Issue 586 November 2019

Extracts from the National Steam Center Newsletter

Cover Photo MSTEC’s Johnson portable on display at the Lets Make It exhibition . Made in South Melbourne for supply to Vic Government State Gold Batteries.

Also in this Issue Mundaring Pumps Gerard’s Stories November 2019 Steam Supreme 2

Pumping Engine

Worthington Horizontal Duplex High Duty Pumping Engine . Photos and story by Phil Randall.

When visiting family in W.A. Phil Randall took the opportunity to drop into historic Mundaring Weir and found a huge and unusual Corliss . Mundaring Weir is located just east of Perth in the hills overlooking the city The weir was established in the later end of the 1890’s to supply water to Kalgoorlie which was at the time a major gold rush town and district. Prior to the pipe line water was delivered by horse and wagon a distance of some 560 km. The main pumping station at Mundaring had three Worthington-Simpson pumps supplied by steam from two Babcock water tube and one economiser. Twenty pumps were supplied spread over nine stations with similar number of boilers powered by coal from Collie and later by wood as it was cheaper. The pumps are a horizontal Duplex configuration, eight metres long having triple expansion cylinders with steam reheating between stages and rotary Corliss on all cylinders. As pumps and engines go these are a rare example of triple expansion on a single shaft, with no to even out the strokes.

Specifications - 2 High pressure cylinders 16 “ . - 2 Intermediate cylinders 25” bore. - 2 Low pressure Cylinders 44” bore. - Double acting water plungers 15 “ diameter. - P i s t o n s p e e d 1 5 0 f t / m i n . Maximum capacity 2.8 million gallons of water per day. Manufactured in London 1900. The pipe line was steel plate rolled in two halves and joined with . Chimney with weir wall in background a revolutionary dovetail and peen configuration which eliminated the rivets that would impede flow. The section joins were sealed with rope and lead and the pipes lined with cement. 60,000 sections of pipe were lain, each 8.5 m long and 760mm dia. Most of this pipe is still in use. Though during the depression years of the thirties sections of pipe were replaced with a wooden design. To the fledgling colony of WA at the time this was a mammoth undertaking and eventually cost the life of the engineer after continuing harassment at the enormity and assumed wasted cost of the project. Phil R. November 2019 Steam Supreme 3

The Melbourne Society of Model & Experimental Engineers welcomes you to the.

LET’S MAKE IT Model Engineering Exhibition

Collage students were on hand demonstrating how to make up circuit boards for Arduino micro computer inputs/ outputs

The Model Engineers decided it was time to break with the tradition of exhibitions focusing on displays of superbly made scale models of antique machinery and broaden the scope to anything of interest that anybody may enjoy making or playing with in the hope of appealing to a much more diverse audience . i . e . H a v e a Let’s Make it Exhibition Well it certainly paid off with great crowds in a great venue at the Oakleigh Secondary collage and well supported by MSTEC members both as visitors and exhibitors. Following are a few snaps that caught my attention.

For starters not a model but a real car. Gary Sneesby always enjoys demonstrating his post WW2 German Messerschmitt bubble car to the delight of the public. It is bad enough that there are no doors, the whole roof has to be swung open to get in, like their aeroplanes . Even quirkier the car has no reverse gear. Not to worry, it has a 2 engine that can run in either direction so he simply turns it off and starts it backwards giving another 4 gears in reverse . November 2019 Steam Supreme 4

Our Steam Museum’s full size Johnson Portable steam engine was something new for this years exhibition . Although clearly not a model it was felt that it would certainly be an attention grabber for the patrons to the extent that Gerard Dean’s works, Versatile Technologies , sponsored the tilt tray transport . Also thanks to the great team of MSTEC members who manned the engine over the week end, it’s slow steaming characteristics meant early starts for some.

Dean Stuart gingerly opening up our model of Hero’s turbine sending spirals of steam swirling everywhere to the delight of the crowd. . This forerunner of the is based on a description by the Greek Hero of Alexandria in 60 AD The reaction of the steam escaping from 2 angled tubes causes the spherical body to spin around.

Again not a model but well and truly fitting the Let’s Make It theme ace sheetmetal fabricator Fred Schafer had the handy members of the crowd transfixed with demonstrations of his sheet metal skills showing how he makes fuel tanks and exhaust for vintage motorbikes from flat sheets of steel. Fred hydroforming an exhaust megaphone for his vintage motor bike. 2 boomerang shaped sheets of steel are placed on top of each other and TIG welded around the edges and water connections fitted. He then blows them up with water from a pressure washer until they swell up like a sausage . The ends just need trimming and he has made an exhaust .

Clocks of all types were on display by the Melbourne Horological Society and the Australian Antiquarian Horological Society The movements spanned working models of weight driven tower clocks, of the type found in villages in the days before individuals had there own clocks, to elaborate ornate clocks finished to a very high standard with traditional tools. Certainly impressing the older visitors but the highlights for the children was the variety of ever more elaborate marble runs. Not so accurate but much more action. November 2019 Steam Supreme 5

The old favourite Meccano was there in force with their displays of mechanical wizardry that seems to get bigger and better every year. Many of the constructions were of fair ground rides , now motorized and whizzing around while towering over their builders. These certainly fascinated the kiddies while rekindling fond memories of younger days in the older visitors. I am assured meccano is about to make a comeback! So let’s get some and Make It

A impromptu visitor was Kevin Wadley from Myrtleford with his 1/3 scale traction engine. Nearly Made he had it over at Rodney Martin’s for gear setting and on hearing of the exhibition brought it across on the spur of the moment . A very workmanlike machine with high class steel gears and steel wet fire box surely be capable of hard work . Always a source of amazement are the tethered racing cars and planes made by Robin Hiern . These are not models of anything but powered by his highly tuned internal combustion engines and unique chassis with the only object to go as fast as possible. Experimental Engineering in its truest form . So fast are these that they cannot go in a straight line but have to run in a circle tethered to a central pole .

