Project It is just so Super (Sentinel).

[Mr Pastry]

40 minutes ago, JimH said:

If some one had an interest in Coventry Climax and the things it got up to and the products it made are there any books they should be trying to track down?

Climax in Coventry by Walter Hassan, really an autobiography but worth a look.  I think there is a book on the racing engines, but they did  a lot more than that.  Time somebody wrote a full history! 

[JimH]

Purchased. Together with the book on CC racing engines. CC has always fascinated me since seeing the photo of the flat sixteen in Setright's Some Unusual Engines.

[Mr Pastry]

Inevitable Invacar link....  Frank Tippen also designed diesel engines and airships.  A proper engineer, and an interesting man.

[Zelandeth]

2 minutes ago, Mr Pastry said:

Inevitable Invacar link......Frank Tippen also designed diesel engines and airships.  An interesting man.

Thank you for identifying an engine I worked on in a genset years ago!  I was standing on my head in the dark inside the body of the trailer and couldn't actually see any makers marks on it, but that looks identical visually and the date would fit.

A new fuel line and smacking the dynamo to free the brushes off got it up and running after several decades buried in a rhododendron bush.  Sounded lovely and didn't smoke at all...I assume it was successfully restored one day.

[Mr Pastry]

1 minute ago, Zelandeth said:

Thank you for identifying an engine I worked on in a genset years ago! 

Oh good.  That's something achieved today. 

[LightBulbFun]

45 minutes ago, Mr Pastry said:

Inevitable Invacar link....  Frank Tippen also designed diesel engines and airships.  A proper engineer, and an interesting man.

was wondering when this would crop up  wanted to mention it myself but was worried id get shouted at again for invacar-ing another thread LOL

 

does anyone know if Coventry climax ever made invalid carriages directly? Im pretty sure they did not despite what you read online 

but I cant find much at all on the matter, (its mentioned online in a few places that Coventry climax made invalid carriages, but I cant find any such actual examples, and going by how it is mentioned in those oline places I suspect it all originates from 1 (incorrect?) source)

and I suspect that, that one one source might have got confused with Frank Tippen and Sons who made invalid carriages in Coventry, (and as per above, sold some engine designs to coventry climax and did other other industrial things)

 

but it would be interesting to know if anyone knows for sure

[Asimo]

I've ordered a copy of the Walter Hassan book as well.

Trying to think of a shite use for one of these: a Coventry Climax H30. (Apart from a retirement present / project)

An opposed piston 3 cylinder two-stroke Diesel of about 15kW, the auxiliary power unit from Chieftain Tank / Rapier anti-aircraft missile launcher.

 

[JimH]

I'm starting this update with a plea for information from anyone old enough or knows anyone old enough to know the United Co-Operative Baking Society Limited of Glasgow. They had a rather large bakery on the south side of Glasgow and their claim was that they baked half of Glasgow's bread. Given that ours was originally supplied to a Glasgow company (not quite but near enough) it tickled our fancy to use their livery since the UCBS had at least one Sentinel Super.  Here are a couple of pictures of their delivery vans of about the right era with a livery which is about the right era.

The design on the van body translates pretty much straight onto the van body of the Super. However, we need to get a bit imaginative about the way it would have been used across the front apron. The big problem is that does anyone have ideas about the colours that were used? Most local Co-ops used some shade of dark green but others were known to use blues and reds. If nothing comes up then we'll just go for a shade of Hunter Green and that will give us the flexibility to go either UCBS or Boots. I still prefer the Boots one but the cost is going to be a bit steep. The quote from the signwriter is quite nice car high. All help and assistance gratefully recieved.

Anyway, stepping back from finer details and looking at some more basic stuff we took a trip a couple of weeks ago and in exchange for some excess bits of ours we got some excess bits of someone else. First was the ash pan hook.

And the water pump control lever. This is connected to the bypass lever on the water pump with a wire rope running over small sheave blocks. Neither this nor the ash pan hook would be too difficult to make but it saves a few hours work and it is some more original bits.

We also got a dump valve pedal. The Super has a hand throttle which is lovely but when you are moving slowly you ofter need both hands on the steering wheel. The dump valve lets you crack the steam on then control the waggon on the pedal by dumping steam straight to the exhaust. This makes these things very easy to manoeuvre. (as an aside it does leave you wondering if there was a market for Sentinels to chase as a heavy haulage tractor rather than taking on diesels for general transport where they had zero chance of success).

The dump valve was also used as the primary braking system in the earlier waggons. Foot on the dump valve, pull the lever into reverse then control the reverse thrust on the pedal. On the Super you got a footbrake but reverse throust was still the main way to stop going forwards. We have working steam brakes so you only tend to use the reverse thrust approach on long hills so you don't cook your brakes.  

