Building the Engines of the Olympic Class Liners

[Giant]

In 1912

 

The date doesn't have any bearing on the matter; Belfast has never been in Great Britain, that being the name for the large island somewhat to the east of it.

[RLWP]

 

The date doesn't have any bearing on the matter; Belfast has never been in Great Britain, that being the name for the large island somewhat to the east of it.

 

Thank you.

 

Although some of them are far more British than folk on the big island

 

Richard

[steamcompound]

Amazing!!

 

My understanding of machining is minimal but any lathe I've ever seen turned the workpiece fairly quickly. What speed were those crankshafts rotated at or was the cutting tool spun in some way. The use of the work "chuck" in one photograph suggests not.

 

 

Frank

A lathe in town can take over 50ft between centres and to see a 12 ton rudder stock from an oil tanker going round at 5 1/4 rpm is something else as it sweeps over the walkways between the machines. If you look on the Daniel Adamson website there are some views of it being used to spirally weld the prop shafts to put back eroded metal. The tool holders, cross and top slides, are moved to where ever they are needed on the lathe bed, which is at floor level, by overhead crane.

[jonesthenuke]

I wonder if the original drawings for these engines exist anywhere. I suspect they would be fascinating.

[RLWP]

I wonder if the original drawings for these engines exist anywhere. I suspect they would be fascinating.

 

Probably:

 

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F187011

 

Richard

[jonesthenuke]

 

Probably:

 

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F187011

 

Richard

I feel a trip is needed when I retire next year. Thanks

[crossley]

I was working in H&W Belfast for 6 months last year doing a refit on a drilling rig. Both the rig and the yard belong to fred Olsen now.there is no machining facilities on site, cook bros bought all the machines years ago, they have the big innocenti cwb floor borer that did the big slow speed two stroke crankcases there, that's a massive machine! We had two smaller ones at Crossley engines doing pielstick crankcases. The yard is in loyalist south Belfast,and they very much think of themselves as British. As regards big lathes, craven bros in reddish built some of the biggest,

We were working in Devonport naval base, and went to look at a craven break bed lathe that is in it's own bay its that big, made in the 1950s for warship tailshafts, it must be 100 ft between centres,and 12 ft swing. If I remember it was double ended with headstock at each end, or could be used as two shorter lathes with two removable tailstocks on the same bed.

I always wanted to work at cravens, and did three years of my apprenticeship in what was cravens on Greg street when Churchill's had a heavy machining bay there.

I was a planing machine operator, but being an apprentice at the time got all the crappy boring jobs. The machine I usually worked did waste fuel boxes for bnfl,the flasks they put spent nuclear fuel rods in to transport on trains,basically a finned stainless steel box about the size of a large van. I did hundreds of the bloody things! Google craven bros reddish to see some really big machine tools.

[DHutch]

Amazing isnt it.

 

- Surprisingly similar process and tech to the similarly sized two-stoke IC engines in modern container ships, but all the more impressive for being multiple generations ago.

What a shame 2 lots finished up at the bottom of the sea. Plus, I suppose the technology and the skills that went with them

 

Very much so, would be excellent to see one in steam.

I think the caption about the "changeover valve" is wrong. The reciprocating engines driving the port and starboard props were reversible, in the the conventional way, but the turbine driving the centre prop only ran in forward, using the exhaust steam from the reciprocating engines. The changeover valve's function was to direct the exhaust steam from the recip. engines direct to the condenser when going astern, so that the turbine at least stopped, even if it couldn't contribute reverse thrust.

 

I think the valve shown is just the piston valve, for controlling inlet and exhaust on the cylinder, and as you say not captioned as I would caption it.

[DHutch]

I can see how they are turning the main bearing journals, but how would they have turned the crank journals offset from the main axis?

 

 

Like this, only bigger.....

 

Or on a smaller and more CNC form....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81UjjSH2iFw

 

 

Daniel

[AMModels]

Just wow.

[Bee]

That really is impressive.

[billh]

Gun barrel lathes are big too:

 

 

Notice the operator riding on the carriage

 

Of course, having machined something, you need to inspect it:

 

 

Inspecting the rifling on a 15" gun barrel in WWI

 

Richard

My grandma was a crane driver in the naval gun shop at Armstrong Whitworth's, Openshaw, Manchester during WW1. When first shown around she remembers " I thought I was going to work in hell!" There was a choice - it was there or Crossley Engines next door. She would be 19 years old then.

Bill

[AndrewIC]

Impressive!