Boiler for 2″ Traction Engine

[Michael Johnson 6Participant @michaeljohnson6]

Has anyone got a recommendation for a company to make a boiler for a 2" Traction Engine please. The drawings suggest that copper will be fine. It needs to have all the relevant paperwork with it.

Thanks

[Michael Johnson 6Participant @michaeljohnson6]

Looking for recommendation

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember12892]

[This posting has been removed]

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I'd also suggest Western Steam along with Southern Boiler Works, expect a long wait from both unless Helen has one in stock.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

If made commercially it will come with the relevant paperwork and markings the manufacturer needs supply, but it will still need the club-level Written Scheme of Examination. hydraulic test and steam-accumulation test, if you intend using it in public, including club events.

If you build a copper boiler to a published plan and have it tested by a model-engineering society (of which you need be member) under the MELG scheme, the paperwork will be generated by the club's boiler-inspector, who may want to admire your workmanship at stages of its construction. You will not need material certificates for it – those apply to welded steel boilers.

If your own design the boiler-inspector will probably ask to examine the design and calculations, and club boiler-testers are free to decline to test an unfamiliar boiler outside of their experience. By that I mean the basic structure of the whole thing, not simply adapting a proven design by altering the barrel length a bit, thickening (not thinning!) the side-plates or moving the position of a fitting.

(The barrel's pressure-strength is a function of diameter not length, but I'd ask if significantly extending a traction-engine's boiler, which is also the vehicle's chassis, would increase the cantilevering stresses on the firebox.

One of my own club's boiler-testers has just advised us that after Brexit, the CE marking will be replaced by a different name, but as far as known the processes won't change.

[Michael Johnson 6Participant @michaeljohnson6]

Thanks guys. That's a great help. It seems that most of the clubs local (ish) to me focus mainly on Railway modelling, but presumably the boiler processes are the same as for TE's

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

A pleasure, Michael!

Yes, the test regime is the same irrespective of the boiler's purpose. It differs only at a sharp cut-off at the somewhat arbitrary 3Bar*litre classification; the <3 class covering for example model boats and 16-mm scale locos.

It would be worth you obtaining a copy of the MELG test-code so you know what is expected and how the tests are to be conducted. (And indeed, not!). It is not quite the easiest of reading by its arrangement, but each instruction or comment is clear enough.

'

My own society was very much railways biased, mainly 5 " and 7.25 " gauges, from its inception in the 1950s until about a decade or so ago, when it started to collect s sizeable steam road-vehicle representation as well. Plus an interest in 16mm- scale; and we have tracks for both categories, plus plenty of room for the traction-engines to explore. All very good of course, broadening the club's scope.

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