The 13 November 2020 report described the progress Martin Greenland was making on rebuilding the Blackburne 4HP donkey engine. It’s good to report that we have a tick in the box for the donkey engine and the team is looking forward to the time that the spark meets the petrol.
As an aside the starting engine drawing also includes a detail for the sump drain from the MDB4. If anyone has a Winns medium pattern No1700 ½” gas screwed plug cock in their shed we’ll be very pleased to hear from you, this is not a project for compromises. Combining the words ‘screwed’, ‘plug’ and ‘cock’ in a Google search isn’t great and while I now know a little bit about Charles Winn & Co of Granville Street, Birmingham, my education has been increased in other ways too.
In the terms of the story of early Diesel traction having the petrol engine is an important part of the tale. Without irony 15/- Change states …’one of the greatest drawbacks of the ordinary petrol engine… is the difficulty of starting them in cold weather’ before also observing the starting a Diesel in cold weather is very difficult and that the solution is to fit a petrol engine to start the Diesel engine. If the ever optimistic brochure is correct then on a cold morning this little beauty will be spluttering away for 2 ½ to 3 minutes before the Diesel starts. This is the overture, preparing the audience for what is to come!
