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Here it is part way through the design and build process:

I finally improved the power of the solenoid and designed a tractor around it. Hopefully you can see hints of a Field Marshall

Just been making the main drive gear in PB, it's quite small at 27 teeth and 0.5mod The driveline is described in the following image, hope this makes sense more details on the blog: Burrell Crankshaft and Layshaft Gears - glue-it.com

Spent a few hours making the eccentric pushrods and then testing them on a drill: They need a bit more fettling and finishing, but I'm happy for now.

Hi John, thanks for the feedback. Still a long way to go and still concerned about getting it to run on steam at this scale. Thanks, Nigel

Back to the Burrell at last and this time the conrod. As this engine is rather small, hopefully the matchstick puts it into context, I decided to split the crankshaft. This allowed me to make the big end of the conrod from PB. The other parts were made from brass and then all silver...

It's interesting to look at the events in history that trigger some of the major events, as you say this might have been close. However, I imagine the poor efficiency and very high gearing would have required more people keeping the fire going than just doing the work. It would be interesting...

Finally some close up images of this engine. The steam jets are just 1/16″ copper tube, annealed and bent by hand to shape. The open ends are slightly compressed with a pair of side-cutters to give more of a jet. I tried just one jet and it works, but with three jets it runs very fast. The...

A bit of a chat about the engine design and then me getting it going

The final Engine Design Hope you all like it

I just made up a frame for this engine, perhaps a bit of a "War of the Worlds" vibe??? what do you think? OK or too theatrical?

Not sure that this is really an engine when it does no useful work, except that it does make me smile I now need to make a stand, I'm thinking of a birdcage frame made from brass - thoughts? The forming of the dome did take some time, I made a jig to hold the copper disc and ended up...

I have to say that the indexing feature that I machined into the table support for my Unimat 3 Pillar drill is so useful for items such as these hub caps.

I've had a bit of a break from building this, however, in the last few days I've sorted the rear axle and the rear hub caps. Now I think it is taking shape. On my latest status page of the Burrell Traction Engine there are even more images.

Thought I would make some trolley wheels so that I have a stationary engine on a trolley They are not perfect, but think they are going to look the part.

I wanted to make a fuel tank stand and wanted a formed brass structure. As I only needed two parts I decided to form these over MDF. I cut out the former in 9mm thick MDF and then hardened it with superglue Note: make sure you are in a well ventilated area as the fumes are not great. I cut...

Hi Lee, it does work OK. The original design from 1963 has the pipe coming out the top of head. I'm tempted to do this as machining the boss straight is OK, but the threads would need filling and drilling. Not sure I want to do that. Also, coming straight up out of the head will reduce the...

That runs very well. Is this running on gas or petrol?

A bit of a mess, but I wanted to modify the connection points and test it out. The result is the water now gets quite hot and you can feel the gradient top to bottom of the tank. Cool and thanks to @Mechanicboy You can feel the temperature difference on the upper and lower plastic tubes, so...

Using the latest CAD I think then I can go from this: to this