# Russell traction engine drawing



## gbritnell (Jan 12, 2011)

I have been following the thread in the links section regarding the cost of drawings and have offered comment. 
 Rather than post in that thread I thought I would start a new one as an extension to it.
 I have drawn a complete set of drawings for a 1" Russell 16hp, long boiler traction engine. It took over 2 years to complete as I made numerous trips around Ohio and into Pennsylvania taking dimensions and pictures. Once these were compiled came the conversion to real world modeling dimensions. I don't know exactly how many hours I have tied up in this project but I'm sure it's approaching 1000 hours. 
 Now to the point of this thread. I made a cover drawing of the Russell engine showing 3 views and a partial cutaway view. I am attaching a PDF file of that drawing for all of the traction engine lovers on this board, and any others who might be interested. I have it printed out and framed as it makes a very nice picture. 
 If you choose, please print it out and enjoy it.
George D. Britnell 

View attachment RUSSELL 16hp TRACTION ENG w piping.pdf


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## tel (Jan 12, 2011)

Beautiful job George, thanks for sharing that.


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## b.lindsey (Jan 12, 2011)

Beautiful George. Though I am not in the market for traction engine plans, I can certainly appreciate the detail and time and effort that went into even this cover page. Thanks for sharing it. I have been following the other thread as well (without comment) but as an offerer (if that's a good word) of plans, I can attest to the fact that it is difficult if not impossible to recoup one's time and effort monitarily, but if I did it just for that I would have hung it up long ago. On the other hand if I can cover the cost of printing and mailing, it has been a way to meet and correspond with people all around the world and hopefully even recruit a few new members to HMEM. For me at least the non-monetary benefits make it worth the effort.

Bill


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## compspecial (Jan 12, 2011)

Its very generous of you to give so freely of the very significant "fruits" of all your efforts, George. The quality of your work is excellent also, and I'm sure very much appreciated, am i right in assuming the russel is american made? I had the pleasure of viewing a model of a case traction engine in action, and it even had a clutch, is this usual on american makes?
                  Stew


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## Jasonb (Jan 12, 2011)

Yery nice drawings, having built a couple of traction engines I can appreciate the amount of work that must go into measuring, scaling and drawing a set of working drawings.

The big question is have you made it? I know you have the 1" Case. Does your model design have a rivited ( and I assume soldered) boiler or is that just a cosmetic shell over a functional item.

You don't see a lot of 1" designs let alone scale ones. I'm sure there would be a market for a set of plans particularly in the US where that style of engine is more familiar than the european layout. Can you give a couple of general dimentions as the US engines are generally larger than ours so I would assume its 20" or so long

Thanks for posting, Jason


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## gbritnell (Jan 12, 2011)

Hi Stew,
Yes, Russell is an American traction engine. They were built in Massillon, Ohio. Unlike a lot of their English counterparts they did have clutches. The clutches were generally the 2 shoe type built into the inside of the flywheel. I don't know the history of the reason that American engines had clutches and English engines didn't. With a clutch it does make it easier to inch around when necessary. 
gbritnell


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## IronHorse (Jan 12, 2011)

Beautiful work George, I am looking forward to making a traction engine one day. Every year I go to the Milton steam show and they have a dozen or so of these full size machines. 


IronHorse


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## gbritnell (Jan 12, 2011)

Hi Jason,
The boiler is 14" long and 3.333" diameter. The wheels stick out a little beyond the rear of the firebox and then there are the coal and water bunkers out beyond that so I would guess the entire length would be around 19" long. 
The boiler is copper with a riveted and silver soldered construction. On the Russell engines they had a round bottom firebox so to simplify construction I made it a more conventional style with a bolt on round bottom to represent the original. 
 I have wanted to build it since I made the drawings but I've had so many other projects that it keeps getting moved back. 
 I started on the transmission for my 302 v-8 engine but even that has been sidelined while I build these Galloway hit and miss engines for a fellow.
 Even with my retirement there's just not enough hours in the day.
gbritnell


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## kjk (Jan 12, 2011)

Absolutely beautiful drawings George. Thanks for posting them.


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## steamer (Jan 18, 2011)

George,

Just saw this thread....and printed it out!

Beautiful work! :bow: :bow: :bow:

Dave


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