HSCS Traction Engine - Self Moving / Portable Engine

HSCS in Gauja, Documentary, 1934

Class: Others, Steam engine — Model origin: — Built in:

HSCS Traction Engine - Self Moving / Portable Engine

00:54:19 Background vehicle

Comments about this vehicle

Author	Message
lightninboy ◊ 2020-12-13 21:11	Is it a gas engine or a steam engine?
Robi ◊ 2020-12-13 21:44
lightninboy ◊ 2020-12-14 05:15	Steam engine, I guess.
James Jacobs ◊ 2020-12-14 07:19	The vehicle is an Aveling and Porter steamroller, there is no model name for this vehicle. It should be only added as an Aveling And Porter
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2020-12-14 14:55	Upon what evidence is it thought to be an Aveling and Porter steamroller? I do not see a prancing horse on the smoke box door, nor do I see the arch shaped extension to carry the pivot of the front roller. The possibility of its being a roller is extremely low. The cleated wheels are as found normally upon agricultural engines, and would leave pretty patterns upon the tarmac. The front axle and laterally disposed wheels are totally inimical to the creation of a flat surface. -- Last edit: 2020-12-14 15:06:39
Gag Halfrunt ◊ 2020-12-14 15:17	This is the user who thinks that all Greek buses are "Temax/Tangalakis".
Gamer ◊ 2020-12-14 15:19	...and all 1910s/1920s cars and trucks Ford T/TT or A/AA. -- Last edit: 2020-12-14 15:19:28
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2020-12-14 15:37	https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Aveling_and_Porter:_E_5336 I remember well this particular Aveling and Porter. -- Last edit: 2020-12-14 15:38:53
lightninboy ◊ 2020-12-14 22:30	Latvia is quite a ways from England. I wonder if there was some place closer building steam engines.
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2020-12-14 22:33	Lots, most countries built them if the agricultural need was there. This machine appears to be powering a threshing box, is Latvia a cereal producing country? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNk_RlzC6bk -- Last edit: 2020-12-14 22:36:19
Gamer ◊ 2020-12-14 22:34	Latvia did have one of the highest standards of living, probably the highest in the Baltics, in the 1930s. Still, they did not have their own producer of steam tractors. jfs, the Baltics were strongly agricultural countries during the interwar period. They remained this way until the late 1950s and 1960s. The Soviet occupants began mapping out the infrastructure in order to, I believe, up the industrialization and make them catch up with the other SSRs. -- Last edit: 2020-12-14 22:39:19
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2020-12-14 22:40	Thanks, see Latvia in the information below: - https://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/rollers/rollerindex.htm#Latvia But no Aveling and Porter engines! -- Last edit: 2020-12-14 22:53:22
lightninboy ◊ 2020-12-15 04:44	There are pictures of such engines with the drive pulley on the front of the left side on the Internet but it's hard to find the brand or the country of manufacture.
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2020-12-15 09:09	I have tried to find a reason for the position of the flywheel on the left of the engine looking forward, but nothing has appeared obvious. From experience of over 50 years of attendance at steam fairs, it seems that most engines were built this way, at least in U.K. My best guess would be that the steersman’s traditional position dictated the design of the engine. The subject picture has such poor detail that it seems unlikely that accurate identification will result, as you say. The two major points of identification are the large diameter of the flywheel and the spark arrester on the chimney, but they don’t help me at all. All I can offer is, that if it is an A and P machine, there is no proof, nor is there any to prove otherwise. At best we know for sure that it is not a roller! -- Last edit: 2020-12-15 09:56:59
Sunbar ◊ 2020-12-15 13:29	Appart from the size of the flywheel, its more forward position results in the cylinder(s) being behind the flywheel axle, the reverse of a convensional layout. Longer steam lines and extra intermediate gears to transfer drive from the flywheel shaft to the driving wheels. A possibly inefficient layout the only apparent reason the extra large flywheel. It has more features common with a portable engine than your normal traction or general purpose steam engine. -- Last edit: 2020-12-15 13:50:25
