Print Post Approved

Issue 548 September 2016 Worth £ 3/0/0

Newsletter from the National Steam Centre

Also in this Issue

Loco repairs Deutz Disaster Fowler 9691

Sept 2016 STEAM SUPREME 2

The cylinder of diesel Section’s 4 cylinder Deutz two stroke that failed some time ago has been dismantled showing the extent of the devastation.

Members of the diesel section have recently dismantled the failing cylinder of the club’s Deutz. It was known that the fail-ure was serious but it was not until the piston was removed that the full extent of the disaster was revealed.

The crankshaft journal is severely scored, and there are the re-mains of molten white metal and bronze everywhere.

The Deutz is the only example among our multi-cylinder diesels not to be of British origin. It was built in Koln, Germany in 1928. Its separate cast cylinders give it distinctive appearance.

The piston has lost part of its lower skirt. This would appear to be the result of the failed big-end allowing the piston to descend far enough to allow the bottom scraper ring to leave the bore and, ex-pand, ripping off the skirt as it came back up.

The the big-end cap is totally destroyed

One big-end bolt is broken and it is thought that this may have been the original cause of the havoc as the fracture line is old and discoloured not fresh and shiny.

Sept 2016 STEAM SUPREME 3

Fowler 9691 is 6NHP A4 compound engine that spent her working life in Australia. She was exported in December 1903 and came back to the UK in August 2004. We then spent the next ten years restoring her! Part of the fun has been researching her history and thanks to the internet we made many contacts and found out a great deal. But our appetite was whetted so we decided to make a trip to Australia to meet people and see what else we could find. Fowler 9691 was ordered by James Scott and we found that he lived in

Fowler 9691 is owned by Melanie and Simon Fisher from the UK, who came to visit the Melbourne Steam Centre in May. Much though we may regret losing our traction engines to the UK we can only admire the great job that Melanie and Simon have done in restoring Fowler 9691. We must also applaud the way they have investigated and respected her history. The name boards Gleghorn Bros Watsons Creek reflect her ownership at the end of her working life. Melanie writes to the club with details of their Australian research and discoveries.

Her English owners explore her Australian history.

Currabubula on a farm called “Aberfeldie”. We met his Great-grandson Peter who told us that James was known as “the Boss”. Peter also said that family memory says that the traction engine was used for chaff cutting, threshing and wood

sawing. This is backed up by a testimonial from James Scott that appears in a Fowler Catalogue of the time. Sometime in the 1920’s Fowler 9691 was sold and found herself in a gold mine at Rocky River, Uralla. This was owned by William Garibaldi (Garry) Cleghorn and we met up with Stuart Cleghorn, who is his Grandson. The gold mine went

Sept 2016 STEAM SUPREME 4

bankrupt in 1929 after a series of floods and the Fowler was used to tow all the mining equipment, including two Robey portables, to their tin mine at Watson’s Creek. With Stuart we visited Watsons Creek where many of the locals came to meet us and show us around. We were taken to the site of the floating dredge so we now have a much

better idea of what work our engine did setting up the equipment as it moved along the creek. The mine closed in 1952 and the Fowler was laid up in the bush until 1969 when she was purchased by George Wagoner and donated to Ryde Hospital where she sat on a plinth for the patients to look at. Not far from Currabubula is Quirindi Rural Heritage Village. This was another important place for us to visit as that is where Fowler 9692 lives. She is owned by George and Beryl Mannion and they made us very welcome. It is amazing to think that these two engines were side by side at Fowler’s works in Leeds all those years ago. A visit to the Lake Goldsmith Rally meant that we met up with Bob Butrims, who had sent us a copy of the Welch Perrin Order book showing our Fowler. An enjoyable evening was spent round the brazier with other engine owners finding out more interesting snippets of information.

The trouble is we now need to come back again to follow these up! Now we were in Victoria a trip to the Melbourne Steam Traction Engine Club was a must. I had been in touch with Neil as part of my Fowler research, and we were invited along to your Men’s Shed Day on the 5th May. What a great day. Everyone made us so welcome and it was a privilege to be allowed to drive your steam engines. The only trouble was – there was so much to see we didn’t get round it all. So another reason to come again! We will certainly tell all our British engine friends to visit when they come over. Good luck with all your projects and if you are ever in the UK please get in touch. PS. Warwick did catch up with Melanie at the Great Dorset Steam Fair and was shown their engine and plough so expect a sequel on Warwicks return.

Before shipment to England in 1996.

Pulled from the bush in 1969

Coming Soon

On the run day the club was offered an operational Johnson Dumper from the 1950s powered by a Petters engine. The machine seems to be in good condition and operational . It will be of great help in those many tasks around the

grounds that are hard work with a wheel barrow such as work on the rail track, carting tree clippings and getting fire wood distributed during rallies. The picture below is the same as the donated one but ours is green.

