OneGuyFromBarlick

Very seldom seen. The high pressure piston in Queen Street engine at Haggate in 1979. The bore was badly worn but instead of re-boring, new piston rings were fitted to last the mill out.

was there a tendency to wear more on the bottom because of the weight of the piston on horizontal engines ?

Yes, but not as much as you'd think. Many engines had tail rods running on slipper guides to support the weight and Newton told me that the fitters used to put a bit of a bend upwards in the piston rod to counteract any sag due to the weight of the piston.



The LP tailslide on the Bancroft Engine.

Ellenroad didn't have tail rods despite the length of the piston rods. Just in front of the HP cylinder there was a bronze lined saddle that carried the weight of the rod.

The LP crosshead on the Bancroft engine. (It looks dirty because this was in 1979 when Newton and I had left it oiled up)

The Dobson Block valve gear on the HP cylinder of the Bancroft engine.

The low pressure crank and banjo oiler on the Bancroft engine. The oiler allows oil to be fed continuously to the crank pin even though it is moving in a complete circle 78 times a minute. Clever stuff!

The barring engine at Bancroft. Used for turning the engine over slowly. The name comes from the fact that on the early engines the flywheel was turned by a large bar engaging in sockets on the flywheel rim and used as a lever over a fulcrum block.

The Ellenroad barring engine.

The Brown and Pickles boiler feed pump I installed at Bancroft to cure our feed problems.

The big Frank Pearn feed pump at Ellenroad. It was belt driven from the shafting. Note that the middle plunger has been disabled to cut down on volume of feed. This was most likely done when they stopped the engine and only used one boiler. This pump could comfortably feed five large Lancashire boilers.

Stanley, a nice looking engine
http://pictures.yourlocalweb.co.uk/01/1 ... 259803.jpg

I have a story for you about Washpit Mill engine. I was out looking for boilers for John Ingoe and called in there to look at a boiler and a big generating set. The MD asked if I would like to see their steam engine (He had no idea of my interests) and we went in to look at the beast. The old bloke who was showing me round explained everything to me and mentioned that Ellenroad Engine was worth looking at. Unfortunately he said that it was spoiled by the bloke who ran it, he said all he did was clean up and whistle and didn't talk to the customers. As he was telling me this I noticed a flush rising into his face and he stopped, "It's you isn't it!". I've never seen a bloke more embarrassed in my life. I told him that he must have visited in the afternoon and after working on the engine since 04:00 it got to the point where you were fed up of explaining the same things over and over again! Moral opf the story; make sure who you are talking to before you start slagging someone off!

King Mill waterwheel at Colne during demolition of the mill. Don't know the date but I suspect shortly after 1900.

Link to a steam engine using square pistons, plus a steam powered fork lift
http://www.aqpl43.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/ ... square.htm

Funny how it never caught on!



The round HP piston for Queen Street engine.

The company still exists, they stopped making square piston engines in 1987, so it lasted 100 years !
http://www.dakecorp.com/company.asp

Amazing..... Not the easiest thing in the world to rebore I should imagine!



The HP eccentrics and governor driving ropes on Bancroft engine in 1977.

Burnley Ironworks drawing of the tandem engine at Moss Shed. 1903.

The governor on the Jubilee engine at Padiham. This was Yates' own design and is complicated because it controlled Yates' own system of cut off using a slide valve. A very complicated matter but it was reasonably successful. Remember that on a simple slide valve variable cut-off isn't possible and the engine has to be governed on steam admission like the early engines.

William Hogarth at Bancroft with two weavers immediately after WW2. Note that the original Whitehead governor is still in use. This was changed to a Lumb governor because it gave the engine a much smoother control of speed.

Probably the most important element of any steam plant. This economiser made by Green's of Wakefield extracted waste heat from the flue gases and used it to raise the temperature of the boiler feed water. This improved the thermal efficiency of the boiler by about 10% if properly managed and was a huge saving.

The economiser tube scraper drive on the Bancroft shed economiser.

Fascinating how one thing leads to another.I now live 3miles from Quarry bank. The old shaft still lies along side the carpark,for many years I assumed it was laid there as a historic sculpture. To also then find from this site that the wheel came from Pately Bridge, was additional Knowledge.then lastly,to find Brown and pickles had been
involved, the hairs on my neck were rising. My late father Hartley Steward worked as a millwright journeyman for this company in the 50's,and as a small boy I accompanied him during the school holidays to some of the local mills.
Maybe this is where my love of steam power took root.
Kind Regards Mike.

Have a look on Lulu.com for the book I did on B&P. It will bring back some happy memories.



Boring a large low pressure cylinder.



Turning a large rope pulley.
B&P took on the biggest jobs and were a wonderful firm.