Engine room trouble 

Yes it was in the harbour. We began to move full astern and suddenly the engine almost stopped. I dashed to the engine room to see why because we were drifting towards the wall at the exit and this is what I saw. The crew were concerned but acted well to get the engine re started. Later I asked one of them what had caused the problem and he told me about the condenser water pump failure which caused steam pressure to build up inside it and stop the engine. The pump was later repaired

As a ten year old I stood between the pistons of a similar engine in Carr’s flour mill in Silloth. Unforgettable experience, now 81

Thanks for your comment. The engine is a Triple expansion with double acting cylinders Even so it is possible for it to stop in a position it is hard to restart from so there is a valve that can be opened to allow high pressure steam into either the low or intermediate pressure cylinder. You can see this being used in my film Down To See The Engines. As you say with steam you get maximum torque at zero RPM if you need it. Gears are not even needed on the tiny 2 cylinder capstan engines

Thank you for directing me to your film I enjoyed it You were even able to get right into the engine room and see the paddles close up which was interesting to see

Thanks for sharing this brilliant video. It would have been only a few years after this that I remember looking down at the engine totally fascinated as a kid. Love the unbuttoned-shirt-80s-hairstyle look that guy has too. Great atmosphere, great video and great steamer!

The engines on these old steamers were always open to the public and the engine room crews took great pride in keeping them in prestine condition A tradition which is carried on to this day on board the Waverley

William Lear, designer and. builder of the Learjet seriously considered the design and construction of a steam powered automobile back in the sixties. Lear was known for his cutting edge electronics and aviation radios and navigation systems. His Learjet was a major success and set the stage for other manufactures to venture into the private corporate jet business. As I remember he did build one experimental unit that was capable of speed in excess of 130 mph. For various technical reasons he did not move forward with his invention, other than to prove it could be done.

Thanks for that I knew it was superheated but no idea how hot it gets The first year Waverley was preserved they had a scare when they ran low on water and a couple of boiler tubes blew They said it did a good job of cleaning the funnels though

I think that must be why the chief engineer called for the steamer to be started I was very surprised when I saw the cloud of steam coming at me. I think the general service pump cylinder drains must be directed straight into the bilge and as it is not normally used would of been cold on starting. It soon cleared the back pressure in the condenser allowing the main engine to turn over and get us away from the harbour wall The reason why there was so much going on down there on that departure

Yes The crankshaft has a flange at either end. The short axles to the paddles are bolted onto them so there is a direct connection with no gearbox between. One is visible in Down To See The Engines where more details about the engine room operation can be found

@TimeTravellersGirl Thank You for watching I am pleased you enjoyed the film

You are right the film was taken on 19th July 1989. Before the refit we spent many hours cruising in Scotland on our annual holidays during the 80's. I hope to get some complete films copied from VHS in the future

@Smithyards All seemed OK as we began to leave the harbour . I was up on deck and suddenly the engine lost power, we began to head towards the wall As I got to the engine room the cheif was using the speaking tube so the bridge did know there were problems down there The main concern then was to get the condenser working again before the ship got out into the sea and taken by the tide

If that is inside ayr harbour there is not much room for engine failure, and they dealt with all that while mainly going astern.

Awesome! I'd love to stand next to this engine while it's operating! Great sounds!

This caused back pressure in the 3rd cylinder and that was enough to stop the engine turning The harbour has a strong current flowing across the entrance and without the engine Waverley was being pushed towards the wall The solution was to use the general service pump which as its name suggests can be used for various things to pump sea water into the condenser and once that happened we were quickly on our way On my film Down To See The Engines there are more details about the engine

Good and very interesting video. Thanks cedarcam. Also on the Como's Lake (Northern Italy) there is still operating a Padle Steamer with a triple expansion, double effect engine. But the engine adopted the "Arturo Caprotti" distribution of the steam. Watch the "Piroscafo Concordia" video on you tube if you wish.

It was possible only thanks to the enginemen and the crew of the "Concordia" steamer. I'm happy that you enjoyed my Concordia's steamer videos. Ed.

