OneGuyFromBarlick

Some rope races were far more complicated. Here's Edna Lumb's painting of the rope race at Ellenroad.

The rope race at Ellenroad in 1985 shortly before we had to demolish it. A genuine cathedral of power!

Ellenroad rope race in 1985, looking down into the house from the top platform.

A sad day in 1985. We had to drop the rope race because it was unstable after the mill was stripped from round it. It was swaying in the wind!

Map showing the water resource at Whalley. Click to enlarge.

Chopping the crankshaft out for a model compound engine. Just imagine what it would be like for a full size one and wonder at the engine-maker's skills!

The massive crank on Ellenroad engine in 1985. This gives you an idea of the scale of the task that faced me but have you ever wondered how the cranks were made from the rough steel forging? After facing both sides and boring the shaft and crank-pin holes it was put on a large slotting machine and the shape roughly carved out. Then it was given to the fitters and their apprentices to chip and file out the slotting marks. Just think how long that took by hand!

New crank for Albion at Earby being bored at B&P in 1956. Notice the bevel round the edge, it hasn't been shaped on the slotter yet.

The new shaft and crank for Albion ready to install. Notice that the bevel has gone and the outside of the crank is polished.

I can't remember ever seeing any obvious crank balancing weights. On locomotives the wheels are counter balanced to remove the "hammer blow". Were mill engines considered too low revving to need any balancing?

A balancing weight on a crank only balances the crank itself and that's such a small part of the dynamic weight in a steam engine it was not regarded as a problem. The shaft itself, being plain, is already in balance. Different on a loco where the crankshaft was cranked.

The "hammer blow" is due to the cranks secondary balancing moment not the primary static balance moment. Often referred to as the dynamic balance. Becomes noticeable at higher speeds. As you say it probably not really a problem but it is debatable if at that time they knew about it anyway.

Oh, they knew about it all right but recognised that it was a minor problem. The imbalance of dynamic forces that resulted in hammer blow to the tracks doesn't apply of course and what was equivalent and far more important was the steadiness of power delivery to the lineshaft. Watch a good, well-maintained rope drive engine and the tell-tale is how the ropes behave on the slack side of the drive. At Bancroft I had them running in a smooth curve with no flogging. This could get bad enough to throw ropes off the flywheel in some extreme cases and was always cured by quartering the cranks and paying close attention to valve events.

Oakmount Mill Burnley in 1979 when they were still weaving. I'm looking forward to seeing it again this morning.

Oakmount Mill engine yesterday.

Another view of the engine on Thursday.

My old mate Robert watching the engine running at 30rpm on leccy.

The boiler house at Oakmount Mill in 1979. Fully automated apart from clinker removal. Gone now and that's why the engine has to be driven by leccy.

Another view of the Oakmount engine in 1979 when it was still running the mill. The HP cylinder is interesting. Originally a slide valve, the new Corliss cylinder was made and installed by Burnley Ironworks to improve efficiency. Note that both steam and exhaust valves are at the top of the cylinder, there wasn't room on the bed to get the exhausts at the bottom and keep the centres right so this was the solution that BI used in these cases. Not ideal because the exhausts didn't eject condensate efficiently because they were at the top so great care had to be taken to avoid getting condensate building up in a cold engine. Oakmount never had any problem because the engineers were on the ball. See Newton Pickles in the LTP for more about this engine.

Garfield Mill Engine House. 1959.
An informant told me the following:
My recollections of both Garfield and Ellenroad was that Garfield's Engine House was not as clean and tidy as Ellenroads was. This however, could be due to the engine layout and design. Or maybe just the fact that the writing was on the wall, and there wasnt the available money for refurbishment. This engine was built in 1883 by J Petrie & Co of Rochdale, as a horizontal twin tandem compound engine, used to power a 26 rope drive off a 27ft flywheel powering a cotton spinning factory. (Mules) It was converted to a triple expansion engine by John Musgrave & Sons of Bolton in 1902. It was scrapped when the mill closed in 1963.

Reading the above it struck me as notable that Garfield was converted from twin tandem to triple expansion while Ellenroad was built as triple expansion and converted to twin tandem......

Drawing of the original Ellenroad triple expansion from the Textile Manufacturer 1893.

The Ellenroad engine as converted to double tandem. The interesting thing was that the original LP cylinders were used and in the new, more powerful configuration they were undersized for their HP cylinders. This meant that when working at full power they were carrying more than their design pressure and the relief valves had been adjusted for this. The Right hand LP was cracked inside the inlet port at the end nearest the HP cylinder and had been repaired by bolting a plate on the outside of the casting and putting a screw jack inside the port chamber to strengthen it. The jack was still there but as it had survived full power working and we were stressing the cylinder far less, I left it alone.

The low pressure cylinders on the Ellenroad engine. You can see the large relief valves above the valve chambers on the cylinders. These need a careful look at as they are almost always sealed tight by Brasso that has run into the seats over the years. Essential for safety and I had them set so low they used to lift when starting the engine because a slight positive pressure got through to the cylinders. It was a good way of checking that they were clear, set low and working properly. No detriment to running the engine on no load as the cylinders were always running on vacuum.

A selection of valves made by Brown and Pickles in Barlick around 1930. Controlling flow in pipes was essential to steam engines.