General Category > Oddball
Slewing engine for crueby
gunna:
Here is another slewing engine for Chris. At Melbourne Steam Traction Engine club we are restoring a Ruston Hornsby face shovel. The slewing engine has reached the point where it needed some steam to see if it worked. This short video shows the single lever control providing forward/reverse as well as speed. I have posted this here to not clutter up Chris' incredible build.
Ian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSAAsqu2sgc
CI:
Wow, that engine is almost identical to a Soule Speedy twin.
Any idea of when this engine was patented, and what make and model it was ?
The Soule Speedy Twin was patented in 1923, and I always assumed that the Speedy Twin design was unique, but it seems that either Soule copied the above engine design, or the above engine design copied the Soule patent.
Sort of like the Dake engine being extremely similar (almost identical) to the patent files 20 years previously by Roots.
.
crueby:
Excellent! Another style engine to model! :whoohoo: :cartwheel: Thanks for the video Gunna! I just went to the Melbourne clubs' website to look around, and have found the newsletter with more pictures of that engine being started up, the October 2025 issue. Are there other issues with pictures of the rest of the Hornsby machine? I am still looking through the website - looks like a fantastic club! Do you know what year the Hornsbyt machine is from? I have not come across much detail about thier steam shovels up till now, except for the later diesel variety.
The valve on that engine looks to be a spool valve on top in its own casting, with passages leading down to the main cylinder steam chests. Thats a lot like a lot of the ship deck winches that I have seen, and drawn up CAD for but not modelled yet. Its neat to see one with the chests on the outside of the cylinders rather than the top or the inside.
The reversing/throttle valve type used on the four engines I am building dates back to 1886, by Charles Crane, and was used with minor variations by most of the manufacturers. It used a four port valve face and a double-layer D valve with three chambers, two of them connected. The way the deck winches usually worked was to have spool valves on the cylinders that were switched between inside and outside admission by the throttle/direction valve. The Marion slew engines combined the two with its own patent using a spool valve for the throttle/direction and the Crane type d valve for the cylinders. The Hornsby engine MIGHT be a similar setup, just with the steam chests split and the spool valve moved up top.
Then there is the Soule Speedy Twin that CI posted about (many thanks for posting the patent!! ). That looks to be another way to route things, I need to read up on that one to fully understand it. Might be another model in the future about that one (and maybe the Hornsby!) Gunna, any chance of more pictures/measurements on that slew engine, especially any taken if/when it was taken apart for restoration? If I wind up making a CAD model of it I'll send you the files!
Fun, fun, fun! :whoohoo: :whoohoo: :cheers:
Chris Rueby (crueby)
crueby:
CI - doing some searching around, and I see that you HAVE a real Soule engine, and are making patterns/CAD for it! Awesome!
CI:
--- Quote from: crueby on December 15, 2025, 03:56:20 PM ---CI - doing some searching around, and I see that you HAVE a real Soule engine, and are making patterns/CAD for it! Awesome!
--- End quote ---
Yes, I ran across a Speedy Twin in pieces, but otherwise in relatively good condition, and am measuring it, and creating a 3D model.
That is why I was shocked to see this engine, since it is either a Speedy Twin clone, or Soule cloned this one or a similar design.
I think I have posted about my Speedy Twin design, but I am not positive I have posted it on this forum.
I will check.
Thank you gunna for posting the video of this engine.
This is a most fascinating development in steam engine knowledge for this type engine, for me anyway.
.
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