And we also got some CAV headlamps. These have been converted to use sealed beam H4s which isn't the best looking job. We'll use some modern headlamps in them but will make them look a lot prettier. However, everything else about them is just fine.

You can't really go back to the original lamps and reflectors with solenoid dips because they are just terrible. We drive on the road at night a lot so you need to see where you are going. I know you aren't moving fast but you really need to be able to spot the hills/gradients as soon as possible to keep moving along efficiently.

And finally we got another throttle valve which is almost the start of another project. Possible. It is seen here with a raw casting that we already had.

 

While we were south of the border we picked up some castings. Reflex gauge glasses are comedy expensive and as ugly as sin so we had our own one made. This should look a bit lighter and cost somewhat less. For those who don't know the way you tell that there is enough water in the boiler is with a pair of valves and a glass tube between them. This is at full boiler pressure and although there are a number of ways of protecting the glass and making sure that not too much stuff escapes if one fails we still don't like them at all. The reflex glass (which I think was developed by the Klinger company but am happy to be told otherwise) is a much, much thicker flat glass into which flutes are ground on the steam side. This lets the steam/water interface show up more clearly they are all but impossible to break. They are a much nicer thing to have next to your knee. These two bits will clamp the glass between them.

And we also got some bronze adjusters made for the brake rods. They are the four things with lugs. The big thing is the blow down valve for the boiler.

And to those who know their air cooled Dubs here is a Gene Berg sump extension pan. It is actually a sump extension pan for the S4. This will let us run the drain tube a little lower and keep the water level away from the oil pump intake. As standard they are far too close together and with this new casting it makes it less likely that you end up pumping water around your main bearings.

Here is the brake valve completely rebuilt and ready to go. Steam in, steam to brake cylinder and a vent. Steam brakes are way, way nicer to use than air brakes. They are delightfully controllable.

Gets a bit hot, mind. Which is why a bit of wood or leather is needed to insulate your boot. You might also notice that the pedal sits very high which is why you need...

Yet another big bit of plate to act as a footboard for the driver. This will sit under the driver's feet on pillars 2 or 3 " high so your feet are at the right height for the brake pedal. It is fitted to the curve of the boiler.

And here is the grate lowering lever and quadrant. The quadrant lets you drop the grate a little bit to rake out clinker or you disengage the lever from the quadrant and drop it completely to knock the fire out. Then you start crying because the entire waggon is covered in ash and it is going to take forever to clean. Ignore the wing. It was just sitting on the wheel out the way.

Steering box all fitted up and working as it should.

And after a ridiculous amount of work here is the mechanical lubricator completed and installed. This injects steam oil (stuff like treacle) into the steam supply and keeps the top end of the engine lubricated.

This is the start of the inner liner for the flue. This is designed with a venturi because I think someone in the Sentinel design office liked the word. You don't see this because there is an outer flue to hide everything and look pretty.

This is all well and good but what about the - groan - water tank? Well, it is getting there. This is the front plate rivetted up.

And this is the other end almost done. I think it looks reasonably convincing.

And the water strainer box. This takes the supply pipes to the water pump and the injector as well as having a valve and a strainer to keep the bigger fish out of the boiler. The modern valve at the bottom is so you can fill a bucket. It will be replaced with something more age appropriate as soon as we find one.

And that will do for now. Don't forget to ask Weegie Great Aunt Aggie about the bread vans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[somewhatfoolish]

Not UCBS, but green, glaswegian and a bakery wagon!

 

[somewhatfoolish]

Less edible but still glaswegian and castley; Castlebank Laundry

This sign gives a clue to the probably rather garish colour scheme.

[JimH]

As things get closer to getting finished there are a thousand and one jobs that need doing that you haen't given any thought to so the jumps get smaller. When we left it the water tank was sitting on the workshop floor being rivetted. That took slightly longer than planned because I had ballsed up measuring something and I'd made the twatting thing two inches too long. So it was only the work of a couple of days to remove the end, cut the wrapper to the right length and rivet the end back in again. *roll* I was quite pleased how the rivetting looks. Optical centre punches are ace.

After that you then need to spend a couple of days making the mounting straps. Nothing very complicated but it all takes time. Here is the tank in place being supported on its straps. The funny silver thing is the water lifter which uses steam to pull water into the tank from a handy stream or pond. This is just for show because we'll stick with using town water.

These are the straps. They were made from very heavy angle with the straps rivetted to them. I'm short of the woven canvas to pad the straps and let the tank move around as the chassis flexes. Note wooden packer which lets things move around a bit.

Moving forwards this is the brake valve in place with the footboard.This lifts the driver's feet up to the right height for the brake pedal. Yet another bit of 1/4" plate off the payload.

