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Interesting pics . Thanks !
My neighbours down the road , her dad bought a brand new Bradford van in the early 1950's . She said we went for a day trip to Traralgon , from Ferntree Gully . A packed lunch was taken . A head wind slowed the little van down to not much more than a ramble.
BTW I have two new inlet valves for the Jowett 2 cyl. engine . Anybody want them ?
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Steam !
Hi Guys,
Some more pictures of the exhibits at the Bradford Industrial Museum. These are some of the steam engines that I photographed. Enjoy !
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This magnificent beast is no longer in its original home powering the machinery of the old mill. It is difficult to visualise the scale from these pictures but that flywheel is twenty feet across. The length of this engine is around sixty feet. Called the "Victor" it was built in 1921, which is I think quite young in steam terms. I do wonder if it was bought as a second engine. It has been completely refurbished with a nice new green coat of paint. I don't know if it runs at all, it would be nice if it did.
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This engine is another that has been refurbished and painted in the same green colour. It drives a three stage water pump and was probably the one that fed water to the boilers. The big flywheel in the third picture drives the long shaft via a clutch coupling, terminating in a small gear driving the very large gearwheel connected to the crank of the pump, seen in the second picture. The first picture shows the steam cylinder of the engine. Again it is difficult to judge the size of this engine, that flywheel is six feet in diameter and the steam cylinder is about seven feet long. You can see the valve gear on the right hand side driven from the eccentric on the crankshaft. It also seems that this engine can be reversed using the lever seen in the middle bottom.
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This is another water pump. The two large balloon like objects are accumulators and are intended to act like springs, smoothing out the fluctuations in water pressure and flow due to the reciprocating action of the pump. The second picture shows another much smaller pump. The driving cylinder is on the right and the reciprocating pump on the left.
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Two more of the steam engines in this hall. The small one on the left has grooves on the flywheel, but I've no idea what it was intended to power. The other was intended to drive a line shaft via a flat belt. You can see part of the line shaft system in the background near the top of the picture.
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I found this engine really interesting. A vertical engine and Alternator set. Made in 1917 by William Sisson & Co, of Gloucester. This machine powered Messrs S Raistrick & Sons, of Oxenhope, a Leatherworks. It utilises a three phase, DC exited alternator, the larger of the two, the dynamo being the small device nearest the bottom of the picture. In the second picture you can see the three brushes taking power from the armature and just to the right the wires feeding DC to the field electromagnet. These machines were essentially miniature power stations of the day, particularly just after WW1, when three phase electric motors were becoming common place, replacing steam.
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This is a rather ingenious water pump. A description of how it operates is given in the fourth picture. Note the resemblance to the heart !
The middle two pictures are of the internal valves.
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Also mounted on the walls is this working illustration of how a steam engine works along with an explanation of the rotary valve system of the Corliss engine. The Corliss is one of my favourite engines.
Well this is part one of some of the lovely steam engines on display here. Part two up next.
Thanks for your comments.
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Love it Baron, especially the pulsometer, first time I have seen a pic of a real one, (not really looked too hard) seen plenty of pics of the diagram though.:D
Can't wait for part 2. :2tsup:
Phil
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Agnes.
Hi Phil, Guys,
This is for you Phil. Not at Bradford and taken quite some time ago when visiting Markham Grange Museum. Let me introduce you to Agnes ! A very nice old lady.
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Enjoy !
Got to go now, Hospital app.
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Agnes. Missed pics.
Hi Phil, Guys,
I've found two more pictures of Agnes that I had missed.
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Nice to see her face. :)
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Little More Steam !
Hi Guys,
Some more pictures from the Bradford Industrial Museum. Still steam related...
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These two cranes stand in the museum grounds. The blue one is a steam crane and the weight is used in a similar manner to a road roller, for flattening road stone on railway lines, the other is a hand wound crane originally used for unloading barges and waggons.
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This is "Nellie" a shunting locomotive made in Leeds, Yorkshire. The middle picture is from inside the cab, the drivers view. These two plates were fastened to the side of the cab
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These two pictures should have been included in the other post since they are in the steam hall. This engine is also designed to drive a line shaft, made in 1898 by J. B. Clabour of Guisley, Leeds, West Yorkshire.
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These are a selection of the models on display. Sorry about the reflections, these were all behind plate glass in cases.
There is a lot of detail in these working models. All of them have been steamed and run at some time.
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Superb Models.
Hi Guys,
I think that this will be my last post in this very long thread. There are many pictures I have not posted, but these few are really superb models.
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This model is around 10 inches in length and about 8 inches tall
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The detail on these models is excellent, coupled with its ability to actually fire .22 rounds.
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Now I have never seen a Navel bomb thrower or knew that they existed, let along that they were made in Bradford.
I hope that you guys have enjoyed looking at the pictures of my adventure to the Bradford Industrial Museum. I hope to visit there again before too long, since there is an awful lot that I didn't get to look at.
All comments good or bad appreciated.
Thanks all.
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As I have mentioned before I just can't get enough of museums. The ingenuity of people that have made things to do a particular task is there to be marveled at. A mate took hid 2 kids and wife to the US for a holiday. He said they went to the Smithsonian. From memory he said that there were a number of buildings dedicated to a particular theme. He spent 2 days there but said you could easily spend a lot more days taking it all in
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Many many thanks Baron.
Can I come and live at your house. :D
You have all the good spots to visit obviously relatively nearby, unlike Australia, although we are nearly old enough now to have some industrial history.
Thanks again for the pics.
Phil
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Hi Phil, Thanks for your kind words.
Yes the British industrial north has a good number of museums within 100 miles or so of here. I'm hoping to be able to visit Ironbridge later in the year, the birthplace of where the industrial revolution began. I'll take plenty of pictures and if the interest is there, post them here. Anyway I love the pictures that you have posted, and learnt a lot from your notes. Sadly the knowledge and skills that helped create and maintain the wonderful machinery that now resides as museum pieces is very rapidly disappearing.