Engines > Restoration of Model Engines

Restoration of a Lowne atmospheric engine.

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Alyn Foundry:
Restoration of a Lowne atmospheric engine.

A few weeks ago a member of my FB group was in contact about an R.L.E. engine that he’d recently acquired. After several messages I decided that it was enough typing and I called him instead. Needless to say I was able to help him get the engine running. A few moments later he sent me a link to eBay about the engine in question. Luckily for me the listing wasn’t placed anywhere near where you’d expect it to be like under engines or not live steam so there was minimal interest. I put one bid against it at £2.00 above the last, quite early into the auction and then watched and waited until the last hour before closing. I was expecting the bids to skyrocket, it being such a rare engine, but no one was biting. I had put a maximum bid amount that I was comfortable with and watched the closing stages with great interest. In the last minute the amount went up from the tens to the hundreds but suddenly stopped, I had won the auction. I was over the moon.

The engine is a late 1880’s RM Lowne patent atmospheric engine. A flame gulper in today’s parlance. This model was built by the company that RM Lowne founded and shouldn’t be confused with the engines, built under license by messers Hardy and Padmore Ltd of Worcester.

The engine arrived this morning in very good shape and over the coming weeks I’ll be posting the restoration progress.

 :cheers:  Graham.

Dave Otto:
Looks like an interesting project!

Dave

Alyn Foundry:
Thanks Dave. :ThumbsUp:

I was aware that the Lowne was incomplete from the photos that the seller posted. However, from my point of view the missing pushrod and flame port flap were of minor importance.

My son and I have been looking at the piston and bore assembly this afternoon. We discovered that the Brass ring carried a pair of thin Steel seals, one of which had snapped. This is the actual main seal against the vacuum and is held in place by a pair of tension springs. The piston is almost a slack fit in the majority of the cylinder.

 :cheers:  Graham.

PS. The last photo is courtesy of a good friend who owns a beautifully restored twin cylinder version.

Admiral_dk:
Congratulations on wining the Auction  :cartwheel:

Looking forward to see more  :cheers:

Per

Alyn Foundry:
Thank you Per.   :ThumbsUp:

Members may recall a recent topic about soft soldering Piano wire? I suggested to Allen that a good old “ Copper “ was the answer. Well I needed mine today. In the picture of the repaired seal you can see my “ one pounder “ this made short work of the job.

The Blue Steel ring had broken and had jammed the piston. Another problem was that one of the Brass wire tabs was missing and also needed replacement. The wire measured 1.2 mm diameter and is readily available on eBay, however I only needed 1/4” not 5 Meters. I ended up beating out a sliver of Brass sheet into a short wire.  The Blue Steel ring was tinned and re anchored to the collar.

I’m now ready to move onto the next stage and hope that the cracked ring won’t spoil the vacuum too much.

 :cheers:  Graham.

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