And related to that this is us trying to find the best position for the dump valve pedal. That is a centre punch acting as a temporary pushrod because it was there and just the right length. This is the pedal that dumps the steam straight up the chimney which is handy when you need both hands on the wheel or when you need to pull the engine into reverse to act as a brake. It is a very handy pedal indeed.

One job that had been put off for ages was the chimney. This is a rather simple construction but like most simple things it is a nightmare to get right. Also if you get it wrong then it is rather obvious. There are two parts to the chimney - an inner flue and then an outer wrapper that tries manfully to keep the temperature in the cab down. There is then a brass cap to make things look pretty. Actually it will all be black when it is done. It is held in place with very little which makes setting it up very difficult. Here the inner liner hasn't been cut to length.

It looks not too bad from where I was standing. The current thinking is that because it is getting a very tall van body we'll make a head board to on top of the cab. That means you won't really see the top of the chimney at all.

One of the things I piss and moan about modern cars is the colossal blind spot caused by the windscreen pillars. As you can see there is nothing new in the world. Note the ability to lose most of a P38 in it. It also gets really hot. After you've been in there for more than a few hours your face starts to blister.

There isn't much to see for the effort but the feed heater now has its coil inside and is in place so the copper pipes can be routed to it. The exhaust is there so other pipes can be routed around it. You might also see a dinky little bronze valve screwed into the boiler. This is the valve to isolate the pressure gauge. The cladding has yet to be made for the feedheater. The funny fork thing is the start of the ashpan lever quadrant. This lets you raise and lower the ashpan to control the amount of air getting to the fire.

And this is the new gauge cocks. Originally these would have been bronze but we are not doolally keen on old boiler fittings particularly when you are stuck in a cab with them. Note the hideous red plastic handles. These will be thrown in the bin as we are having some bronze ones cast which are slightly more in keeping. The cocks are steel and will be painted black so they aren't too in your face. On top of all that ther gauge glass is a reflex one so there need be no need to bale out in a hurry when/if a glass fails.

We are just much happier with cast steel boiler fittings. Those handles really are very nasty. You would never guess these things weren't exactly cheap.

We did some machining for someone and they rewarded us with a very nice set of sidelights. These will be repurposed as indicators with some orange LED bulbs.

This pile of bits is to be turned into a brake lever for the rear axle. Normally these would be cast but that would be too expensive so they will be fabricated instead.

And once that pile has been welded and ground and stuff it will look like one that has just been finished.

Putting a bit of profile on the plasma cut bits makes it look a bit more like a casting. The rod from the balance bar on the brake cylinder will pass through  the eye in the bronze pin.

And something else a bit modern, the is a rose joint being used for the brake rods. I wanted to make sure that things weren't pulling slightly off and wearing pins or bushes out. Once this is in place and there is a boot on it then it won't be visible. The bronze things with lugs are the adhusters for the brake rods.

And finally here is the sump back on the S with its new deeper extension. This will run the water level in the sump lower and therefore further away from the oil pump pick up port. The small brass tap on the bottom is to make sure you have the right amount of water in the sump when you start. It is a bit weird having a hole which is open to atmosphere in the bottom of the sump. The whole lubrication system on this thing is a bit weird.

 

 

 

 

[PhilA]

It wouldn't have been hunter green.

Much more likely viridian or phthalo green, the former of which is your standard "bankers desk" color.

 

Phil

[JimH]

Without wanting to sound in any way argumentative, what is the basis for that assertion? @PhilA

I can find very little about the Cooperative societies on the subject of colour so I’d be interested if you had anything at all.

[PhilA]

1 hour ago, JimH said:

Without wanting to sound in any way argumentative, what is the basis for that assertion? @PhilA

I can find very little about the Cooperative societies on the subject of colour so I’d be interested if you had anything at all.

Only the age of the pigments. Hunter green is quite "new" compared to the other two. Viridian is an older color, from the turn of the century and is very stable in sunlight unlike Hunter, which has a mixture of compounds in, some of which break down and go chalky after extended exposure to UV.

Phthalo is slightly less stable than viridian and a much darker green, and was popular in the 40's.

You might find they were also using Oxford green or possibly dark Brunswick.

Again, based on the invention age of the pigments.

 

Phil

[JimH]

Smashing. I’ll go and find some colour chips.

[somewhatfoolish]

Any reason for using tube gauges rather than the crinkly gauges? These tend to fail in less exciting ways.

[JimH]

Reflex glasses (the crinkly ones) are a bit more modern and weren't fitted to many engines from new so a lot of people don't like them because they aren't very original. The other major issue is that the visible section is much shorter than a glass tube fitted in the same situation. On top of that they are somewhat clumpy, expensive and can only be viewed in one direction (ish). However, you can attack them with a hammer and they still won't fail so that makes them alright in my book.

