Florence Locomotive Works

You are quite right. However there be a steel pin through the solder giving it extra strength to resist any larger forces.

I’m on regularly, just not posting in ER’s or the Night Mail at present. I have a three going in the Pre Grouping section. May the awl forgive me. Edit, just saw @Dave Hunts post.

1 7/8th inch gauge, just under 2 inches.

Well, shortly after the last post remaking the crankshaft became an absolutely necessity, due one of the webs shearing off because of bad engineering in my part. However, the locating pin for the web was still in place so the quartering would still be correct if it was soldered back together. So I tentatively attempted to do so, by wrapping a piece of brass around the broken area and filling it all soldered. And you know what, it worked! Of course this meant all the motion had to be taken out, which is no small job. It takes roughly 30 minutes to drop the 2 leading wheelset*, then take the rods out and then finally drop the crank axle. Here are the rods laid out and one driving wheel sitting loose in the chassis. Then began the process of reassembling everything and correcting tolerances which took the better part of 6 hours yesterday, not including the runs on the “test board”** to free everything up. I also took the opportunity to refinish off the front leading wheelset as the finish on the left hand wheel was rubbish. And now he’s all polished up and reassembled ready for name plates. Douglas *the second leading wheelset is under the widest part of the driver meaning it needs removing first before the drivers can come out. **a 9 foot long board the engine gets pushed up and down about 40 times to free up components. Made in wear one might say.

Well work on the tender has ceased for the moment as issues with the crank axle need to be addressed. Mainly the fact it needs to be remade. Currently it’s formed from 16 different pieces, with the webs being screwed and tapered pinned to the journals. This method works well if you have the equipment to make sure every whole is in exactly the right place, which I don’t, so one end of the axle is out of concentric, making the right hand driving wheel wobble and bind with the splashers. So the intention is to remake the crank axle from a solid piece of steel bar, on my lathe. This is done by offsetting the work in the chuck by putting a jaw in “late” so that the work is held off center. I’ve been researching various other methods in my workshop Bible, “Modern Machine Shop Practice” by Joshua Rose. My copies are from 1895! This method shows how you go about forging one with a steam hammer. And this one shows relation between the crank, eccentric and valve. I shall report back with progress soon. Douglas

Evening all, I managed to eek out enough time today to get the left hand tender frame cut out and roughly filed up to shape. Next is of course to do the left hand side, and then find some material to act as from stretchers. I use round stretches at either end into which bolts securing the dragbeam and buffer beam get screwed. I would use square bar but I can't get any due to cost. Once the stretchers are made and fitted the huge puzzle of how to fit the clockwork drive begins, which I still haven't entirely figured out and am also considering installing a motor powered by batteries hidden in a yet to be built GWR bg 1st class carriage, another fun project. Douglas

His majesty’s ship is actually named after the Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley who was given the nickname of Iron Duke by the papers for his battles against Napoleon and the Whigs in Parliament. At the time of the engines construction in 1847 he was still alive and a massive public figure, despite the fact he wasn’t a huge fan of railways. During the parliamentary hearings for the building of the GWR he famously shouted “IT WILL ENCOURAGE THE WORKING CLASSES TO MOVE ABOUT!” Over time he became relatively open to railways, and was mostly catering to the demands of his party (wealthy landowners who would have estates cut by railways) in his statements.

Hello all, Figured I’d start a thread to chronicle my broad gauge modeling, which isn’t very typical for more than one reason. I’m a clockmaker by trade, (but a railway modeler before that!) and about 3 years ago I picked up a book about early model locomotives made in the 19th century. Many were by clockmakers and Instrument makers, and they were highly ornate. So of course I wanted one. Several years passed, I scratch built my first engine, and then this summer I finally felt ready to build a model like those in the book. I chose a GWR Rover class in 1885 condition, with a few embellishments. The engine is entirely scratch built, mostly from brass and steel with a copper boiler, and features working inside valve gear. The spectacle plate is made from a sheet of 200 year old African Blackwood and the cab sides are cypress wood from an 1883 barn in Kentucky. The pattern on the driving wheel was made using the most expensive lathe ever made for a non industrial purpose, Holtzappfel & Company of Londons number 1636 made in 1838. It is owned by a foundation in a member at. Here’s a shot of the work being done, showing maybe an 1/8 of this gorgeous rose engine lathe. So, obviously the engine doesn’t have a tender, that’s a work in progress. I’ve devised a cunning plan to put a clock movement sawn in half into the tender to provide the engines motive power, as I’m hopeless with electricity. That’s what this thread will mostly be about till we move on to making carriages! hope you all enjoy, Douglas

I’m not sure. The clock was sold to an antique dealer in the 50s who brought it to America.

Here it is in all its glory. From the base to the top of the brass balls which are above the blinded figure of justice I believe it measure 12.5 feet tall, and weighs 170 lbs. Douglas

I have posted it before but I shall attempt to find one.

