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#Post#: 45978--------------------------------------------------
Fowler dredging engine
DIR By: Boris109
Date: December 24, 2012, 4:33 am
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Stolen from another forum.
HTML http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/76769-Dredging-engine-from-Welford-on-AvonDecember-2012
Can't help thinking what a savage, yet resourceful conversion
this is!
Question would be, keep one as is, or restore both back to
kettles?
#Post#: 45979--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fowler dredging engine
DIR By: Calum
Date: December 24, 2012, 4:38 am
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Restore restore!!
#Post#: 45983--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fowler dredging engine
DIR By: brianthesnail96
Date: December 24, 2012, 5:26 am
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There's rather more than just a pair there... Mr Mills knows
their story, needless to say they are not for sale, or they
would have been ages ago ::)
#Post#: 45988--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fowler dredging engine
DIR By: prof-pat-pending
Date: December 24, 2012, 6:26 am
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:smile1 :smile1 :smile1
#Post#: 45996--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fowler dredging engine
DIR By: mr.scruff
Date: December 24, 2012, 7:47 am
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Funnily enough I have just been reading that link, posted
elsewhere!
They were converted and worked by Bomford & Evershed, who
specialised in this sort of work and also converted a number of
steam rollers to diesel power.
The engines in the link now belong to two brothers in
Warwickshire, along with the ex-steamers they also own a
bona-fide rare as rocking horse turds pair of Fowler diesel
ploughing engines. I think some of the conversions have McLaren
diesels and the others have Detroit two-stroke units from old
tanks mounted where the coal bunker used to be. One pair of
engines has a extremely old 1880-odd set of wheels on it from
one of Bomford's other engines.
Many people have tried to buy them but I am reliably informed
that the brothers are impossible to deal with and think the
engines are worth a vastly inflated sum anyway.
If you chanced on a Fowler cylinder, crank etc of the right size
(and there is at least one spare set for both a BB and a K7 out
there) it'd be nice to restore to steam but then again there's
plenty of rough ploughing engines out there which need money
spending on them. Would would a new cast cylinder be - I
wouldn't have thought there would be much change from at least
£10,000 by the time it is machined up by a firm such as Calum's
employers and a crank will be similar bucks, and that's before
you get to the boilers.
Ploughing engines are the dog's bollocks though, absolutely the
nicest easiest engines to drive and enormous fun on the road and
in the field.
#Post#: 46000--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fowler dredging engine
DIR By: Boris109
Date: December 24, 2012, 8:15 am
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Cheers for the informed response there!
I always thought the leviathan nature of a ploughing engine
would have made it unyieldy to drive?
#Post#: 46003--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fowler dredging engine
DIR By: mr.scruff
Date: December 24, 2012, 9:22 am
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They are gentle giants Boris! :) I have only driven a BB1 class
but others on here have experience of much older ploughers which
are single cylindered, but I believe those are pretty forgiving
once you get the hang of them.
Everything falls to hand and the regulators are nice and light
to use, plus with such a big boiler they are easy to look after
from the fire and water point of view. On the one I drive the
injectors are lifting types so you just turn the steam on and
bang, it's putting water in.
You have to watch the steering on rough ground or when going on
and off a low loader as it will snatch the wheel out of your
hand before you know it, but on hard ground it isn't a problem.
I'm only a small fella and I can shunt one around the yard
single handed no problem at all.
I love being out on the road with engines but doing some steam
cultivation takes some beating I reckon; probably a mix of my
agricultural background and the pleasure of hearing a steam
engine hard at it. Pressure gauge on the red line, exhaust
talking nicely, bevel gears ringing, crank a blur and dust
coming up off the cultivator as it comes towards you... fuckin'
fab!! >rock<
#Post#: 46242--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fowler dredging engine
DIR By: tomster_1
Date: December 27, 2012, 9:02 am
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These are based about 10 minutes from me. He has a lot more than
the few that have been photographed!
They seem to be dotted all around a fairly large field...
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