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Chris's Holly Pumping Engine Build

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crueby:
Hi again, time for me to start my next big build, which will be a 1:32 model of the triple compound water pumping engine built by Holly Manufacturing for the Ward Pumping Station in Bufallo NY. The building was set up to hold a row of eight of these monster pumping engines, but they only put in five of them. All five of the engines and the building are still there, and they (in non-covid years) hold a public tour once a year. The boiler building out back, that held rows of huge boilers, collapsed in a blizzard years ago (when the steam pumps were no longer used).

Here is a picture taken from one end of the row - you can just see the pipework for the other four engines behind it.


All very standard looking big engine, till you look at the sides and see how small the people are! Those are real streetlights on the walkway to light up the building at night, during the day the glass roof lets in a lot of light. At the bottom are the pumps, one under each cylinder - inlet is on the left bottom, outlet pipes come out the side at the top of the chambers. There are 6 valve chambers in all, three either side. There is a giant plunger ram that comes down from the crosshead up above. There are two huge flywheels between the cylinders. On the opposite side, there is a geared shaft driving the eccentrics to corliss valves on the HP and IP cylinders, and poppet valves on the LP cylinder. Close view of the valves on the HP cylinder:



This link goes to their web page with some more details on the engines:  https://www.buffalohistorygazette.net/2010/09/holly-steam-engines-at-col-francis-g.html
Several decades ago the steam pumps were retired, but they are still complete. In one of the bays at the end of the building left open for more engines if needed, they installed these electric pumps - tiny by comparison, that do the same work of supplying water to the city. They dont even come up to the walkway around the room!



Several years ago I took the tour, lots of photos, and afterwards contacted the man that organized the tours, asking if anyone had ever measured the machines and created plans, and saying that I wanted to build a working model of an engine from there - kind of side hoping no one had so I could get permission to get in there and climb all over them with a tape measure!

It turns out that he had, several years before, found the actual original builders blueprints sitting on a shelf in a corner of the building! Hundreds of pages of the original plans for the engine and buildings - quite an amazing find! Even more amazing was that he very kindly sent me a copy of the PDF file he had made with scans of every page. What a gift!

Over the last couple of years, as a side project, I've been working on a 3D CAD model in Fusion 360, it is now nearly complete, just missing the final shafts to the valves and the cladding around the cylinders:

After a bunch of calculations, I settled on a size of 1:32 scale for the model, which is big enough to keep the fasteners up in the 1-72 and 2-56 range, and small enough to be moveable without a crane - the base plate will be 10" x 18". Still, its going to be a heavy beast. I'm hoping to be able to make at least one of the pump chambers with an open side to show the check valve stacks inside. The cylinders are in the 1", 2", and 3" range, and the flywheels are 7" diameter.
For this model, I am hoping to take the detail level up a notch or two, and get as much detail in as possible on all the fittings and platforms. There are four levels of floors and stairs, railings, ladders, etc so it will be more of a diorama piece. This will NOT be a short build!
Started to assemble the materials for the base and frames, also found some bronze flywheels at Martin Models that I can turn to fit. For the two larger cylinders, I found some automotive cast iron cylinder liners with 1/8" walls that I will use for the core of the cylinders, with stacks of plates around them - mainly since the large bores would be tough to do on my little Sherline lathe, and this will save a LOT of work boring out from solid. Here is the pile of materials so far:

I will be using brass for the base plates and main frames, since I love working with the stuff. I can hear some of you now, clamoring over the cost of brass. I'll wait till you finish...

Okay?

 :naughty:

So, yes the larger bar is pricey in brass, but given the amount of shaping to be done in it, and how much I like working it, I dont care! The 4" x 1/2" stock is the expensive part, but even that was bought on 25% off sale, and the 1/2" square bar for the frame rails was actually pretty cheap, only about $50. Shopping around and buying drops from the suppliers can save a lot. The base plate for the 'floor' is 1/4" aluminum, and will be sanded/painted to look like concrete and screwed to a wood base with short legs to get fingers under for lifting.


The only cutting done so far has been to saw the lengths of cylinder liner down to size (they came as 8" long - so I have enough for a few more large bore engines. Or an elf canon. ) and to saw the 4"x1/2" stock to lengths - they are in the oven getting stress relieved since they will have sections removed from the bottom and top faces and I dont want them to warp. The first work will be to make the base, and some drill guides for the base plates.

Should be a fun build!
 :cheers: Chris

Dan Rowe:
Wow I will be watching this  :cartwheel: :cartwheel: :cartwheel: It is just like a big ship engine and that is my favorite type of steam engine.  :whoohoo: :whoohoo:

Cheers Dan

zeeprogrammer:
That's going to be an awesome model.

You say it won't be a short build. What? Like 3 months? 4 maybe?

Are your elves unionized?

(That's been the only upside of this pandemic. Haven't seen your pests around here for a while. Course...there's been nothing to see either.)

Craig DeShong:
What an awesome undertaking, lots of opportunity to make a stunning model.  I’ll be following!

cnr6400:
Great to hear about the new build Chris! I've just ordered 550 pounds of popcorn kernels to get ready for the festivities to start!   :cheers:

 :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

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