Re: Whistling Billy Replica
Posted by:
Steamcarbob (---.range86-134.btcentralplus.com)
Date: March 27, 2016 05:18PM
27.03.2016
That is a good idea Mike. I use EN24T on my piston rods and have them hard chromed and ground. They do well but I have had a couple with the chrome cracking usually when something is out of true. I have just done a batch of 6 plus 2 larger ones for my brothers 1910 White.
It seems that a little more explanation is needed for the fire picture that I posted.
When I purchased the 1902 White in 1993, I had a broken main burner plate with a rusted through tin base and no pilot light. The car had not been run properly since about 1908. Sir Charles Ross had purchased the car new for his 356,000 acre estate (Ross-shire) and it was kept at Balnagown Castle in north east Scotland. It was used for about 5 years before being laid up in the castle coach-house after having at least three runaways due to the brakes being poor as was evident from the cars structure. After he had died his third wife’s second husband Hon Francis de Moleyns and the head gardener got the car out in about 1948 and got it going by removing the thermostat and main burner and putting a gas burner under the steam generator. They also had to put usable tyres on it and hence used model T Ford tyres and had hubs and wheels adapted to fit. Unusual tyres were not available then. The car was hardly used.
In about 1995, Paul Morgan asked me if I knew of any Whites for sale and I put him on to Alan Betteridge who had run his 1903 White Model “C” in many London to Brighton runs from the 1950s onwards but it seems with a gas pilot burner. Paul purchased the car and had it rebuilt but needed a pattern to make a new pilot light. He flew down to Cornwall in his Mustang fighter, as one does; he also had a Spitfire and was killed in his Seafire (aircraft carrier Spitfire) in about 2002. I taxied him to and from the airport in my 1908 White which impressed him with its power at low revs.
My father was back at my house armed with the pilot light from his 1906 English bodied Roi des Belges White (the model “F” of 1906 was the last of the Whites to have this earlier White pilot light), and also a spare middle casting, the difficult bit to make. Paul did a few sketches of the pilot light and borrowed the middle section. Two weeks later we all had new pilot lights thanks to him and his business Ilmor Engineering (they convert Mercedes engines for F1 and the Indy cars, it is now owned by Mercedes).
I completed the rebuilding of this very original little Surrey (I am told the only remaining one) about two weeks before the 1996 Centenary London to Brighton Run and had little time for testing. I had made the new burner grate machining it from a 16inch X 1inch billet of 300 series stainless steel with a stainless welded base. The burners worked well with no problems. For the missing thermostat I had been lucky in that when I purchased my 1908 White,it was fitted with a Model "B" thermostat which was of course no use in it when I set it up properly.
The London to Brighton Run went well until going down the hill before ascending Hammer Hill. This hill is about 2 miles long and one needs almost no steam going down it. I noticed that the fuel tank pressure was low and pumped it up with the mechanical pump on the car-- too late.
As we started up hammer hill we had no power, no steam pressure and, as I soon realized, no fire. The pressure had dropped too low and the pilot light gone out.
I stopped and relit the pilot light which was quite cold allowing the petrol to squirt out of the main jet into the burner which I had not realized. Immediately fire started coming from the venturi and lighted petrol came pouring onto the road. I turned everything off and tried the fire extinguisher as things looked a bit serious. It relit it again off the road so we let the car run backwards off it and then extinguished it again.
I fiddled around for a few minutes, an RAC man turned up and then I relit it. It all went up in flames again! The nice RAC man used his fire extinguisher this time. We then pushed the car onto the side of the road and I took the main burner off and cleaned it removing very little remaining petrol. Time really cured it as the remaining petrol evaporated.
After reassembly I lit up and on we went to Brighton arriving at about 3.30pm to a great cheer as the crowd had been told of our troubles. The paint was singed and the edge of the hood but the latter still works well.
I learnt from this! If the pilot light goes out, I always stop with the left wheels up higher than the right ones, usually up the pavement. Any petrol in the burner then runs out of the venturi. It always pays “to make haste slowly” here to let any remaining petrol evaporate off before relighting the pilot light. I have considered putting a drain plug in the bottom of the burner but never got around to doing the job!
Bob
Edited 2 times. Last edit at 03/27/16 05:35PM by Steamcarbob.
Attachments:
02fire96_tmp.jpg (92kB)
Wh02 LB04.JPG (130kB)
Burner top 2014.JPG (221kB)