STEAM ENGINES AND WATERWHEELS

[Stanley]

Better picture of the high pressure/low water valve. It was set to blow at 5psi above the dead weight safety valve and was intended to open if due to a sudden stoppage the dead weight valve couldn't cope with the steam being produced. It had a separate valve inside controlled by a float supported by the water in the boiler. If the water level dropped to within about 3" of the furnace tube crowns the valve opened and started blowing off giving warning that there was a problem. Some more simple low water warnings were a whistle controlled by a float but this was a far better solution.

[Stanley]

The engine at Primet Bridge Mill, Colne.

[Stanley]

Bankside Mill engine at Colne.

[Stanley]

Spring Mill engine at Earby.

[Stanley]

Indicator diagrams for Albion engine at Earby in 1960.

[Stanley]

The Bracewell engine at Dalton Mills Keighley after the jack wheel disintegrated. It was replaced by two smaller engines. Made in Burnley it was claimed to be the biggest steam engine in the world.

[Stanley]

Spring Mill engine at Earby in 1978 waiting to be carted away for scrap.

[Stanley]

Crow Nest smash in 1951.

[Bodger]

Crow Nest smash in 1951.

Was it caused by water in the cylinder ?

[Stanley]

Yes, but cause of the slug was never agreed on, Newton had his own ideas.... Here's what he says in my book on Brown and Pickles.... We were talking about the cause of the Crow Nest smash. Originally form the LTP.

"I asked Newton, when you get a prime (A slug of water coming through with the steam from the boiler.) how can it get through to the low pressure cylinder without damaging the high?

“Well, I said it had done but I had to explain. It got a right cylinder full into the high pressure and it were lucky. It must have got it during the length of the stroke and filled it but the exhaust valve were open and when the piston went back it shoved it down the pipe and it went straight into the low. ‘Cause it’s a cross compound engine set at ninety degrees so that side were open and all but when that piston came back on low pressure that (the exhaust valve) were shut because them valves on the low pressure shut about two foot sooner than the high think on, they have to get some compression up. That’s when it shoved the end out of the cylinder and it never blew the relief valves because they were full of Shinio metal polish! (I’ve come across this many a time since. Most relief valves are brass and prominent and get a lot of polishing. Due to their construction it’s very easy for excess polish to get into the valve and on to the seat where it sets up mild corrosion and sticks the relief valve down. The function of the relief valve is to lift easily to allow any excess water to escape and on the low would only be set at about 50psi maximum. If this is what happened it shows how firmly they were stuck that they resisted pressures high enough to split the cylinder. ) That was what did it and nobody telled me any different about Crow Nest, it were no air pump rubber. It went through the high because, and this was another thing Stanley, it were like whitewash inside. You don’t get that unless it has come from the boiler. (This is boiler composition, a chemical additive injected into the boiler with the feed water to inhibit the formation of hard scale.) Compo, and boiling hot and all. When I say boiling I mean fizzing. What causes it is when the boiler is full to the top with water and instead of steam going up the pipe it’s water at 160psi. You can get it intermittent with oil in the boiler or too much compo.”

Here's what he had to do to cut out the LP side and get the engine running until they could make a new cylinder and install it. Big Jobs!

[Stanley]

What they found when they stripped the lagging off.

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

Daniel Meadow's pic of the lad cleaning the rose on the bottom of the intake pipe in Bancroft Dam for condenser water. There was more to running an engine than sitting in the chair watching it running! The waste warm water came out of the open ended pipe in the arch, into the trough, and was dropped back into the dam further up so it got chance to cool in the body of the dam before the intake grabbed it and recirculated it. The colder the intake water, the more efficient the engine.

[Stanley]

The dam at Bancroft in 1977 emptied for cleaning.

[Stanley]

Bancroft Lodge at closure in 1978.

[Bodger]

Here's what he had to do to cut out the LP side and get the engine running until they could make a new cylinder and install it. Big Jobs!

I asume if it had been th HP cylinder that production would have not been possible ?

[Stanley]

Easier actually Bodge. Pipe steam from the boiler direct to the LP after reducing pressure by altering the safety valve on the boiler and continue to get the advantage of the condenser. All they would have to do would have been to detach the HP con rod and manage without the governor. God knows how brave they would have been with the pressure on the LP. 40psi would be high under normal conditions but the engines were overbuilt. It would have to be agreed with the Insurance Surveyor. If it's any guide, one of the LP cylinders at Ellenroad was cracked in the port and I think this was done by running the LP at too high a pressure because after the conversion from triple expansion to tandem the LP cylinders were undersized. I suspect they got more out of the HP than they would from the LP. Newton said that the cylinder was nodding on its foundations and they had to drop the load by stopping some looms.



Same problem but bigger cylinder at Butts in 1923. Luckily the cover broke and the cylinder wasn't badly damaged so a new piston and cover cured it. Cast at Havre Park foundry and the job done by Henry Brown and Sons.

[Stanley]

Turbine house at Masson Mill, Matlock, generating 24x7 to this day.

[Stanley]

The head-race at Masson drawing on the River Derwent. Plenty of water and yes, I was up the chimney in 1992 when I did the pic. Those were the days.....

[Stanley]

An early steam loco that was used on the Barlick Branch line. About 1900?

[Whyperion]

MIDLAND RAILWAY - 1347 - Johnson MR Class 1823 1P 0-4-4T - built 05/1889 by Derby Works as MR No.1428 - 1907 to MR No.1347 - withdrawn 11/34.

Same picture and info taken from http://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/ ... &k=VgrGfBz

[Stanley]

Just thought you might like to see this. The Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4 Loco built by the American Locomotive Company. This was about as big as they got!

[Stanley]

Bankfield boilers being scrapped by Dixons of Burnley in 1988.

[Stanley]

The Campbell gas engine that powered the pumps at Gledstone Estate's Kelwell spring at East Marton. Now preserved.

[Stanley]

The Mirlees diesel engine that powered Kirkstone Quarry high in the fells of the Lake District.