The 2½ nominal horsepower Riches and Watts Vertical
The 2½ nhp engine was acquired in 1986 as a collection of broken and corroded bits, having been removed the previous day by scrap dealers using a very large hammer a gas axe and no respect for engineering history, fortunately enough parts survived to be restored.
It is a single cylinder vertical engine and three cylinder water pump which originally supplied water for irrigation in a small market garden in a North Norfolk village, of their previous and their manufacturers history almost nothing is known. It is a version of the type which was widely exported, won medals as far away as Chile and was described by 'Engineering', following first exhibition at the Royal Agricultural Society meeting at Oxford in 1870 as, 'A very neatly designed combined vertical engine and boiler'. Riches and Watts claimed that it was 'The most economical engine of the day'.
The engine has a bore of 4½" and stroke of 8", steam is alternately distributed to and exhausted from either end of the cylinder by a simple slide valve, speed governing is by a butterfly throttle valve in the steam supply controlled by a spring loaded Watt type flyball governor. The main and crankpin bearings are split plain brasses and the crosshead is of the 'slipper' type, glands on the piston and valve rod are plain and packed with traditional graphited asbestos packing, a boiler feed pump is driven from the valve eccentric strap.
Our involvement with this engine and pump began in 1986 when a friend, Peter Hodson, phoned advising of an advert in the collectors car section of the local paper for a vertical steam pumping engine. I soon called the vendor and arranged to meet the following Saturday morning to view the plant and make an offer, one of the longest weeks I can recall then ensued.
On arrival at the vendors house I was shown a number of items in a greenhouse, a dirt and rust encrusted spring loaded Watt type governor, cast gunmetal makers nameplate, con rod, three gunmetal pump rams and some bearing brasses. The bulk of the engine was elsewhere so we went into the village centre to look at it.
The engine / pump house was a small dilapidated ivy covered brick shed, on opening the door all there was to be seen was a very porous vertical boiler, a cast iron bedplate which had been set about with a large hammer, two bearing blocks and a feedpump. By the fresh greasy marks and cutting torch slag it was obvious that until very recently more of an engine had stood there.
The vendor went purple and shot off to find the landowner, when they both returned to the engine house the language used between them would have made the area's most famous son blanch, and Horatio Nelson was a sailor ! A fight was only just avoided as the story unfolded.
It appeared that the engine vendor had purchased the pumping plant from the original owner of the site (which had been a market garden and greengrocers shop) on the understanding that the building could be demolished to remove the machinery. This did not happen for a number of years, the original site owner died and the property was bought by the current owner, who had different ideas on demolition. A long period had then apparently elapsed with no progress on removal of the machinery.
The site owner had run out of patience and had called the scrapman in to clear the machinery so that the building could be converted into a garage. That this had been done during the same week that the plant had been advertised in the local paper seemed a little more than coincidence to me.
The scrap dealer responsible for the evil deed was identified and the would be vendor and myself went off to his yard to see what, if anything, had survived, he leaving the site owner with mutual threats of legal action (and worse) .
On arrival at the scrap yard the language reached an all time low, the scrap man appeared quite bemused at the situation, he had removed the machinery as requested by the land owner and was even prepared to sell it for a reasonable price which would cover his costs ! This was not well received by the vendor but made excellent sense to me !
While the argument raged I took the opportunity to have a good look round, I knew what parts were in the vendors greenhouse, the bulk of the engine and parts of what appeared to be a three throw ram pump were still on the back of the lorry (it was later explained by the scrapman that we were lucky that the lorry's battery had died overnight as otherwise this would not have been the case), other bits like the flywheel and belt pulley (each with their own half of the torched crankshaft) were in a large heap of scrap nearby.
Having all but run out of fury the vendor became intent on returning home for the police and a receipt which may have existed for his purchase of the plant many years ago.
When I pointed out that within minutes of our leaving, the remains would be smashed to almost nothing, spread over several acres of scrap and that I was prepared to offer a sum for his interest in the engine and pay the scrap man for 'his' parts, sanity grudgingly re appeared, the sum I had offered was clearly very much less than had been anticipating for the complete plant, however it was the best deal likely to be offered (there were apparently four others coming to bid that day) As a result of this I purchased the remains from both parties for a relatively reasonable sum.
