Traction Engines

I suggest that you contact Adam Harris at Camden Miniature Steam Services

who has a number of castings for such a project.

As to experience of suppliers of castings - avoid Blackgates like the plague.

Kevin,

I'm not sure that I can respond all that positively as I have yet to build a traction engine, but I think you are doing the right thing in asking for opinions. I built a Grasshopper Beam Engine from a set of castings from Brunell. The drawings were good and error free, but the castings were appalling. Some of them, I had to scrap and replicate by fabrication. The cylinder still had it's core sand in place (thoroughly embedded) and consequently wrote-off three carbide tool tips (3 ox 3 sided inserts) before it was finished. I subsequently discussed this with a few people 'in the know' who said they had similar experiences, one of which, with the traction engine castings they had bought. I don't mean to rubbish Brunell's because I suspect we were just unlucky, but it does demonstrate the point that other peoples experiences are important. I suspect that the beam engine took me around 400 hours to complete, when a good set of castings would have reduced it to perhaps 200 hours.

I hope it helps and that get some more positive responses.

Mark

I've emailed you off-list with a url for some books on the subject.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info:

Ooooh gooody, another spat in the offing :)

Ken.

In article , Ken Parkes writes

Only if an idiot tries to stir the pot by attempting to circumvent people's killfiles...

Have a look at the yahoo group for traction engines. There is a list of suppliers and engines available.

snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com

Regards

Steve Larner.

Much will depend on the scale you want to build in and the type of traction engine that takes your fancy.

By far the most popular is the 1 1/2" scale Alchin "Royal Chester" and that has a marvellous book written by W J Hughs that describes in detail its construction and the castings are readily available. It was my first engine and can recommend it.

If you want something bigger then a 2" scale is probably next and there are many of these from a variety of suppliers. There is also a showman's called "Thetford Town" ..... not for the beginner but a very nice engine when finished. I can offer a book on that and you can see the engine on

....... its not a plug but a genuine pointer to help you make your mind up.

After that you are into 1/4 scale and larger and then the workshop requirements tend to get rather demanding to be able to handle the wheels, gears and cylinder block ..... not to leave out the boiler construction ..... which if you do not make it will be an expensive item to have made.

Hope this helps you.

Alan

That's a very impressive piece of work Alan, quite stunning in fact. I was particularly impressed with the quality of finish -do you dare to use it?

I want something that is big enough to do some real work, and haul me around a rally field, which rules out the 1" and 1 1/2" scales. I also want it to have a copper boiler (because I can't afford to buy a ready made boiler) which rules out 3" and larger scales (these would probably be too large for my machinery anyway). So by a process of elimination it looks like a 2" scale engine. I like ploughing engines, but they are too complicated for a first engine, and they would need a steel boiler. I don't want a showman's engine (just a personal choice). So It looks like a general purpose agricultural traction engine, which also offers the possibility of adding other implements in the future (thresher, etc.). As I've never attempted anything like this before it would also make sense to build a popular model that has a good set of instructions, ME series, or book to accompany it. Anyone got any suggestions?

Regards

Kevin

Hello Alan, What are the dimensions of your Thetford Town? Nice job. Do like the mods you did to the Stent. Cheers GeoffH Norfolk - UK

Thetford Town stands 23 inches high to the top of the chimney, 16 inches wide and 46 inches long.

Thanks for the feedback.

Alan

Hi,

Just started looking at this myself as a 1st major TE project. Due to health problems I cannot manage anything larger than 2", and the 1 and 1 1/2" scales are just to fiddly.

I have settled on the 2" Durham and North Yorkshire. The castings and plans are available from Blackgates and Reeves2000, and luckily it looks like I've managed to find a set of castings ( part complete ) to save a lot of the work.

The boiler can be either copper or S Steel.............. and as far as I know from people that have built it is that there are only 2 minor gripes a) is the thickness of the hornplates, specified at 2mm , where 3mm is better, b) the steering differential gear down on LHS of boiler needs a guard.

I hope that this helps, and good luck.