When we did the Sentinel boilers we mounted the gauge glass cocks further apart so the length of reflex glass is the same length as the glass tube.

[JimH]

Not much progress to see but I was in there with the camera in my hand so we'll have a short update.

A lot of this sort of thing has been going on.

We quite like bending stuff hot freehand rather than using formers. The pipe is packed with sand to stop it collapsing while pulling it. Trying to fit the pipes in can get a bit tricky at times so shapes can become rather flambouyant rather than a series of 90 degree turns. This is the throttle valve to engine steam pipe which is run in steel. Everything else is run in heavy wall copper pipe.

This is the feed heater piped up. Yes I know the feed line is on the piss - there is nothing below the footplate holding it in place. The loop to the boiler clack is rather tall to clear the clack valve handle. You never really see it from this angle so it doesn't look quite as bonkers as it does here.

Starting the work of piping up the water pump. The pipe running past the cylinders is the delivery to the boiler and you can just see the feed coming from the tank looping through a handy gap in the rear axle. Every pipe union you see has to be made. This takes quite a while.

Often theinjectors were either mounted directly onto the boiler which meant they sat screaming hot or tucked up in a gap just above the offside front wing which meant the olfy the driver could reach it. We've taken the approach of plumbing it in like an S type with it sitting under the footplate. We modified it further to use a remote water valve which makes it nicer to use. You can just see the valve bolted under the footplate. It's a bit too modern but you can really see it once it is painted black and they are very nice to use.

This is the water valve positioned out of the way but in a place where both driver and stoker can reach it. There are occassions where the engine is running slowly but steam consumption is too high for the water pump so the injector is nice to have. It was just a pain on the other one expecting the driver to drive and work the injector a the same time. We've made the ram on the water pump as large as possible on this one so hopefully those rare we need to use the injector on the road moments will be even rarer.

And here are the pipes at the water tank. One feed goes to the water pump and the second to the injector. Sometimes there was a filter box on either side of the water tank so the pump and injector had it's own filter box. The reason for this one one dip tube ran deeper than the other so you got warning that you were running out of water when your pump stopped working. You could then use the injector unitl you got more water. This tank is the reserve tank - there will be another 350 gallons or so above it - so we didn't feel the final reserve capacity was worth the effort of machining another filter box. Note also the fake water lifter with fake pipe wrapped in not fake asbestos string.

Some of the new valve handles to replace the horrible modern ones on the gauge frame (see above)

Second brake arm made and first fitted. There are some bits missing at the moment because they haven't been ordered yet. Nothing major - just a spring or two. The brake rod is too long at the moment.

And at the other end of the brake rod...

Now the brake arms, rods and balance bar is in place it was then possible to finish the handbrake. Sadlyat that point I realised that I'd barely started the bloody thing so most days off over Crimble were spend turning lumps of bar into rod ends and slotted links. Here are some of them in various states of finishedness. The slotted link allows the brakes to work independently of the handbrake.

This is the start of the piston rod end which lets the handbrake link articulate. This is the third piston rod end I have made because the design of this thing keeps changing. I suspect that this is the reason for employing designers and draughies rather than expecting machinists to make stuff up as they go along.

And a pair of bearing blocks for the handbrake cross shaft.

And that is about it. The big shed is very cold so the urge to work gets a bit dented at these temperatures. You tend to stay in the small shop doing jobs that involves standing as close to the stove as possible.

[Asimo]

Those bronze handles are lovely - are equally lovely leather gloves to be worn at all times or is the traditional piece of oily rag to be preferred?

[JimH]

Everything in the cab is stinking hot and it is full of very hot metal just waiting to burn you horribly. Even the bloody throttle valve handle is cast iron FFS (although cast hollow in an effort to keep the heat down). The boiler top is red hot, the chimney is hot. Even the boiler feed pipes are hot.

The point is that you don't get on these things without your sleeves rolled down and a pair of rigger's gloves on.

[somewhatfoolish]

Any chance of an AS group visit to see this magnificent recreation when this nonsense is over? 

[loserone]

It'll be done by the time this is over, he can drive it over to a Scottish Supper.

[JimH]

I'm not mad keen on sitting in fields avoiding the general public so an excuse to go for a drive is always welcome.

[JimH]

I'll bung a few photos of this here rather than cluttering up the B&W thread which was where the conversation started but this is the Merryweather Gem. Being built in 1908 it is one of the later ones.

It's been around here since the early 60s when it was bought from a scrap dealer in Melton Mowbray. We last ran it properly in the mid 80s to early 90s when we decided to call it quits on a boiler that was approaching its 100th birthday. Also there were a fair few things on it that were not right and were getting tired and despite a fairly major engine rebuild in the time we ran it they do not last long when you work them hard. They are very maintenance hungry. So it got taken to bits and then it was decided to build a Sentinel. The it was decided to build another Sentinel. And then another. The upshot is that there is at least one major task still outstanding.

