Twin cylinder Steam Plant restoration - advice needed

[Markd]

Hello,

This steam plant was given to my father in 1949 from his uncle. He thinks it was built in the late 1920's. Does anyone recognise the design?
It has not been operated in my lifetime (59 years).

The flywheel diameter is 233mm.
Cylinder diameter is 40mm OD.
Cylinder length is 70mm OA.
Stroke is 52mm.
Boiler diameter is 160mm OD.
Boiler height is 310mm OA.

I have been waiting sooooo long for the opportunity to get this plant working.

There is no boiler test certificate in possession. Can a boiler this old be tested and certified?

I look forward to your thoughts and advice.

Mark

[Jo]

That is a very nice model engine  There were a lot of casting sets for models available in those early days. It could be worth trawling through copies of Model Engineer to see if there is an advert for it.

I would start with the engine: does it turn over? Is it all there? If not you may need to make a few pins. Be careful about getting carried away and polishing it the "patina" increases its value.

The Boiler - a boiler inspector will have kittens if they saw that. The world of safety has moved on and you will hear complaints about soft solder and the like. But it is an original part of the model so is worth keeping together.


What would I do? I would start by putting some freeing oil on all of the screws/nuts/glands etc and leaving them for a week for the oil to soak in. I would replace any missing parts and put new packing in the pistons. I would then look to make an additional connector to enable the boiler to be disconnected and the engine to be run from a compressor.

Jo