Mainline Steam

I'm not really a railway man but I don't think you can get much more majestic than an express passenger locomotive running on the mainline. Anyway, on Sunday while revising I heard whistles down at the railway station so shot off down to the station and saw these two locomotives getting ready to take the Great Britain VII train out of Plymouth. An unusual partnership of motive power with No. 5029 'Nunney Castle' leading and No. 34046 'Braunton' behind. They sounded fantastic pulling out of the station with the 14 or so coach train on behind!

Anyway, back to revision...

The Engineer.

A Brace of Bowmans

I wonder what the actual collecting noun for a lot of Bowman steam engines is!

The product of my collecting habit, a full set of Bowman stationary engines and all bar one of the accessories (if anyone has a Bowman fretsaw, I'd be interested!)...

For the really pedantic, this is of course not exactly a full set - I don't have the metal based 'M' and wooden based 'E' versions of each engine, but I have both an M135 and an E135 as representatives of this.

I still have to complete the restoration of the M101 - I will do that when I return again from university over the summer and will keep you all updated with this.

The Engineer.

Today's Haul

The postman dropped these off today...

A Karsten Gintschel 'Tornado' steam turbine with accompanying train set and a Cheddar Models 'Pipit' steam plant. The Cheddar plant came in exchange for a Wilesco Steam Roller and the turbine came off of eBay. 

The Carpenter came around this afternoon with a bottle of meths and we ran the turbine 4 or 5 times...each run is only about 5 minutes so that's not as impressive a feat as it sounds. The sound it makes is fantastic though!

Will put a bit more information on the turbine once I have some photos and video of it running. I have yet to make my mind up about the Cheddar plant. She'll either be going into a loco, a small boat or into a replica of the Cheddar 'Pipit' generating plant...

The Engineer. 

Bowman M101 Rebuild

I am quite a fan of the old Bowman toy steam engines from the 20's and 30's. These were the engines that came before Mamod, and with their demise led to the establishment of the Mamod brand of engines. The nerdy collector in me has come out yet again and I have been after a #101 engine for some time. This M101 came up on eBay the other day and I managed to get it for a very reasonable price! It needs a bit of work, but I have most of the bits required in my spares box and comes with the nice Bowman wooden box...

The boiler stay has rustedd out and has been patched up. This needs replacing...

The lovely old Bowman box...

The Engineer.

A Load of Hot Air!

As I've been back at university, I've not actually had time to make anything (I'm doing an engineering degree after all!) but I've still been bargain hunting. I recently picked up these two hot air engines online for the very reasonable price of £20 each...

An American PM Research 'Solar 1' 

And a Chinese Maidstone Engineering Stirling Engine

They both run brilliantly, but the quality of the two engines is a world apart. The Chinese engine is out of square and wobbles about the place when running, the American engine is quiet and smooth. Both engines are still readily available with the PM Research from Forest Classics at £115 and the other from Maidstone Engineering at £95. For the money - I know what I'd have!

I'll try get a video of them in operation in the next few days - lot's of coursework on at the moment though!

The Engineer.

Roll Out the Barrel!

So the barrel bar saga continues, the back is now cut out and bands secured. The castors are now fitted to the base, and after briefly re-enacting that scene from the Hobbit on dry land, the securing plate to hold the top together is now glued in place.

Next is all the cosmetic work, I've checked the pump in place, and if I do say so myself, it looks suitably awesome.

The Carpenter. 

Hardwood Phone Case...

So while procrastinating from a looming calculus paper I decided I would knock up my own version of the Jimmy Diresta Hardwood Phonecase.

I'd noted the design a few weeks ago and thought it was an excellent and stylish alternative to the bulky, ugly work case my phone normally lives in. You can see the original build here; http://youtu.be/OkB3AQS4oW0

Also look out for other builds from Mr Diresta, he makes some really clever creative things!

So I've made a few alterations, mainly in materials, so here's the first few stages. 

I used some 6mm canary wood for the main body, some stock that was lying around, and some 4mm green felt, both for added protection and I thought it looked a little nicer than leather in my humble opinion. 

Here's the case glued and clamped up with a dummy wooden phone inside, note if you're going to glue up with a dummy make sure you wrap it in insulation tape so any glue can't stick!! 

I decided to add a stamped brass plaque to the front, here's this polished up! For some reason upside down...

I'll post the next stages when I need to procrastinate further!

The Carpenter.

Bass Bits

So this week I have decided to adjust the action on my double bass, notably slightly adjusting the curvature on the bridge to provide more vertical definition between the strings (more on this to follow in a proper article) I thought however that since this means removing the bridge I may as well take the time to make a few running mechanical/visual repairs to the instrument. Since it was going to be out of action for a while anyway.

Firstly I took apart the spike I had made and adjusted the tolerance on the collar. I had somewhat underestimated how much this would move about and be subject to wet, thus soon found the shaft seized in the 0.05mm odd tolerance I had allowed!! This was easily remedied and after a through clean and polishing the spike now works and looks fantastic! I have since painted the collar black to protect from corrosion, the shaft however is just rubbed over with a little oil, no doubt it'll need re cleaning again in time but hopefully will be easier to remove and adjust in future! 

The Carpenter. 

Steam Toys In Action Part III

The final part of this epic trilogy! I was particularly impressed by the exhibits on one table at the show - the table of Tony Bird, a name many of you will probably know from 16mm locomotive circles. Anyway, Tony is a fantastic and very imaginative engineer producing all sorts of unusual toys...but producing them beautifully!

All sorts of gems!

A locomotive driven boat! The little 'Cricket' locomotive behind cold be dropped onto the gearbox in the boat and used to power the propeller!

In a similar vein - how to derive stationary power from a Mamod locomotive.

A Morgan inspired Mamod SA1a.

And finally, a 'suped up' 3 wheel version.

The Engineer.

Steam Toys In Action Part II

Not much to say really - just a few more things that interested me!

A gorgeous twin cylinder Marklin stationary engine!

Another Marklin stationary engine - you may recall that I picked up the engine unit from one of these at the GDSF last year - you can see mine here.

This lovely model of a Trevithick vertical engine built to E.T Westburys design - anyone know where I can get the plans? We are both big fans of Trevithicks designs, and this has now been added to my project list!

And finally, a radial steam engine - just because you don't see them very often!

I have one more post to come, showing the exhibits of just one table, each exhibit I think being absolutely fantastic!

The Engineer.