The numbers are 400gpm and able to project a jet on a 1.125" nozzle 169 feet. What the numbers don't shout about is that it has two monstrous double acting cylinders and it is designed to run flat out all the time. It makes the most wonderful noise when it is running at full chat and I really like it as a toy. However, it was tired and had first been brought back to life in the 60s so a lot of things weren't right so it got taken to bits.

This is the pump body. As you can probably make out it is cast in bronze and it rather complicated. The main problem is that the pump pistons used leather buckets (leather cups sandwiched between bronze discs. This was a reasonably effective material to use but everything embeds in it so it tears the pump bores to pieces. The main job was to pop it in the boring machine and give it an oversized rebore. This was a bit fraught because you don't have a lot of material to play with. The leather buckets have been replaced with modern viton buckets which have a much smaller contact patch so hopefully to the problem of wear on the bores should be minimised.

The pump uses 16 disc valves which were bady worn so we got some new guards cast and had some discs made is a selection of modern materials for testing. We still have some original new discs that came out of Meryweathers in the 60s but theyare natural rubber and don't work or last too well. The rubber disc is not shown here but is sandwiched between the flat bronze disc with holes in it and the wheel like guard that limits its movement.

I won't bore you rigid about the finer points of what happened to the engine but here it is back in a few less pieces. About the only non-standard thing you can see is the oilers on the scotch crank bearings. We have the originals in a box but it uses a lot of oil so we prefer to use some bigger oilers that you can see working. Those people who don't get invited to many parties will spot straight away that there is no expansion gear on the valve train. They designed this thing to run at one speed. I suspect they did it to make it cheap because quite a lot of steamers used expansion gear (especially Shand Masons but everyone knows that they were much better in all sorts of ways)

From the rear you can see the exhaust pipes. You can probably spot that they are quite big and they make quite a bark. The sliders on the scotch crank are a modificaton. Oringinally they were in two pieces and they knocked themselves to pieces. These ones are solid with roller bearings hidden away so wear is all but eliminated.

And here is the engine in even fewer pieces. The valve chest cover is not on here and the recirculating valve spindle isn't in but the gauges look nice (they were remasked by Richfield Speedograph - top bods that come highly recommended). The brass handle is what the stoker hangs onto as they cantered through the streets. Neither of the main controls are in place but the black square between the cyliners is the valve chest where the throttle valve sits. This is just a round valve wheel . There is a second valve wheel on the pump valve chest that allows you to recirculate water through the pump should you need to keep the engine speed up but not shift as much water. That about your lot. Just keep an eye on the water level (it goes up and down very quickly) and keep shovelling coal on until they tell you to stop. In quiet moments makes sure you tip oil on everything.

Lubrication was one area where Merryweathers were complete rubbish and Shand Mason weren't.

We have very few photos of what was done to the carriage but it was completely dismantled and stripped before the top box went to a cabinet maker to have some repairs done that were badly needed. One of the problems is that modern fire engines they are very low volume production and a lot of the detail design could be a little better. The top box was made little better than a packing crate. Mercifully the wheels were in fine fettle so were stripped done and repainted.

Finally there was the issue of colour. Since it was repainted in the 1960s it was done in post office red which was as wrong as a wrong thing that is having a bad day. Fortunately we got the chance to have a proper look at a Gem which had lived in a shed untouched since it was taken out of service. Getting to some bits that had been savedfrom sun and aging it was possible to see that unsurprisingly the colour used was much closer to vermillion so vermillion it was. This was a bit of a shock because I had got used to seeing it in DCR.

And a bit later on with more brass bits back on. Many of these didn't have a bell but ours did. You can't help feeling that the driver had enough to do already without have to stamp on the pedal to sound a warning.

It looks a bit odd in all red but one of the jobs that we need to brace ourselves for is lining it. These engines were wickedly expensive (they cost 400-500K in today's money) so they represented a massive investment and towns were very proud of them. As a result they were dressed up like fairground rides and were plastered in gold leaf. Even the springs are lined in leaf. On the wheels the rims and spokes were leafed and the entire outboard section of hub was gilded. This picture here gives and idea of what they are supposed to look like. It's a lot of leaf.

While this was going on we'd been searching round for a set of lamps for it. After a bit of horse trading we now have a full set of Merryweather lamps - there are two little ones to light the pressure gauges and water level gauge then two carriage lamps so you can see where you are going. Yes, of course these will help you see where you are going. In reality these will spend most of their time in a cupboard somewhere in case someone pinches them.

I covered this here earlier but one of the major problems was the boiler cladding. Here it is fucked

And here is the new one we made. I am very proud of this. If you go back a few pages you well see how it was done.

