Thread: traction engines

nice.

Originally Posted by blackbuttdisco

After seeing the thread on steam tractors, I thought I may as well show you my 2" working Burrell engine. It is now waiting to be painted.

Then you'd enjoy the Menangle Steam Fest held this weekend at Campbelltown Steam and Machinery Museum, Menangle http://www.csmm.com.au/ AMVCS and NSW Lancers are regular attendees.

Impressive!

What is the 2"?

2" to the foot scale or 2" long or something else?

Impressive workmanship! Model engineers always astound me with the quality of their machining and yours is right up there.

2" refers to 2" to the foot.

I suppose it is appropriate for a model steam traction engine to be described by what seems to be a terribly old fashioned measure.

I guess 1/6th scale is too modern a way to describe a steam model.

I remember being greatly impressed about 25 years ago by a working 1/4 scale (or should that be 3") model steam traction engine, an International Harvester, I think. When asked how on earth he found the time to build such a model, he said that it was easy because he didn't own a TV. He said he spent about the same amount of time each night building the model as most people spend watching TV.

Another thing I remember was the weight of the model. Most of us blithely assumed it would weigh 1/4 of the weight of the original. He explained that if everything was to scale, it would weigh 1/4 times 1/4 times 1/4 of the full size weight of about 30 tonnes. In other words 1/64th. So his model weighed about half a tonne.

On that basis, I would guess this one weighs 1/6 times 1/6 times 1/6 of about 30 tonnes, so about 140 kg. Is that close?