White Steam Car The White Steam Car very generously donated to the club has recently been valued by the ATO Philanthropy unit at $60,000. How lucky are we to be the beneficiaries of this generosity. The reason it was valued by the ATO was to allow the donor to claim a tax deduction for his donation on his annual tax return just as he would have had he made his donation in cash. The White and associated spares and parts had been purchased and collected over several decades. The tax deduction is sufficient to compensate for the expenditure over the years. Part of the motivation of the 94 year old donor was the possibility of finally seeing progress on its restoration. Warwick Bryce has been nominated by the committee to lead the restoration project and will begin with a clean up and evaluation of what we have and what is missing. Interestingly, the club’s facebook page recently had a post with some photos of the car and parts which prompted a UK steam car enthusiast to respond letting us know that the boiler was not a White original, which we knew, but informing us that he had new White steam generators “in stock”.

Sept 2016 STEAM SUPREME 5

By now most members will be aware that our little steam loco the Franklyn Flyer did a dummy spit a few weeks ago and is now without a boiler. While the boiler issue is being researched it was decided to catch up on other much needed repairs to the cyl-inders and associated running gear. Over the years many repairs and improvements have been made to the axle assembly’s and both front and rear bogies, including the installation of a new regu-lator valve arrangement. Currently all the chassis and running gear is residing in my workshop for both convenience and comfort, while this work is undertaken. Once stripped and cleaned, the examination revealed all of the suspected wear plus some parts in a much more worn condition than first expected. This work will include a total refurbishment of the cylinders, the making of new pistons, rings and the refurbishment of cylinder end plates, by installing bushings where needed. Due to wear the crosshead sys-tem will be mostly rebuilt and suitable bearings installed to provide more compliance for the connecting rods. All of the valve linkages will receive lots of attention by the fitting of bushes or replacement parts as required Please enjoy the following pictures of work in progress

Ray Bedford updates us on progress on refurbishing our steam locco.

Franklyn has arrived in hospital to start a long journey back to

A closer view showing some of the previous work and improvements

Barry at work cleaning what will become part of a ma-chining fixture, note we take safety very seriously

I think this is me digging in the dirt

Some preliminary checking of one of the cylinders

Barry cleaning the chassis

Frank Squaring up the cylinder

A cylinder stripped ready for clean-ing and evaluation. It all looks better when the grunge is cleaned off. All the parts were cleaned in a hot caus-tic tank.

Sept 2016 STEAM SUPREME 6

A lot more checking before any remedial work, note the cylinder is now clean after a good bath.

Under the grunge is the badly worn crosshead parts

Brian on the little mill, actually working on the ballast wagon

Frank contemplating the next move? We also believe in a little comfort on this type of work

The earth movers, rail benders panel builders and ballasters have pressed on through the wet winter weather and are all set to connect in the track extension.

The final panels are all ready to be slotted in and ballasted. Drainage pipes have been laid to drain water from the cutting through to the lake and they appear highly successful. Even with our recent damp period no puddles or slushy sections have appeared. Peter Morris has been able to borrow an excavator suitable for profiling the cutting and it is looking impressive.

August was probably the last running day where the train will be on the old track.

Sept 2016 STEAM SUPREME 7

FUNCTION of the WHITE - Following on from the recent description of the vehicle operation we take a detailed look at Key Components

Water Flow Circuit Feed water controlled by Pressure and Temperature

Steam Generator & Burner makes the steam

Water In at 600 psi from Engine driven Feed Pump

Super Heated Steam Out at the same Flow and Press as water In Just hotter and much larger Volume

Boiler contains only a couple of litre Water . No specific level it just gets hotter and dryer as it passes down.

Petrol Supply at 50 psi

Fuel flow regulated by Flow motor

Petrol Gas Issues from Nozzle drawing Air into the grate

Burner Clear Blue Flames heat the water

Vaporizer turns Petrol into Gas Pilot Light Heats Vaporizer and ignites main burner

Main Burner Plate

Mixing & Distribution Baffle

Water Tank

To Boiler

Feed Water

Feed Water Heater

Pressure Regulator

Thermostat

Flow Motor Hand pump to fill Boiler Fuel Control

Steam Flow

Bypass to Tank

Sept 2016 STEAM SUPREME 8

Thermostat At high temp adds water to

boiler and cuts back fuel Steam Temp Probe

450 deg C Steam to Throttle

Superheated Steam

Iron Housing

Copper Rod Expands 1.7 times as much as Iron housing

Feed Water from Pump

Outlet to Flow Motor

Water Valve Opens as Rod Expands

Bellcrank Multiplies Rod movement

Flowmotor Adds fuel in proportion to Water .