And now we come to the reason why it is still not finished. The boiler. These are rather special and are pretty bonkers even now. They must have been properly bonkers back then. Vertical water tube boiler with a massive grate. The party dodgers will have probably spotted in the first photograph that this thing has no ashpan and therefore no way of controlling the air to the fire. The result is that it fires at full tilt all time. In additon to that they needed to get up to steam very quickly. From cold they would do this in 11 minutes. From warm (they kept them warm in the station with a paraffin burner) you could do it in five. How you achieved this can be seen in this picture of the firebox.

Tubes. Lots and lots of light wall copper tubes. 136 in total. water capacity of the boiler is slightly less than 11 gallos so there isn't much water and a massive heating area.  Merryweather ripped off this design from Shand who patented the design with a heavily inclined cross tube nest to give good circulation. Merryweather dodged this by making the tube nest level in one direction but adding 36 J shaped tubes in the dead space to the side of the tube nest. Those are the holes at the bottom of the box which match to the holes in the horizontal top plate. This aided circulation and kept the heating area up. The wastage on the plates should be obvious to anyone with eyes.

You get an idea of how little water is in this thing. This is the gap between the inner and outer wrappers of the crinoline.

The problem is that the boiler design is very difficilt to replicate for a number of reasons. When we spoke to Newtons (the one before the company was sold on - boiler makers for 200 years) about forming a tapered ogee foundation he just shook his head. So we have a design that deletes the water filled crinoline which greatly reduces the heating area to make things more controllable - we'll still have the old crinoline to keep things looking right but it just won't be used as a pressure space. The boiler will be a greatly simplified and therefore much easier to design and document but as far as the average joe is concerned it will still look the same. 

This is the preliminary design for the boiler. If you look closely you'll see that the crinoline is reduced to being a refactory lined combustion space. The J tubes are deleted and the Shand cross tube pattern is used because it's unlikely they will sue us now. The original plate thicknesses are not really up to modern standards so things are a bit thicker and the copper tubes are replaced with steel tubes which are welded in. A shame to lose the copper tubes because they are good fun but it would be more difficult for us to document the design.

Maybe when the Super is done. I'd certainly like it back running again.

 

[Asimo]

Marvellous.

Crinoline. Another thing learned.

[somewhatfoolish]

Crinolines are stupid skirts worn by victorian women who can barely move without assistance on account of their garments resembling a tea cosy; a word borrowed presumably.

[JimH]

Indeed. It looks like a daft Victorian skirt so it got called that.

[JimH]

As the end gets closer the steps get more and more difficult to spot because you spend more and more time fitting and finishing things so photographs don't look that much different to the last time you saw them. Here is the ash pan on it's hinges and being held in place with the operating rod. This is a fiedishly complicated way of controlling the fire. When it needs more air you lower the ashpan and make the hole bigger.

And at the other end of the operating rod there is the lever. These take for bloody ever to make because there are so many fiddly bits. This is only in place at the moment and there is a bit of work left to finish it.

Valve for the pressure gauge. Trying to find valve that don't look shit gets harder and harder. It also gets pretty bloody expensive.

The gauge glass in the early morning sunlight. The valves will be painted black so they don't stand out too much. Lots of people don't like these but I have seen far too many period bronze castings that are just complete shite to be happy with them being in use today.  You will also see more and more bits of pipe appearing.

More bits and pieces attached to the throttle valve. Annoyingly the throttle valve casting was an early one so it was short of an outlet which has complicated getting the right kind of steam to the right places. Note horrible modern valve handle that won't be there for much longer. You may also note that the reversing lever  and handbrake assembly isn't there any more. What might be less obvious is the fabricated valve handle on the clack valve. We did have two new castings of these but is appears that some light fingered git had away with them when they were left unattended for a few minutes a couple of years ago and their disappearance has only just come to light. Some folk, eh?

The curse of the archive drawing strikes again. This hole looks just the same as when I cut it a while back. However, it is now two inches bigger because the drawing I used was just plain wrong. Interestingly when I compared the wrong drawing with another drawing of a related item it turned out that the second drawing was even more wrong. The hole is now somewhere the right size if not the right shape. The hole is meant to be pear shaped which allowed a chain to be dropped through the roof to let the firebox be lowered for cleaning. We don't need to do that so I left the hole as small as possible. because it only lets rain in. This seems like a trivial job but it wasted a good few house because it meant making a new piece for the top side of the hole - there is a steel plate top and bottom to sandwich the wood together to support the free ends around the hole.)

And the thing that fits through the hole gets a bit more finished. The inner and outer liners are positioned and held in place with the correct spacers. The brass strap is what secures the relief valve vent pipe in place. At the moment it has been shaped but not cut to length which it will be once the vent pipe has been bent up. Where the join is between the two pieces is at the front of the chimney so one everything is in place you don't really see it and everything should look nice and tidy.

