3" Burrell Traction Engine build.

 Stoke Prior steam rally 2025 📣 Show Report ✅ Strong Attendance – Rain or Shine! The show, as usual, was well attended, and we’re pleased to report that paying numbers held up strongly —despite a soggy Saturday. Fortunately, Sunday brought sunshine all day , which made up for it! A big thank you to everyone who braved the elements. This year’s weather was a definite improvement on last year’s continuous showers—and a far cry from the scorcher we had the year before that (we still remember those sunburns!). 😎 🚜 715 Exhibits on Display! We were welcome a whopping 715 individual exhibits this year, offering a fantastic variety for visitors to enjoy. This included: 25 Miniatures 7 Full-Size Engines 2 Steam Cars A huge number of commercial vehicles , classic cars , motorbikes , military vehicles , and stationary engine displays From the tiniest model to the largest working machine, there was something for everyone to marvel at.  <---This is us on the Su...

 Big end bearing part 3 The big end bearing has taken a while to reach this stage, but it’s finally starting to come together. The remaining tasks are fairly straightforward now—just making the taper wedge pin and shortening the con rod to its final length. It’s been a really satisfying piece to produce, and I’m very pleased with the results so far.  Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions while reading these blog updates—I'm always happy to reply. Whether you have a suggestion for a future post, a question about something specific, or simply want to say you’ve found the blog interesting, your feedback is always welcome. It helps guide the direction of future content and is genuinely appreciated. These posts do take time to write, edit, and gather photos for, so knowing they’re helpful makes it all worthwhile. A big thank you as well to those who are following the blog—it's encouraging to know these pages are proving useful, especially to fellow builders. As ...

  Meet Stephen Meredith – A Life in Steam, Oil, and Dirty Hands. I'm Stephen Meredith – that's me on the left, alongside my wife Nina, who keeps me grounded and gently reminds me when it's time to move something (or fix it!). YouTube Channel Trailer I'm 52 now, but my passion for steam and engineering began in early childhood – starting with model railways and radio-controlled boats/planes, a shared hobby with my father. Over the years, that interest blossomed into a lifelong commitment to model engineering, vehicle restoration, and anything that steams, spins, or makes a noise. At 17, I joined my local model railway club and started building layouts for public display around the country. One of my most ambitious projects was recreating Bridgnorth Station on the Severn Valley Railway – first as a fixed home layout, then as a portable version to allow public exhibition. It’s a detailed and faithful reproduction in 1:76 (4mm - 00 scale) to the real thing, incorporatin...

 Welland Steam Show 2025 Report..... (Saturday)    FULL  Video    https://youtu.be/ayib_Q_EvKc Welland Steam Show (Upton-upon-Severn July 25th - 27th  2025). Ross-0n-Wye Steam Engine Society 59th Annual Rally. Hotel : Star Inn also responsible for the "Minge Lane" Music festival. (We attended 1 month earlier). The show as usual was well attended. I'm happy to report the numbers looked fantastic and the weather was as good as needed. Maybe we have inspired the next generation of Model Engineers. It certainly looked like there was no shortage of money changing hands for tools.  The show boasted 42 miniatures and 105 full size engines, along with a huge number of commercials, cars, bikes, tanks and military vehicles and displays. This time again, like last year, there was the heavy haulage arena, which was fascinating to watch, as long as you could keep the coal ash out of your eyes :-) I can imagine the rising fuel costs to move large machines, but ...

 Big End Bearing part 2 Hi, It’s been a while—between holidays and the nice weather—but progress is still being made, despite the extreme temperatures in the workshop. Most of the time, the trusty Centec 2A mill is set up in its vertical configuration for small nibbling, slotting, and similar tasks. For parts that need light skimming, I often use the lathe instead. As the title suggests, I’ve been working on the big-end bearing, which requires an accurate 1/2" slot on both sides. For this, the horizontal mill setup is ideal. It allows the part to be flipped easily, ensuring both sides are machined to the same depth with precision. The side and face cutter I’ve been using isn’t the sharpest tool around, and there’s a bit of chatter at the start and end of each cut. That may just be typical for this type of cutter—I’m not entirely sure—but it’s worth noting. Still, it handles 0.080" deep cuts quite efficiently, removing metal much faster than an end mill, with less risk of t...

 Big End Bearing and Boiler Tube. The most recent development is the appearance of the big end bearing I received for Father’s Day—it finally made its way onto the milling machine. As expected, it was oversized all around, with the usual tapered side walls (draft angles) to allow it to be removed from the mould. I thought it was quite large, but apparently, it's a replacement for a previous version that was too small, which had prompted many complaints from builders. So, I suppose in this case, bigger is better than too small. As for the boiler tube mentioned in the title, I originally planned to modify a pub-style gas cylinder as a mock-up. However, it proved difficult to cut, and I ended up running out of oxygen in my BOC Portapack (oxy-acetylene setup). Then I remembered that my nephew owns a plasma cutter—and being eager to help, he was more than happy to have a go at burning off the top and bottom for me. Having received the new tube back, there is a snag. I could not accurat...