STEAM ENGINES AND WATERWHEELS

[Stanley]

I like it China! Never knew that but I can see how it could work, the boring head would have no problem cutting the bamboo re bar.

[Stanley]

This engine used to power the pumps at East Marton, Kell Well, the Gledstone Estate water supply. It says Campbell Gas Engine on the side but I'm almost certain it was an oil engine. Thanks to Geoff Peel for the image taken at Moorside Museum, Bradford,

[Stanley]

The gas engine at Berry's sawmill at Sough. At one time it ran on producer gas made from sawdust and waste wood but in the later years ran on town's gas when the gas producer rotted away.

[David Whipp]

I recall when Gilbert Berry was still operating the mill in the 1980s. He'd sold part of the yard for a new 'advance' industrial unit to be built (an economic development initiative). Gilbert wanted a covenant allowing him to go onto the land when he needed to put a long length of timber through the saw...

The land is where Euravia is now sited.

[Stanley]

A major consideration! Funniest thing I ever saw like that was at a private house in Rochdale where a bloke had a small engineering workshop for making kits for amateurs and small one off machining jobs. He had a contract for making some very long rods threaded at each end which when inserted through the hollow mandrel of the lathe were too long for his shed so he cut a hole in the wall next to the pavement and they poked through there. He said that nobody had ever run into it! On another occasion my mate and I went to replace a tube in a new boiler for the manufacturer. It was a brand new boiler house and the architect had forgotten to give us room to get the old tube out or the new one in. The management cut a hole in the wall for us and then set to to make a small door to cover the hole for use the next time. We pointed out that there were over 100 tubes in the boiler and perhaps they should rethink the matter!

[Stanley]

I have been told that a Sentinel steam wagon has just been sold, with spares and in good condition, for £190,000. A good price but as I said to my informant, where could you get another one?



Tom Varley's Sentinel passing Montrose Terrace in the Barlick gala of 1978.

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

If you thought that making model steam engines was the exclusive preserve of men in sheds, have a look at THIS and then go digging for more of Cherry Hill's models. Probably some of the finest ever built! Here's one of her traction engines.

[Stanley]

One of the problems you face these days if you are working with Imperial sized pipe is that the fittings to suit it are very expensive because there is no market for them. In 1989 I had this problem when we were putting in the steam main for the Whitelees engine. The solution was to bore out metric fittings or old welded flanges so they could be used with the Imperial pipe we had about us. Not a commercial solution because of the expense but I was a cheap turner!

[Whyperion]

Speaking of sawdust/wood shavings anyone want a bag full ? For oil spills or fuel burners, I have a bag and it seems a shame to send it off to landfill . Can drop off either side of the M62 or Leeds-Skipton-Burnley.

[Stanley]

There were many skilled trades needed to keep engines going. Here's an unusual one. This lady is finishing the enamelled dials for pressure gauges at Budenberg Gauge Co in 1988. The old dials that were being refurbished were done by hand as was the setting out of the divisions on all gauges. The letters and figures on standard gauges were done using Letraset, the only way Budenbergs found of making absolutely black and fade proof indications apart from the black Chinese resin used for hand painting. You can see the various sizes of specially made Letraset in the shelves above her desk, The each have the required numbers set out in order on a transparent tape. The pot of red paint on her left is for the rad lining used to indicate maximum pressure.

[Stanley]

Metal spinning on an old brass finisher's lathe at Budenbergs. This man is making the brass bezel for a pressure gauge. The management told me that they hadn't found any other way of making them to the quality they wanted.

[Stanley]

This is a standard test gauge, 0psi to 800psi, made by Budenberg. Theses were the most accurate gauges made to check the accuracy of working gauges by comparison. Notice that it says 'steel tube' on the dial. This means that the Bourdon tube inside the gauge, the essential part of measuring the pressure, is made of steel and not bronze as in ordinary gauges up to about 300psi. Budenbergs made gauges which measured up to 4,000psi. Estimating the wall thickness and strength of these tubes wasn't an exact science. In the stores I saw racks of steel tubes which when made had tested above or below the range they wanted. These were all labelled and kept in stock and used when a gauge was made for that range.

[Stanley]

I don't have a picture for this. In the reception area of the Budenberg factory at Sale there was an enormous pressure gauge mounted in the roof. It was about five feet diameter and when I asked about it they said it was the biggest they ever made. It was for mounting at very high level on a boiler at a sugar mill in India.

