Decided to tidy the garage today....but as usual I got side tracked...!
The result of this was the valve gear of the steam engine has been decided.
A compromise between a fixed slip eccentric and stephenson,it's a modified version of walschaerts.This version doesn't give me any adjustment on cutoff (either did a slip eccentric) but will give me forward and reverse at the throw of a lever which is what I want.
Below is a picture of the reversing link that stopped the garage being cleaned.....! :wink:

P.S I hope to start the hull in the next few weeks.I will work between doing the boiler and the hull.The way the weather is it will allow me to either work onone or the other and who knows I may even have her ready for june (doubtful)

cheers anthony

Another day out in the shed and the return crank has been made not finished but in place on the crank shaft.
It requires a little dressing up but that can wait. :wink:
Also started to bend up the eccentric rod,which was hard work as I didn't want any twist's in the steel nor did i want the metal to be scared from the forming as I would like this rod to  be polished bright.
The previous picture of the reversing link has had it's wear pad machined and will be welded to it later.The bracket for the reversing link was welded and will also be machined later.
I will post more picture once all these pieces are together on the engine.
The hardest thing about this project is making it seem some what original even though it was built in 2006 and not the 1900's .

regards Anthony

after many hours of conversation, over the new years break,once again a change of plans,the valve gear that has been started has been made redundant before use.
So the engine will have stephenson's....this willbe interesting as I have never made parts of this size before.

will keep you all posted.

it has been a while since my last post so sorry to all who have been following... :

I was able to machine up the eccentrics and they have massive rollerbearings instead of the normal bronze bearings normaly used,
i did this to reduce maintance. :wink:
I had to wait until I had access to larger equipent because of the size of metal being turned and the vibrations caused by the two eccentrics being off centre.

I am happy with the result so far

cheers Anthony

Looking good Anth!

You're going to have a fine boat when she's finished, expecially in the engine department!

G'day all,
             after some months of costing and designing once again our original design has been scrapped.
we have shown  the design to many but the efforts of keeping it to a unique aussie design is extremely hard when your design is limited to trailer size.
The hardest thing is scale as with the models it has to look correct and the one thing that does not scale down is human physical size.
It's also difficult to have a side wheeler although our design overcame many problems it didn't overcome the problem of a paddle shaft running from one side to the other......many sprockets and chains could over come this but the complexity and maintance would be high!

we have purchased some more engines on the way home from echuca steam rally but alot of work remains on them and the size maybe to large for our needs.
So we are researching some original aussie sternwheelers that once ran along the murry eg captain stuart,melbourne,lady daly,kelpie ect and seeing how they would scale into a paddler.....

cheers Anthony