Hi Guys
Jeff, Dave and Mcgyver - Thanks for your interest in this – Jo thanks for looking in too
A couple of apologies –
Firstly - 10K Pete - sorry, I trust I didn't offend by leaving you out – you just ‘slipped the net’ .
I am well into this build at the moment and have not taken many pics of the early stages so can't do much about that. However, despite your very heartening comments to do so I don’t think I can give the time to this that you may like but I hear your encouragement and will do the best I can so will try to remember to take more pics than perhaps originally intended.
Ok - where to carry on.
I guess first off some words on my thoughts on this engine and where I’m hoping to go with it.
The engine was originally designed by Arnold Throp for Terry Fleet of Fleet Engineering Services who offered castings for varying versions for sale.
It was not a scale model of an original prototype but Arnold had designed it on basic engine principles learnt as an apprentice and subsequent engine fitter in one of the last firms of engine makers, Cole, Marley and Marchant. He produced his own patterns for a single cylinder condensing version that was described in the August and September 1982 issues of Model Engineer
Unfortunately Terry lost all his patterns and castings when the foundry he used shut overnight and the design was fundamentally lost to the ME world.
Several years later during a conversation with Peter Southworth this design cropped up. He told me he had Arnold’s original patterns for the left side engine and also a full set of drawings. He had bought them at the sale of Arnolds estate but had no intention of selling them commercially. The conversation developed much further and the upshot was that Peter kindly made patterns for the other side engine and the castings then became commercially available again.
A full set of drawings had been sent and as said previously the Twin Tandem was chosen but eventually discarded due to the weight factor more than anything else. I originally intended to make this as a Corliss valve HP cylinder with a slide valve LP but having seen Terry Fleets (double Corliss) Cross Compound running at the Lowmex shows the decision was finally made to make this all Corliss.
There are one or two points of the design that I did not like personally – that’s not to say there’s anything wrong with it – just personal preferences. One was the heavy bolting flange between the main bed-plate and the cross-slide bed-plate. I also felt that aesthetically the con-rod appeared a tad short . I did not like the style of LP slide valve cylinder either so decided I would make one to my own vision from solid. Fortunately there was a large off cut from a job at work that was scrounged – ever the inveterate scrounger!
Original intentions were to try to make this as scale like as possible using full size practice where ever possible but again, time and the desire to do so much with 'what's left' has tempered those thoughts to some degree.
As said all the castings proved easy to machine - beautiful homogeneous cast iron. Despite the long storage under the bench however the cylinder bed plate proved somewhat surprising.
The cylinder bed plate or plinth was machined as the other parts ....
...but with the change in in converting to all Corliss came the need to modify the bed plate by machining it's thickness down at one end. This surprisingly led to a degree of warping which would require this op doing again.
With every thing nice and flat at this stage however it was time to turn to actual machining.
Another factor I found a tad lacking was the low overall height of the bed-plates so it was decided to mill away the beading around the castings and mount them all onto an Ali sub plate. The cast in foundation bolt pads were also milled off and would be re-sited further outwards with pads JB Welded in.
The castings were set up at a 2 degree angle - setting each edge level with a scribing block
The new mill played a good part in all this machining but the old Linley, so faithful for so long played it's part as usual
The bolting flange was milled away on both bed plates...
... and everything was ready for the next stage.
Two pockets were milled into the Cross-slide bed and holes drilled through to match two tapped holes in the Main bed plate. These were pulled together with a spacer between (to help lengthen the con-rod appearance) and would be back filled with JB Weld. The cylinder plinth was machined for the LP cylinder at this stage too...
... and this is where it had to be re-faced to reclaim the flatness. Note the blob of blue tack - that helped take care of the resonance and chatter set up by the marginal clamping surface. That extension insert BTW was required to take care of the LP Corliss cylinder footprint.
Another area I decided to change was the cross head. The original had a slipper sliding on the bed direct but a decision was made to fit a locomotive type with two bars. This required the cross-head area to be milled away. The two slots for the joining bolts can be seen better in this shot.
I think that'l do for this time - more later.
Oh yes - 'Whiskey', Sue has put up with a lot over the years in her own inimitable tolerance for my doubtful modelling and non modelling meanderings. We even once had climbing wall blocks screwed to the hall wall
- yep you wanna believe it
but now the tolerance is tempered somewhat. The Waller engine is reluctantly accepted in the lounge and there's a nice Edwardian Yacht in a case in the bedroom - where else you might ask (case of needs must I'm afraid) but that's it - nothing else but I'm working on the sideboard area
Regards Guys - I'm off to do a bit more - 'Ole' Tug