Oh, that's a pretty picture! Belongs in a contest somewhere, surely!

Compare what you have to the 'as-restored' picture and you will see that the slide valve and valve head (with its oiling cup!) are missing. Those square holes are the admission and exhaust ports to the cylinder. Also missing is the valve rod from that valve... or whatever was used to drive it.

I see your point: even in the 'restored' picture, the visible piston rod is abbreviated, and the crosshead and connecting rod are not present. I wish the person who took the lovely full-color picture of the open cylinder ports had included about 18" from the lower cylinder head down, to show the state of the piston rod and more particularly the condition of its lower end (I'm expecting to find that it's been cut off or rusted off... or that it's driven all the way up in the respective cylinder)

The long rod is for the 'other' cylinder, and I think it shows the 'missing' structure that the near-side piston rod should have. I clealy see a collar at the end of the visible rod, an eye that would fit a connecting rod little-end, and a couple of short pieces of cylindrical material going 'fore and aft' to the slide bars integrated into the engine frame. If that structure isn't a crosshead I would be very surprised...

Again, clear detail pictures in that area, particularly showing what's on the crankshaft under it, would be very useful!

It looks to me that both connecting rods are completely absent from the engine -- I can't make it out from any of the available pictures -- perhaps someone with better eyes can tell.

Question: Can you provide a clean enlargement of the engine area from that Danish Chaplin picture you have? That will show the opposite side of a Chaplin engine, and perhaps clarify what the heavy tumbling shaft actually does. (I think it's the reversing/cutoff lever, but that's only speculation; this might easily be like a winch engine and feature things like crossed rods and full-expansion or fixed-cutoff working all the time. It could also be a rocking lever to drive the valve.) I notice that in the restored picture, this lever and its little bent end link are exactly as they are today, which indicates to me that it was rusted solid long ago. Again, it would be beneficial to see good clear pictures of what's on the opposite end of the engine...

Note about the British archives: Chaplin's assets, including the available records, were taken over in 1931 (almost certainly due to the Depression) by a crane manufacturer. It strongly appears that only records pertaining to cranes made by Chaplin are in that section on 'details' since 1893. Now, for our purposes, it's entirely possible, even probable, that the crane engines were just like the geared-locomotive engines, so yes it would be a useful source. But I would be worried that the 'non-crane' material in the records might easily have been discarded as irrelevant to the concerns of the acquiring company, long ago, and this would include the construction data specifically concerning locomotives... the archive data for the earliest referenced period (starting in 1893) specifically references 'crane' details...


RME

I do not have a higher res pix of the Denmark Chaplin loco.
But I do have a pix of the other side taken in 1999. I too believe the lever if part of the valve gear.

Robert Yuill
http://www.historicmachineryservices.com

How does one access the firebox on these engines? I haven't been able to discern a firebox door anywhere, at least in the photos that have been posted thus far.

Access to the firebox is from the bottom up.

Robert Yuill

So how would you add fuel to the firebox? Is there an opening in the deck that would allow you to reach down? In examining the photos posted thus far, I can't figure it out.

This isn't a Chaplin, but similar enough to count, and the pictures are clear:

http://beamishtransport.blogspot.com/20 ... -blog.html

Distressing that the blog apparently ceases (in 2009) JUST as the rebuilt boiler was posed for pictures...

... but go here (another 25 or so MB down the hole to download the .pdf, or view online)

http://books.google.com/books?id=tlBCAAAAYAAJ

and start about p.742. Is fig. 312 the kind of boiler being described?

To clarify my previous answer, the firebox is accessed from the bottom, for repair/inspection.

The fire door is located on the side of the boiler opposite the engines. See fig. 312. This low firing deck is planked over as seen in the contemporary photos.

The boiler is similar to the one illustrated in fig. 312, but with significantly less steam space.

Robert Yuill
http://www.historicmachineryservices.com

More blog entries for the Beamish "coffee pot" here:
http://beamishtransport.blogspot.com/20 ... t-no1.html
http://beamishtransport.blogspot.com/20 ... aulic.html
http://beamishtransport.blogspot.com/20 ... -news.html
http://beamishtransport.blogspot.com/20 ... pdate.html
http://beamishtransport.blogspot.com/20 ... truth.html
http://beamishtransport.blogspot.com/20 ... -away.html

I found this regarding the Beamish Coffee Pot. Completed, steaming and having visited the Severn Valley Railway back in May.
http://beamishtransport.blogspot.com/20 ... debut.html

I have been assisting with a supplement or second edition to 'Vertical Boiler Locomotives' by Rowland Abbott and published in the UK by The Oakwood Press. The information previously posted in this thread is very interesting. I should mention that this second edition has been compiled by members of the Industrial Locomotive Society in the UK.

Certainly two Chaplin locos have been identified as the likely ones to have been used in Michigan (const no. 852 and 1106), although these were supplied according to records to an agent in London. There was also third vertical boiler loco built in Cleveland so it may not now be possible to conclusively identify the loco now on display as one of the Chaplins although it certainly exhibits many Chaplin characteristics.

There has been mention of a Chaplin loco in Belieze, shown here http://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomo ... play=12086
Chaplin supplied, according to their order book, a 3'6" loco (const no 1797 of 1875), 9hp.

Regards
Martin O'Keeffe