On returning to the original site, the site owner, while still somewhat fiery, kindly allowed me to remove the remaining parts which I needed (two bearing stools and the feedpump) and take some photos and measure what remained of the bedplate and boiler, both of which had been damaged beyond economical repair (the boiler being a more recent replacement in any case).
The trailer load of scrap after arriving at its new home
The engine parts after the pump had been stowed away for a while (more than a decade in fact)
After unloading the trailer that night and reflecting on the events of the day it appeared that luck had been with me as despite the fairly extensive damage, I had acquired enough parts to rebuild both engine and pump, when I had heard who the other potential bidders were, it is most unlikely that I could have afforded the engine had it been complete and saleable.
Separating the remains of the crankshaft from the flywheel and pulley was high on the list of jobs, welding a crossbar on the wrought iron key (left of centre) which like the shaft was rusted into the flywheel boss, followed by substantial heating, hydraulic pressure and a lot of good old bashing with big hammers and swearing finally accomplished the sweet scene pictured above with no breakages.
Reconstruction took place over an extended period, with de greasing and derusting the major components by shotblasting as the first stage, this revealed numerous hidden defects (such as the state of the piston rod and rings) and also had it's share of pleasant surprises, such as finding the spring loaded Watt type governor stirrups were made of bronze.
The flame-cut crankshaft was the first major headache to overcome, welding was considered but eventually discounted, the damage was resolved by machining matching male and female tapers on the cut ends, pressing together with Loctite 601 as a jointing medium and, in the event of this failing at some point in the future, two tapered crosspins were fitted at 90°through the joint as a failsafe. The runout on the flywheel is aggravating and appears due mainly to the boss and spokes getting bent (I suspect) at the time of scrapping, as the crankshaft repair came out within a few thou !
All turning required was Fairbanks Morse 'Z' type paraffin engine powered on the Muir Lathe which will swing a foot diameter by 6 foot length and is of a similar vintage to the engine. It should be noted that the engine drove the lathe directly with no clutch, disengaging the drive being accomplished by hooking the drive belt off with a spanner, hammer, starting handle or whatever else is to hand. Here, cleaning up the connecting rod is pictured. The original piston rod was wrought iron and had seen better days, the corrosion was so deep that chrome plating was found to be out of the question (the quote to have it re built to original diameter by chroming was more than the engine cost !). As only intermittent steaming was envisaged it was decided to machine a new piston rod from 304 stainless steel which would reduce corrosion while the engine stood idle, .
The base of the 'A' frame was repaired next, in wrenching this away from the bedplate the ties across the bottom had been badly fractured, this being a weak area originally, further weakened by a past engineer chipping away the cast iron to give clearance for a sunken crank (due to wear in the bottom brasses) My cast iron welding is not good but the joint has not moved as yet.
Rebuilding an engine from basic principles with no plans, drawings or any other indication of how it originally looked proved to be a very interesting engineering exercise requiring detective skills that Sherlock Holmes would have been proud of, only one error of note occurred, which will be described later.
By this stage most of the components had been blast cleaned and primed and a 2 ft square sheet of ¼" steel plate procured, a dummy run at erecting the engine was made and positions of the various components marked on the baseplate sheet. It was not envisaged that this in itself would make a rigid enough base so a sub frame of 6" I section girder was fabricated and welded on underneath. Holes for the bolts securing the 'A' frame and bearings were marked out and drilling through both plate and girders commenced. The ¼" pilot holes were no problem but these next had to be opened up to ¾", which resulted in a burned out Black & Decker drill, so the remaining six ¼" holes were opened out with a hand brace and bad language which closely matched that when the engine was found.
Here the 'A' frame is set up, bearings and crankshaft installed and bearings scraped in, cross head fitted and piston rod measured up.
The eccentric rod was set up, the valve spindle which had completely rusted away was also replaced in 304 stainless steel.
The cylinder next received attention, the bore whilst worn and pitted was in fair order considering its age, not so the slide valve or valve face, the valve chest however was found to be most unusual in being detachable from the cylinder, making the valve port face accessible. So, using an 'improvised' faceplate the cylinder was mounted on the lathe and the valve port face turned to remove the pitting, the cylinder casting is quite a substantial lump and moved on its faceplate during this operation, causing near heart failure and another outburst of quite shocking language.
The surface of the valve was similarly treated and then the two surfaces lapped together with some grinding compound, a satisfactory but not perfect finish resulted, due to the extent of the corrosion but good enough if kept well lubricated.