I guess not too After the condensed steam leaves the condenser it goes into a tank called the hot well and a pump forces it back into the boiler from there Because it is a closed loop system I think the pressure must build up until the whole thing becomes hydraulically choked up. In the main film you can see the low pressure cylinder gauge showing a build up of back pressure instead of the usual vacuum reading

The power of steam is beyond belief. The Mt St Helen volcanic eruption and many others were powered by steam under tremendous pressure. Watching the Big Boy steam engine, which weighs about one million pounds, pull an additional million pounds or more of rail cars up a three percent grade is astounding. Knowing that it can over come it's drive wheel friction when under a tremendous load and actually spin its massive drivers says it all. Steam is king.

I read about that explosion Yes I had forgotten about that What a shame the ship was scrapped It must of caused huge damage to the hull though I expect like other boilers in UK Waverley will have a hydrolic pressure test at regular intervals

Yea The most action I have seen down there while filming. It was a bad moment for the crew with the tide pushing us towards the harbour wall

Waverley has a triple expansion engine Live steam is used in one cylinder then passes to the second and then the 3rd before entering the condenser at low pressure. Inside there are pipes with sea water in which cool the steam to condense it The water then returns to the boiler to be heated again The sea water gets hot so has to be pumped through the condenser by a steam driven pump The problem was this pump failed so the sea water got too warm to condense the steam

Quite surreal with that cloud steam, normally you see very little steam in evidence.

@Jeansschwimmer Many years ago I used to ride on an industrial locomotive in a brick works They always left the guage glasses empty for fear of one breaking. As a kid I did not know the danger of doing that. Now I wonder how low the water went some days as some of the gradients in there were very steep. Running bunker first up hill the firebox crown could easily of been overheating

Is the engine couple direct to the paddles on the Waverley ?

Now you mention it they do yes. The power in each is probably almost as much as a shay loco has altogether. They drive the paddles directly rather than through gears.

It was the same with the railways and with traction engines Sometimes they would screw down the safety valves to get a bit more power for that heavy load to get moving In USA a couple of years back a traction engine boiler exploded killing 3 people That boiler had not been properly checked Seems the regulations are not as strict as we have here. I have not read up much on steam ship accidents but it sounds like their owners also learnt to respect their boilers after explosions

Yes currents there are I believe the worst in the country The tide rises faster than anywhere else. It was bad enough in Ayr The wall was comming up fast and the engine stopped alarm bells were ringing in the engine room so I went to see what was going on It was lucky the wind was not too strong that day or I am sure we would of hut the wall Since then a lot of work has been done in all areas of the ship

THAT IS FRIGGIN COOL !!

Thank you for watching I have loaded more film showing a more detailed look at the engine as well if you are interested

The same as a railway locomotive boiler then. I think Waverleys new boiler may be more like a central heating boiler (Water Tube Type) Once there was an alarm and all pressure was lost very quickly From what I heard the oil burner went out for some reason In only a short time it was relit and pressure was soon up again The old boiler was similar to a coal burner. I do not know what happens if they get low on water but it seems it was still being fired for a tube to burst

Yes you cannot beat the old tube system Works every time When I posted this I did not have the programme to convert the file There is a little more film with the vacuum gauge showing no reading and the engine stopped with telegraph showing Full Ahead

The pistons look like pistons on a Shay locomotive.

I presume you mean the cloud of steam that engulfed us It was not hot just warm like when you leave a pan boiling and fill the kitchen with steam As for the main steam. That is very hot I would not like to be around if that white pipe from the boiler room cracked open

wouldnt it just work as a compound and push exhausted steam out through LP piston and condenser? I guess not!

What happened exactly? was condenser blocked?!

@cedarcam yep, what I figured. It just looked so much like a Shay's cylinder area on steroids.

All sing "MacAndrew's Hymn"-who can recall it?

OK Thanks :)

Ha Ha Well despite the delay the rest of the days cruise went well As for First Great Western Fury Grows Waiting

Gears make no sense on a steam engine... just wasted effort. Same torque available from zero RPM. Looks like Walschaerts valve gear. Not triple expansion? That would be hard to do with the equal spaced crank... probably just three cylinders so that it doesn't matter where the engine is stopped, it can pick right up. Thanks for posting the videos... love 'em.

Yes if you visit the engine room today it looks almost the same as back then but I bet over the years it has seen a lot of different hair styles come and go. One day the film could well appear right up to date again