Newbie.....Llooking for Advise 4" Burrell

Hi everyone,I have been reading through this brilliant forum for some time and thought it was time I said hello to you all.

I have spoken to Dean at STW and got a lot of advice from him re the 4 inch Burrell and have made up my mind to purchase one in kit form but I just cannot make up my mind which one to go for the Agricultural or the Single Cylinder Compound.
As this will be my first traction engine build I would certainly value any imput or advice that any of you can give weather you are building or steaming one of them.

I live in Pembrokeshire in West Wales and it would also be terrific to here from anyone down here or indeed from Wales so please get in touch.

Thanks in advance guys.

John.

Can only help with the 4" Agri, I've been steaming the early MW version for the past 2yrs which is basically the same as STW one now, I didnt build it but have loved its simple design and un-complicated workings.
One thing which may sway your choice is road speed if you are planning to get out on the road, the agri is quite slow, full chat it you can squeeze out a heady 6mph, although I have been passed by an STW agri going much faster, but when you see all the bits lashing about I'm really not sure it should. Mine tends to be far happier at a much more sedate 4mph. I dont know though if the SCC runs any faster than the standard Agri, would be worth asking if you have not already.
One other thing you might want to be aware of is the componds need to run at much high pressures, where as the agri will generally run on next to nothing, on the road I can still cruise at 3-4mph on not much more than 30-40psi and are seems very forgiving of low fires.
I think if I decide to ever upgrade my one thing would be something that went a bit quicker on the road, however thats not to say the agri should be discounted due to it slower speed as its quite a caperable engine.

Hopefully someone will be along to offer up SCC views.

The limiting factor on the road is how smooth the road is. With solid tyres & no suspension 6mph is probably fast enough for most roads.

Didnt seem to be bothing the chap that passed me once, he must have been up near 10mph on a 4" STW/MW Agri, went past me like I was going backwards
Must admit the motion was a total blur.

Hi, livesteam,

Thankyou so much for taking the time to advice me re the question I posed .......agricultural or Scc as this is my first involvement with anything steam on a personal level ..... what a decision...... I have been on the telephone constantly to Dean at STW with endless questions ,he is always there and very willing to give advise.I felt that it was also very important to seek advise in whatever guise from builders and owners thankyou so much for your input with such sound advise.

John.

The only thing I can add, which is similar to your experience, when ever I've called or e-mailed STW they have been really helpful.

Spares have always only been a few days away, and while I see some frustration with a few builders while waiting for kits I think you have to appreciate what goes into these and it amazes me how many kits they do produce. I would say for every forum builder we watch I suspect there must be 5 or more who we never hear about.
I would try and go and see them if you can, I've met them a few times at GDSF and also Steve at Finchdean https://traction.forumotion.com/t2146-finchdean-2015 when he bought the wonderful steam car, they are total steam nuts

SCC is Single Crank Compound.
If you've had no experience at all with steaming engines I would suggest you start with the agri, single cylinder engines are the easiest to run, there's a lot to master from the outset, fire, water levels, pressure, adequate lubrication, all at the same time as driving it. Traction engines are also not speed machines they were built for haulage and acting as a mobile power plant. In full size a agricultural, single cylinder, no suspension engine would be fast at 10 mph.
Compounds are great once you've learned all the skills but as live steam says you have to be able to run and manage them at close to their maximum pressures. Like all steam engines if you don't keep the pressure up your water consumption will increase. On top of that the build and maintenance is also more complicated.

I've been running my 4 inch for around 5 years and  3-5mph is reasonably comfortable depending upon the road surface etc. You have to bear in mind the work rate of the engine as the faster you go the rate at which you need to feed coal and water goes up. Having had a thrill ride at 5-6 mph it's not too difficult to find that the fire has gone thin, the water level is going down and pressure is dropping - feed some coal in quickly and the fire cools, feed more water in and the boiler pressure drops further - erk! only one solution is to stop to get on top of the situation! You'll need to stop once in a while to lubricate everything so average speed on a road run maybe less than 3mph. I'm sure many of us have had this experience in the learning curve! Of course if you want speed, a 6inch Foden or Tim Watson's 17mph DCC shownmans is what you need!!

Thanks guys some great words of wisdom there,after all the advise and lots of soul searching I had a complete change of plan and went for the 2" ,decided to go this route and see how I get on with the build and hopefully move up to 4" afterwards.
I take my hat off to everyone at STW the quality of the kits is just superb I' m currently working on kit 7, the tender,

Enjoying every moment of it so far.

John.