3" Plastow Burrell

[miniburrell]

Hi all

with my 10V coming to a finish now, i am looking at my next project of a road traction engine.
After a visit to Dorset steam fair yesterday, i visited the Plastow stand and 3" Burrell, has been a long awaited project of mine.

has any one built one of these and i am generally interested in peoples opinion of cost of castings, quality etc. the guys on stand were very helpful and seemed to have a good Reputation.

Any comments and help would be welcomed

MB

[mutley]

Hi Minburrell,
The Plastows drawings a one time where a nightmare as they had both 3" and 4" scale dimensions on the part. They may have been redrawn by now though.
Ask your question on the minature section of the Traction Talk news board at www.traction-talk.com. There is more traction engine based experience there than here.

Having said all that there have been plenty of the 3" Burrells built so it is a proven and sucessfull design. I will have the one I lok after at warcos open day next weekend if you are anywhere near.

Andy

[jasonb]

With Bridport having only been taken over the Plastow range from Stuarts a couple of years ago there probably won't be that many that have been made with parts from them so service/quality may be a bit of an unknown.

there are some drawing errors listed here

But as Mutley says there are a lot more TE builders over at TT and at least a couple own 3" Burrells, don't expect too many answers in the next couple of days as a lot will be at GDSF.

Jason

[durhambuilder]

Although Bridport only took over the Plastow range in 2006, they did previously produce the castings on their behalf, not sure for how long though.

[welshy]

My father built the 3"Plastow burrell back in the 80's with me as a trainee helper machinist. The drawing were a nightmare but eventually after many years it was completed. The castings are ok but needed a lot of fettling the flywheel in particular. Our engine was originally built with rolled and welded wheel rims which were a lovely job, but on completion of the rest of the engine my father put the rims through the bandsaw and scrapped them as they had the wrong number of wheel spuds as per drawing. He rebuilt the wheels using the cast aluminum rims which took a lot work to get true and cleaned up. He also made a second chimney which is much more Burrell like. Our engine also has a very modified exhaust nozzle system as the original set-up would hardly raise any steam, but it now roars away on the blower at an amazing rate. If you are thinking about building I would say go for it, The Burrell is a lovely looking engine just expect a long and sometimes difficult task to build it but well worth it in the end.
Mike

[jasonb]

The drawing were a nightmare

I looked at some drawings for the Plastow 2" Fowler at the weekend and can see what you mean.

Jason

[weldsol]

Hi MB Iv'e sent you a PM

Paul

[chistee]

Plastow plans are all wrong, cylinder block location/size, wheel hubs, wrong flywheel (for Fowlers especially).

Unfortunatly people still buy them...

[fostergp6nhp]

The original plastow drawings were just copies of the Basset Lowke 1 1/2" drawings with the dimensions multiplied.

[ettingtonliam]

Aug 16, 2010 19:48:20 GMT fostergp6nhp said:

The original plastow drawings were just copies of the Basset Lowke 1 1/2" drawings with the dimensions multiplied.[/quote]

I don't think they were. I built a Simplicity roller in the late 60's, and my fathers friend built a 3" Burrel around the same time. Both were from Henry Plastow's drawings and castings. I met Henry several times when I went over to his place just outside Cambridge to collect castings, and he was a lovely man, and made a great job of cutting the gears for me. However, even Henry's best friends wouldn't describe him as a great draftsman. The drawings were indeed a nightmare, compounded by his awful habit of having one drawing with both sets of dimensions for the 3" and 4 1/2" scale engines. Thus the legend has arisen that Plastow drawings are awful, and indeed at that time they were. When Henry retired from the business, sometime in the 1980s I think, he sold the engine designs, patterns etc to Stuart Turner at Henley on Thames, and it was my understanding that they redrew all the drawings at that time. The engine business then passed to Stuart Models, and the Plastow range has now passed on again.
I haven't seen a current drawing for these engines, but would be very surprised if they were still Henry's originals. Can anyone who has bought drawings in recent years comment on this?

Regards
richard

[klendo]

Ricahrd,

It was more than a fact of both dimensions on the drawing as to why the plastow Burrell was awful. The whole engine is completely out of scale. The chimney is massively too small, it has a road engine extension on the tender which is wrong, the copper top profile is more of a thurlow shape which is wrong, the wheels are too small, the list is endless. Looks nothing like a proper Burrel except the fact it has a round front axle.. Im glad our old 3 Speed Burrell wasnt that spindely...

[rodwilson]

Slightly off track but I've just received, via the Homeworkshop site, a drawing for a Plastow steam driven saw bench (circa 1850). It was drawn by GP (presumably George) and redrawn and updated by HRP (presumably Harry) in 1978.
Yes, I met Mr and Mrs Plastow when they were at Halesworth Rectory and a nice couple they were.
Draughtsmen the Plastows were not.

[klendo]

Well I have a GA of a stenner and gun Rack bench if that helps

[fostergp6nhp]

Oct 8, 2010 9:14:32 GMT ettingtonliam said:

Aug 16, 2010 19:48:20 GMT fostergp6nhp said:

The original plastow drawings were just copies of the Basset Lowke 1 1/2" drawings with the dimensions multiplied.[/quote]

I don't think they were. Regards
richard

A former colleague of mine who has since passed away compared a set of Basset Lowke drawings for the Burrell with a set of Plastow Burrell drawings, the same errors were on both i was told. His comment was that the drawings were redrawn BL drawings with multiplied dimensions.

[welshy]

Klendo is right about the Plastow being out of scale, we have 2 chimneys for our Burrell, one chimney is bolted on the smokebox, whilst the other (the original one made to the plastow
design) is sitting gathering dust on the shelf next to the engine. The Plastow chimney is an awfull profile as KLendo says the bottom is way too narrow and the copper top profile is completely the wrong shape.
We also have a 3/4 completed Stenner and gun rack saw bench which i will complete hopefully when i finish the Stirling single.

[ettingtonliam]

Oct 8, 2010 16:03:03 GMT rodwilson said:

It was drawn by GP (presumably George) and redrawn and updated by HRP (presumably Harry) in 1978.

I think GP would have been Gerald Plastow, Henry's brother, who died in an accident in 1964, and HRP was Henry himself.
I have a copy of the same sawbench drawing on its way to me, presumably from the same source. I think the sawbench castings are available again now, after a period of many years.

I stand corrected on the origin of the Plastow Burrell design, but as I said, I built the 'Simplicity' roller, and could not fault that as a copy of an early Simplicity with the transverse front forks, provided you overlooked the use of cast instead of fabricated wheels. and non-functional camber adjustment.

richard

Richard