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

A while ago I was able to lay hand on a Schoenner "Imperator" Lipsia.
This is a very rare engine.
Schoenner is the brand, Imperator the model, and Lipsia the institution is was made for.
Lipsia in German means,  Leipziger Lehrmittelanstalt, roughly translated "school supplies from Leipzig".

The engine was in very rough state, heavy brass corrosion on the boiler and several missing parts.
If it was not so rare I would left it where it was, but now it's a saver worth while.
Here is a mix of photos taken by the seller and me how it came…






This is how it was advertised at the time around 1906…


Last week I started  on the restoration of the "Imperator".
As always took the complete engine apart.
The base was oiled in with Ballistol oil and left to do it's magic overnight.

The real work started with tackling the heavy corroded boiler.
carefully sanded the corrosion away then polished to get a nice brass shine again.



Then it was taped off to recreate the nickel stripe.


Then taped the nickel of for the blueing patina, and gone is the ugly corrosion.


After that I first de-nickeled the door by reverse electrolysis.
Then Polished the brass and re-nickeled it again.
And the slow start to reassembling began.
It starts to look like a gem again, but still a lot needs to be done…



Next step was the rebuild of the motor it self.
And to my unpleasant surprise a not visible part of the motor was missing.
Wenn I opened the the steam regulating chamber I noticed that the steam slide (I hope that this is the correct englisch term) was gone.
Fortunately this part was a universal Schoenner part, and was also used on many other types of engines.
So I borrowed one of an other engine to make a copy.
To make things clearer I made some photos…
Here you see the original part and the new one together with the timing rod it's connected too…


The H shaped plate is a spring plate.
So this is what the total look like…


to explain the working…
The block attached to the cylinder has 3 holes.
The middle hole is the outgoing steam hole, the other two go to the cylinder camber, one on topside, the other underside of the cylinder chamber.
The steam slide always connects only one of the outer with the middle outgoing hole.
So the steam coming from the boiler goes into the chamber where the steam slide moves in (top).
Depending on which outer hole is not covered by the steam slide, the steam pressure finds it's way on the up - or under side of the piston and pushing it away with an upper pressure.
While this happens the other side of the piston, the piston chamber is connected over the steam slide to the atmosphere creating an under pressure.
This motion is constantly  change by the up/down movement of the timing rod letting the cylinder do it's action.
So the steam slide is the hart of the engine so to speak…

Anyway after all was reassembled with the new steam slide, I had to make a new cover around the cylinder camber.
This cover has no real purpose except an esthetic look.
So this is how it looks at the end of the day…


Another defect that was found was a crack in the steam pipe, so also a new pipe will be made, but that's for later this weak…

Cheers,
Danny

Another great”save” Danny.

Thank you for the detailed description and photos.

Will you make the steam pipe out of Brass and then Nickel it?

This is an awesome restoration, Danny.


You have worked your magic again!


Gil

That is a great improvement.
A long overdue scrub up for a deserving engine .

Cheers
Dennis

Thank for the support guys, much appreciated.

…Will you make the steam pipe out of Brass and then Nickel it?

Yes Charlie, like the original would have been made, shaped to fit, polished and then nickeled.
Same story with the complete water gauge armature that was completely missing.

Both are fitted to the engine now.



The few scratch marks you see on the underside of the water gauge armature, are still left after removal of the corrosion.
Probably made by a clumsy person working  on the water gauge armature, long long time ago.
They are so deep that I didn't wanted to sand them completely away, because this will thin only the boiler wall.
And also they seem huge now, but in reality they are hardly noticeable.
You see this only now due to the focus of the camera.

As you can see the whistle and safte valve are also back on the engine.
The whistle was completely taken apart, and a good thing I did this.
Because inside sits a rubber O ring that suppose to seal the steam from the boiler off while not in use.
But after 100years that o ring has become hard and brittle having no sealing effect anymore, so perfect moment to replace it.

The only original part that still needs to be refitted is the tap on the bottom of the boiler that is connected to the water feeding pump.
Unfortunately the the tread on that tap is ruined.
next time I will show how that can be fixed and thereby preserve the original tap.

All other parts like the water filling lid and complete water feeding pump must be replicated, but this will be described later…

Looking good, Danny. Good work on the blow down tap and the water pump looks nice.

Amazing! For the nickel plate waistband. You said you taped it off. Was it a brushed on nickel solution? Or did you dunk it in a bath?

It was sunk in a bath…

The feeding tump is technically ready now.
I tested it manually and it works very well with a good compression.



All that needs to be done is to nickel some parts-, and paint some parts of the pump.
Solder in the pipe at the tap and pump and ready it will be for it's first steam trails…

…well, to all good restorations comes an end …
Last attention went to the burner.
Althout I hardly use meth burners, it's still a part of completing the engine.
Only the container was still there, rest was missing…


I still had a spare mushroom nozzle.
The handle was inspired on a other schoenner burner I had…


So last thing to do is to reveal the engine.
But after the steam test I noticed I need to give some extra attention to the gear, the big wheel wobbles a bit giving some unwanted friction on the water pump.
But that will be a simple fix and won't change anything to the overall finish…
So here its is…





And finely the video…


I hope you all enjoyed it…

Cheers,
Danny