TRIPLE EXPANSION MODEL ENGINE- FIRST RUN (air)

by John

This is a short video of the first run of the Bolton9 Model Triple Expansion Steam Engine, which I have been building on and off over the past 3 years.

The video is a bit shakey, because it is taken on my hand held phone while I am using he other hand to operate the controls.  I really did not expect the engine to work!

It runs a bit roughly, and is still quite tight, but settles down in the final few seconds.

It is not running very smoothly, because it is on air rather than steam, and because it is probably only powered on the high pressure cylinder, and maybe a bit on the intermediate, and not at all on the low pressure cylinder.

The next day it would not run.  Very frustrating.  I suspect that one of the eccentrics slipped on the crankshaft, and threw the timing out.  Not the easily accessible low or high pressure valve, but the intermediate one, which needs another teardown to get to it.

But Hey!  It will work.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

One of my readers has requested a description of the triple engine timing procedure, so that will appear on this blog soon.  Unless you have a particular need for the timing info I suggest that you give that post a miss.