OneGuyFromBarlick

Dee Mill engine lying derelict in 1985.

How the engine used to look....

Steam Joe is a man who at one time ran a steam cultivation business in Minnesota. He and his father before him never sold an engine. All the engines they worked with sit in the paddock round the house. He is still collecting.

Dee Mill engine house stood derelict in 1992.

Nothing more sad than good machinery in terminal decline.

Lamb Hill in 1983. I was told once that there used to be a waterwheel in the building with the arch on the cellar. I have my doubts about this but I have been surprised in the past. Certainly an interesting cellar....

Very old donkey engine found at Woodhouse Mill, Littleborough. I got hold of it and had it refurbished by the Training School for apprentices in Rochdale and it was sold to the Co-op as an exhibit in the Wheatsheaf Centre. I am told it is no longer in there but was donated to a museum?

HP side at 78rpm. Johnny pickles could never understand how railway locos got away with a small oil reservoir with a cork in lubricating a crank that ran far faster and was blasted with grit and weather. Neither can I! If the oil supply to this crank failed the bearing was stinking hot in a couple of minutes.

My late friend Alan Andrews drawing of Trencherfield Engine at Wigan.

Trencherfield engine at Wigan in 2000 on the day when I inadvertently shut it down.....

Dobson Block valve gear on Bancroft engine. There were many efficient valve gears, the Dobson Block was one of the most simple and trouble-free.

No pic today as ability to post pics has gone AWOL temporarily until Ian fixes it!

Craig's motion on the Ellenroad engine. I liked it, very simple and effective. If you're trying to work it out, recognise that the lever attached to the brass cam block was rocking all the time from a separate drive than the rotary shaft that turned the eccentric.

Overall view of the valve gear on the left hand HP cylinder at Ellenroad. Lots to work out here!

Stanley your favourite project. Ellen Road Steam Museum Steam Day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDXyCjHRojw

Sorry if this has been shown before. But worth a visit.

Nice to see it again. The two ladies, Thelma and Joan (with the white pony tail) were the first in the world to run an engine that size all on their own, from lighting the boiler to shutting down. One of my finest achievements!



Joan and Thelma in 1998 at Ellenroad. An old bloke told them they ought to be brewing tea and not running the engine. I took him on one side and advanced his world view.....

When it came to big steam locomotives the US had us all beaten. The Union Pacific Big Boy loco. (LINK)

Bellerophon after refurbishment by Keighley and Worth Valley railway in 1985.

An unusual Burnley Ironworks engine. George Watkins picture. The note on the back seems to read 'Hartley Spencer's 3 rod. B-I-W.
M/cExchange directory for 1952 shows Hartley Spencer, Stanley Street Mill, Burnley.

I've posted this before but we need to remind ourselves every now and again that big engines needed big lathes!

Making the stand for the new stop valve at Ellenroad in 1991. I found this casting in a bin of scrap, just exactly what I needed, scrap yards are wonderful places.

The temporary stop valve wheel and standard I made for Ellenroad to replace the original 18" valve in the background.

An intersting steam / electric concept
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsHkGM_2FRQ

The finished job. The hand wheel was a fiddle but I wanted it to match the one on the original valve. By the way, the small valve is the bypass round the main valve to allow warming steam into the engines.