MooseMan

04/05/2004

The M122 arrived today....looking pretty tatty, but a quick investigation revealed a basically sound engine underneath all the rust, dirt and spiderwebs. No seized parts, all the boiler fittings came off easily and stripping the engine down was a matter of minutes. A bit of elbow grease, and a good-looking boiler is beginning to emerge.....

As of tonight, the engine has been stripped and cleaned. The boiler has had a first good polish, as have the false cylinder covers. I've begun to straighten the pipework - so far so good. All the parts have had a thorough examination, and I'm particularly pleased with the state of the pistons and cylinders - very little wear, if any. This machine should run like a demon when I'm done with it. I've given the boiler stand a first coat of enamel, looking much better already. Next job's seeing how much of the baseplate finish can be rescued/preserved.

05/05/2004

Evening spent polishing - very tedious, but ultimately worth it. When brass is this dirty, I find that only T-Cut and determination will do the job - I really have to fight off the urge to just take the dremel to it (done this once - bad news. Swirls marks all over the place).

The engine is slowly emerging. I've also sanded down the engine stand and given it a first coat of dark green enamel. The boiler stand has had its second coat, and is beginning to look really good.

06/05/2004

Serious progress. The other 122 arrived today, and by scrounging some bits off it I've now been able to reinstate the engine block. Looks good, and after a liberal oiling turns over nicely by hand, with good compression. The baseplate is drying after having been painted, tomorrow we may hve some asssembly!

Just to remind you, this is what the engine used to look like.....

07/05/2004

Mostly watching paint dry today....I'm still determined to rescue the decal on the original baseplate, so I've now taken the baseplate off the other 122, stripped it down and resprayed it with enamel and clear laquer. Looks grand, see how it holds up. I had to remove the coat of humbrol I put on because my brushwork was showing....

Picture shows various bits of both 122's sitting on my desk, awaiting a brighter future....

08/05/2004

Well....one of those moments I live for. It suddenly all came together. The baseplate was dry, and I realised I'd run out of things to polish and oil, so I thought "let's see if we can get the thing to fit together again".

No sooner said than done. I'd oiled down all the screws and nuts so they went on nice and straight. The only little scary job that remained was to straighten out the pipework. Inormally like to use bending springs, but that would have involved desoldering the lot, so I thought I'd have a go with just finger pressure and great care, and I'm very happy with the results! The pipework's not dead straight, but certainly as good as it's going to get without desoldering the main union, which has had a knock in the past, so this is a case of leaving well enough alone.

After all that a brief once-over with the Dremel for the pipework and steam valve, and tighten here and a wiggle there, and suddenly a spanking gorgeous M122 stood in front of me.....

Well, afer all that there was only one thing for it......fire her up! Always a brief moment of trepidation, especially if an engine hasn't been used for a while, but I have never seen a Bowman boiler fail yet!

I've got quite a little selection of spirit burners, but I prefer to run off dry fuel - less sooting and so less cleaning up to do! Loaded up a little Wilesco burner, filled up the boiler with distilled water, and oiled the business parts with compound 680 oil, lit the fire and waited.

After about 5 minutes, the boiler stopped singing, so I gave the whistle a little turn and was rewarded with a nice clear tweet. Opened the valve, and to my delight the engine self-started and took off. Liberal oil was applied, and after a couple of minutes running in, the engine settled quite happily and could very easily be throttled up and down from about 100rpm to about 1500rpm.

It runs very, very sweetly. I can only conclude that despite its tatty appearance this engine's actually had very little use, as the pistons and cylinders are still a dead fir - unusual for an all-brass setup after 70 years! As a result, it runs very effectively, and hardly spits or condenses at all. It is also quite surprisingly powerful - Bowman claimed that this engine can turn a sewing machine or lift 190lbs with pulleys, and I have no problem believing that!

And there we have it - from semi-wreck to working model in five evenings! This must be one of the most enjoyable restoration jons I've done, because almost all the work was cosmetic and didn't involve structural stuff or remaking pipework and suchlike. To see a goodlooking engine emerge from the rust and tarnish is always a pleasure anyway, and more so if it's one you've been lusting after for quite a little while!

A few things remain unresolved: to complete the engine I will need a burner and a chimney cap - open to suggestions. I know where to get the brass oliler taps, no problem there. At some point in the future I'm going to try to resurrect the original base plate, preserving the Bowman decal if possible.

I will also need to decide what to do with the other engine - it is mostly there but lacks safety valve, whistle, filler plug, and most importantly the false cyclinder covers. I can probably make a running engine out of it. or I may sell it/swap it. We'll see.

Many thanks to Roger and Matthew for giving me a good deal on the engine - hope to deal with you again in the future! And also thanks to my long-suffering family for putting up with the fumes and vapours yet again.

I will maintain this diary as long as things keep evolving - watch this space! I've now started work on a "how-to" page, you can find it here.

13/04/04 - burner!

While I am of course still desperate for the original brass burner, I've rigged up a replacement from some scrap I had lying around - the burner body is a cut-down can of silver polish wadding, and the burner tube the base of an old telecopic aerial (the rest of which is doing sterling service as burner tubes for my 234!).

The little brass "filler" is the bottom half of a dead safety valve. Painted Bowman green, and works just fine. Having said that. I tend to run my engines with solid fuel - less fuss and less sooting. Apparently the formula for meths has changed since the '30ies - not half as good as it used to be, I'm told ( can't tell from personal experience - I'm 1968 vintage myself).

20/05/04 - Baseplate restored

I decided to have a go at restoring the baseplate - it really was badly rusted, and what was left of the Bowman decal crumbled into dust when I tried to clean it. I took it back to bare metal, and started off with three coats of spray enamel. I then took a scan of the decal on my M140 and messed around with it in photoshop, printed it out and stuck it in the right position. The base was then hand-varnished, again three coats, resulting in a slightly uneven finish that gives a nicely aged impression.

The decal looks very good - I don't think it will stand up to inspection with a microscope, but to all intents and purposes it looks like it's been there for a long time!