PS Adelaide

[ljhall]

Hi Michael,

I came across your posts on PS Adelaide in another thread from earlier in the year, and was wondering if you could post some more Engine Room pics, as the ones that I took last October didn't turn out very well.

Thanks,

[Roderick Smith]

The news from the week is that the new firebars have been fitted to PS Adelaide at Echuca.  Yesterday (ie Thurs.14.9.13), Michael was preparing a light fire.  I don't know how much gentle movement is needed to get the lubrication where it is needed.
Enclosed:
* The firebars removed at Wood Wood (downstream of Swan Hill) for repairs to the firebar support.
* A photo of the steam dome.  I am not sure what all the bits are.  Normally this is where the steam is collected to go to the cylinders, but no pipe leads that way.  I guess that much of what is in this photo is the cylinder-lubrication system: injecting oil into the steam.  I have watched the system in action on PS Industry.  I am also not sure what valves Adelaide has.  The most common ones in railway use are piston vales, but there are also poppet and rotary cam.  On a railway loco, there is constant adjustment of valve events to cope with varying conditions.  Riverboats are much-more steady state.

The black base is the steam dome: marine and railway alike, the steam rises above the heating tubes, and is collected.
The two green conical fittings house twin safety valves; the brass above provides the ability to adjust the release pressure.  For PS Adelaide, they are set to 120 psi (~8400 kPa), comfortably below the test pressure of 150 or 200.  There is a cable override release, worked from the firebox position, which allows for early release.
The pipe coming towards the camera is the safety-release pipe: venting steam from the safety valves to the open air in front of the funnel.
I had missed the main steam pipes: their white lagging made them blend into the background.  They take off each side of the black T piece, which houses the regulator.  It is worked from the wheelhouse by rodding via the black horizontal gear wheel.  It can also be worked by the red horizontal wheel, by the engineer, but the easier method is to turn the gearwheel by hand.  That is useful when lighting up, and preparing the boat for a day of voyaging.
The visible small brass pipes with red valve handles take live steam to the injectors and the whistle (there must also be one to the turbo generator somewhere).

In PS Adelaide, the hydrostatic lubricators are above the pistons (separate response coming).  In PS Industry, they are above the steam dome.  Cylinder lubrication is also related to the thread about towing a paddlesteamer.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's......I am in the process of assembling my engine & boiler bits for a 1:20 PS Adelaide from the Float a Boat plans

Naturally any additional engine room images would be greatly appreciated........

The paddle axis, boiler funnel location & the FWD facing engine cylinders is just a law of best fit to suit the 1:20 scale........Derek

[Roderick Smith]

Here are the five other Fri.7.9.12 photos to add to the earlier post.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Roderick Smith]

I am up to around 60 hours riding in steam-loco cabs, and perhaps 10 h in close-range paddleboat engineroom close observation, plus lots of random tourist minutes, and lots of reading.  My sole practical experience is about 1 h, water-control and firing in locos.
Michael has just given me my next 10 min, explaining the bits on the steam dome in PS Adelaide.

Instead of reposting the photo, I'll go back to that post and edit it to explain the detail.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PDs'.....& thanks Roderick.......I would appreciate that.....please let us know when the new postings are available

BTW...I am now officially a volunteer member of the Illawarra Live Steamers [Wollongong - NSW - OZ land]....you may have heard of them www.ils.org.au ....

We are expecting in excess of 750 people this coming Sunday.......... ......Derek

[Roderick Smith]

Done within minutes of the original post.  I'll do the other responses on Friday, then remove the cue posts.
Yes, I read a lot about ILMRS, and publish a lot, but Albion Park is a place where I hardly ever appear.  I had hoped to make Wings over Illawarra this year, but ran out of time.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[James.McD]

PS Adelaide is up a cruising again - everything works well! We took the boiler up to 80psi and ran the engines over slowly for a couple of hours. I then went on holidays for two weeks - and by the time I got back the PS Adelaide was operating at full pressure! Lots of hard work by a few people, but it is worth it!

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's...when is an twin cylinder engine an engine? ...when are two cylinders connected to a common crank shaft called engines?

Courtesy of a WEB page for PS Adelaide......."She 146 years old and we're standing here in front of her original steam engines and she is one of the most powerful steam engines on the river today" ...this implies both plural and singular......

Captain Graham Trist.....master on PS Adelaide in a video refers to Adelaide's engines.......in a similar vein to James as below........

My engine build for Adelaide is one two cylinder engine on a common crankshaft..........so will she not be powered by a [singular] steam engine?  .... Derek

[Harold H. Duncan]

Hi Derek,
Have been having the same problem here.
While researching the old steam river boats in NZ, I have the screw-in-tunnel hull being driven by a twin cylinder steam ENGINE.
Waimarie, side paddler, driven by two cylinders one each side of the boiler, each connected to the paddle shaft, via cranks, so that the shaft is the common crankshaft.
Then we have the Manawai, stern paddler. This has one cylinder mounted horizontally on each side at the stern (on the deck) the connecting rods attach to cranks (at 90 degrees) at each end of the paddle shaft.
In my mind they are ALL a twin cylinder steam engine for each boat.
Yet most of the literature of the time and since terms them differently, some refering to two engines monted on the deck at the stern, or the twin diagonal steam engines, only consistant reference is to thesingle, twin vertical steam engine driving the screw.
My opinion, your definition is correct. Newspaper reporters have been known for centuries as ill informed and doing their own thing, in the face of the facts.
cheers
Kiwi

[Brian Gates]

I would suggest that a tug may have side-lever engines, not a side lever engine.  Inside the rear cover of "British Steam Tugs" there is a contemporary illustration of "Disconnecting Compound Paddle Engines for the Tug "Mount Etna" which illustrates this point pretty well.

Similarly, at least one TBD had separate turbine and reciprocating engines that could drive the same shaft, but they are not one engine.

[Harold H. Duncan]

In your example, yes they are separate engines because each engine has its own crankshaft, quite separate from the paddle shaft.
What Derek is asking is a 2-cylinder paddle boat engine, which has separate cylinders, one at each end of the paddlewheel shaft, but this shaft is also the crankshaft for the two cylinder con rods to the crank, one  at each end of the shaft.
Does this constitute two one cylinder engines or is it one two cylinder engine, because there is only one crankshaft, which also doubles as the paddlewheel shaft.
That clear as mud?
off to sleep, its late
cheers