My steam and other things

Well, I can thank/blame Indiana Rog for my digression from Jensen steam engines to try out Empire engines.  I noticed from his web site, and others, that the Empire's looked well built and their owners certainly enjoined running them.  I was able to acquire an Empire water pump for a decent price and when it arrived I was quite impressed with the size and construction of the pump.  So I began a search for a cast iron base Empire engine,  as I was told the cast iron bases were the best quality and ran the best.  I was able to acquire a B30 off of e-bay, and anxiously awaited it's arrival.  When it came I was impressed with it's size and solid construction.  I tried to fire it up, only to find the heater did not work and since the company is not in business you can not buy a replacement heater.  So I now had a costly parts engine and had learned some more questions to ask the seller before buying, as well as [thanks to Rog] to check and see if the side of the boiler is scorched/blackened which probably means the heater has blown.  There is a happy ending to the story, I was able to purchase another B30 as well as a B31 and they both run nicely.  I also found Don, http://yankeetown.com/donsteam/ who makes replacement stacks, whistle tops and red handles [and I hope someday will find a source for new heaters], so was able to have my Empires have all their parts.

  
   This engine has an electrical heating element, throttle for varying the speed, a steam whistle, and a cast iron base.

Has an electrical heating element, throttle for varying the speed, a steam whistle, and a cast iron base.  This model is exactly like the B 30 in the power developed and the equipment.  Here is a video of this engine powering my Empire windmill 
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hT9APff9i_Q

This steam engine is suppose to be a miniature duplicate of a large, single-phase steam turbine.  It is similar to a B-30 in regards to base, heater, copper boiler and mechanism on top of the boiler.  but instead of the steam being piped to a steam engine it is pumped into the round chamber where the steam hits the blades and in turn rotates the shaft to the driving pulley.  On E-bay this does not come up nearly as often as the B-30 and 31.
Here is a video of it running, starting out partial speed then going to full speed.