What followed you home?

Well not much actually. Price of Scott PA and S-T flat twin made them pretty easy to resist and my usual trick of 'once more round the field and hope someone else buys it' saved me from a £25 Douglas flat twin and a £180 S-T P3 (still not sure if I made the right decision on the S-T!). But, had I actually been looking to buy an engine, I would have gone for a very pretty air cooled Japy priced at £200 - still there at close of play, I think whoever said (referring to ebay I think) that most punters seem afraid of slightly out of the ordinary engines was dead right.

I couldn't walk away from a Wico A twin at £10 even though I don't actually need one and a nice Amal air cleaner (with free carb attached) for the Scott SE also fell into my bag. A last minute purchase for another tenner was a three cylinder compressor which I'd walked past several times. Why? For the fun of taking it home and removing the top to watching the pistons chase each other up and down on a 120 degree crankshaft - now how sad is that! Mind you, once that little piece of silliness was over, I investigated the thing further and it is superbly well built - even has 'spit and hope' oil feed to the big ends - wonder when and by whom it was made and what the original application might have been. I put a couple of pics up on webshots (end of other stuff album) if any one has any ideas.

for the two. This is destined for my sparkless 98cc

Big Snip

Hi Kim, Are the two Marvil manuals I have on my page any use to you? See

I didn't go this time around, collected to much of late and been busy trying to get things done what with averaging two nights a week in hotels I have very little time to myself at moment. I did spend yesterday morning waiting by the Bedford to Wellingborough rail tracks, got a couple of pictures of Jubilee class "Leander" a 4-6-0 loco on her way from Tyseley to St Albans and back. Spent most of today resting my foot with a touch of gout which kicked in last night. Pictures in usual place.

Mart> It was a magneto day for me at Newbury, I thought I'd died & gone to

Thanks Dave, I've printed them off. Very useful!

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

Didn't see much to tempt me straight away, but then found a main bearing housing for a 3hp Petter M, which had the all important end cover intact. Furthermore this was one of the earlier cast iron ones, which are far more robust than the later white metal variety-one of these on the Petter-Light set has been severely squashed in the past. Hence my delight in finding a replacement. That, and a nice new head gasket from MacMcGowan completed my purchases and I went home a happy man.

If I had deeper pockets and an emptier shed I would have bought one of the New Zealand made Anderson engines, very nicely made pieces of kit. Oh, and there was a fairly good 5hp Appletop for sale but the big end was poorly, and one of the flywheels had started to come a bit loose on the crankshaft. The owner said that he'd had a pair of bronze big end shells made 20 years ago, and had rallied the engine regularly. I have a nasty feeling the the big end journal would have been well torn up by now :-(

Regards

Philip T-E

"Nick H" wrote (snip):-

Similar:-

Am I alone in thinking that is rather a nice looking little engine?

Oh, THAT one! I did see it & stared at it for a while as it is not dissimilar to the L'Aster.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

Diplomacy done, plates spun, fires fought, maidens eaten - well, three out of four ain't bad

"Kim Siddorn" wrote

Yes, both look so French you can almost smell the garlic! I guess it's the strong De Dion influence in that part of the world, and not only on the aesthetics - operating speeds of 1000 rpm and over were common while our stationary engines were still largely plodding along at 500 or so.

But we built larger capacity engines that didn't need to run at high speeds to achieve the power?

Peter

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

"Prepair Ltd" wrote >

Quite so, and I'm sure both approaches have their merits. Another curiously continental feature is fan cooled multi-tubular radiators, as used on many Bernard/Conord engines and incidentally on some Latil trucks. Vive la difference! It all adds to the fun of studying and collecting engines.

I like them when they are undamaged, but a disaster if they have bent/damaged tubes! Peter

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

A very nice little engine that is Nick. I would have took it home, would have went nice with my Bernard, still theres always Neunen to look forward to. Cheers, MartinH

Norman T300 flat twin engines

I have a marine variant of the better known T300 stationary engine. As such, it is not governed, but has a throttled and choked carburettor. It shows traces of Admiralty grey paint, so is probably one of the few supplied to My Lords for light duties.

History

In 1930, the Marconi Company asked the Norman company for a lightweight, air-cooled petrol engine capable of driving a one-kilowatt generator. The three prototypes were of 250cc, but by then the requirement had risen to

1.25 kilowatt, so the capacity was raised to 300cc. Production commenced in 1932 and continued in one guise or another until the factory closed down in 1968, the Mk2 being introduced at the end of the war. Certain features were modified in an attempt to keep the price down. The oil filler is different, the Mk 1 has a detachable starting handle and the bottom of crankcase is finned, but the most noticeable difference is that the top of the main casting behind the mag is rounded whereas the Mk2 has a flat top with tapped holes for attaching a fuel tank. The flywheel doubles as a very efficient fan and is cast in aluminium. Mk1 flywheels bolted to a steel hub but Mk2 are fitted direct onto the mainshaft. Whilst the bigger T600 has fan cowlings, the T300 never needed them & the engine rarely reaches anything approaching a working temperature.

The exhaust pipes curving around the engine leading to a common silencer are the the alternative to the canister type silencers that fitted directly onto the exhaust ports. The latter were optional from about 1948/9. Some engines were also available with a paraffin conversion.

As a stationary engine, the Mk 2 was largely used on battery chargers and lighting sets and, from 1938, large numbers were bought by the War Department. The Admiralty bought them for use in charging sets on MTBs and a marine version was also made, basically the same but without the governor. Some were supplied to Imperial Airways for use on flying boats as Auxiliary Power Units (APU's) and typical tasks would have been charging batteries, bilge pumping and fuel lifting. They were also supplied to various firms for driving compressors and Auto Diesels purchased large numbers of T300's to power lighting sets.

The serial number on these engines is found on the left side of the crankcase and is repeated on the brass plate on the top of the governor. That said, many of the WW2 engines do not have a serial number and in any case, the numbers frequently do not agree as parts are readily swapped from one Mark to another and most parts are interchangeable. About 5,000 MK 1's were made and around 7,500 Mk 2's. Confusingly, Mk1's have serial number commencing with TE whereas MK2's begin TA. For Mk2's, the post war numbers ran:- 1945 TA1001, 1950 TA4673, 1960 TA8034, 1968 TA8590.

From a practical point of view, the engines are very light to carry about, easily started and are smooth in operation, but Mk1's are said to be noticeably smoother than the later engines.

If you want to know more about these interesting little engines, Stationary Engine magazine published a comprehensive article by Phillip Gallimore in numbers 95, 96, 98 & 100.

Regards,

J. Kim Siddorn,