The marvellous, fantastic and truly wonderful Brunton 'Horse to go by steam'...

[sem34090]

OK, I am officially mad!
 

I may be attempting this:

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/1/13/Im1839Enc-p399.jpg

 

I hope to possibly have the 'loco-y' bit done by the end of today, with the rest possibly following if I still have any sanity left!

 

For those who don't know, I hope David ('Runs as Required') doesn't mind me copying the information that he sent me last night:

From 1800 until 1815 due to the demands of Wellington’s military campaigns in Napoleonic Europe, horses had become very scarce in Britain - far more valuable than human workers .

So the time was ripe for experimenting with steam powered replacements. Best known are Trevithick's Coalbrookdale Loco, Blenkinsop’s rack Loco at Middleton Leeds, and our local Wylam Puffing Billy adhesion locomotive that ran along the Tyne past George Stephenson's birthplace.
William Brunton’s Mechanical Traveller or Steam Horse worked down to the canal at Crich Derbyshire from 1813.
Brunton’s Steam Horse was also put to work in the north east plodding along propelling coal chauldrons before it. A reputed two cylinder version  was acquired by Newbottle colliery (Philadelphia) Sunderland.

In July 1815, ironically at a celebration of Wellington's victory at Waterloo on the banks of the river Wear at Newbottle, the Steam Horse was being demonstrated, and being goaded to canter and to gallop by a crowd of onlookers. The machine is said to have achieved speeds up to 30 mph.

Urged to run still faster, the engineer weighted down the safety valve inevitably causing the boiler to explode.

15 people including the engineer were killed in the world’s first railway disaster over 200 years ago.

[sem34090]

For those who haven't witnessed my increasing insanity over in the Parish of Castle Aching, I am going to attempt this brilliant yet critically flawed 'locomotive' as a 3D Printing and CAD project.

 

More on that later...

 

Regards,

 

A. Crackpot

[AdamsRadial]

Go for it!

 

A few years ago I was chatting with Chris Peacock at a model railway exhibition about how to make a horse to shunt the yards in 0 (00 seemed to be impossibly small). We were pondering using things like memory wire for the legs to try and get a bend-straighten effect with pulses of current. In fact the biggest problem we both ended up with was how to make the horse wheel around within or across the tracks when one wagon had been positioned and it had to go back for the next, because it obviously couldn't go backwards, not without looking silly anyway.

 

Brunton's folly does art least rely on the rails.

Edited March 6, 2018 by AdamsRadial

[sem34090]

Hmm...

[sem34090]

https://www.shapeways.com/product/P9FYME8BX/brunton-horse-to-go-by-steam

 

You'll be able to buy this thing! Need to do something about the motion though: that's the bl00dy awkward interesting bit...

[Killian keane]

You sir, are more of a madman than I am!

You might do well to contact this gentleman

Edited March 6, 2018 by Killian keane

[Jim Martin]

Those things at the back: they're the pick-ups, right?

 

Jim

[Caley Jim]

Those things at the back: they're the pick-ups, right?

 

Jim

But they get put down as well as picked up?????  

 

A N Other Jim

[Killian keane]

What scale is she to be? Surely no mere mortal could do one in 4mm? (Mike Sharman except)

[sem34090]

The currently available model is to run on 16.5mm gauge track... however my final rendition is more likely to be running on 32mm or 45mm track. I doubt it was what we would call 'standard gauge' today. It's not 'Narrow Gauge' as the concept of a 'Standard Gauge' had yet to be defined!

 

More on that in the future...

[Hroth]

https://www.shapeways.com/product/P9FYME8BX/brunton-horse-to-go-by-steam

 

You'll be able to buy this thing! Need to do something about the motion though: that's the bl00dy awkward interesting bit...

The motion?

 

Thin brass strip and pins, with lots of careful filing and soldering.....

 

I'd be inclined to pull it along using a little motor bogie under the tender and drive the motion off one of the axles, using cams and bellcranks...

 

 

The currently available model is to run on 16.5mm gauge track... however my final rendition is more likely to be running on 32mm or 45mm track. I doubt it was what we would call 'standard gauge' today. It's not 'Narrow Gauge' as the concept of a 'Standard Gauge' had yet to be defined!

 

Keep the 16.5mm gauge version for those who like a "challenge".  A 32mm gauge one would have more universal applicability than 45mm.  A yard length O gauge Peco Streamline is remarkably inexpensive, compared with G gauge track!