Excess Water back to Tank

Feed Water from Pump

To Feed Water Heater then Boiler

Petrol In at 50 psi

At high temp water Flow from Thermostat opposes flow motor piston cutting back fuel

Tapered Needle Admits more Fuel as it is moved to the left

To Burner

Bleed slot in Cylinder . High water flow causes piston to move to left

Pressure Regulator Adds Water to make more Steam as Throttle is opened

Steam Pressure before Throttle

Metal

Water From Pump

Bypass back to tank

Spring

As pressure rises Bypass is progressively opened

To Flow motor them boiler

Acknowledgement Parts List & Owners manual

Sept 2016 STEAM SUPREME 9

Each year as we do a wrap up after the event we lament that we did not start planning early enough. Lets get on to addressing the problems identified from last year and come up with some new initia-tives to make the 2017 rally fresh and successful.

Starting with the good news—we have successfully applied for a grant supporting events from the Knox Council community grants. These grants give up to $5000 to support established annual events. We have received just under $3000 for a publicity boost. The bulk of this will go on a bigger brighter coloured variable message electronic display board for out in the car park. The one proposed is movable by us so that we can face it towards the morning or evening traffic as we see fit. This ticks off one of the issues raised in last years rally wrap up. More of it goes on a printed program handout at the gate which will list times and places of rally high-lights ticking off another of the perceived problems from this year’s rally. It will also provide a little for buying internet and magazine promotion. This still leaves a sizeable list to be addressed. Here are a few. I am sure you can add more.

A way to separate visitors leaving the site from those queueing at the ticket office without having patrons leak in through the out gate. A workable way of taking credit card payments as this becomes increasingly expected. Timetabling to to allow visitors who come for half a day to see prime exhibits like bigfoot walking and steam ploughing. Car parking organisation and attendants. Exhibitor parking. The rail extension and engine driving circuit put pressure on the usual exhibitor parking space. What alternatives could work? Encouraging member participation to reduce the load on the usual few.

So—who is willing to help? Email the secretary or speak to a committee member. The more effort we put in now the better our rally will be. Put your hand up now to come up with suggestions or to take on one small aspect of organisation.

IDEAS FOR MORE IMPROVEMENTS EAGERLY SOUGHT

Getting those machines moving. Moving the railway out onto the new extension presents an opportuni-ty to address another long standing rally issue. Having our mobile machinery only able to circle the arena does not present it at its best and leads to boredom for the operators so that ma-chines are inclined to be left just sitting along the fence. Thought had been given to getting permission from Parks to use Rigby paddock but there are several difficulties in doing this. The risk of fire is high with possibly disastrous consequences and it is difficult to get the public close enough to see the action. Now with the rail track moved the area between the back of the main sheds and the rail extension is accessible without crossing the rail track. This area can be mowed low enough to control the fire risk. Below is a suggested layout for a figure of 8 track that would allow the traction engines, the tank, and tractors to stretch their legs while providing a bit of spectacle to our visitors, train riders and drivers on Eastlink.

It involves work and fine tuning but if we start as the ground dries we should be able to do it.

Sept 2016 STEAM SUPREME 10

When we are busy re-tubing boilers, extending rail tracks or planning shed improvements it is easy to forget that our ultimate purpose is running a museum for the benefit of the general public. If a sunny Sunday at the end of winter can be used to measure our success we are doing pretty well. The August running day was bustling with families enjoying a day out and it was rewarding to see how much they appreciated what they saw.

Rides on the arena were very popular. Rob Blair made the day for a number of youngsters enthralled at getting to “drive” a tractor. Further up the age range a 21 year old delighted in her surprise birthday present of a chance to squash a few things with a steam roller.

To help out in our interaction with the public the Knox Council has awarded the club two grants as part of their Community Grants Program. In addition to a small grant to boost publicity for the rally we have received $14,226 for

public amenity. This will buy a defibrillator for the site as well as improved seating. We will be getting 5 aluminium picnic table sets which can be spread around the grounds as well as 15 bench seats. The bench seats will replace the board and brick seats around the arena and provide some seating for watching activities in the rear paddock or around the lake.

It costs the club $25 per person per year in printing and postage costs to mail out Steam Supreme. Increasingly institutions are beginning to ask a payment for sending paper copies of bills. The club does not want to go down this route but if you are able to receive your copy by email please consider doing so. There are advantages. Emailed copies are always in colour . The emailed copies go out at the same time as the text is sent to the printer so you get your copy about a week sooner. It is understood that this does not suit all members but if you feel you can help reduce costs by getting your copy emailed please email your change to secretary@melbournesteam.com.au