Steam Engines

Reading Bobs new thread on aircraft engines made me think that we don't see a lot of steam based stuff pictured here. Consequently I thought I would try to address that.

These engines are as follows:

The twins are Graham Industries TVR1A BBs kits with home made cylinder and valve chest covers. Set up to reflect each other as a twin engine tug installation.

The maroon single is also a Graham Industries kit with again home made covers.

The green single is a Stuart Turner 10V, which was bought in a very rusted and seized condition and was completely stripped down and refurbished. The green paint is actually marine two pack epoxy paint from the ship's main engine spares!

Wonderful engines Richard.

I always think of these model steam engines as little works of art, and I would happily have a few on a shelf to gaze at (if we had any shelves)

They always have a hand-made element to them, be it repairs, custom bits or just simply the copper plumbing to connect them up.

Ashley

Ashley, I can just see you in a steam punk outfit operating some wonderful experimental steam plant on the pond!

i once owned a Stuart Tripple expansion engine in an early stage of build which i had been given.....probably about 35 years ago, but not being a model engineer i couldn't complete it and couldn't get anyone to complete either even after advertising in Model boats magazine at the time........so sold it.

i know i couldn't have machined and built it, as 10 years before that i had bought from Stuart in Henley on Thames where they had their works and shop, with built engines in the windows at the time on the main street, and often went up there to have a gaze, as i used to teach just down the road in Maidenhead.

For i had a bash under the guide of the metalwork head of department of turning and milling one of the con rods for my new kit.....the Stuard compound twin launch engine which cost me 90 quid at the time.

but i would have loved to have seen both finished and working...........but not to be, as i sold them on to friends at the time.

whether they got built i dont lknow.......but the sands of tiome move never to reform the same way. a chance missed and now lost for ever.

Do you have to have a Mamod type steam plant tested and certified?? Sort of fancied a vintage Bowman style steam boat...

Ashley

Something like this !!

SHANTY : Down To Old Maui | Abney Park - YouTube

I like that sequence Larry!

Colin

That's about the size of it Larry, can you just imagine Ashley dressed like this?

Yes, but it is a very basic steam test after the initial pressure test. If you buy something like a Tony Green plant, which is along the lines of a Mamod type plant then it comes with a test certificate.

Have a look at Boiler Rooms 77 through to 83 where I put one of their boilers into a Krick Anna kit. Makes for a very pleasing yet simple and cheap set up.

Neil, The Stuart triple expansion is probably well regarded as the pinnacle of model engineering machining. It is not only very involved from a machining point of view but there is a huge parts count with every piece being demanding. I suspect that there are a great number of them that never get finished. Things like this are a lifelong project: