I thought some of you may be interested to know that Reliants port engine and paddlewheel are now part of a working display at Markham Grange Steam Museum in Doncaster UK.
George Dickinson sent me the following email this evening:
Hello Eddy,
Back in December 2005 we had an exchange of e-mails about Reliant's port engine and paddle wheel. This is just to let you know that we have finished. It is all assembled at Markham Grange Steam Museum, and is turnable by a 3/4 HP electric motor at about 3/4 rpm. The wheel can be adjusted for demonstration between fully feathered and approx radial (not exact because of the geometry and the physical dimensions). We have balanced it using the four weights which came from both paddle wheels plus a bit more. The clutch is also workable. We shall not be steaming it for several reasons, the primary one being its fairly feeble condition in a number of respects, especially the bearings which are in a poor state. But steaming would only make it go faster and be reversible, doubtful benefits compared with the problems arising. We have no piston or slide valve (scrapped in the past, before our time). All in all, we here think it is a better proposition than what is now left at Greenwich.
By the way, did you know that Reliant had to be cut into (approx) 3 foot slices, like a loaf of bread, to get it into Neptune Hall, then bolted and welded together again? Also a considerable number of parts were replicas, re-made to replace parts that had already been scrapped - like the stern part with Reliant painted on it (which we still have)?
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