Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Hi Raphael,

Thank you for posting your video, it is very interesting, alas the port faces of the ST engine are very small and are totally covered by the port face of the cylinder, so there is nowhere to use screws to hold the PTFE.

The temperature here has risen to 10C today, yesterday it was 5C, the ice in my test box was 12/15mm thick and had to be broken up and replaced with warm water for me to test the modification's made to the Henley.  These modifications consisting of a brass weight screwed to one of the longerons of the hull to improve the hull's stability, it now sits vertically in the water but is still a little tender being slow to recover when displaced. A new fore deck was made from tin plate to replace the thicker aluminium one made, I should have thought there wasn't much weight difference as aluminium is about a third of the weight of steel, if thinner aluminium becomes available I will make another deck. A lighter funnel has been made and fitted. The burner now sits on a carrier which holds it in one place centrally under the boiler. The burner is now covered for a third of its length to reduce its heat output.

What difference did these modifications make? Well the engine maintained what seemed about the same speed for ten minutes before the flames died back, I had though it might have run longer because of the shorter length of the flame. The engine leaked considerably less steam. Using less steam was reflected in the fact that when the boiler drained they was 25ml more water removed, so some progress?

Alas my camera ran out of battery before I could take all the photographs I wanted which might be a relief to some.  I think an open water test next when it can be arranged. I live very close to a large lake which isn't very suitable for model boats which aren't radio controlled, but maybe a length of string tied to the rudder post?

Take care Tony.