His aeroplane with only one wing and one blade on the propeller, to cut down on drag, has recorded 286 km/h with the 2.4 cc engine running at 42,000 rpm . A lot of the secret is in the tuning of the exhaust which you can see in both machines is quite special being shaped to take advantage of the sound waves travelling down the pipe to draw in extra fresh charge. Originally the machines started out resembling the real thing , like Ron Savages vintage racer but evolved into what went fastest. Ending up along the lines of Robin’s champion car below doing nearly 300 km/h November 2019 Steam Supreme 6

The breeze way between halls was the ideal location to display working heat engines of all kinds. To the left is part of Warwick’s collection of mostly free lance miniature petrol engines . Center front are some of his unusual real engines including a Wankel rotary and a Torpedo engine , a 4 Diesel radial 2 stroke of 400 hp made by GMH . Outside on the trailer a 9 cylinder radial air cooled Diesel that was started up a number of time quickly emptying the hall.

Gerard Dean, top left, holds his audience with stories of the trials and tribulations of engine making such as broken and grinding camshafts in his back yard shed. Definitely in the category of Let’s Make It but not of a Model exhibition is the most remarkable thing of all Gerard’s home made supercharged V 12 motorbike. He has designed and made the engine himself including cylinder block, camshaft and cylinder heads . Even more amazing is the revelation of his plan to ride it across the USA following route 66. once finished. Close up of the engine showing 2 banks of 6 cylinders . Each has a single chain driven overhead camshaft . The gear box is low down on the left of the engine driven by a short transfer chain . Output is by shaft to the rear wheel.

Of course any Let’s Make It exhibition would not be complete without a variety of suppliers. These are especially important to this type of work as small quantities of specialized items are the order of the day which are very hard to procure through trade channels . LPR Tool makers , ausee small machine tools and accessories , Eccentric Engineering and Plough Books are the people to see. November 2019 Steam Supreme 7

TALKING of STORIES Gerard Dean holds his audience with his model Tiger tank at the Let’s Make It show . Once he has them hooked the story telling starts.

G e r a r d i s n e v e r o n e t o m i s s the opportunity to tell a story if he has a captive audience. Such was the case at the recent exhibition. Expecting Emmanuel Viontakis and Warwick Bryce to be present the opportunity to cause maximum embarrassment was too good to miss , even to actually putting it in print this time, . Below is a sample of his handywork from the booklet handed out to all show visitors. November 2019 Steam Supreme 8

Thanks Gerard I do not know where you got such a story , it was not from me !

Photos Too Hot to Print at the Time .. 1985 The first Electronic Fuel Injected test car undergoing “Field Testing “in the bush near Whitfield . A Brock HDT VK fitted with the first experimental EFI V8 engine and 5 speed manual transmission . 0 to 100 km/h in 6.6 sec . Too much for poor Emmanuel. Over the years another 2 of my cars suffered the same fate in others hands. The prototype engine fitted with experimentally cast and machined cylinder heads and fabricated tubular intake manifold. Fuel injection electronics was based on a reprogrammed JE Camira system. November 2019 Steam Supreme 9

Kerry Shaw steadies the last cylinder as it is lowered into position directed by Warwick Bryce and spotted by John Mills. Photo Rohan Lamb.

A big moment as it is now 49 years and has passed through 6 sets of hands since first moves were made by Wally Vears to obtain the engine for the club. The engine is at last permanently mounted and the main assembly installed. Actually once in motion the engine can now be kept in rotation by 1 man at the flywheel so that says something for the alignment and bearing fits achieved.

The Willans Rohan Lamb pic s T h e l a s t c y l i n d e r w e n t o n Saturday 12 Oct followed by the installation of the camshaft and its vertical drive shaft . That only leaves the cylinder heads to be fitted to complete the assembly of the main components of the engine. After that , it is mostly dressing up although there is still plenty to do such as putting on catwalks and plumbing of the air, fuel and water. Although time consuming this work should be fairly straight forward with no more big ticket items. Below Adrian Anderson assembling the last big BIG end . They cost over $ 3k each to have remetalled and machined.

Family Visits With school holidays and some better weather family visits to our grounds have been on the rise lately. The train is always popular especially when run on an “on demand” basis i.e. offering a ride as soon as a family turns up rather than waiting for a full carriage. This is appreciated and often results in “Keep the change” followed by another ride at the end of their visit. A bonus the last couple of weeks for observant children on the train , has been spotting the resident Duck family. Mum and Dad and their 9 ducklings.

On the AGM Ian Malcolm pic We had a successful meeting and have a full compliment of Committee members. Actually no elections were required . Dennis Sells put up his hand for President from the floor and got the position unopposed . Likewise for Ron King who stepped forward for Vice President. With 2 of the 4 candidates already seated this only left Stephen Nicoll and Brad Hector for the 2 ordinary positions so no voting was needed to fill the Committee .