More pipes in place together with the injector. The steel pipewith the braided flexible is the steam to the engine. The flexible is non-standard but is a much better solution that what was done originally (pull a full turn loop in the line about 14" in diameter). Yes I know almost all the bolts you can see are far too long. These are on the list of things to tidy. Many of the lines you can see in this picture will be wrapped in something suitably vintage to insulate them.

The brakes get a bit closer to getting finished. There are just countless pins, collars, grease nipples, bushes and the rest to finish.

It is disconnected at the moment but this is the cross over shaft and sliding link for the handbrake. Before the handbrake lever was taken out of the cab this was all in place to check that was had been dreamed up actually worked. Fortunately it did. Note injector feed line sitting in place completely unsupported. Support brackets are being made.

Levers in pieces to do some more fitting to them. Mostly this involved slotting the keyways in bits that are supposed to not move against each other. However the detent spring arrangement for the reversing lever needs to be made so that is probably this weekend's job as well as putting new handbrake cables on the TT and new tyres on the Sprint.

Slotting the keyways in the handbrake lever. It is easier using the slotter on the milling machine than the shaper.

I finally got the material list for the body put together and sent it off for some quotes so that is going to be a bit painful. However, apart from the body and the windscreens there aren't too many bits left to make. Plenty to finish but most of the bits are there now. It shouldn't be too long before there is some heat on the boiler.  With that in mind there are some new drawings on the board now. Let's see how far this goes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JimH]

Things keep getting slower because you have to spend ages finishing things. When you first made a clevis pin it was just something to link one thing to another so you turn the pin up, pop it in the hole and use it to make sure everything works. In your mind it is finished. However, now you have to take that pin, machine the head, drill it out and tap it to take the grease nipple, make a collar for it and drill it to take the split pin. Nothing hard but enough to make a couple of hours disappear. As we go on you need to look harder at the pictures to see a difference.

For example here is one end of the handbrake operating rod. In this picture the pin has been finished.

In this photo it looks braodly similar. Only the sharp eyed would notice that the thrust collar has appeared on the cross shaft together with a little bit of shim. Again, not much difference but three or four hours gone in making the thrust collars and fitting the cross shaft bearing blocks so everything moves freely even when things start moving and twisting. Just need to make a nice shim now.

And here is the finished throttle valve which was "finished" ages ago. However, then you start buttoning it up and testing things you find that the valve buttin for the main stop valve isn't right because we misunderstood the design so you need to make a new one. The best part of a week of work went into finishing this off. This is it waiting to get bolted on. The only thing missing now is the lagging jacket and heat protector for your poor knee which sits next to it.

We've had a picture very similar to before but again, this is it finished and bolted back on. You would need to be sharp eyed to see that some poor sod stood at the bench for hours tidying everything up.

And at the other end everything looks nice and tidy now. This is the way that the fire is controlled. If you want to calm it down you lift the ash pan up and reduce at amount of air that comes in.

These are the reversing levers finished off but not painted. They were not too far off before but the reversing lever needed the detent spring made so it stayed in the right place. We also got lucky and some kind soul donated a brass plate showing the cut off positions.

Then you take a photo of it and notce that you forgot to machine the bolt markings off the clamp bolt. Something else to do. However, everything moves as it is meant to. Once we are happy with it it will be lifted off and painted as an assembly which was pretty much how it was done back then. These things never lasted that long so not much was wasted on coatings.

Yet another rod end finished off. Yes I know the bolts are all too long and the nuts are wrong. It is all on the to do list. The wing is only sitting on top of the wheel out of the way.

And this cover (the thing that has clearly been gas welded) stops rocks and larger wildlife falling into the camshaft control box. Not quite finished yet but it still took a few hours to get this far.

As if we didn't have enough to do we used to have two of these but some light fingered shite had away with one of them. This is the handle that works the exhaust drain valve and this is the one off the S4.

And this is the one that was made for the Super. Normally these are cast but we just could not be arsed tracking down the pattern that is available for them. It still needs the castelated nut and spring to make it look right. Still, it's pretty close to the original.

We got the superheater tails welded up (it's under a fair bit of load so you leave the TIGing to someone with some certificates) and now there is the nightmare task of fitting the supports and mounting it on the boiler top. This is one of the worst jobs of the whole project.

And we still plug through all the bits for the brakes finishing things off.

Boiler clacks finished and pressure tested. Incidentally, the testing is more than just a formality. When we pumped up the boiler outlet which was a new steel casting it showed up a minor fault in it so it had to be junked. There is a new one on its way from the foundry.

Finally for now here is the knackered cheek plate covered in wob and more wob.

