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Agnes.... 1/16 Scale Pollit & Wigzell Tandem Compound Condensing Engine.

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pgp001:
Well I suppose its about time to let you into the workshop and see what progress has been made. I warn you now I am desperately slow and easily distracted. My problem as always is my desire to make or buy more tools.
At the moment my mind is a bit pre-occupied with a certain small jig borer that I just might be obtaining, but thats another story.

Just a bit of background so you know how I got to the stage I am at now.

Agnes was originally situated at Washpit mill in Holmfirth Yorkshire, she ran the mill for many years until retirement and was eventually relocated to the Markham Grange Steam Museum at Doncaster, luckily for me still in Yorkshire.

My late father knew the engine tenter Herbert White very well and visited him on many occasions at Washpit mill to watch Agnes in action, she was always his favourite engine. He discovered that Peter Southworth was also an admirer and was researching and building a pair of models of the engine, so back in the mid 1980's my dad approached Peter to see if he could buy some castings for Agnes.
All Peter had left after building his own two models was an incomplete set of castings that were intended as spares if anything went wrong, so my dad bought those along with a few original P&W drawings.
Peter apparently never made any scale drawings that we know of other than working sketches, and the patterns had already been given to a friend to burn (YES BURN) on his wood burning stove, so it was take what is available and make the best of it.

Moving forwards a few years, my dad made a good start on machining the main engine castings, the flywheel was a substitute from another engine in the Southworth range, but was 1" too small in diameter and not wide enough either. Even worse it was nothing like the original eight segment flywheel on the full size Agnes as it was of the type made in two halves. But that was all there was available so that is what the model had fitted.

Dad was much the same as me in that he had lots of other projects on the go at any one time, in this case it was a pair of 3" scale models of a Burrell road locomotive called "Dalesman"

Then the worst thing happened, dad was diagnosed with a rare and incurable lung disease that pretty much put paid to any heavy workshop activities in a fairly short space of time, and to cut the story a bit shorter he decided to part with the models whilst he was still able to deal with potential buyers himself. So all the models and "most" of his workshop went to new homes. I was lucky enough to eventually inherit his new Myford Super 7, and the  Alexander Master Toolmaker milling machine which you will see plenty of very soon.

Move forward thirteen years, one day I am wondering what has happened to Agnes in the intervening years, so I make an effort to track down the owner, only to discover he had not laid a  finger on her, she was exactly like the day my dad last saw her.
After some very tricky negotiations I managed to buy her back again and this is where the story really starts.









More to follow soon. Here is a clue
Phil

steamer:
Beautiful Phil!.....is the main casting a casting? or a fabrication?

Dave

ths:
I really look forward to seeing and hearing more about this.

Hugh.

steamer:

--- Quote from: steamer on June 29, 2013, 01:58:28 AM ---Beautiful Phil!.....is the main casting a casting? or a fabrication?

Dave

--- End quote ---

Never mind!.....note to self to read all of it first....sorry

Dave

Jo:
So Phil what have you done about drawings for her? Did your Dad redraw her? Or have you?

To put her in perspective can you let us know the size of this model?

Jo

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