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

it looks incredibly overbuilt (all the nuts & bolts) but alas, I have no idea of the make/maker.

Bonjour,

the body of the machine seems to me to be welded and not drawn from a mold, which would lead me to think that it is a personal design and manufacture based on an invented or found plan and not a production of a known manufacturer.

Furthermore, personally, I have never seen this design of management of the reverse of Stephenson.

In France, we have had several famous steam designers who used to share their plans but never worked with a manufacturer.

Example 1;the DN15, welded machine, plans designed by Delaby & Neyrolles :


Example 2, the AL5, plans designed by André Lecomte, made from foundry parts that the modeler had to acquire from a colleague who had made a small series to share the costs :


Example 3; the BR2034, plans designed by Bernard Retif, here aluminum cylinders lined with bronze but could also be full bronze :


These gentlemen have never seen a manufacture machines use their plans, which makes their quality and rarity exceptional.

Nick, I believe this to be a C. W. Woodson engine, that had plans featured in a series of Popular Science magazine articles back shortly after WWII. I also believe that casting were later provided by at least a couple of different sources, while some home machinists simply fabricated everything from bar stock or poured their own castings from forms.

I have such an engine that is still lacking a couple of critical valve linkage parts which somehow, I have not yet gotten around to fabricating.

Here is a nice all brass build that I found online:

https://birkpetersens.blogspot.com/2011/12/8-pound-baby-engine.html

Then here are a few shots of the engine that I have:

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Well played Daniel!

Quote from: RedRyder on February 12, 2025, 06:58:00 pm

Thanks, Daniel. The engine was built from plans published in Popular Science Magazine in 1947.


https://craftsmanshipmuseum.com/exhibit/8-pound-baby-engine/

That looks to be the exact same engine that I had linked to, only on a different source page Gil.

Also, I don't see C.W. Woodson mentioned as the designer on the web page that you have linked, but Birk is listed as the builder on both of our linked pages!

Right you are Daniel.

I have always liked the design.
It is sturdy and aesthetically pleasing.

The nicest one I have seen was auctioned by Bertoia as part of Klaus Grutzga's collection.My recollection is the hammer dropped around 2500 which was more than I could pay.

Wow is right! I put a final second bid of just over $700 in for this one and was shocked to see how low I got it for

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