Jump to content
 
  • entries
    73
  • comments
    151
  • views
    36,544

Sproston - making a rotary steam churn cleaner for the Creamery.

sigtech

Entry posted by sigtech

710 views

 Share

This is a short entry to describe how I made a rotary steam churn cleaner/washer for the creamery at Sproston.
I had seen several illustrations of this device, and it appears that no self respecting creamery would be without one, so I thought I had better get cracking!
Let me say from the start that this is a 'representative' model, just using a couple of photos and not modelled on any one particular machine.
blogentry-18197-0-59507700-1472585562.jpg
The idea is that the full milk churns arrive from the outlying farms by lorry. the milk is inspected, tested and then tipped into a large below ground holding tank.
The empty churns are now inverted, and inserted one at a time into the rotary steam cleaner until it is full (about 10 churns). Then the door is closed, steam valve opened and the churns are spun around and cleaned by the action of high pressure steam being forced into them. Then they are removed whilst still wet, reunited with the lids and loaded on to the lorry for return to the farms again.
blogentry-18197-0-47829900-1472585200.jpgblogentry-18197-0-91904800-1472585185.jpg
The main part of the model consists of the paved plastic base from a 'Peco' Modelscene' cycle stand, painted dark matt grey (Humbrol ) with the slots for the tyres filled with model filler - married to the plastic top of a PVA glue container, painted silver, with a hole drilled in the top for the flue pipe - added from scrap plastic( round sprue,) a couple of control valves made from dressmakers pins painted black,fixed with superglue and more scrap plastic used to make a control box, along with a couple of staples to represent guard rails and other pipework.
The sliding door in the front, to enable the inverted empty churns to be inserted/removed is simply a rectangle of thin card painted black.
Originally I got carried away - and made a girder support frame for the vertical flue pipe (from more scrap plastic), but soon realized when offering the item up for installation on the ground floor of the main building that the internal ceiling height was not enough, so that was quickly removed, along with reducing the height of the flue pipe.
blogentry-18197-0-56581700-1472585167.jpgblogentry-18197-0-45117400-1472585137.jpg
Once the steam churn cleaner is mounted inside the building of course it can hardly be seen - but I know it's in there!!  Disclaimer (No new items were purchased for the manufacture of this...!!)
Well there we are, all comments - good or otherwise always welcome,

Regards,
SIGTECH (Steve).

  • Like 6
 Share

4 Comments

Recommended Comments

  • RMweb Gold
Mikkel
  • RMweb Gold

Great stuff, a neat and creative little model and we learn something new too. To me this is at least as interesting as a scratchbuilt mainline loco. There are so many railway- and lineside items and practices still waiting to be modelled.

Link to comment
sigtech

Thanks Mikkel, very kind words, as I said it's all made out of bits and pieces, and is only visible if you look through the entrance,but at least it is there....

Link to comment
Londontram

Back in the day I used to work at a bakery which had an old machine very much like this and was used for washing the large stainless steel mixing bowls and other equipment and I recall a full set of water proofs hanging near by for the unlucky cleaner and the room it was in was soon turned into a sauna with all the steam

Link to comment
HymekBoy

I do remember those old milk churns, they must have disappeared in the 1960s. Lifting and pouring one must have required some strength!

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...