Back home again, was off to the Antique Engine Expo at Mystic Seaport Museum over this weekend, took the Sabino engine model to run. First stopped in at Battleship Cove at Fall River to tour the ships there, have not seen them since I was a kid. They have a WW-II fleet submarine, a destroyer, and the battleship Massachusettes there. LOTS of ladders up and down in the hull. Then next day over to the show. So, here is a short overview of the trip:
Starting at Battleship Cove/Fall River,
Didnt take a lot of pictures there, but a few of note. Apparently the Navy knew the right way to care for shop gnomes/gremlins:
That was painted on the side of the fore turret. Down in the engineering spaces, it looks like they missed one:
They do have a nice big machine shop there! On the sub, there is just a tool-room size lathe tucked behind one of the deisel engines, on the battleship is a huge room:
That ship used geared down turbines for the four props, so no big recip[rocating engines to look at...
Then over to Mystic Seaport for the engine show. For those who have not been there, the museum has a small village like a whaling port would have, with a number of large and small ships/boats along the river. The centerpiece is the Charles W Morgan whaleship:
Next to it was docked this large fireboat:
Was surprised to see the Sabino hauled out on the lift dock,
They are replanking the hull and replacing part of the keel at the bow:
The show was held at the shipyard end of the museum, with a row of big engines belonging to the museum outside the shop:
These were all hooked up to a big boiler next to the building. This one is fascinating, its a steering engine for a ship. It has a two cylinder steam engine, geared in to a drum that would have chains to the tiller arm on the rudder, and the post out the top would connect tot he ships wheel. Its essentially a giant servo, as the post from the wheel is turned, that moves some of the gears which move the valve, which starts the steam engine turning, which recenters the valve again and stops the engine when it matches the new valve position. Very clever, I want to look the patents on these up, maybe a (nother) future project.
This one has similar steam engine, driving an anchor windlass. They had fun doing tug-of-wars with visitors, with the guy on the engine taking just one turn of the rope around the drum and holding the end with two fingers, just enough to give the rope tension on the drum and pulling the people across the dirt.
Inside was a room with models of all sorts, RC boats to engines.
Looks like TGHS's Slim has friends with a speedboat:
Lots of engine models, including one I had been hoping to see, the Sabino engine that Greg Young built, I used his pictures/sketches as a reference when starting mine.
as well as rows of others
Outside, lots of antique outboards
This one looks like Don was busy shining the brass
This one is a Naptha launch engine, 3 cylinder, that a guy restored
Big engines
This one is still under construction
Another giant compound
Apparently in the shipyard they have shop elves that look a lot like Waldorf and Statler from the Muppet Show...
In the afternoon they opened up their warehouse with all the other boats/engines not on active display for us to wander through. Nice set of engines:
This Herreshof engine has a neat valve arrangement, with a lay shaft next to the crank shaft for the eccentrics:
with a neat arrangement for reverse, the spiral gear offsets the shaft in relation to the crankshaft:
Overall a very fun show!