Full steam ahead, Mr. Bates....

I may have mentioned a while back, that I had acquired a Stuart Turner Double 10 steam engine for, frankly, a song.  It was intended as a "pension pot" item. I would clean it up, add reversing gear, add value generally and flog it when it seemed sensible so to do.

Well, I took it apart very carefully, keeping the front cylinder's bits in a labelled box and the same for the rear.  I cleaned the bits and painted them in a very fetching Rover Teal Blue.  When I went to re-assemble it, I found the crankshaft wouldn't turn and the piston rod wouldn't move.  Now I don't know why that happened.  I have no idea and frankly problems like that don't intrigue me...they infuriate me.  They defy logic, like computers do.  And if machining was needed I couldn't do it as my lathe is too small.  So, being a problem of that kind it became a metaphoric case of "out the window".

I've had a chum for a few years who has grown from a Mamod toy steam fan to being a sometime dealer/restorer of model engineering.  He has gathered by luck and judgement a nice collection of engines and workshop equipment.  I approached him about the D10's problems and he invited me round to see if we couldn't come to some arrangement.
Well, we did!  To both our satisfactions I think, which is always an excellent result.

I have no idea exactly what I have, but both engines run beautifully on a merest whisp of air.
Both are very attractive items.  The vertical was in a GRP tug hull, with a decent boiler.  I have little to no interest in tugs, so I think the engine and boiler (or a newer, bigger one) will be put in a suitable river launch hull.  The problem is, I cannot find out what the engine is.  It's built from several castings, so must have been a published design.

And no, it isn't a Reeves Trojan, despite certain similarities.

Here's the rather elegant 1882 horizontal, which can be much better displayed to show that elegance even better.

This one will run if you blow down the pipe!

I think I've done well here.  Two engines (and a very good GRP 30" tug hull!) which I can put to use straight away and, when cleaned up, are worth about the same as the D10 with far less work.  If I hadn't have done this deal, a D10 will have sat on a shelf gathering dust and 2 very sweet engines will have been unused and unloved.

Result!