Detail Associates 8444 stationary steam engine??

[randgust]

I've found some very crude pictures of this thing, but no particular clue as to how big it is or even what it looks like when its put together.

https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/images/DA8444.jpg

If anybody has one, or has ever seen one, I'm trying to guess how big the flywheel is and what it looks like assembled.

A wheel about 3/8 (60" - .375) would be about right.   It looks to me like it's about a quarter inch 40" in N, but I have no idea.

DA still holds the record for the worst product photos, wherever they still show up.

I've looked on Shapeways, too, but you'll knock yourself out with a hammer before you can find anything there.  I found a Fordson Tractor with  cast wheels about the right size, but nothing else close.  There's steam engines with flywheels, but only in HO.

Ideas?     I'd be making something like this that would actually be spinning/animated , so metal is the preference rather than brittle FUD.
http://www.coolspringpowermuseum.org/Publications/Flywheel/Flywheel_201409_files/P14_25hpPattinBros.jpg

This isn't far from me, and at one time, these were just all over the place around here.  Think it would make a great model, along with the rod power distribution system.  This is one of the survivors that runs at the Drake Well museum.  These are actually 'hit and miss' engines fueled by the natural gas from the wells themselves, not steam.

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Ideas?

[Chris333]

Would anything here help?
http://www.wildwestmodels.com/products/products-ho-machines.html

[randgust]

Wow, that DP32 gear set looks like the middle ones are just the right size, ruler in the shot and everything, file the teeth off.
http://www.wildwestmodels.com/products/ewExternalFiles/dp32-gears-550w-2.jpg

That just might work.  Everything else is comparatively simple to scratchbuild except for flywheels.

And that is why I posted the question.  Never would have found that on my own!

[Chris333]

You might want to e-mail the owner Mike and see if they will just sell you what you need. Or look on ebay for old stock (under HO scale    )

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Scale-Scenics-HO-Scale-Assorted-Gear-Set-NEW-SEALED-/111839811295?hash=item1a0a2c16df:g:1mEAAOSw8-tWX2hb

[johnt48618]

Randy - I have one of these kits (unassembled). The instructions show an assembled unit, which I'll be happy to mail to you if you PM me your address. The assembled unit measures 1.25" long, 0.5" wide and slightly over 1" tall if the stack is to sit on top of the boiler. If the stack is left in the down position, the unit will be about 0.625" high. Don't see any mention of a flywheel in the diagram or instructions, so can't help you there.

John Thompson

[peteski]

Whenever I am at a flea market I look for old mechanical watches - those are perfect source of very fine (N-Scale) machinery gears.  SOme of them could be made into flywheels.

IIRC, there is also some jewelry-supply company selling packet of those gears to steam-punk or other oddball jewelry makers.   Those might be available online or in craft stores.

[randgust]

EUREKA!!!!!   

I have no idea how I didn't stumble over this before, but here's a perfect drawing of what I need to make.

http://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/habshaer/pa/pa3500/pa3553/sheet/00001v.jpg
http://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/habshaer/pa/pa3500/pa3553/sheet/00002v.jpg
http://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/habshaer/pa/pa3500/pa3553/sheet/00003v.jpg


The ruins of one of these is still visible alongside Rt. 6 .31 miles northwest of Tiona, PA, southwest side.  Identical, hex-shaped, cone roof.  Exactly what I want to model.   Check it out on Google Earth, shows in Streetview, partially collapsed.

As you can see, this isn't a steam engine, there's no boiler, it's a natural-gas powered hit-and-miss single cylinder engine spinning a big flywheel, that spins a belt, that cranks eccentrics that move rods, that move multiple oil well jacks up and down at the same time.   This is the way it was done in the 1920's and until recently, a few of these still even worked oilfields around here.    I think its entirely possible to put one of these on a T-trak module as they were very, very common.

This was the evolutionary step between a steam engine jack at every wellsite (impractical) like in Drake's well at Titusville, and the electric pumping jacks that started in the late 1920's that look like grasshoppers with an eccentric counterweight.   Smaller version of those still work the wells here.   

One of these powerhouses worked multiple, multiple wells, and everything moved in rhythm - the engine, eccentric, and every rod on every hanger, sometimes going nearly a mile.   These rodlines are still common around here out in the woods abandoned in place.   Getting one of these animated in N, yeah, I just have to try this.   The other great feature of these if you listen to that YouTube video is the irregular exhaust and the 'barker'.   Well operators put all kinds of metal, tuned stacks, etc. on the exhaust so that each one made a distinguishable noise from its neighbors, and they could tell if a field was still pumping properly just by listening.   My father said that you could hear the wells 'barking' up the Allegheny for miles when he was kid.

The one in Tiona is right beside the tracks of the Buffalo & Pittsburgh, too.