All but silent in the gears - and goes like stink! I believe the regulator has a pilot valve, it's certainly silky smooth pulling away and gentle up to a point where the regulator seems to go a bit stiffer - if you push past that then you engage 'reheat'!! lol. The exhaust suddenly starts to bark loud and you feel the acceleration as it pulls away - hold on, we're taking off!!!

Thank you - did get a little repetative constantly going back and forth, especially when a number of the new ones were a 'snug' fit, but got there in the end 🙂

@@IACooper Incidentally, while I admire the many superb restorations carried out in recent years, the working rollers of my boyhood looked very much like this and it is pleasant to see one in this condition

South Staffs, not far from Wolverhampton. The engine will be moving to Shropshire before too long.

There's another based not far from here, a 2 speed version. The one in this video is 3 speed. It's a lovely engine in superb condition.

Indeed - silent apart from the bark!

I'm a couple of hours drive from Anglesey on the English side of the border, but Wales is where I work and often my playground at a weekend.

@@IACooper Cool. I see. Thanks for getting back to me

They're not flush, they do protude a small amount, but not too far else they'll overheat and burn back. At 3:35 you can see the protrusion being checked. You're right in essence though, the first step of extraction was to grind off that protusion so they _are_ flush with the tubeplate. At 0:46 as the tube is being pulled out you can see the ends of the surrounding tubes have been ground back to the tubeplate, before they were then heated and cooled and given a squirt of oil whilst still hot to all help get them to contract back a bit and break the seal. Once they were all out everything was cleaned up and dye-penetration tested - which is why at the 3 minute mark the tubeplate is white from the remnants of the test developer and has light rust marks on it from having all been fully degreased and cleaned for the testing done a week or so earlier.

When I got the roller it didn't come with any tools and I didn't have anything to fit either. The first couple of months were spent mooching around the stalls at steam rallies picking up large looking old spanners for a pound or two each. Over the course of the summer I ended up with a dirt cheap set of spanners for it. The older style feel much better if you need to give a little percussive persuasion as well.

Nope - like most road steam boilers in the UK, it doesn't have beaded ends. The length is positioned to only just protude past the tubeplate so they don't overheat and burn back.

Like most road steam boilers in the UK, this didn't (and still doesn't) have beaded ends (unlike rail boilers which usually do). Even so, still worth grinding flat to prevent the crusty protruding bit snagging or the end distorting and wedging. Even having done that, they're still drum tight and as I'm working alone I went around both ends of each tube with oxy-propane to heat them up to red heat to then let them cool and contract slightly to just break the seal. That probably took longer than having an assistant bonking tubes with a hammer whilst applying steady hydaulic pressure at the same time, but was a *lot* less effort, especially working solo. Having done all the prep the day before, they all effortlessly pulled out - the monotonous bit was constantly going back and forth to reload for the next tube.

Looks like you've got quite a project with the Fowler - hope it all runs to plan for you 🙂

@@IACooper Yes a bit to do but getting there, cheers.

Would be a lot easier without the wheels in the way at the front! lol

probably 30-40mph on fairly level road. The later "S-type" model Sentinel steam waggons can trundle on nearer 50mph on fairly level roads. They all slow to a crawl up steep hills though! lol

Showmans... for the armchair critic😂

I recognise your surname! That's the last time the engine was steamed. It had been fairly recently sold and was off to workshops elsewhere to be stripped down for major boiler work and overhaul. As can be seen, the canopy had already been removed and it was just easier to steam it up to move to where a lorry could reach than to shift it with a push pole. Knowing the new owner and their tendancy to road their other engines, I suspect this will see some miles on the road once it returns from a comprehensive rebuild as well. Under the previous ownership I've followed it out on the road doing the journey from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury in steam.

@@IACooper peter froud was my dad..also used to have sentinel dg4 kg1123..oddly coverted to a bus...fowler roller..Aveling roller he sold to Fred Dibnah which was later converted to a tractor...all gone now.. was surrounded by amazing things as a kid.. seem to still find myself perusing RU-vid looking at stuff. Seems steam stays in the blood.... Hope my comment was recieved with the humour that was intended!

@@richardfroud3605 Don't worry, not offended. Whilst you're right that many do pram around these days, hopefully some of my videos show there's still a proportion who travel place to place on the road.

afraid not - all the detail stuff was a project I developed myself. Curiosity satisfied, I packed it away into the back of a drawer.

The steam tractor he had, along with pretty well all his belongings apart from the roller (which was retained by the two sons Jack and Roger, who take it in turns to run it) needed to be sold to pay for costs. One of his daughters was able to buy the landrover to keep that in the family as well.

@@IACooper do you know if Betsy the steam roller is running? If it is, is there any videos of it here on RU-vid?

@@rudycarlson8245 i believe it still is, but don't know of any specific videos that feature it. It will sometimes be at steam rallies around the manchester area, astle park, cheshire steam fair etc, so may briefly appear in people's videos taken at those events.

@@IACooper thanks for the info

It's the engine from a quarter sized steam tractor I built a lot of that about 20 odd years ago before the project all stalled as well.

Best of luck with your project. This is part of a steam tractor I started 24 years ago ...and stopped working on about 21 years ago. I've spent the last couple of months re-making bits of the engine I wasn't happy with and then finishing the engine to the point of getting it to run.

I wondered what the extra bosses were for, Reduction gears? Can't wait to see the rest of the project take shape.@@IACooper

Yes, a gear is keyed to the far end of the crankshaft which then drives the 2nd shaft which runs in those bearings. That has a sliding gear cluster on the end by the flywheel which drives a stub 3rd shaft, then from there it's chain drive to the rear axle. The engine forms a self-contained unit, so can be built and run independantly from everything else.

Not sure of the details, needed to visit someone else to get access to an air compressor. There were a couple of fergies and other stuff lurking in the shadows and corners.

It's a 'C-mount', so it just unscrews.

@@IACooper Thanks

Still owned by the same family, although both Len and Jane have passed away now.

@@IACooperNice to hear that the engine is still in the same family & is being cared for...

Yes, the owner lived not far from The Black Country Museum where a certain amount of the series was filmed, so it was a local engine.

They do them as time trials if people want to take their own Mamon along to 'race'. On occasion will run two together at opposite ends of the track - obviously if one is faster then it will gradually catch the other up. It's all great fun to watch 😃

@@IACooper thank you for the reply