Whitwell Steam Rally 8&9 June 2013

[Arfursteam]

Another first for me. Nice small friendly event, very reasonable gate price all proceeds for Macmillan Cancer. Went on the Sunday which was a bit blowy and rather on the cool side although mid afternoon the sun came out wind dropped and it became nice. One of the shows which had something of interest in the ring all the time ranging from the usual parades to gun dog display, local fox hounds and how modern farming cuts, prepares and bales hay into those black bales with all the different implements. Great day thanks to the organisers. Now enjoy a few photos's.

Aveling 11542


Burrell 4055 Crimson Lady


Aveling 12152


Foden 13484 Talisman


Ruston Hornsby 158623 Moonlight Magic


Garrett 33991 Patricia


Aveling 14113 African Queen


Sentinel 9293


Aveling 9370 Bertha


Aveling 4604 Mona


Burrell 4019 Britannia


Marshall 36258 Punch


Marshall 61970 Emma


Something a little different described as a Steam Dump Truck

[Malc-Y]

As I was driving the steam dumper in the above photograph, I feel that some explanation is required. This machine was built by David Philpot (sitting in the passenger seat in the photo) over a period of years starting about 12 years ago by assembling together from bits and pieces lying about in his yard. The chassis is a dumper truck chassis that was bought for £10 from a person who had bought the dumper for its Lister diesel engine and didn't need the rest of it. The engine is a Reeder of Nottingham economiser engine from a factory in Luton where it drove the soot scrapers on the tubes of the economiser (feed water heater) on a Lancashire boiler. It is a single cylinder piston valve machine with a bore and stroke of about 4" (we have never bothered to measure it precisely!) and drives the original dumper clutch and 3 speed and reverse gearbox via 3 V-belts. the boiler is a steam launch boiler built by Walter Gower of Bedford in 1965 to replace a life expired boiler at a cost of £65! excluding fittings. It has, if I remember correctly, about 118 1" diameter tubes and a working pressure of 100psi. there is no regulator between the boiler and engine, the speed being controlled and limited by a Pickering governor and use of the gearbox! The water tank at the rear is a standard domestic cold water tank obtained from a builders merchant and feeds the boiler by two injectors, one Penberthy and one Buffalo. The steering column and wheel are ex Ford Transit and the roof is from a milk float, the passenger seat was recovered from a skip! David has recently registed it for the road although we havn't taken it on the road yet as the maximum speed in top gear is about 5 mph (downhill!)
It is just a bit of fun and causes a lot of interest wherever we take it and we are always being asked "What did it do?" or "What is it?" and "What was it built for?"

Malc.

[Pedlers mate]

Ingenious use of several pieces of steam machinery. I'm puzzled by the fact that there is 'no regulator between boiler and engine'. Is there some other sort of stop valve or how do you stop the engine from running whenever there is pressure in the boiler?

[Arfursteam]

Thankyou Malcolm for the information post, I found it very interesting.

Arthur

[Malc-Y]

Originally Posted by Pedlers mate

Ingenious use of several pieces of steam machinery. I'm puzzled by the fact that there is 'no regulator between boiler and engine'. Is there some other sort of stop valve or how do you stop the engine from running whenever there is pressure in the boiler?

There is a steam stop valve on top of the boiler. When driving it is easy to let the Pickering governor do its job and just use the gearbox as the top speed in top gear is only 4 or 5mph. It may be possible to adapt a ball valve to act as a regulator and do away with the governor but the design is still evolving and that may be something to look at in the future. It has a bracket that fits on the front to carry a dynamo thereby converting it into a 'showmans dumper! ' I did suggest to David that he put some twisted brass on the roof supports but this idea received a distinct lack of enthusiasm, in fact an emphatic NO.

Malc.

[Malc-Y]

I have just spoken on the phone to David and he has pointed out one or two errors in my original description of the dumper:

1. The boiler has 90 x 1" diameter tubes, not 118, that was the number of tubes in the boiler that this one was made as a replacement for.

2. The cost of the boiler was £80, not £65.

3. The cylinder bore and stroke is 3 1/2" x 6".

Malc.