Why? So I cover it with layers of this.

Why? Becuase I want to try to make one of these to see if it makes it easier to finish the cheek plates.We'll give it a go, anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

[JimH]

Let's start this update with a throttle valve handle. Most throttle valve handles for Sentinels are cast. As far as I am aware originally they were cast hollow to keep the heat in your hand down a bit but many around now  have been copied from hollow ones without a core meaning that they are solid. By chance we found an early drawing of a throttle valve handle which showed them being made from several pieces with a rotating knob made from hardwood. This seemed like a much cooler (literally) idea than the cost one and also meant that we didn't need to pay for a pattern and core box to be made so we got a nice man to make us a handle in oak. I think he charged us a tenner for it. This is the throttle valve ready to go being only short of its heat shield which will get made once it is in position.

Levers final fitted and in the process of having some paint blown on them. They are in primer at the moment. These lorries were not built for a long life and the paint coatings that were applied were specified on that basis.

And this is the steam brake mechanism that you have seen growing up slowly all finished and having paint blown on it. The bits of steel on the top are the front mudguard brackets which took a while to get right. This will get one coat of top before it is bolted back in. Then it will get a second.

Now the front mudguards have been fitted then they need painted before they go on. These were never designed to have wings like this (the solids just had a splashguard rolled from flat plate) so they are a right pain to fit so they look right. It is a bit of a juggling act.

The feedheater buttoned up, tested and has its cladding fitted. It just needs bolted in place once the first boiler inspection has been carried out.

And here is the back of the chassis getting its blowover. Only in primer at the moment.

This will mean very little but I am very pleased with this. This is looking up at the ash bend which now has its beading on. I learned a few lessons from the last one so the beading sits much more comfortably than last time. On that one the beading sat too low, only a uqrter of an inch or so but it never looked right. This one is much righter.

The white line you see is the canvas covering which I spent a while gluing down. We had this stitched up by the local tarpaulin people so the seams looked the part. It is interesting to note that while paints have gone all pansy with less and less solvent Evo Stik is still cjock to the gunwhales with evil smelling poison. It did the job anyway. I think this will get a coating of something suitable to help it be waterproof(ish).

Edge detail for the canvas and how the beading finishes it off. There is a fair bit more finishing to do around here.

Yet more roof detail. You will probably see that the flameguard around the chimney hasn't been fitted yet. The body will have the same material covering it but that is about three times as big as the cab so that's going to get pretty smelly.

The new casting for this turned up yesterday (the last one didn't pass its test) so this got machined this morning. This is the last bit that was needed to get some pressure on the boiler.

And this arrived too. It is the arm that operates the bypass (or byepass if you are Sentinel) valve for the water pump. The water pump runs all the time so if you don't want to put water in the boiler then you have to spill it back to the tank. This arm is operated from a handle in the cab connected by a bit of wire rope.

And these came too. A pile of valve handles that look a bit more age appropriate. They certainly look better than aluminium ones painted red.

D beadings for the cab getting the backs of them painted so they can be fitted for the last time.

Headlamp ad sidelight bowls in top coat waiting to be fitted up for the last time. The headlamps will have some Wipac H4s hidden in them because we drive on the road at night a lot so decent headlamps ar pretty important. You really need to have a good idea about what the road is going to do next (up and down rather thn side to side). The side lights are repurposed as indicators so the sidelights proper will be in the headlamps. Agin, not completely accurate but you really need indicators on the road and this way they get hidden pretty well. Modern LEDs avoid the gingercator problem.

And some primer on bits of the cab.

In other news the wood has been ordered to build the rear body so that was pretty painful and it should be here in a couple of weeks. The other problem is now the colour. For a while we've been convinced that it was going to be green. We were certain that the UCBS colours would have been some sort of period correct shade of green. We'd been considering the various options and had selttled on Dark Brunswick Green as the most likely option. We were on the verge of ordering the paint when we took the water tank to get blasted. In the course of a chat with the lad who was doing it we mentioned that we were going to turn it out in UCBS colours. The next words that came out of his mouth were "Aye, they had a bakery in Dunfermline. Their wagons were all dark red with cream writing". Bugger, that's thrown a spanner in the works. 

Knowing Glasgow it is possible that certain comapnies might have avoided green or blue so maybe the red (or reddy brown which would tie up with them using something like Crimson Lake) so maybe the lad was right. A brainwave was to ask one of the older bakers in Glasgow if he remembered what they were. This morning we got a letter back from Boyd Tunnock saying that as far as he could remember the wagons were all brown with cream lettering. Oh.

Brown might have been crimson lake which is a bit muddy or it might have been brown. We'll just have to keep looking before we buy any paint.

It might end up being turned out as a Boots lorry at this rate.