Brian’s 1″ Minnie Traction Engine

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Thanks Jason

Did you machine those from solid or bend 1/16 plate?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

It's a long time ago but I think I would have bent them.

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Ash pan and damper sort of complete, need to make the linkage and a few other bits but its nearly there,

Going to move onto the tender for a while, need to solder this up and make water tight, then add the beading.

[DjangoParticipant @django]

Very nice job. I hope that you will post a video of it in action. Best of luck with the project.

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Good evening all.

Need some help regarding this one.

Beading the tender on the Minnie, left-hand side the beading needs forming around the driver entry/exit cut out.

Tried forming it by hand but it's not working, wondered how others managed it.

Thanks

Brian

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

You just need to keep bending a bit, flatten, bend a bit more and so on.

If you can't manage that then turn a short "ring" on the end of some bar, round the end over to match the beading profile and part off. You can then cut two corners out if the ring and just run straight lengths upto them

[Clive Brown 1Participant @clivebrown1]

As purchased, half-round beading is quite hard. I'm fairly sure that I would have annealed the beading for my Allchin tender. Heating towards dull red makes it much more amenable.

[DjangoParticipant @django]

I keep seeing posts that say how many years someone has been working on one of these engines. I am tempted to build one, but I am already 67 and suffer long term affects from a motorcycle accident, so I am wondering what the timeline is in hours. For reference, I have a Hardinge HLV-BL and a Bridgeport with a ProtoTrak MX2 and I was a journeyman tool and die maker. Thanks

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Some only work on them for an hour per week or less, you might work 8 hours days on it.

The drawings are identical to the book, but the book has better detail size info in hidden in the wording. Some of the GM castings available are steel in the book.

The brake drum has the biggest ratchet you ever did see.

A lot of Minnie is plate-work and riveting, You'll note that Brian still has all his wheel rivets to do and some of the smokebox ones are missing too .

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Thanks Jason and Clive

Turned a couple of diameters to help form the beading,

that with lots of annealing seemed to do the trick.

To answer Django, i only have a few hours a week, that together with all

the messing about is why it’s taken so long, i would have thought if you set your mind to it then you could build one in a fraction of the time.

[Clive Brown 1Participant @clivebrown1]

That looks good Brian.

For Django, you obviously have the background and the workshop. My two penn'orth would be that a Minnie might take around 1000 hours, ie 2 years @ 10 hours per week for someone who knew what they were doing. Quite a bit of the tedium can be avoided with ready-cut spokes and strakes, gears are also available. A pro boiler would be a time-saver.

Go for it.

[DjangoParticipant @django]

Thank you all for your input. Who is the best supplier or the castings? Thanks

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Hello Django

There are a few supplies for the casting, Reeves, Blackgates & GSS all do them,

As for the boiler, i would just order one from Western Steam, cost a few pounds but you will have a perfect start to the project.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

With what you have done on the beam and what machines you have I would say you could do without quite a lot of the castings, I certainly would if building another one. I think most of mine came from Reeves and the boiler Blackgates, would likely still use Reeves and Weston Steam for the boiler these days

At the rate you built that Beam engine it will not take you tool long to do a Minnie, mine was 13yrs but would go 6months or more between me doing anything with it and I had very limited workshop equipment back then.

The old ME articles can still be found on this site if you know where to look, just change the last 4 digits of teh url to get the next issue number and get them while you can.

[Andy StopfordParticipant @andystopford50521]

I agree with Jason – most of the castings are more trouble than they're worth, better to use stock materials (or make your own castings, something I've just started with, for a future project mainly).

With your knowledge and equipment Django, I'm sure it wouldn't take you long to build a Minnie. The following pics are the state of play with mine as of today. I ordered the materials for the boiler almost exactly a year ago, so this is about a year's worth, by no means working on it every day. I bought laser cut spokes and strakes, but made the boiler and gears.

 

Edited By Andy Stopford on 09/05/2023 19:33:08

[DjangoParticipant @django]

Thank you all again for the advice. I should probably start with a set of drawings and then figure out where I want to go from there.

Edited By Django on 09/05/2023 21:24:13

[William YoderParticipant @williamyoder56665]

Friends – I have a 1" Minnie I recently bought in the UK. I want to run a steam line to it from one of my 3/4" locomotives. Where could one place a fitting to which one could attach a steam line? As a US-American, domeless traction engines are new to me. Thanks!

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Filling plug that is on the left side of the cylinder saddle would be a reasonable place.

[William YoderParticipant @williamyoder56665]

Dear Jason: Of course, many thanks! I did not even know where the plug for filling with water was! That would be an obvious place to connect. Is there a booklet on how to run a Minnie? I have the book on constructing Minnie, but I don’t think it will help. Is this thread the best place to get info on a Minnie, or is there a group of Minnie owners meeting and consoling each other somewhere on-line?

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Just completed the pipe work feeding the water pump from the tender.

Looks neat, but not sure if it looks right?

What do you think?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

A lot gets hidden by the final drive. With the two connections at pump and bypass being in line you will always have to kick one pipe sideways to miss the other.

Mine run closer together, though if I were doing it now they would be horizontal and parallel to each other forward of the wheel and I would do tighter bends, but I did not know any better at the time.

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Thanks Jason,

As you say, once the wheels fitted there’s not much to see so may just leave well alone..

 

 

 

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Hello all.

Been some time since i have posted..

In the final throws on building the Minnie and one of the final jobs is the brass and wooden cladding.

The books calls for the use of 1/32 balsa in 3 parts, i have tried this but not entirely happy.

Has anyone used strips, say 4mm wide placed length ways along the boiler?

Thanks

Brian

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Dont forget that balsa comes in various states of hardness (hard/medium and soft) that could be some of your problem.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Without taking the clading off mine that is what I think I did. You can tack the strips on with a blob of superglue and just work your way round. A lot easier to trim the planks to fit around the cylinder & pump than cutting a sheet.

When it comes to the cladding a bit of card such as a Cornflake box can be used as a template and once happy with the fit transfer to the brass.

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