1 Inch Minnie Boiler. Scrap or not?

Today I was given a few boxes of model engine parts by a friend, they belonged to his late Grandfather.

Amongst them were these parts, for what we think is a 1 inch Minnie traction engine. It all looks very well made.

..........But my heart sank when I looked on the underside of the boiler and saw the joint along it. I am not a boiler expert, but surely it shouldn't have been made this way, I hope I am wrong.

His Grandfather had somebody make the boiler, but we have no idea who.

It obviously has a plate riveted and soldered inside overlapping the joint, but I have never seen anything like it before. So is it really just scrap?

Butt joint and strip is acceptable, though an external strip is preffered these days. Get a club boiler inspector to giove it a once over and take it from there.

Does not have the pump mounting pad of a Minnie but they can be done without. There are other features that make it look something other than a Minnie, maybe a Greenly which was earlier.

Edited By JasonB on 13/02/2018 20:17:36

Hello Jack,

This is a standard way to make many types of boiler when drawn tube is not available.

Not being able to see it in the flesh, I would suggest that if you have access to a clubs boiler tester, to get them to give it the once over as to the overall construction, after all, they are going to have to certificate it for you, and they won't do that if they don't believe the construction to be sound.

Good luck

Regards

Lofty

Thanks Jason, so thankfully it is not straight for the scrap bin just yet.

And you are right, I have just noticed Greenly And Steel in the corner of the drawing. The box of parts had other smaller containers of parts with Minnie writen on them.

And thanks Lofty.

It is a relief to know from you both that it is an accepted way to construct a boiler.

When I get the time it will be interesting to find out what other goodies are lurking in the box of parts.

Edited By Lathejack on 13/02/2018 20:29:54

Certainly not for scrap yet. As mentioned and looking at the Parts and the part view of the Plans, it is most likely a Henry Greenly design and the example in this image (of a friend's example) should allow you to compare it to yours-

Certainly worth seeing if it can be completed

Thanks for the photo Richard, I'll search through all the other parts to see if anything else compares to those on the Greenly engine.

Here are some more views of the boiler.

Greenly has the square firehole, takes the blower off the tubeplate hence the hole and also continues the barrel to form the smokebox rather than a separate one like the minnie. Still lacks the pump pad but like the minnie that position can cause problems so may have been intending to mount elsewhere.

Always a bit hard to tell from photos but looks to have been quite well made

Agree with Jason on this one after some research - SRS archive can be good in these situations.

The rivet heads on the top of the wrapper were a bit of a puzzle as a tad different from the Greenly drawing,

Would be good to see it completed - possibly using Minnie parts - cylinder for example.

Ebay item 323079436211 will give you an idea of the finished item.

My Greenly drawing has the crown stays as rivired over threaded stays just like this boiler.

Probably just as easy to cut the cylinder from a block of GM or bronze bar as the Minnie one is not quite teh same and needs machining on all surfaces anyway.

Lathejack - may I add a " let us know how you get on " request to this thread please ?