 

Thing is, that boiler/chassis design is remarkably applicable to any pre S&D colliery locomotive, with lots of fun to be had in either OO or O gauge.  All we need is for some nutter to produce fishbelly track with stone block "sleepers"......

 

(And I'm not suggesting for ONE MOMENT that you pick up that particular poisoned chalice!)

Edited March 14, 2018 by Hroth

[Jol Wilkinson]

I noticed a caption in the video quoting 93 hours design time for the etches and 165 hours build time.

 

Etching would be the best way to do the motion, unless you scratchbuild it.. Presumably the 4mm model will be static as you don't seem to have given any idea on how it would be powered. The model in the video was 1/32 scale (Gauge 1) so about 2.4 times bigger than 4mm. Another video shows the internal drive to the pistons and gives some idea of the development the model went through.

[sem34090]

Stone block sleepers and fishbelly rail... worth a try! The rail especially...

 

I will be possibly starting the project over the summer, but not before.

[Jol Wilkinson]

Stone block sleepers and fishbelly rail... worth a try! The rail especially...

 

I will be possibly starting the project over the summer, but not before.

 

Ambis Engineering supply etched Fishbelly rail in 4mm and 7mm (the 7mm is available through Hobby Holdays). 3D printing would be easier but lack the appearance of iron/ steel.

 

The stone blocks could be printed or cut from appropriate size of plastic strip.

[Regularity]

Produce a few masters, take a mould, and cast away in plaster.

[sem34090]

The rail would be printed in bronze-infused steel, which provides a rather 'cast-iron'-esque appearance.

[Annie]

That basic boiler print would be good for scenic stationary boiler use too.  

[sem34090]

That's the main reason why I made it available!

[brumtb]

 This is fascinating.  As a Brunton myself I'm now keen to follow our family tree back!

[sem34090]

When I looked closer at David's (Runs as Required) avatar, I noticed how unusual the loco was and was intrigued to learn more.

 

David sent me the information, and I was hooked!

[runs as required]

From Hroth in the CA thread here

From Corneliuslundie

Back briefly to Mr Brunton's walking engine, I have just discovered that the prototype blew up, killing a fair number of people in the process.

Apparently he was always inventing things which were a bt ahead of his time or the technology.

 

Jonathan

 

That's true, the explosion was due to the driver holding down the safety valve in an effort (egged on by the bystanders) to make it go faster.  Nothing to do with Brunton himself as if the safety valve he fitted had not been tampered with, the Steam Horse wouldn't have gone bang!

 

One fears the driver and spectators got their just desserts.....

 

That seems a bit unfair about an enthusiastic bunch of Mackem onlookers celebrating back in 1815 - 

I wonder how many even now would understand such technical stuff.

It is notable as the world’s first railway disaster over 200 years ago. - 14 people including the engineer were killed and many more injured and badly scalded

 

From 1800 until 1815 due to the demands of Wellington’s military campaigns in Napoleonic Europe, horses had become very scarce in Britain - far more valuable than human workers .So the time was ripe for experimenting with steam powered replacements.

Best known are Trevithick's locomotives from 1802 at Coalbrookdale onwards, Blenkinsop’s 1811 rack Loco at Middleton Leeds, and our local 1813 Puffing Billy adhesion locomotive built to connect Wylam Colliery to coal exporting staithes at Newburn along the upper tidal reaches of the Tyne, past the door of young Geordie Stephenson's birthplace.

 

William Brunton’s 1813 Mechanical Traveller or Steam Horse was devised to ship minerals from quarries and mines down to the canal at Crich Derbyshire

Brunton’s Steam Horse was also put to work in the north east plodding along propelling coal chauldrons before it. A reputed two cylinder version was acquired by Newbottle colliery (Philadelphia) Sunderland.

 

On 31 July 1815 1815 -  ironically during a celebration of Wellington's victory at Waterloo - on the banks of the river Wear at Newbottle near Sunderland, the Steam Horse was being demonstrated, being goaded to canter and to gallop by a crowd of excited spectators.

 

According to Jim Rees, builder of  Locomotion and the Steam Elephant replica early locomotives at Beamish Museum, Brunton’s steam powered robot is said by some to have been achieving speeds approaching 30 mph.

Urged to run still faster, the engineer weighted down the safety valve inevitably causing the boiler to explode.

 

dh

 

[Edwardian]

That seems a bit unfair about an enthusiastic bunch of Mackem onlookers celebrating back in 1815 - 

I wonder how many even now would understand such technical stuff.

