Florence Locomotive Works

Hello all, finally managed to find some time today to post. Life has been very busy lately, as this is my last year of high school so even though I have till May until I graduate, everything still feels very last minute. Apart from school, my been engine has been taking up a lot of my time. Since you all last saw it, it’s gotten new turned parallel motion, a proper wedge adjusting bearing in the big end, engraving on the beam, an engraved nameplate (Cornubia, the Latin name for Cornwall), and an extension to the LP cylinder that goes down into the base. The boiler (Maxwell Hemmens vertical firetube, made around 1997 in Yorkshire) has also received a sprit burner and a wooden base. I have yet to screw everything down as at some point I’ll be buying a Bix ceramic burner which will give more heat and higher pressure steam to the engine, as currently the burner gives a max of 20 psi. Here’s a good overall view of the engine. Heres the adjustable big end. And this is the cylinder extension that goes below the base. Its main purpose is to proved a home for the threaded cylinder cover which enables the piston to be removed with minimal fuss. And here’s a nice photos of the engine and boiler before I painted the beam. Going forward, I intend to remake the cylinders so that it can be a proper Woolf cycle compound engine, but that project will require a milling machine which I still don’t have so it’s on hold. Lastly, here’s a vid of yesterdays steam test of the cylinder extension. I hope all is well with everyone else, Douglas

He’s still around, just very busy with the Beam Engine and prepping for Uni.

Spokane is and may still be particularly bad.

Evening all, An update. I’ve been away for while, simply because I’ve been busy with various workshop projects and school. On the school front, there is good news. I have received an offer from Aberystwyth University to study History and Welsh History with them. I have not accepted yet, as I am waiting to hear back from Dundee Uni and Uni of Lincoln. Dundee appear to be under the impression that I am a wanted criminal so some things need sorting out there. I had time to post this as currently I am in mild to severe pain sitting in bed recuperating from the extraction of my wisdom teeth, which went well except for the fact that there was a 3 hour delay (of utter agony) in getting the pain killers. I am now doing a bit better, but can hardly open my mouth and am on a diet of chicken broth and mashed potatoes. Earlier I mentioned workshop projects. Recently, the crowning glory of my last 7 years of working with steam was made. My first, entirely scratch built live steam engine. It is a model of a Woolf Compound beam engine, set up for driving a large textile hence the large gear. It’s loosely based on a twin beam engine that from 1854 that I have drawings of. The engine has been quite a learning curve, but nonetheless runs well. It stops running as the fire in the boiler was running out in the video. Steam is provided by this late 1990s Maxwell Hemmens (of the most excellent city of Selby) vertical single flue boiler which works very well provided the fire is hot enough. Here is a shot of the engine that it’s loosely based one. The Eagle eyed among you may note that this drawing is just a typical single acting Cornish Beam engine, which mine was going to be until I decided I wanted to make my engine a Woolf compound. It isn’t a proper compound though as the rear cylinder is fake. Oh, and here’s the video. Douglas

At least it wasn’t a sheep.

Thank you HH, I ended up having to do that later.

Actually it’s Monk Gate Model man’s fault, I’m doing gauge 1!

Afternoon all, Got my Covid booster jab yesterday afternoon and as usual woke up this morning feeling Absolutely miserable. Some oatmeal an Advil and a bit of time resulted in my becoming a somewhat functional human being, but even walking across a room is hard work. On Wednesday something I was half expecting but really dreading occurred. The spring in the 112 snapped on the winding arbor. With this being a gauge 1 clocker the spring is a whopper and I was not sure it would even be possible for it to be removed. Here’s a photo of it jammed up against the stops after breaking, note the telltale egg shape which indicates a broken spring. So after a lot of thought (which was mostly just worrying about what could go wrong) I decided to give removing the spring a go on Friday night. And to my surprise, it went rather well. Here’s a pic of the anchored end of the spring clamped in the vise. To remove the spring you get some thick gloves, grab the mech and pull away from the vise. All going well the spring unwinds itself. After a lot of struggle it finally let me remove it, and I discovered that as I thought it had broken where the annealed portion converts back into spring steel. Bing seemed to quench their annealed spring ends in water which creates a less than ideal line of high less stress metal where there shouldn’t be any. And here is the spring compared to my hand, which is not small. After cleaning all the old oil and fluff off it I set about annealing a new winding arbor end and then drilling a hole for the arbor drive pin. Here is the mech without the spring, showing the size of the gears. Once the new arbor pin whole had been drilled it was time to reinstall the spring, which is much easier than removing it as you have the key to aid you in winding it back in. All was going well until the last 2 inches when another loud snapping noise was heard. What could this be? Nothing else than the severely battered winding pin which I had overlooked replacing. This meant it was back to the garage and the vise for another 30 minutes of hard labor removing the spring. A new (and more substantial) steel winding pin was made and the spring reinstalled once more, and to my great relief everything worked very well. The run length is a bit shorter now but I’m not to bothered. All in all it took about 4.5 hours, which beat my previous 6 hours that it took to fix the spring in my O gauge LNWR George the Fifth back in 2021, and that one only need the spring removing once! Heres a shot of the first test run on the bench. And reassembled ready for another 100 years of pulling trains. Douglas

About 1989. I’ve done that with a Meccano screwdriver. It really hurts. Much prefer the hex head bolts.

Happy Halloween to all.

I’ve been up and down that pass a few times in the sun and in wet weather in the summer. Not at all fun even bone dry.

Yes I just remembered that right after posting. The Bassett Lowke/Victor J. Harrison GWR Saint models come to mind.

You are correct in your concern, but no meths fired boiler has ever been known to generate more than 40 psi, and that’s only in the huge Marklin engines. The ones I run in public max out at 15 psi.

I have been asked 4 times by my teachers to bring in my live steam engines during the Industrial Revolution units in history, always goes down very well with my classmates. As long as the boiler is below a certain volume they have no issue with it, and I was running one from 99 years ago!

Not a sonic screwdriver?