STEAM ENGINES AND WATERWHEELS

[Stanley]

John Burlison sent me this pic of the Leigh Spinners Yates engine. He says "The Leigh Spinners engine is in a better condition than the picture shows, but it has turned at least half of a revolution as the big end indicated when I visited the mill since a photo taken in 1988 by Chris Allen shown, the Yates & Thom revolution counter is still present, all steam gauges are present also attached to a mahogany board, but only one gauge is an original Yates & Thom, the alternator with ropes attached from the flywheel are still there in the pit of the rope race, the plan in the future is to run the engine on compressed air."

[Stanley]

How I found the engine in 1978.

[Stanley]

I've received more pics of the Leigh engine from John Burlison. All taken in November 2014.

Here's what he said in his mail:
"Hello Stanley, Attached are six more photographs of the Leigh Spinners engine which I photographed in Nov 2014, just different angles of the engine, which I shall post in several e-mails, use them on your Barlick page if you wish. I have read the engines boilers were converted to oil in 1956 as there was a complaint at the time regarding the quality of coal, and three large oil tanks were installed.
Another interesting point from your 1978 photograph is the engine name plates, recent photographs show the lettering inlay painted in black, the 1978 view shows them as brass throughout, and the thickness of the brass appeared to be very thin gauge. The engine shut down in 1967 as electric drives were installed, but was re-started in the 1970's for a short period due to a miners strike, then shut down for the very last time.
As mentioned, to drive the engine off compressed air would require a very large compressor, and the sensible option would be electric motor gearbox driven, and supplied from a soft start frequency inverter. Regards, John Burlison ."

[Stanley]

HP side trunk guide on Leigh Spinners engine. Another of John's pics done in November 2014.

[Stanley]

John's pic of the Leigh Spinners HP cylinder and valve gear in November 2014.

[Stanley]

The LP side at Leigh Spinners in November 2014. Another of John's pictures.

[Stanley]

Another of John's pics of the LP in November 2014. Pity someone hadn't been shooting the pigeons.....

[Stanley]

John's pic of the stop motion on the HP vale wheel at Leigh Spinners. November 2014.

[Bodger]

The power of steam, not sure what weight is being pulled but it looks heavy ?
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/an ... -h-295826/

[Stanley]

I like it. A steam loco on tracks, plenty of weight for grip and most important full torque on the first stroke, a characteristic of steam engines, that's why they didn’t need a clutch or gearbox, they didn't need high revs to get power. At a guess I'd say there was about 300 tons on those sledges. Impressive but of course it depended on solid ground frozen hard.
One of the items that vanished into store when the South Kensington Science Museum was 'modernised' was a splendid model of a Russian steam locomotive that was used for pulling trains across frozen lakes. It had heavy 'skis' for steering on the front bogey just like the loco in the woods.
I found this pic on the web. The Russian loco is believed to have been used to get supplies into St Petersburg during the WW2 siege. The SM loco was similar but had studded driving wheels.

[plaques]

I came across this bit of machinery in the 'Yarn Spinners' yard Nelson. (next to Morrisons) No idea what it is other than it must have been run off a flat belt. Any suggestions?

[Stanley]

Looks like a winch for a teagle hoist to me. The small flat pulley drives the large one with the cable drum by friction and there will be a way of forcing the driving pulley against the big flat wheel to get a drive. I can't see enough to identify it but could be made by Baldwin and Heap at Burnley. There will be an automatic friction brake on the drum that engages when the drive is released.

[Stanley]

A group of German triple expansion marine engines ready for delivery to the shipyards in about 1920.

[Stanley]

Every now and again I like to remind you that if you really want to understand steam engines one way is to make them yourself. The miniature operations from casting to running engine that happen in sheds up and down the country are exactly the same as the ones that made the full size engines. All the same problems.... The only advantage is that you don't need a crane!

[Stanley]

I assume that anyone who follows this thread has more than a passing interest in steam engines so here's a little brain teaser for you.... We've all seen the illustrations in text books entitled 'The Simple Steam Engine', long experience has taught me that there is no such beast! Imagine you are looking at a schematic diagram of a 'simple engine' from the side and plot out the position of the crank end of the connecting rod on the circle described by the crank. Now , knowing a speed at 'X'rpm and the stroke of the piston, work out the piston speed at various points on the stroke. You will soon find out that you are in trouble! Due to the fact that at each end of the stroke to piston stops in the bore as it reverses direction it follows that it is constantly accelerating and decelerating throughout the stroke. Then it's going to strike you that the angularity of the con rod has an effect as well. Gets complicated doesn't it? Then transfer the same thinking to the eccentric driving the valve gear and work out how you get the events in the right places.... After a while I think you might agree with me that there is no such thing as the simple steam engine. They are all fiendishly complicated and many engineers spent years trying to increase efficiency by solving these puzzles. That's why there are more types of valve gear than you can poke a stick at. In case you're wondering, I never cracked it. All I could aspire to was to work with what I had got and get the engine running smoothly! I did this not by indicating events but by making small adjustments and watching how the driving ropes behaved. Over the years I came to the conclusion that this was the main advantage of ropes over gears, they acted as a tell-tale that gave you accurate information. If the ropes were running in a smooth catenary curve with no variation throughout the stroke you were doing the best you could get!

