Old Engine Restoration

[Richard BParticipant @richardb44403]

[Richard BParticipant @richardb44403]

About 60 years ago I was given a pair of steam engines to play with – the family who my mother knew were clearing out their fathers house – he had been a Captain I believe and later a Marine Superintendant on huge ships and had models ships that he built – one liner I saw was about 8 feet long in a huge wooden box.

As a lad I tried to get one to run on my Mamod boiler – no luck so they were taken apart ISTR and left.

Now I've found them and nearly all the parts are still in the box so i intend to try again !

They appear to be very similar to the engine in 'The Model Engineer and Electrician' dated March 12 1925 – which i was given bound copies of during the clear out.

All fabricated construction and soldered together – pistons 5/8" bore have 2 brass piston rings.

Hope of interest ?

Richard.

Not mastered how to put pics after text as yet !

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Good Luck! It would be lovely to see this engine running again, and a tribute to its builder.

Unusual too, with that swash-plate valve-gear and what I take to be ball-bearing main bearings.

The Mamod boiler was very likely wrong only by being too small and low-powered for this engine. It ought run quite happily on air, but there are suitable boiler designs about for such an engine.

My thought would be to overhaul it mechanically and give it a good tidying, including trimming the solder-flows back to neat joints. Do that by careful scraping and polishing though, not heat, unless you find faulty joints.

If you do need touch up a porous joint a medium melting-point electrical grade solder would help avoid disasters, since after all this model is not for particularly high pressure and temperature. It looks to me as if its builder used plumbing solder – which is fine in this case – but may have struggled to heat the metal properly and uniformly with the tools he had. Other than that it looks well-made, and deserves its restoration.

I was tempted to suggest using the more prototypical studs and nuts, but then thought, no, refurbish it as-is or to the original ME drawings.

Running-speed? If the ME article does not say anything historical, its design suggests the high-speed enclosed machines made by many manufacturers for driving dynamos, blowers, centrifugal pumps and the like at about 400rpm or more, but I'd run it at about 100rpm. The tapered bearers suggest it was intended for driving a model boat, but its full-size version on a ship would have been part of the auxiliary plant.

Looking forwards to seeing progress!

[Richard BParticipant @richardb44403]

The article was by a different builder and he referred to his friend who he copied the design from whom I assume is my builder – i could post the other pages of the article. i have the 1899, 1925 and 1926 bound volumes – kept safe for 60 years !

He was very very skilled in tin plate – I remember the liners were tin plate and until a few years ago I had a fantastic tin plate hull of a schooner with internal tin plate ribs – the lines were incredably fair for strip assembled tin plate – I lent it to a friend – he died shortly after and it disappeared.

The engines are a pair and the beds are angled to suit the prop shafts.

Some where I still have a tin plate fabrication he made for crossshaft drive – I think it might have been for a paddle steamer – I'll try and find it and post a pic.

The comment about the Mamod – I was only about 10 or 11 at the time and I had no real facilities to properly couple it up and no idea either !

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