One main bearing keep could not be found so a replica has been made. Most pins in the various linkages were renewed due to excessive wear, after reaming the holes to the next largest size. The throttle valve butterfly was missing and has been replicated, other than this the engine appears substantially as original.
The geometry of the temporary bedplate has also required a re positioning of the boiler feed pump, this originally having been at an angle of about 45 degrees to the crankshaft. In the fullness of time it is intended to cast and machine a replica of the original bedplate, when this detail will be rectified. The feed pump is more than capable of supplying the boiler used to steam the plant.
The piston was worn badly enough to warrant re ringing, but nothing was to hand to make these out of and as I wanted to see the engine run as soon as possible the original ring was re used to hasten the first steaming, there was an added incentive to do this now as the Horizontal Riches & Watts Engine at Gressenhall Rural Life Museum was also being prepared for steaming, I considered myself to be in an informal race.
Assembly on a mobile base and painting proceeded when time allowed and the day of the Norfolk Internal Combustion Engine (NICE) Society May Rally at Gressenhall drew near, I had decided that this was to be the first public appearance, hopefully in steam. The weekend before arrived all too soon, however I just had time to connect up to the boiler which I hoped would make enough steam for demonstration purposes (this being a David King Newton Coil Boiler, designed with considerably smaller engines in mind) all that remained was to fire up, however, by this time I had acquired a girlfriend and on calling Kim to tell her what I was about to do I got the distinct impression that I should wait so that this could be done with her in attendance, there ensued another unbearably long period until I collected her the next day.
With the fire lit and steam produced, the cylinder was thoroughly warmed, however, when full steam was applied, nothing happened, large clouds of steam appeared from the exhaust along with some serious snuffling noises but no hint of rotative motion. Remembering the state of the piston ring there was instant panic that this was the cause of the inactivity but after a little more fruitless rotation of the flywheel the answer dawned on me. I had assumed, after a fairly cursory inspection during assembly, that the eccentric could be keyed to the crankshaft either way to produce forward or reverse running, just the sort of thing 'them old boys' would have done to make the engine more flexible in operation, whilst I had carefully set up and balanced the valve adjustment I had totally ignored it's angular relationship to the crank !
This revelation resulted in our having to drop the fire, remove the pulley, strip out the crankshaft and flywheel, take off and reverse the eccentric sheave and re assemble it all again.
Steam up No 2 followed within half an hour, the result of applying steam this time was motion, not great motion as the boiler struggled to keep up with the demand, but enough for demonstration purposes.
The original 'shapely lady' cylinder oiler was missing, that currently fitted was kindly donated to the project 'just in time to run' by Dr Rowan Francis of the Forncett Industrial Steam Museum.
More cosmetic work ensued and the following weekend saw 'Snuffles' (named as a result of the noises caused by my mistake with the eccentric) conveyed to Gressenhall and in steam near their Horizontal, the first time for many years that either had run and presumably the first time for either 'in public'.
Following outings to Forncett and Weeting it was obvious that the coil boiler would not suffice as a steam generator and something with a more substantial output became the object of search.
It was also felt that a permanent base was preferable, rather than a mobile plant, so the engine room was constructed and the time had come to excavate the remains of the pump
The three throw water pump has been re assembled on a timber framing, as no evidence of how this was originally constructed has survived the current layout is conjectured from the way that the parts appear to have fitted together. The suction valves have not survived and will need to be replaced at some point in the future to allow the pump to function. The delivery valves have suffered from both wear and considerable corrosion but may be serviceable.
Re erection of the pump commenced with the mains bearings fitted on the same plane as the cylinder base plate, it was found that this did not allow adequate angular clearance for the connecting rods to work in the rams and so the main bearing axis was raised. The broken sections of the lower part of the rams suggests that the pump may have been rebuilt with this error before, but without the problem being detected until it was powered, this may indicate that Burnham Market was not where the plant was originally installed.
Lineshafting has been installed between engine and pump, it is entirely non original, however the parts were at hand and allow it to be turned for demonstration purposes, it is probably not substantial enough to drive the pump under load when restoration to full working order is completed.
Now in an 'active' retirement we steam her as often as possible, soon to be joined in the engine room by the 1 nhp vertical when restoration is complete
For any model makers looking for a nice little prototype - here is a drawing you may be interested in.