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A Jolly Day Out

Happy New Year All,

Spent a thoroughly good day yesterday at the Internal Fire New Year crank-up, contemplating the majestic Tangye MLD7 and its many stablemates. Food, mulled wine and good company were abundantly available.

The Tangye's massive size and whisper-quiet performance are an experience to gladden the heart of any of us. As many others did, I must have spent a good half an hour leaning on the railings and enjoying the spectacle. A lot of work was put in to sorting the main bearings this Autumn, and it has well and truly paid off.

The weather outside for the cranker-uppers and the portable Internal Fire engines was inclement at times, but it was nice to see that there was none of the namby-pamby nonsense of stopping engines and sheeting them against the rain. Some model engineers were also present, and one chap showed me part of his very interesting collection of models of various steam winding-engines from different coal-pits in the valleys.

Museum work goes on apace and the turbine shed is on the way, so the Proteus pocket power station and the Austin gas turbine will be in operation soon. Also the Sulzer early diesel should be up and running before the Summer. Paul mentioned other engines in the pipeline, so there will be plenty of excuses to make more visits. J

Regards,

Arthur G

Reply to
Arthur Griffin & Jeni Stanton
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No pictures then Arthur :-))

Mart> Happy New Year All,

Reply to
Campingstoveman

Martin, Shouldn't you be outside welding ? Glad you're paying attention. :-)

I haven't got my webshots sorted yet. Tomorrow will be the day, hopefully. Regards, Arthur G

Reply to
Arthur Griffin & Jeni Stanton

When the Dew point and Temperature reach certain levels I scurry in to my hovel to warm through and when I have raised my temperature sufficiently I go back out and lock up usually before dark :-))

Mart> Martin,

Reply to
Campingstoveman

The thing about welding is it makes a nice bright light so you can weld in the dark. Upsets the neighbours, though ...

Sounds like an excellent day out Arthur, many of the usual suspects present?

Regards,

Kim

Reply to
Kim Siddorn

Hi Kim, yes, all the usual suspects were there and lots of faces new to me. Peter Scales was there and it was nice to see and chat with Geoff Challinor for a while.

Alas, Roland didn't make it, some trifling excuse about the grim reaper keeping him awake, pounding on the door all night with his scythe. I ask you! ;-)

pictures at:

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Regards, Arthur G

Reply to
Arthur Griffin & Jeni Stanton

Well, knickers anyway!!

I've just tried the link and it doesn't work.

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and find the newest album.

Enjoy, Arthur G

Reply to
Arthur Griffin & Jeni Stanton

Hi all, the album is not available yet, though I've uploaded it all. Be patient, it should appear shortly. I hope...

Bloody webshots, I think I need a website.

Regards, Arthur G

Reply to
Arthur Griffin & Jeni Stanton

I think you've just been unlucky Arthur. My pictures appeared almost immediately, but I can recall comments from other webshots users having to wait six hours or more for their pictures to appear.

Regards

JohnR

Reply to
John Rogers

Not so much keeping me awake as infesting my fevered dreams. A vile flu courtesy of number 2 daughter ( retribution for helping her boyfriend to a hangover :-) Its the first bug I've had since embarking on the 7 day weekend and I'd only wish on a truly evil person. I gather a good time was had by a large crowd. ttfn Roland (now just snotty - so no change there :-)

me. Peter Scales was there and it was nice to

keeping him awake, pounding on the door all

Reply to
Roland and Celia Craven

Roland, glad to hear of your quick recovery.

I note that the webshots link is now working

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or

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Night all, Arthur G

Reply to
Arthur Griffin & Jeni Stanton

Well, Arthur, it's 2.00am and none of the links work - gloom and sadness ...

You didn't upload negatives did you?

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

"Arthur Griffin

Reply to
Kim Siddorn

Aha! Now they work fine! Nice pics.

I'm always slightly surprised that the big Tangye twin isn't one-up-one-down. When watching it, I couldn't decide if it was firing one and the other on the exhaust stroke.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

Reply to
Kim Siddorn

Lister twins are 180 Degree crankshafts, the big Fairbanks-Morse vertical twin at Mount Wilson is 360 degree, like a big Triumph twin! :-))

Peter

Reply to
Peter A Forbes

Nothing wrong with your eyes Tom :-) ttfn Roland

Reply to
Roland and Celia Craven

Gentlemen,

I like the Crossley VO only because I helped rebuild one back to working order and it now drives a saw bench at the Pitstone Museum near Tring. Quite a powerful engine for its size.

Mart> Nothing wrong with your eyes Tom :-)

Reply to
Campingstoveman

Am I right in assuming that the Tangye is - at least in concept - actually two singles working in tandem? If so, I'd have thought a one-up-the-other-down would have made for smoother running with a four stroke. Are there any examples of this configuration in big engine terms? I recall seeing pics of a giant flat twin in SEM some time ago.

The Tangye bed appears to be one piece. Machining and then transporting it without breaking it must have been - shall we say - a bit of a challenge.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

Reply to
Kim Siddorn

Perhaps I'm simple minded but a 4 stroke twin with one cylinder firing on each rev sounds about as smooth as it could be. AFAIK this configuration is shared by most horizontal twins of that era. The base is indeed one casting and again AFAIK only 5 MLD7s were made. They were made only to order and this one was delivered in less than 6 weeks. Try getting that in these days of JIT !!! (Even if you could get a casting that large and complex or find someone able to machine it!!) Original transport would have been no problem as the Whiteways works had its own siding right alongside the main Waterloo/Exeter line. Anyone know if the Tangye works had a siding? hth Roland

Reply to
Roland and Celia Craven

Looking at old prints of various factories, it seems that many were built alongside the railway because of the tranport possibilities, no Eddie Stobart in those days.

Still must have been a major excercise, moving very large items of cast iron around the roads of those days.

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

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Reply to
Prepair Ltd

It's not so much moving big engines to sites in the "civilised" world where rail and heavy lifting gear are readily available. I know that the major manufacturers used to excel at taking their products to the farthest flung corners of Empire, many of which were very flung indeed!

I've seen an album (a real one, not virtual) of several tons of Ruston Hornsby being moved from the factory to a big farm in South Africa. After the rail head was reached, it was perched precariously on a cart and a team of oxen hauled it many miles to its destination. The photos concluded with the R-H team setting it up and the last one was of them all leaning on the guard rail watching it run!

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

All politicians are like nappies . . . . .

Reply to
Kim Siddorn

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