All Wheels Completed for Bassett Lowke 3/4″ Scale Burrell Traction Engine
Finished Wheels Photos
First off here are the photos of the front and back wheels on the engine, followed by close-up photos of the wheels.
BLTE Rolling Chassis All Wheels Finished
Next, the Back Wheels
BLTE Back Wheels Complete Closeups 01
BLTE Back Wheel Complete Closeup 02
Note that although I called these wheels ‘finished’ there are a couple of tiny details still required for the back wheels. These are the hub caps and the heads of the dummy drive pins.
And Now the Front Wheels
250708-BLTE-Front-Wheel-Finished-RHS-1-600-X-2000
Wheels from Other Models
Next, below, are some photos of wheels from ‘similar’ versions of the Bassett Lowke 3/4″ Scale Burrell Traction Engine. compared to my wheels they look a bit on the heavy side
BLTE Other Models Front Wheel Casting
BLTE Other Models Back Wheel Casting
My wheels, of course, are based on the fully detailed drawings by W J Hughes for the 1 1/2″ Allchin engine.
Note that Bassette Lowke gave no drawings for the wheels, just as they gave non or very scant details of many other parts, such as driving gears, boiler fittings.
The Bassett Lowke Scam
In fact, it has now become apparent that Bassett Lowke never intended for anyone to make the model from their drawings alone. The whole purpose of the releasd drawings and ‘Instruction’ booklet was to get model engineers to purchase the set of castings and oher parts from Bassett Lowke.
To witness, I haven’t seen photos of any model built that didn’t use the castings/parts set. Mine, of course being the exception.
Building The Wheels
At the moment the photos above are all I’m going to show on this page.
I started building the wheels 12 years ago on 07/02/2013, before I retired to Thailand.
There are around 500 photos plus videos covering the build process that I have accumulated since then.
It would be a massive and time consuming task to go through all those images and create a “How I Built Them” story.
Suffice it to say, at this stage that my wheels (as I have stated before) were made following my own CAD drawings, (front and back wheels) copying, but scaling down, the drawings from the very well know 1 1/2″ scale model called “Allchin”. That model in turn was a faithful copy of the full-sized Burrell engine, the drawings being made by W.J. Hughes.
Here is one of the many CAD drawings I made for the wheels:-
BLTE Rear Wheel CAD Drawing 02-250717
So, effectively, excluding drive gears and differential, my model wheels include just about every component that existed in the full sized engine, although the number of rivets may be a bit less. The method of construction followed exactly the same processes used to make my half sized Little Samson traction engine and probably took the same amount of time!
Hi Alan
A nicely completed job. As you say started 12 years ago just finished now. Never liked rushing a job myself.
The wheels do look a little lighter than the supplied castings. but I think they suit the engine size better.
Thanks George, as the Guinness Ad says, all good things take time…
Looking good, nice work.