Well, perhaps not MY shed, but from my recent visit to the UK I got a peak at progress on the Barratt car now owned by Greg Walker. For those interested, the steam generator has been removed and new electric motors for the spinning cup and blower have been procured - they draw much less current for the same power and are about a quarter of the size of Barratt's originals. Progress is slow but steady. New instrument panel is being fitted. Also the main wiring loom is being sorted - apparently Peter Barratt kept adding bits in progressive development, leaving a mess of redundant wiring that actually serves no function. This is now nearly sorted, but has been a long and painstaking process. Greg estimates there's probably a good couple of years of work to do to bring the car back to peak condition. Anyhow, I've included some pictures as attachments.

Cheers
Jerry Everard
(Canberra, Australia)

not mine but my friend.
My friend Carl Kriegeskotte finished his John Stevens 1804 replica steam engine.
See it run at the York Cabin Fever Expo.

[www.youtube.com]

[www.earlmorse.org]

I am preparing our 1911 Stanley model 85 for the Vintage Car Club of Canada June Tour on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. We will be leaving on Thursday for four days of steaming. I have been tweeking all of the little "round to its" that have been looking at me. The biggest one was fine turing the hook up notch and then resettig the slide valves at the new hook up notch. It is all to improve the water mileage. It made a big difference. The hook up notch is now located 5/8" up the quadrant from the full valve resting location. Hopefully I will be using less steam/water/fuel.



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 06/20/11 10:41PM by SSsssteamer.

The Stanley 85 owned by Jeff Theobald is fitted with an adjustable hook up. The quadrant can be moved up and down by adjusting two set screws - a great idea if you want to fine tune your hook up.

Don

Don,

The Stanley 85 you mention is now owned by me having bought it from the Estate of the late Jeff Theobald. I originally built this car in 1999/2000 with the help of friends and a good cheque book. There are 9 model 85's now in existence. I have always regretted selling her and here was an opportunity to get her back.

You are right about the adjustable hook up. This came about when the original broke on the Yorkshire Dales Tour in the town of Pickering. With the help of the local Mercedes garage a temporary weld was done. They had to gues that they had the parts in the correct position. The result on driving away that day was the fire coming on less, the car more powerful and using less water. The difference could only have been a few millimetres in the placing of the parts.

An adjustable hook up was designed and made and fitted. It is easy to adjust as required. The adjustement is made so that the engine just starts to run rough when notched up and is then backed off a little till running smooth..

Congratulations Barry on getting your Stanley 85 back. This must have been Jeff’s favorite car of his collection as he once said - “I am out with it almost ever week”

I think I will make an adjustable hook up for my Stanley this next winter when I have the engine out for other work. I have found that it will climb quite step hills hooked up so I think it could tolerate being hooked up further.

Does any one know of anybody cutting a second notch in the hook up quadrant to give two cut off positions?

Don

I thought of mutable notches when I rebuilt a 1906 engine to a hookup like the 1908 engine has and add more notches as I have on my marine engines in my boat as well as making an adjustable piece that the dog hooks in, in the end I made it fixed. There was not enough room for more notches; the movement would be two great unless the latch dog was very narrow. An adjustment of the quadrant that the dog hooks in would work, but once you find the sweet spot you’re not going to need it anymore.
I ran the engine on air in varied positions before fixing it solid. It’s a little bit more hookup then the 1908 engine in the EX now. Will see how it runs in the car and if need be I can put a little heat to the plate and move it as I silvered it in place.
Rolly

My hook up nows works much better than before I moved the hook up notch. I would like to see a photo of an adjustable hook up to copy. I would like to try an adjustalbe hook up on my 30 hp engine in our model 85.

Thank you to Barry and Rolly for your assistance in showing me your adjustable hook ups.

Any way to post pictures of the adjustable hookup? Mine was rather permanently adjusted in the past by someone hacking a larger opening in the quadrant, and I'd like to find out what is really the best position.