Mystery Luton

Steve_S · Mystery Luton

At STIA I bought (cheap!) what appears to be a much messed about Luton Bowman PW201. When I got it home and had a good look at it, there are various odd things about it. The safety valve is has a circular disc shape instead of the usual hexagon, the base plate isn't right, and the engine frame is the wrong way round... a mirror image of how it should be. Well, that's all fixable, and I'm 95% sure that the rest of it is Luton, but just to be absolutely sure could someone please post the dimentions of a PW201 boiler, that is length and diameter? Thanks!

tmuir

I'll get the tape measure out later but in the mean time here is the link to my all original Pw201.
http://modelsteam.myfreeforum.org/about1857.html
You could roughly work out the length counting the holes in the base in my picture as they are standard meccano spacing.

Steve_S

Thanks Tony.

tmuir

Diameter 44.5mm length measured from endcaps is 105mm.

Hope that helps

Steve_S

Yes, thanks. The length is the same, but the diameter of mine is about 42.5 measured at the endcap. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little variation in different batches of Lutons though. Materials supply may have been a bit dodgy at that time.

Steve_S

I've just been looking at SM's 201 pictures in Restorations, and he has the same disc shaped safety valve as I have so that's OK. It must have been a Luton variation. It'd be interesting to know if it was an early version or a late one. Most have the hexagon profile, and the engine came with a special spanner to undo it. So that just leaves the mystery of the mirror image engine frame. It doesn't look homemade....

tmuir

Any chance of a picture?

Mamodman123

Steve_S

Here's a couple of pictures:

Not a pretty sight, but plenty of potential. The engine frame has a tube running between the two uprights for the shaft to run in. That's not a bad idea, and I did the same thing on my Latimer L5, but the Lutons didn't have it originally. The pipework has obviously been re-routed to account for the engine frame being reversed, and therefore the cylinder being upside down. The firebox is a homemade aluminium affair which I'll replace.

Mamodman123

Very strange Steve

Not seen a Luton like that before, the frame is definatly round the wrong way.

I don't mind that though, makes it much more unusual

Has the boiler been painted with something?

Steve_S

Mamodman123

Steve_S

Yes, or after the pub late on friday night.

Mamodman123

TE1A_man

Aww, its so cute

Tiny thing isn't it, cool looking though.

Steve_S

It'll be cuter and cooler when I've finished with it!

Steve_S

Here are some pictures of parts of the engine. Do these look like Luton bits to you? They do to me... but the wrong way round for a PW201.

Also, the steam inlet and outlet holes come out of seperate faces on the engine block. On a PW201 both pipes emerge on the back face (if that makes sense!) but on this one, one of the holes is in the bottom face of the block. If you have a Luton, do these bits look like yours? I'd welcome any theories!

MooseMan

Steve, there are a couple of things that I find odd - the cylinder endcap, the piston rod, shape of the pulley and the shape of the flywheel.

I remember that a few years ago Chas Wood had in his catalogue "A Bowman Luton engine, and a very well made copy of this engine"....

Could that be what we're looking at?

Steve_S

Could be Odilon... I really don't know what it is! If someone made a copy, why would they make it the wrong way round? If it is homemade then most of it has been very well done. The boiler isn't quite so good. When I cleaned off the black paint it turned out to be copper and almost certainly homemade. I'm sure I can make a reasonable runner out of this engine... I just don't know how it should look. Whatever I do to it I'll probably find out later that it should be completely different! I'm quite tempted to make a back to front PW201 complete with mirror image decal. It would be different!

MooseMan

Whichever way Steve, it looks like a tidy little engine - the engine parts look to be made of very good materials - not of your thin-wall brass there!

Have you had it running yet?

Steve_S

Yes, I had it running today. There was a lot of spluttering and priming even though I'd only half filled the boiler, and I may have to unsolder the steam dome to find out what's going on in there. Also I suspect that the steam holes in the port faces are not aligned as well as they might be, which may suggest that it is homemade. I'm sure I'll be able to sort it somehow.

tmuir

Definately not your standard PW201.
I thought the boiler looked odd.
It could very well be a home made one copying the luton design with a few 'improvements'.

Here is a link to my PW201 for you to compare to.
http://modelsteam.myfreeforum.org/about1857.html

Steve_S

Thanks Tony. Yes, it's an odd one. I'll probably just tidy it up and keep it as a curiosity!