[plaques]

Stanley, Steam engines simple, never in this world. As a young sprog I must have done hundreds of steam engine calculations. I could never understand why they felt they had to inflict all this medieval pain on us. At the first opportunity I passed my Calender steam tables on to the next generation of budding engineers.
Just glancing at these "Thermodynamic Tables" sends shudders down my spine. Thermodynamic Tables.

[Stanley]

Dead right. Spirax Sarco did a postal course on steam trapping and I did that. Interesting but I doubt if I could do it now....

[Stanley]

I don't know whether I have talked about the engine house gauges since the site crash. The engineer lived by these three gauges. The engine was stopped when this pic was done, we have true boiler pressure but none of the others tell the truth. The top gauge was vacuum and showed the vacuum on the back end of the LP in inches of mercury. Ideally it should be over 25". The bottom left hand gauge is the compound gauge, it reads plus or minus and shows the conditions in the receiver below the floor that connects the HP exhaust to the LP steam inlet. Under normal running at moderate load it would read about 5psi but if the load went off could drop back into vacuum. The more the load the higher the pressure. Maximum on Bancroft conditions was about 10psi. The right hand gauge is the steam pressure at the HP inlet. You’ll see the red line at which the safety valve blew on the boiler, 140psi, we aimed for slightly below this, about 120psi, as the higher the pressure the more efficient the engine ran. One point to note is that while the cock on the vacuum gauge is fully open, the cocks on the compound and the pressure gauges are cracked down. This was to throttle the pressure variations as the engine ran which caused the needles to constantly vibrate and wore the gauges prematurely.
One funny thing about the steam pressure gauge. Boiler tenters will tell you this as well. One glance at the gauge told you if the pressure was rising or falling, for some reason the practised eye could detect this.

[Stanley]

In the boiler house the most important things were the water level and the steam pressure. If they were right the boiler was safe. That's why the pressure gauge and water level gauges on the front of the Bancroft boiler were the cleanest things in the stokehole. More to them than meets the eye. The bulb under the pressure gauge is the water trap that kept the inside of the gauge dry. The plug on the front of the fitting is for the boiler surveyor's test gauge so he could check the accuracy of the gauge. The water glasses, almost always by Hopkinson of Huddersfield like these, were in pairs so that they could be compared. If a gauge glass broke ball check valve built into the fitting snapped into place and shut the glasses off from the boiler. You could then isolate the glass using the cocks at the top and bottom and fit a new one while the boiler was firing. The heavy glass shields protected the firebeater at the initial burst. The glasses were blown down twice a day while running to make sure that all the steam and water ways were clear and functioning properly. Note that they are highly polished, an indication of the care they received rather than just beautification!

[Stanley]

Hopkinson's junction valves were the finest ever made. If you come across an old one, snap it up, they are easily refurbished and far better than modern ones. Hundreds of thousands were scrapped but in the latter days we used to rescue them.....

[Stanley]

It struck me that some of you might wonder why the junction valve has two handles. The straight handle on top of the hand-wheel rotates the valve spindle and mushroom. If you screw the valve down until the two seats are touching you can rotate the two faces against each other, this clears out any scale or deposit and polishes the faces making sure that you get a good seat. Done regularly it kept the valve in top notch condition. You don't get this on modern valves..... Note how heavy the casings are and recognise that the body is not cast iron but cast steel. A thing of beauty in my eyes!

[Stanley]

Bancroft engine sheeted up for the holidays in 1977. This was to stop dust dropping onto the engine and into the slides. Saved a lot of work if done properly! You'd be amazed at the much one sparrow could bring down on the engine if it got into the house.

[Stanley]

Newton's nephew John stopping Bancroft engine at Xmas 1977. Not an obvious Christmas pic but Newton and I had been running the engine to check the stroke after replacing two worn piston rod to crosshead keys earlier that day. Wed were sat there congratulating ourselves on a permanent cure for a bad thump in the LP side, drinking whisky and enjoying ourselves. John wanted to get home for his tea so we told him to stop the engine... How may kids get to do things like that these days.....

[Stanley]

Snow ploughing on the Settle Carlisle line. I wonder how Network Rail would cope today....?

[Stanley]

In 1976 when I took over the mill at Bancroft I was on a steep learning curve. I soon found out that it wasn't all glamorous work standing in a warm engine house with an oilcan. The biggest job on a cold night was getting the shed warm enough for the weavers to start. 01:00 in the morning, stem rushing into the overhead heating main and checking the thermometers, puzzling why for the first hour the temperature at floor level dropped! It was of course the hot air rising and forcing the colder air downwards. It was a lonely job!