Cornish engines were steam powered beam pumping engines and mainly used to stop mines from filling up with water. Also in the early days they were sometimes used to winch miners and their bounty in and out of the pit. The design developed strangely enough in Cornwall and was exported all around the world. Click here for find out more.
To try and keep that unmodernised rustic feel with my Mendip Colliery project (formerly Coal & Steam) I've been doodling about putting together an idea based on a mirror image of the Cornish Engine that used to be at Kilmersdon Colliery near Radstock. The side here is a bit of a mystery, however the web and mining books as always have many images to get inspiration from. It's likely that I'll incorporate a nice chimney to the rear of the buildings - that has yet to be illustrated. Construction will be mixed media of foam board for the inner shell, embossed stone plastic sheet and paper. Whilst a brief precise of the contruction will be show here, it will form part of a greater feature for the printed page.
About Me
- Chris Nevard Model Railways & Photography
- Professional Photographer, Model Maker, Writer & Pretend Musician
You might find raiding an Arifix Beam Engine kit worthwhite for some of the fitting - mainly the beam and cylinder. Mind you they woun't be that hard to build from scratch.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this Phil. Just been looking at the kit (via your BLOG actually), my only fear is that at 1/32 scale it might be a tad large for what will be a building around 7 inches high by 4 inches x 3 inches. What do you think? As you say though, the beam should be quite easy to knock up from scratch from a few layers of plastic sheet.
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