It is notable as the world’s first railway disaster over 200 years ago. - 14 people including the engineer were killed and many more injured and badly scalded

 

From 1800 until 1815 due to the demands of Wellington’s military campaigns in Napoleonic Europe, horses had become very scarce in Britain - far more valuable than human workers .So the time was ripe for experimenting with steam powered replacements.

Best known are Trevithick's locomotives from 1802 at Coalbrookdale onwards, Blenkinsop’s 1811 rack Loco at Middleton Leeds, and our local 1813 Puffing Billy adhesion locomotive built to connect Wylam Colliery to coal exporting staithes at Newburn along the upper tidal reaches of the Tyne, past the door of young Geordie Stephenson's birthplace.

 

William Brunton’s 1813 Mechanical Traveller or Steam Horse was devised to ship minerals from quarries and mines down to the canal at Crich Derbyshire

Brunton’s Steam Horse was also put to work in the north east plodding along propelling coal chauldrons before it. A reputed two cylinder version was acquired by Newbottle colliery (Philadelphia) Sunderland.

 

On 31 July 1815 1815 -  ironically during a celebration of Wellington's victory at Waterloo - on the banks of the river Wear at Newbottle near Sunderland, the Steam Horse was being demonstrated, being goaded to canter and to gallop by a crowd of excited spectators.

 

According to Jim Rees, builder of  Locomotion and the Steam Elephant replica early locomotives at Beamish Museum, Brunton’s steam powered robot is said by some to have been achieving speeds approaching 30 mph.

Urged to run still faster, the engineer weighted down the safety valve inevitably causing the boiler to explode.

 

dh

 

Fascinating stuff, David.  Did a read somewhere that a certain Rocket ended up on the colliery network known as the Brampton Railway?

[runs as required]

True.

The North Pennines are really exciting with a history of Roman mining and drift coal mines dug by Lanercost Priory monks.

Particularly interesting is the Brampton Railway. It began as a wooden waggonway off the high moors, then Lord Carlisle had George Stephenson re-engineer and re-gauge it.

Later it was partially incorporated into the Newcastle & Carlisle (1838) from Brampton Junction into Brampton Town (later the NER).
Lord Carlisle's colliery railway got connected at its eastern end to Lambley station on the Alston branch at the south end of the South Tyne viaduct.and the NCB operated it until 1953. There are still private commercial drift mines still producing today in the Alston S Tyne valley.

 

Jim Rees of Beamish explains how all the early engines were being constantly re-built, components re-used and bits adapted. The Geordie Armstrong Brothers were doing just the same at Wolverhampton developing their GWR tank engines

The only reason Puffing Billy survives unmolested Rees reckons is that Wylam was 5' 0" not standard gauge

 

In making his Puffing Billy replica, Jim Rees recognised the Science Museum cylinder castings he was copying (made new from the original Puffing Billy components) had Trevithick detailing.

Further investigation revealed that Puffing Billy incorporated an original Trevithick 36” long cylinder cut down to 24” so it could be water jacketed. This had been sourced from an 1805 Trevithick engine engine built in Gateshead for Blackett at Wylam – but turned down as ‘too heavy for wooden track’. This survived as a stationary engine in Gateshead until 1860.

The cylinder component in turn, Rees argues, leads to the emergence of the 2 ft long Stephensonian cylinder.

 

dh

Edited March 17, 2018 by runs as required

[runs as required]

I'm trying to get my brain unravelled in tracing out the engraving of Brunton's robot hoss's legs to simulate in 2D (right and left with knee joints and swinging hips).

I remember when we tried it in Meccano a few years back we found the puppet strings hard to simulate.

 

But it does make for a beguiling screen image

dh

 

Ed

hooves now added

Edited March 17, 2018 by runs as required

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

"Urged to run still faster, the engineer weighted down the safety valve inevitably causing the boiler to explode."

 

Whatever the engineer may have done, plenty of early boilers exploded 'unassisted' because of inherent constructional deficiencies and a lack of understanding of many of the mechanisms that could cause failure of a pressure vessel.

 

The cylinder appears to be embedded in the boiler. If that is the case then it is a major weakness, both in disrupting the form of an ideal circular section shell as a pressure vessel; and by introducing cyclic flexing to the combined assembly as the engine operates, right where the structure is most compromised by the design. I'd tend to the thought that failure of the pressure vessel was inherent to the design, the risk increasing as more power output was demanded.

 

A small sampling of the early reports of boiler explosion will reveal that supposition of cause, unsupported by reliable evidence, persisted well beyond the date of this explosion. Whatever was expressed as opinion of cause at the time, cannot be regarded as reliable due to a lack of both knowledge and analytical technique.