PADDLE WHEELER Steamboat Thomas Powell. Walking Beam steam engine FIRST TEST!!! TF SECOR 1846 NY Pt2

Hudson River Paddle Steamer - FIRST ENGINE TEST!
Part 2

Rockin' the Beam !

Very first test working against "heavy" valve springs for "breaking-in" of the engine. This and lack of wheels prevents engine running smoothly at this point!

The Walking Beam name came from Indians living along the rivers; they coined a name for the paddle wheelers which In English meant "mill that walks on the water"!

The Marine Walking Beam engine of the famous 1846 Hudson river steamer "Thomas Powell" had a Cylinder diameter of 48 inches, and stroke of 11 feet .

This is a scratch built steam engine I designed and crafted as a ''one off'' for my live steam gauge 1 - 1/32 scale RC paddle steamer model ( parts or plans for this engine are not for sale...).
This engine is essentially inspired from blueprints of real marine walking beam engines.
I based my work on all available data of the "Thomas Powell" and drawings of similar engines.

The crankshaft will connect directly to the paddle wheels, just like the "real" T.F. Secor walking beam engine of the Thomas Powell. No flywheel or reduction gear !
Building this engine exactly the way real walking beams were built was not possible at this scale on a Radio Controlled model, and I did have to adapt a few things for it to run efficiently :

To reverse a "real engine's" rotation, the engineer had to disconnect the eccentric hooks and then operate the valves manually, opening and closing them for every wheel revolution. This would've been possible to do on a RC model using electronics and electric motors…
Not my choice though : I replaced the poppet valves with four ''sleeve'' valves, allowing the use of a reversing valve.
That, of course, rules out the condenser & hot well, which, on my model is a simple feed pump.

An electric starting motor was definitely NOT an option for me to get off BDC/TDC (dead center). The small ''oscillator'' was my solution, and is active the whole time :
It actually helps the engine, instead of just dragging it's power. To get all this out of the way of the "promenade" deck, I rotated one of the eccentrics 180° to allow me to connect the oscillator rod end to it.

Peter
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Article written by F.Van Loon Ryder :

"In the engine room on the operating platform were four valve stems for the single cylinder; two for the exhaust and two for the live steam. These stems were operated by cams driven by the eccentrics or by hand as required. Automatic valve motion was forward only, having to be hand-operated while backing. Starting, stopping and reversing required engine room calisthenics unknown today. The engine had to be “valved” by hand. Then the hooks were raised from their cranks and the rocker shaft hangs free. The engineer, by means of a “Johnston Bar” as long as himself, turns a shaft at floor plate level which opens simultaneously as intake valve and the opposite exhaust valve. There is a subdued roar of steam, and the piston moves. He watches carefully, and when he sees that it has reached the end of its stroke – the idling hooks are his best clue to this – he throws the bar in the opposite direction and thus reverses the pressure from one side of the piston to the other. Up bar! Far overhead one end of the walking beam rises to its limit. Down bar! And back it comes. In starting this goes on until the momentum of the wheels is sufficient – at half speed or better. Then the hooks are dropped onto the cranks, a movement which must be nicely timed, and the eccentrics relieve the engineer of his work.
The greatest danger in operating these engines was whenever the crank would stop on dead-center. This is easily understood when one considers the one lone cylinder and no offset cranks. This is one reason why it required considerable skill and experience to operate one of these engines. If the engine stuck of center – and this was not infrequent – and if the vessel had not already rammed a pier and sank, it was necessary to break out the heavy wooden bar kept for that purpose, climb into the paddle box through an emergency door, and pry the wheel over past center by brute man power. This was not as simple or safe as it sounds for, if due to a leaking valve, there was still steam in the cylinder. The second the crank passed center, the wheel takes charge. Perhaps only a quarter turn, but that would be plenty for if the bar was not removed in time, there was a good chance that both the men and the bar would be hauled inside the paddlebox and broken legs would often be the result."

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Conception, fabrication et tout premiers essais d'une machine à vapeur à balancier pour mon bateau à aubes "Thomas Powell".
Tout comme le véritable vapeur, la machine entraine directement les roues. Pas d'incorrect volant "flywheel" ni de réducteur sur mes modèles.
Notez le grand angle de bascule du balancier, typiquement "marine" de ces énormes machines !

Cylindre diametre : 1220 mm
Course : 3,35 metre
modèle : 1/32e

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