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2020-12-15 14:01	Your suggestion of reduction gears between the crankshaft and the flywheel answer my concern about the final rpm of the threshing machine. I wondered about this being a converted portable engine, but those hind wheels look a bit too purposeful for such a machine. Perhaps it is an European anomaly!
Sunbar ◊ 2020-12-15 16:20	Perhaps we're closer to being right than we think. Not a converted machine but one that has most parts that are common to another portable engine. Basically a self-powered portable engine that can only take on only minor traction engine duties, moving the threshing machine a few hundred yards. It has as far as I can see no significant means of coal storage so travelling any distance would require either a static bunker or separate coal 'tender', assuming coal is the fuel used?
lightninboy ◊ 2020-12-15 16:54	Some of the 19th-century British steam traction engines may have been close to this design, but I assume this engine was built in the 20th century. I did find Ransomes and Marshall's threshing machines used in Latvia, but that doesn't necessarily mean the engine is British.
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2020-12-15 17:51	I doubt that it ever was British, the wheel design isn’t right.
lightninboy ◊ 2020-12-15 18:32	I didn't see any steam engine like it on IMCDb. It seems to be popular in the Latvia region only.
Gamer ◊ 2020-12-15 18:51	Wow, that's a very narrow-minded statement to make. And hadn't we just established that Latvia did not have any makers of steam engines, which you seem to be implying? It's like you never read the comments above you: /vehicle_760364-Studebaker-1913.html -- Last edit: 2020-12-15 19:00:12
dsl ◊ 2020-12-15 19:25	Is the wheel spoke design distinctive??
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2020-12-15 19:39	Inasmuch as the spokes seem narrower and to cross each other, but looking at Fred Dibnah’s engine, I’m not so certain... However the British engines seem to have the spokes attached to the centre of the rim, whereas this has the spokes attached nearer to the edges. -- Last edit: 2020-12-15 19:43:22
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2020-12-15 19:57	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GMITokuHN4 Plenty of wheel design variations here. -- Last edit: 2020-12-15 20:05:07
lightninboy ◊ 2020-12-16 18:06	Should be classed as a steam engine.
lightninboy ◊ 2020-12-18 02:02	Some views of Latvia specials.
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2020-12-18 11:13	Ignoring the roof, which could be semi permanent, the machine with the forward flywheel is remarkably similar to the subject picture. Apart from confirming that it is NOT a road roller, there is still nothing recogniseable to me.
Sunbar ◊ 2020-12-18 13:45	Agreed the design and construction must be almost identical. No makers name-plates seen so nothing to identify them, but interesting none the less. From the second thumbnail the drive from the forward flywheel/crank-shaft appears to be transmitted by a long chain-drive to a large gear then to the driving wheels. -- Last edit: 2020-12-18 13:46:03
Sunbar ◊ 2020-12-18 16:57	Another Steam Engine of the same large forward mounted flywheel type in Latvia but this time there is a 'Rushton' nameplate on the front of the smokebox door. Probably Ruston Hornsby (or Ruston Proctor) did produce this type of engine for export. However it only gives us one possible manufacturer, and the details do differ from the movie's steam engine. -- Last edit: 2020-12-18 16:57:44
lightninboy ◊ 2020-12-21 05:09	Here's where Sunbar's picture can be found: www.zudusilatvija.lv Search using: Kulšanas mašīnas Lauksaimniecības mašīnu tehnika -- Last edit: 2020-12-21 16:19:50
lightninboy ◊ 2020-12-22 18:16	It seems one of the only remaining engines of this style is in a park in Estonia. Link to "www.flickr.com"
lightninboy ◊ 2020-12-23 03:30	I found some more engine pictures, but it’s still hard to find the makers. Link to "ajapaik.ee" -- Last edit: 2020-12-23 03:46:25
lightninboy ◊ 2020-12-23 05:54	It seems at least some of them could have been made by Hofherr-Schrantz-Clayton-Shuttleworth of Hungary. Link to "www.dreamstime.com"
Sunbar ◊ 2020-12-23 16:24	Confirmed, an engine identified as a Hofherr Schrantz Clayton Shuttleworth, with a similar large flywheel and reversed cylinder layut here. Cropped picture of Vintage 1924 tractor Hofherr Schrantz Clayton Shuttleworth in Kulpin Serbia. