I attended St Joseph's Regional High School in Port Macquarie (Mid-North coast of New South Wales, about 4 hours north of Sydney by car). I've always been great with my hands, making things, pulling things apart, putting them back together. I loved lego. So it was only natural that I'd elect to do Metal Work class in Grade 10.
It was a 12 months class where I'd learn how to bend sheet metal, solder, braze with Oxycetalin, Turn metal on a lathe, Tap nuts and make screw threads. It was an amazing course and I learnt alot about the industrial age and about machinery.
This is a real working model steam engine. I had it running at school and we'd race them across the play ground. We'd put turpentine into the burner, light it up under a boiler that was made of copper tube. the steam would build up and feed into the piston chamber. this would then force the piston out turning the flywheel and with the momentum of the fly wheel would set the piston chamber over the value to let more steam in. It was awesome to see it in action. I remember having to make a few different piston chambers are the hole I drilled was not quite in the right spot, hence I had an alignment problem and the engine would stall.
This steam train was was submitted as part of my School Certificate Major Works. I was very proud of this steam train and I decided to assist my teach at the the time Mr Peter Batterham, with drawing all the parts one by one to allow other students to easier make steam trains. I'll try to see if I have some of the drawings and if I do I'll add them to this page.
The front chimney stack and the wheels are cast from aluminium. We didn't have the casting equipment to do to is at school, so they were done outside. But wh had to then machined them on a lathe which gave them a nice polished look. I then hand painted them black. I made the hexagonal brass bolts on the metal lathe, these held the wheels to the axle. At the rear you will see the burner with a wooden handle. This is made from sheet brass. What is missing is the rubber band that connects the flywheel to the wheel.
