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Post by jgb7573 on Mar 11, 2007 12:08:24 GMT
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Myford Matt
Statesman
There are two ways to run a railway, the Great Western way, and the wrong way.
Posts: 621
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Post by Myford Matt on Mar 11, 2007 13:58:28 GMT
Nice work, an elegant engine
MM
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paul
Member
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Post by paul on Mar 11, 2007 15:30:31 GMT
Excellent inspiration for me there John - nice pics great little engine!  |
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paul
Member
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Post by paul on Mar 11, 2007 21:40:35 GMT
Looking further at this John a couple of questions occur to me:
I don't know what Perseus calls for but Vulcan doesn't show any lubrication points apart from the hole in the trunk guide. I can see you've got little 'tubes' on the main bearings, trunk and valve rod pin (and somewhere near the eccentric strap). Are these just to make things cleaner/more 'directed' than just holes?
What is that arrangement on the end of the crank pin (at the left in the last image)?
Is there any means of lubricating the crank head?
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Post by jgb7573 on Mar 13, 2007 21:08:51 GMT
Hi Paul,
The lubrication is the main part of the blobs and gadgets that I've added. What you describe as tubes are lubrication points. They are miniature versions of the lubricator cups you'd see on engines like these, though on the full size they'd more than likely have a lid on them, and have a wick to control flow of oil to the bearing. On Perseus, the drawing calls for plain holes drilled into the bearings with a countersink on the outside to hold oil. I decided to fit lubricator cups to make it look better (in my opinion ;D ).
The arrangement on the end of the crank pin is intended to lubricate the crank pin and the big end bearing that runs on it. It's what is known as a centrifugal lubricator. It starts at a cup which is positioned opposite the end of the crankshaft. This cup is suspended from the outer end of the crankpin by what appears to be a thin rod. But this rod is in fact a length of tube. As the cup is positioned opposite the end of the crankshaft, when that shaft rotates, the cup rotates with it but stays stationary with respect to the base of the engine (it goes round but stays in the same place, unlike the crankpin). So you can put a drop of oil in the cup, which is forced up the thin tube by centrifugal force and hence to the main bearing through the crankpin. At least that's is how it works on full size engines which are so fitted. I'm not convinced it actually works in this size so I tend to flood the big end with oil from the can whenever I run it just in case. On the full size engines there would be a oil reservoir on a post (frequently part of the protective railings around the engine) with a pipe that dripped oil into the cup. I haven't got around to doing that bit yet.
Hope this helps.
John
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paul
Member
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Post by paul on Mar 14, 2007 18:58:06 GMT
Hi John
I'm sure adding those cups is better than getting oil everywhere!
I'll read up on the centrifugal lubricator - sounds an ingenious little device. The idea of putting an oil reservoir in the railings is also pretty neat isn't it?
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Post by jgb7573 on Mar 14, 2007 21:14:25 GMT
Hi Paul, have a look at this for a full size example.....  |
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paul
Member
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Post by paul on Mar 14, 2007 22:19:35 GMT
Whoa! Where's this beauty located John?
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Post by Laurie_B on Mar 14, 2007 23:20:26 GMT
Whoa! Where's this beauty located John? ey-oop Paul.....loooks like one o' them mill engines from oop north!  The oil tank on top of the bearing pedestal was know as an "aquirium". There are some very interesting stationary steam engines preserved by the Northern Mill Engine Society |
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Post by jgb7573 on Mar 15, 2007 12:51:13 GMT
Hi Paul, This engine is to be found at the Queen Street Textile Museum in Burnley. There are some other pictures of this engine to be found at www.astbury.org/photos/queenst/qsmain.htm. As LaurieB said, the Northern Mill Engine society have an interesting selection of preserved engines. If you want to go looking at pictures of stationary engines on the web, another good place to start is homepage.ntlworld.com/fcrammond/. That'll point you in all sorts of places you wouldn't even have dreamed of Cheers, John |
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paul
Member
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Post by paul on Mar 15, 2007 22:00:46 GMT
Cheers Laurie - there's a good picture of a Tangye on page 5 of the photo gallery that shows the lubrication cups and one of those big end lubricators. Awesome!
Thanks John - I'm familiar with that second link and have been there many times!
I see the current headline refers to goings on in Laurie's neck of the woods (the Clay Mills engine) by coincidence. I have a shop just down the road from the Clay Mills A38 junction but I've yet to visit the engine! (Also coincidentally, I used to have a shop in Bolton too but closed it about 2 years ago).
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Post by Laurie_B on Mar 15, 2007 22:46:55 GMT
Very interesting web links,John!
Paul,Clay Mills is definitely worth a visit,especially on one of their steaming days.They now have two of the four beam engines running I believe;the other two engines are considered to be very long term restoration projects.And there are quite a number of smaller,auxiliary engines on the site which might just be of interest for your project.
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paul
Member
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Post by paul on Mar 16, 2007 0:24:27 GMT
I'm going to try to get there on a steaming day this year and also to Mill Meece (mind you I said that last year and it didn't happen). Ah well.....
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