5" gauge GWR No2 crane boiler design

[sis]

Good evening,

This is my fist post. I have been reading posts and learning from the forum members for a while.

I am building a 5" gauge model of the GWR no 2 steam breakdown crane. The original can be seen in a picture on this website: www.bdca.org.uk/ www.bdca.org.uk/gwr2.html

The model was acquired from a gentleman who could sadly no longer continue and whilst I am progressing I still have many years work ahead. I wanted to post about designing and possibly sourcing a professionally made boiler.

I am modelling the original as built crane. This boiler was manufactured by ERF Turner of Ipswich. It is a vertical boiler although it features a locomotive style smokebox and horizontal fire tubes. I would describe myself as a novice model engineer and have never built or designed a boiler before. It is critical that the boiler looks as per the prototype but I am flexible to the idea of a boiler designed to function at the modelled scale.


My first question is where do I start? Can the members recommended boiler design literature? Would a professional boiler maker be interested in such a one off design and build project? Can anyone recommend a professional?

Thanks,
Steve

[Deleted]

While there are several boiler makers who would build a boiler to your design, I doubt whether any would be prepared to undertake the design work for you. The responsibility for the design would be yours alone.

A good start would be "Model Boilers and Boiler Making" by K.N. Harris, if you can lay your hands on a copy. It contains several designs for vertical boilers that you could use as a guide.

[sis]

Superseven,

I just ordered a copy of the book. Many thanks for the tip.

Steve

[bhk]

Hi Steve,

Would love to see some pictures, model cranes of any type have always fascinated me

[Shawki Shlemon]

I may be wrong but my understanding is ,it is a T type boiler with round fire box . If that is correct then I can suggest to you Shay Cal no 2 in 5" gauge , it was published in Live Steam a long time ago , I built the engine you can see it here members.dodo.com.au/~shawki/ . Unfortunately I sold the engine many years ago and gave all the drawings with it , I am sure if you research , you will find the information . It is a little bit trickier to build the boiler but it is doable , if I could do it others can too .

[sis]

Thanks to all for the kind replies. I just like to clarify that I have a design which is simply a scaled down version of the original. I have in fact many of the copper parts made and assembled but nothing is yet silver soldered. This has been done to learn and get a basic understanding of the job. In retrospect this has probably been somewhat of a waste since I do not have e.g. certificates for the copper, and have not considered how efficient it will be. Although I have learned an awful lot about working with copper. What I need to do is to get some advice (or teach myself) on the fundamentals of the design to ensure it is safe and works well at its scale. I'll be reading up on all of this with the K N Harris book. I'll also put the design down in CAD and then see where I am.

Thanks,
Steve

[modeng2000]

Alas Shawki, this link is not working for me :- members.dodo.com.au/~shawki/

Hope this helps,
John

[Shawki Shlemon]

John , I just clicked on the red link above and the site opened , may be go to my profile and click on my webpage .Sorry about that .

[modeng2000]

Hi Shawki,
I eventually did a Start Page web search using 'Shlemon Live Steam Models' and came up with this 'http://members.dodo.com.au/~shawki/dodo.com.au/Home.html' which worked for me.

Thanks, John