[Stanley]

If you look closely at the nameplate on the front door of the old Budenberg works at Broadheath you'll see that in small print it says "Formerly Schaeffer and Budenberg". There's a story behind this. In Germany in the late 19th century there were two main manufacturers of pressure gauges, Schaeffer, who used a diaphragm as the pressure sensing unit and Budenberg who used the Bourdon Tube principle. Both were good but the Schaeffer gauge had the disadvantage that the scale on their gauges was not analogue. The two firms merged as Schaeffer and Budenberg and decided that as the main market for gauges was Manchester they would move there to be near to the market. They were very successful and captured the market. During WW1 they had problems being a German firm as the locals suspected them of being spies. The government took them over for this reason and at the end of the war bought the business back from the Crown but under the stipulation it was called 'The Budenberg Gauge Company'. So they added the Schaeffer connection to the name as soon as they could get away with it.

[Stanley]

Newton Pickles re-boring a piston valve on a loco at Haverthwaite in the 1970s. Re-boring on site was common and in this case an electric motor is being used to drive the boring head. Before the advent of electricity small diagonal steam engines were used and in his transcripts on the LTP Newton tells some good stories about what could go wrong! Incidentally, I am almost certain that the Horace Green 1hp motor he is using here is the one that Johnny bought to drive his 1956 lathe and which now does that job in my shed.

[David Whipp]

Alison's dad used to work for Horace Green at Cononley.

Will see if we can get him onto OGFB on our next visit.

[Stanley]

Horace Green's at Cononley made the best electric motors I have ever seen. Johnny and Newton used nothing else. The 1hp motor that drives the lathe is the same size and weight as a much more powerful motor would be today. Green's are out of business now but I managed to find the surviving son from the business and he still had the original records from the firm. I sent him the numbers of the two motors I had, one for each of Johnny's lathes, and he gave me complete details of both of them including the date Johnny bought them.
During WW2 Henry Brown Sons and Pickles had a 40hp Green's motor driving the shafting in the shop and as the load increased it started to run hot. Horace Green popped over from Cononley and had a look at it and told Johnny that it was OK, he could run it safely until the paint started blistering on it. I had both mine completely refurbished at Nelson, including a full rewind, and the company didn't charge me for the work as a) it had taken them so long and b) because they were such good quality. They said they were the most robust motors they had ever seen. So, if you have a Green's motor about you, look after it, it's probably the best in the world!



The motor in it's proper place, driving Johnny's 1956 Ornamental Turning Lathe.

[Stanley]

Part of the Lilley Injector Works at Rochdale in 2003 just before it closed. Run by my friend Dick Bonser, this was a brass founder’s shop still working exactly as it had done for over 100 years. The furnace is on the left, set in the floor. Brass founders were essential to the steam engine industry, Dick understood bearing bronzes and was recognised as one of the best men in Britain. If someone had a difficult casting or bearing to make, they came to him. He made all my bearings for me when I was refurbishing big engines and I never had a bad one.

[Stanley]

Jack Gissing loading the last large bearings made at the Lilley Injector works before it closed in 2003. They were for the Jubilee Engine at Masson, we found that the bottom shells were worn away and cracked into pieces. The bearing on the left is one of the old top brasses that was used as a pattern for the new ones.

[Stanley]

6/01/2004. Brian Robinson, the last B&P apprentice, boring the bottom shells for the pillar bearings on the Jubilee engine at the Havre Park works of Gissing and Lonsdale. The borer is the old American Burril that used to be in the laundry at Wellhouse Mill. He's cleaning up the outside of the shells before boring the internal diameter on the horizontal borer.

[Stanley]

Brian boring the bearings on the horizontal borer at Havre Park.

[Stanley]

Flywheel boss & crankshaft after having the keys fitted.This picture is taken at Burnley iron works and is for an engine that was being exported to Cawnpore India. Pic from Geoff Peel.

[Stanley]

Jubilee engine crankshaft sitting under cover at Gissing and Lonsdale's waiting until it is needed at Masson. Despite the bad condition of the brasses, the journals are in good condition.

[Stanley]

Terry Gissing and Dick Bonser outside the old Lilley Injector Works. You need good men behind you when you are doing jobs like Jubilee!