Railway Museum, they've got all sort of interesting bits and pieces there so I should really get along more often. It's been five years since David and I last visited - I think it's a case of proximity breeds contempt - so on a sunny autumn afternoon last weekend we ran across to have a look around. In recent times they have had a sort out and re-focus on what they are trying to preserve - to this end the place has been much tidied up, with several projects underway. It's always been a friendly place to visit, the people working there, whilst busy, always seem to have time to talk and have a great deal of knowledge about the engines and stock that live there - it's worth a visit, you can get directions and check on the opening times at their website.

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There is a small self-propelled Smith's steam crane laid up in the yard - I took some pictures of it five years ago. It's been there for nearly thirty years, gently settling into the undergrowth - David and I spent a happy hour working out exactly which lever did what. The crane has been deemed surplus to requirements in the new plan for the museum, it could really use a sympathetic new home - if you've got a decent sized yard, some big machinery and a good deal of energy it is crying out to be saved.

The late John Haining produced many super designs for traction engines during his life - perhaps the most popular is the 2 inch scale Durham & North Yorkshire traction engine, a model produced entirely from contemporary drawings and early photographs as none of the six engines produced by this small concern survived long into the twentieth century. He modelled a wide range of prototypes, from large ploughing engines down to small stationary engines and pretty much everything in between. 

If there was one, not so much weakness as quirk in his output, he liked to champion the oddball machines, often producing designs for engines that were hurriedly scrapped in their day as simply being, not to put too fine on it, NBG. One of these was the Suffolk Dredging Tractor, a technically interesting if visually challenging device in two inch scale - several were made, indeed I've had a couple come through the workshop here. They go well enough, but certainly not everybody's cup of tea.

Possibly even stranger, having got the dredging tractor out of his system, was "Caradoc" - his idea of what a modern tractor would look like if steam had survived (or, put another way, the diesel engine hadn't appeared). Basically a vertical boiler with a dredging tractor engine underneath tractor-shaped bodywork. They have been built in three and four inch scale - I've had one or two of each - and are rather strange things.

more pictures and a clip of a Caradoc running

See what I mean?

The engine shown above was a nice enough machine, ran well and was ideal for charging round muddy fields, pretending to go ploughing. It went to a chap who ran it for a while before falling under the spell of railways rather than the road, so did some minor rearrangement of the bits.

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I think it's the nicest thing I've ever seen done to one of these - a rare combination of vision and engineering ingenuity!

I was contacted earlier in the year by some people who had the bright idea of staging an efficiency trials for small engines. Based on the well-known IMLEC/SEQLEC format, this was for engines that weighed in at 50 pounds or less. Infected by their enthusiasm, I agreed to enter (Sam was to be our driver, using one of the batch of Scamps we took to Harrogate Show, being one of the very few 5 inch gauge engines which get in under the weight limit) and even put up a trophy (after all, there was always the chance that we could win it!).

LittleLEC

The event was run at the Guildford Club's track in Stoke Park - sadly in the end a clash of dates meant I was flying out of Manchester airport the following morning at 4am for the family holiday, so neither Sam nor I got to the competition. However, a good time was had by all, Paul Tompkins took the cup (which was particularly impressive at it was a last minute entry on a borrowed engine).

LittleLEC (as it has been dubbed) is now set to become an annual bash - next year's event will be on June 20/21st at Goring, Sussex at the kind invitation of Worthing Club. We have agreed to be organizers and will handle correspondence, queries and entries. The cup will be awarded annually and suitably engraved. 

Full details are on the LittleLEC page - if you'd like an entry for next year, we would be delighted to hear from you.

I bought a traction engine recently, a particularly well made 2 inch scale model which the owner had bought from its builder. It had sat in his living room as an ornament for some time before he decided to part with it - on the day before I was due to collect it, he decided to steam it just to see how it went.

When I came to pick it up the next day I asked how he had got on. The reply was fairly vague, however thinking little more of it, I set off back to the workshop.

First job was a hydraulic test - since buying a 6 inch scale traction engine some years ago with a completely faked set of paperwork (including boiler certificate and NTET disc) I have tested everything that comes in regardless of the paperwork that comes with it. The boiler on this one was beautifully made in steel, the hydraulic test at 160psi was no problem at all, however it was slightly disconcerting that the safety valves, on an engine designed to run at 80psi, remained firmly shut. I  let the water out and then connected an airline to the boiler to run the motion - both to check it and also to purge the cylinder, which tends to fill up on hydraulic test, of water. 

(Digressing for a moment, we recently had a part-built tank engine come in which had been hydraulic tested prior to sale on the death of its builder. Although having only stood for two months in a fellow-member's garage, the piston were seized fast in the bores - Geoff had a happy morning pulling it all apart and cleaning the gunge out of the cylinders).

Back to our traction engine, the air did its job in blowing the water out of the cylinders, but 80 pounds wouldn't induce the motion to run. Further investigation showed that the eccentric sheave grub screws were undone - possibly from new as the engine showed little sign of use. Resetting the eccentrics and locking them in place resulted in a very healthy bark from the exhaust.

Investigation of the safety valves showed the bobbins machined as virtually an interference fit in the cylinder cover. Like most traction engines, these were Ramsbottom type (which are dreadful contraptions, virtually every traction engine that comes through the workshop has the bar across the top of the valves covered in dents where drivers have belted hell out of them with a shovel trying to make the valves seat).

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The problem had a happy outcome - Geoff spotted that there was enough room underneath the plate to fit a modified version of the standard locomotive valve we make, by making it with a thread on the outside of the body allowing it to be fitted from beneath. With only an eighth of an inch of adjuster visible above and the spring housing and bar, now dummy items, refitted it's difficult to spot from more than five feet away that the valves aren't strictly per the drawing.

The work completed, the engine was steamed and ran beautifully - the new valves let off at 80psi and shut tight at 70psi - there's a 10 second clip here. Job done.

20th October 2008

News Archive

August 2008 - Harrogate Show pictures, Martin's new engine shed, lethal steam seat warmer
March 2008 - New machining centre, solid modelling software, fixing the roof
December 2007- new lathe delivered, 7 1/4 inch progress in Dumfries, visting an interesting engineer 
 September 2007 - Holiday in North Wales, new machinery for the workshop
June 2007 - Station Road Steam at Harrogate Show, herd of Tinkerbells, Martin's railway
March 2007 - Building a garden railway competition, A Workshop in Herefordshire
January 2007 - Miniature lathes and photography, Midlands Exhibition, Churnet Valley Railway, testing small boilers
October 2006 - Updates on part-built and projects
July 2006 - Evergreens Miniature Railway, local 10 1/4 line, collecting the Pacific from Cleethorpes
April 2006 - Progress in the workshop, visit to the National Railway Museum, visit to Woody Bay
January 2006 - Moving to new units, grit-blasting my hands, shiny Romulus
October 2005 - Stamford SME, Sam starts the restoration of "Pendle Witch", Casterton Working Weekend
August 2005 - New workshop, Thurston Pacific back from Cleethorpes
May 2005 - Berkely Light Railway, dodgy boiler certificates, full-size ploughing engines at auction
January 2005 - digging
October 2004 - initial planning for the garden railway
July 2004 - Fowler ploughing engines in Yorkshire
May 2004 - Moving the workshop, a 9 1/2 inch gauge garden railway
Apr 2004 - Holiday in Shropshire & The Severn Valley Railway, LNER liveried Black 5
Feb 2004 - Refacing a Tangye slide valve, new acquisition 10 ton Aveling roller
2004 - 12 1/4 inch gauge Pacific