3" Burrell Traction Engine build.

  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...

 Motion Mock-up; Where we are; and why ? Above are all the current motion parts posed for a photograph, this represents a few months work and in casting terms a few pounds. The problem is with not having the boiler, some of the parts are left longer with spare material to either finish the parts, or extra length if required to be finished later. Actually I intended making a mock-up boiler but this has not been completed. To be frank I ought to be at the position of ordering the actual boiler but the prohibited cost and the fact of having a large expensive item taking up space in the workshop.    Fathers day It’s become a bit of a tradition that I receive a casting for Father’s Day. This year is no exception—though, as usual, I bought it myself and am now working out the usual post-purchase “negotiations” to avoid it being considered a self-gift! And here it is—massive !!!.. The first thing I did was to double-check the drawing and the invoice to make sure they hadn’t ac...

 How I tackled the connecting rod from scratch... Hello! If you're still following this build blog, you've made it to the explanation of the connecting rod. I had been working on several other parts, still with the mindset of fitting each component to the next through a process of trial and adjustment. In this natural progression, the next part to tackle was the connecting rod. At first, I thought it would be simple—a rectangular piece with a turned section (actually a taper), so just some straightforward lathe work followed by a bit of drilling. But here’s the thing: the piece of material I was planning to use turned out to be slightly too big. Also, it wouldn't fit in the chuck, the internal bore is just under 1" on both of my lathes then after looking at some pictures from the  http://eastgrinsteadmodelengineers.co.uk/projects-gallery/3-scale-burrell-agricultural-engine    I saw a connecting rod being produced on a CNC milling machine.  From a round bar !! T...