Britain's best selling steam & vintage magazine!

Ruston, Proctor 6in road locomotive

Here we feature a six inch scale model of Ruston, Proctor’s 3½-ton single-manned light haulage road locomotive – built by Ruston, Proctor & Co Ltd of Lincoln to take advantage of the legislation that allowed single handed operation of a road locomotive weighing no more than five tons and capable of no more than 5mph.

The result is a traction engine that, when built, although half size and around 70 inches long, is much the same size as a 4in scale 7nhp machine.
 
One of the attractions of building or owning a larger scale model of a smaller engine is that the finished engine at just over 55 inches to the top of the chimney is slightly taller than most 4in scale models – which mean that the controls sit a little higher than normal and you don’t have to bend double to operate them.

The first thing we need to say is that Brian Parker, the present owner, was not responsible for the original construction of this model; it was put together by Roy Mosley who, along with Brian, are members of the Peterborough Society of Model Engineers. Although it was bought completed don’t think that Brian is any less of a model engineer. Over the intervening period since its purchase he has subsequently put his personal stamp on every component. Fellow society members affectionately call him ‘Brasso’, not only for his unbelievably shiny and beautifully presented engine, but also for his legendary attention to detail. One only needs to look at his well-equipped trailer to realise that a place for everything and everything in its place is his watch-word. It’s worth a moment’s deviation to mention this. For most of us a trailer is just a handy way of getting something from A to B. What Brian has put together is a self contained unit, with everything needed for a day’s steaming. He has plumbed in a couple of water tanks and fitted coal bins so that he can spend a day at an event without worrying about where the next water or coal supply may come from.

After the lengths that have been gone to in order to make sure that the trailer is more than fit for purpose, it’s not entirely unexpected that the Ruston-Proctor is a gleaming example of the model builders’ art. The maroon paint is shiny and perfect and the contrasting lining sharp. But if you really want to appreciate this engine, the best thing is to look past the paintwork and concentrate on the detail. It’s the careful fettling of everything that sets this engine apart from many others. It’s more than just Brasso though. Look at the detail photographs of the motion, a lesson in what we should aspire to when it comes to filing and smoothing metal. Admittedly the crankshaft has been made from a close-grained iron, which, with careful fettling can be smoothed to an almost chrome-like finish. Look also at the rounded edges of the eccentrics, completely smooth and also perfectly parallel with crisp edges – not a file mark or over-polished ‘soft’ edge in sight.

Throughout the motion the attention to detail continues with half nuts locking the main nuts firmly in place where vibration could be an issue. Notice too that the pipe runs are not marred by any wobbles or deviations – it’s as if they were constructed from solid bar rather than annealed copper pipe, which is notoriously difficult to bend to shape without the finished item looking like a section of hosepipe casually draped across the garden.

All the larger castings have been heavily worked on too. Here the skill is not about achieving a shiny polish but fettling the casting perfectly smooth and ripple-free before the final shine is applied. Those of you with any experience of polishing will know that this is where the hours are spent, anybody can make something shiny, it takes time and skill to polish without rippling or distorting surfaces.

A fabulous finish, while something to be strived for, doesn’t necessarily go hand in hand with an engine that steams or runs well. Many model engineers have built engines to the very highest standard and still have one that doesn’t steam well without an extended period of tinkering. No such problems here, the Ruston has always steamed well, in contrast to Brian’s previous engine that required some experiment with blast nozzles before the correct draw on the fire was achieved.

Despite the finish there can also be no doubt that this engine is designed not as a mantelpiece display or trailer queen but to steam all day whenever the opportunity presents itself. For instance there are three separate water pumps, a conventional crankshaft operated water-pump, an injector and (discreetly hidden in the bottom of the tender’s water tank) a hand operated submerged pump that can be quickly brought into play if ever needed. Other clever touches abound. In lieu of a spark arrestor on the top of the chimney there is instead a stainless steel basket inside the smokebox – it’s designed to catch any clinker that inevitably finds its way along the tubes when the engine is at full chuff.

The opportunity to see the Ruston in steam was provided at one of Peterborough SME boiler test days. It also provides a sneaky insight into how well the engine steams. As part of the boiler test procedure the tester needs to see the Ruston with a full head of steam and with the blower fully open to prove maximum steam in order to prove the safety valves prompt opening and efficiency. Sure enough the Ruston came up to pressure quickly and efficiently and as the needle on the pressure gauge touched the red line the safety’s obediently opened as if operated by a linear motor. Even with the pressure gauge pegged at maximum pressure the quality of Brian’s fettling shone through. Apart from the steam issuing from the safety valves the rest of the engine remained resolutely dry without a weep or a fizzle from any of the fittings or joints, just as it should be.

With a new ticket safely in hand and another season of steaming assured it would have been rude not to have given the Ruston some exercise along the roads that surround the Peterborough society’s Thorpe Hall base. Many talk about steam engines being silent but most are not. The progress of any traction engine large or small is accompanied by its own orchestra of ringing gears, drumming panel work and rumbling wheels – maybe even the odd little knock here and there, nothing to worry about – it’s as if the engine is chattering to the driver in a friendly way. The Ruston is a little different for, like a public schoolboy on his best behaviour, it is hushed on rubber tyres – its progress charted by little more than the crunch of gravel and a sharp chuff from the blast nozzle echoing up the chimney.