Mystery Engine

[Julian]

Hi Guys,
Here's a different question to the usual 'How do I...'

I was asked last week to have a look at and renovate a small steam model for a colleague. We don't know the age but he remembers his father showing it to him when he was under five years old. He is now 58. The model has just reappeared when clearing out his shed. He does not know whether his father built it or bought it. His father died many many years ago so its origin is a mystery. I wondered if anyone has any ideas. It looks 'home'-built to me.
Everything on it is seized so it has been sprayed with liberal amounts of WD40. This has removed some of the crub and started to make the brass boiler shine in the flash.
The boiler and cylinder assembly are brass,. Flywheel is alloy and looks like Mamod but looks to be a later addition/replacement. Base and boiler stand are rusty steel. Bolts are all BA or pos whit. Feed pipe looks to be brass with a chromed union nut.

Regards

Julian.


PS...Thanks for the solidarity.

 

[CrewCab]

If it wasn't for the shaped base and boiler stand I would be thinking that was a "school project" ......... date wise we are looking mid to late fifties I think which would fit ............. don't suppose this helps much ???

CC

 

[tel]

If it wasn't for the shaped base and boiler stand I would be thinking that was a "school project" ......... date wise we are looking mid to late fifties I think which would fit ............. don't suppose this helps much ???

CC

My thoughts exactly, except I'd probably date it a bit earlier. Looks to be a 'marriage of convenience' in a lot of respects - an unfinished project that was gone back to later? Or taken on by somebody else? That tensioning nut on the pivot shaft is a bit of an oddball.

 

[Bluechip]

Hi Folks

In some respects it looks like it may be one of the ' Christmas Specials' from ME of the early fifties. Intended to be built in a short time as a gift for a child.

No longer have any from that era, but there is a resemblance to some, I seem to remember.

The green bracket looks a bit Meccano-ish, maybe ??

Dave

 

[malcolmt]

Hi Julian
That certainly looks homemade, The only thing i can observe which maybe of some use, is it doesn't appear to have a safety valve so perhaps the resemblance to a mamod could be used to advantage by using one of theirs ?

Thanks for posting

Kind regards

Malcolm

 

[mklotz]

That certainly looks homemade, The only thing i can observe which maybe of some use, is it doesn't appear to have a safety valve so perhaps the resemblance to a mamod could be used to advantage by using one of theirs ?

While I agree that every boiler should have a safety valve, it's possible that, in the interest of frugality, they're depending on the (presumably spring loaded) wobbler cylinder to serve that function. On the one occasion on which I ran a rather tiny wobbler on steam I discovered that it "blew off" before the valve on the boiler did.

 

[Julian]

Hi Guys,

Its been a long time but have finally finished restoring this engine. Painted the steel base black. Nickel plated the boiler box and the crank supports. Everything else buffed and polished. Piston was cast iron so also plated that to stop corrosion. Oncfe stripped of crap there is no meccano based metal and all parts are fabricated. The brass angles for the crank are straight brass silversoldered at 90 degrees. Made a small simple safety valve and test-ran it on compressed air two days ago. Below photo and video of it running. The safety valve was found to blow at 6psi and I could not be bothered to reset it so spun the flywheel and she ran. The video is of the engine running at 6psi...ONLY.
Model gone back to owner who is well pleased.

 

[tmuir]

Nice restoration.
I've not seen one like that before so I don't think it was a school project unless it was a one off.