Steam Stuff

The Ellenroad Engine

The restoration of this large engine took me ten years full time. With a 3,000hp output, the flywheel alone weighs 85 tons. It had guard rails round the oil holes so the greaser didn't fall in...

Ellenroad is an impressive engine. Someone recently asked about friction loss through the bearings of a flywheel that weight. The old engineers reckoned on approximately 20% for shafting loss. I don't know how they sized for spinning mills but weaving sheds used to be reckoned at half a horespower per loom. Doesn't sound enough does it, but it was and this allowed for ancillary machinery as well. I used to run an engine for real at Bancroft Shed in Barlick and our total energy cost plus wages and maintenance, was half what the electricity bill would have been. That was a little one, 600 hp, and still steamed regularly.

Find out more about Ellenroad Engine House, Rochdale, at www.ellenroad.org.uk

The photograph shown here was taken by me either with a Nikon F and a 13 mm lens or a Hassleblad wide angle. I used to do a lot of photography once of a day.

Davey Paxman No 14766 - Annie

This 10 NHP 'colonial' engine, designed to burn straw, was built by Davey Paxman & Co of Colchester. Originally destined for South America, the order was cancelled so she stayed in England.

At some stage in her history she was converted to a portable steam engine, thus ceasing to be self-propelled. She was bought by her present owner, John Ingoe of Rochdale, who undertook a major restoration. No 14766 has been back in steam since 1993.

John runs the Rochdale Electric Welding Co Ltd, a company specialising in boiler repairs.A new firebox was fitted by his company in 2000/2001. During 2002 Annie attended the Haworth Vintage Weekend at Keighley, and the Masham Rally in North Yorkshire. The engine is pictured here at the Masham Steam Engine & Fair Organ Rally this year (2003) looking superb after having been repainted since the 2002 season.

Photo © Stanley Challenger Graham 2003

I worked for John Ingoe while we were restoring Annie. I'd had a bit of experience with engines and also had a workshop at home so I was promoted to engine fitter (acting/unpaid). John asked me to make and fit a new crank bearing after the old one had run hot due to the sun shining on it. When I took the old one out I found it was made up of two shells from different bearings, neither of which had anything to do with Annie, so I made a new one and fitted it. While I was on with this I measured the stroke accurately to get the proper centre for the bearing and found it had been running at the back end of the cylinder before. It must have been running like this for many years because when the new bearing was fitted the rings hit a wear ledge at the front end. I took the cover off and ground the ledge off with an angle grinder; I can still see John's face when he walked in and saw me attacking his baby! It was a complete cure of course and it runs somewhere near right now. The interesting thing about this is that when originally manufactured, the cylinder was bored parallel right to the end, no bell mouth. I don't know whether Paxman's made all their engines like this but someone should have introduced them to the concept of the bell mouth which of course allows the edge of the ring to slide out of the bore and you never get a wear ledge.

One other interesting thing about 'Annie': we had to make completely new gearing for it as it had none when we got it. The gears were flame-cut by Bolton Profiles. All we gave them was a drawing of two sample teeth and the dimensions. We never had to touch the teeth, the finish was good enough from the flame. The only slight imperfection was that because of expansion as the cut proceeded, the finishing point was slightly deeper at the end of the cut than at the beginning. On the biggest gear this was less than a thirty second of an inch and was ignored. If John ever gets another engine I've made him promise it will have a lid on, brakes and rubber tyres. Handling 'Annie' on granite setts, in the rain and on a steep hill can be interesting especially when you're running with one wheel driving. Chucking it into reverse can be quite exciting. I made a dog clutch and put it in the drive to engage both wheels but we found it wouldn't steer at all then so all normal running is done in single drive. We steamed it at Cullingworth this year and the new firebox is a definite improvement. She must have one of the best boilers around now.

Annie is bigger than she looks, the boiler and firebox being bigger than any UK built engine I've ever seen. The front wheels are original equipment and have not been modified. The back wheels are off a Fowler, the original wheels having been used for a gun carriage in WW1 according to the information we have.

John Ingoe's policy is to run the engine at about 90psi maximum even though we know the boiler is perfect. At 150psi she is very difficult to drive as she is single geared and has a very big and sticky regulator. She was built for the belt, not trundling. One awkward thing - the rim of the flywheel has no crown, it is flat. This makes it a real challenge to line up the engine to drive anything as you have to have it spot on.

To find out more about the company of Davey Paxman of Colchester, including pages on surviving Paxman traction engines and steam portables visit Richard Carr's Paxman pages at www.nelmes.fsnet.co.uk/paxman. There's a lot on the site - all put together by an ex-Paxman man.

Steam Joe

Steam Joe and his dad had a contracting business in Minnesota, USA. They never sold any engine they bought.

In the United States they used to haul the implements of course, no messing about with winches over there ! Some of the engines are enormous, all wood burners of course and if you look closely, one of them has the firebox door at the front under the chimney. I had a look in it and the firehole is about 12 feet long with return flues to the chimney at the front. I asked Joe what the idea was and he told me they had timber in ten foot lengths stacked at each side of the field and when they got across the simply opened the door and put two or three more trees in ! Saved on woodcutting. Joe has a portable with wooden wheels. He bought it from the Henry Ford museum at Dearborn and it has wrought iron tubes. Goodness knows who made it or how old it is.

Page updated: 26 JUL 2003