Afternoon all. Today I’m pretending to be Thomas Tompion. Although I’m no longer employed as a clockmaker I still do on occasion get called out to fix family members and friends clocks, and today was the day that my grandmothers two most excellent timepieces were to be lubricated. First up was this lovely brass and China French clock, by L. Marte of Paris from 1883. It needed lubricating and checking to make sure the suspension spring was in good order. Here’s the movement seen through the rear door without the bell. As one cannot yet pass one’s fingers through solid matter the movement had to be removed so the front plate could be lubricated. Ere tis. The vast majority of French clocks are circular for reasons unknown to me. They can have up to as many as three mainspring barrels and are generally superb but not quite on the level of something like a Charles Frodsham fusee clock. Here it is back on the mentor all ready to go. Except it doesn’t, I’ve been fighting it stopping all day. It work fine when off the mantle but stops after 5 minutes when set there. Perfectly level too. Next up was the removal of the movement from the large 10 foot tall grandfather clock we have which formerly live in Innsbruck town hall. This needed oiling and the pendulum crutch looking at. Those four rods you see hood the dial on. This clock was made by a Mr. T. Eckleburg in 1908, although sadly we don’t know where he was in Germany. This is a superb clock and if fitted with a really good pendulum could have been used in an observatory capacity. Here it’s is back in its case, which is so tall a ladder is required to put it back in. Douglas

Morning all, Last day of proper school for this semester today, Monday and Tuesday of next week will be finals and then I’m off for 2.5 weeks. The joy. More work has been done on the Duke. The left side driving wheel splasher is now more or less complete, however it has yet to be mounted and the sandbox needs several more plates adding to it. I’ve also fitted the first connecting rod in place on the crank. The bearing has yet to be honed so it’s very stiff. Big end bolts needs slacking off as well. This is the best picture I could get of it. Today I’ll finish the right hand side splasher and then over the weekend I’ll turn the piston rod and crosshead. Then it’s on to attaching the cab, and a few other things. Douglas

For you consideration m’lord, made yesterday a’ternoon. (The congealed cows milk* was not added to the sandwich) *cheese

Evening all, Made a bacon bap for, twas exceedingly good. HP sauce was added later.

Afternoon all, Thought I’d show the ponderous way I’ve devised to power the Iron Duke. As we know I served a years apprenticeship as a horologist and do clockmaking as a side business mostly for friends and family. I also quite like the things and was wondering how I might be able to incorporate a well made clockwork mech into an engine. So one night at 3 am I work up and was thinking about this and it dawned on me I could put one in the tender of the Duke. So the quest began to find a suitable mech. I started with calling up my old boss and bought this 1900s Vienna regulator movement off him. I chose this design as it uses cuts gears rather than stamped one. Now obviously this movement is far too large to fit in a great western tender of any size in 7mm. So I got my helpers saw and chopped it in half down the middle. Now I had a movement that was still to large, but not so large as to look ridiculous. The next task is to make a worm governor for it so that it doesn’t run away and sound like a severely oppressed cat which is what currently happens. It’s still to talk for the tender but I will cross that bridge when I get there, a cunning plane has already been hatched. Heres the movement after polishing. Douglas

Hello Phil, yes I have seen those and I’ve pondered buying one many a time.

Oh yes, been on there many times. Tony, the site owner and I know each other through mutual lathe friends.

Evening all, (haven’t said that in a while!) Firstly, thank you all for the kind remarks. Did some lathe work this evening in the form of turning the connecting rods for the Duke on my Rivett 504 which is now up and running, and running very well it is to! The rods are made from 1018 round bar steel, the same rod that I made the bogie wheels on Brunel from, just with a lot less precision and far more effort. And here they are, more or less rough blanks with no big ends or slots cut for the crosshead pin. We haven’t much snow so far this year, only one unusually early flurry in mid November. However all last week it was incredibly foggy, and the fog didn’t lift for 6 days! Almost never happens in this part of the state. Douglas

Hello all, Got some time tonight to manage a post. An enormous amount of working has been done on the Duke. work to date includes. 1. Solid African Blackwood smokebox door. 2. Correct profile chimney turned 3. Buffers made 4. Trailing axle suspension unit finished on the left side, still waiting for brass for the right. 5. Sectional steel crankshaft! 6. African Blackwood and Cypress cab paneling. 7. Smokebox wrapper. This was made from one solid piece of 1/8 thick brass plate bent to shape and soldered to the boiler. I’ve also added some of my own ornamental embellishments. If you look closely there are turned African Blackwood Doric columns on the spectacle plate. The tender will also have fretwork done on the sides like would be on a 18th century watch. In other news. I’m now 17 and I’ve been doing alright recently, but ye olde black dog has been trying to get out his cage but I’ve been busying myself to keep him there. I hope everyone here is doing well. Douglas

A rare moment of peace was found today so I thought I could manage a post showing progress on the Iron Duke. The smokebox is now complete bar the door and cylinder covers, it is hewn from one solid peice of steel. The driving wheels have also received an engraving. I was recently flown out to New York by the Plumier Foundation for one of their events and took the Duke with me so I could do some work on it in their amazing Workshop. The driving wheels were engraved on the famed Holtzappfel no 1636 lathe using the Ibbetson geometric chuck, both made in 1838 and used by many famous people. Some African Blackwood is in the process of being shipped to me to form the Duke’s cab. Douglas

Good afternoon all, I have news. I have not been seen in these parts for sometime and am unlikely to be seen for time again. Sadly life and all its trappings have manged to squeeze out any remaining time for RMweb. So i will not be visiting or posting regularly until at least the new year. Fear not, the black dog has not worsened and I am in no danger of dying. Time has simply become a very precious commodity in recent past. My pm's will of course still be open and I'll do my best to reply speedily. Douglas

I got a lathe and God save the King. That’s all for now. Douglas

The motor and drive components for the lathe arrived in my garage today. The motor is high torque Balfor DC model and is connected to the DC version of a VFD which the name for I forget. The welded angle supports and the lathes original back shaft and secondary fine pulley also arrived. Here it all is sitting on the floor of the garage. I put the main shaft and cone pulley together to take up less space but nothing has been keyed down yet. And for reference this is what it looks like all together. The lathe will go in front of the motor. Douglas

Those rarely ever existed except on late production engines like Skinner Uniflows. The chief engineer was expected to know what he was running, the specs would have been on the engines paperwork in the top drawer of his desk, rarely on the engine.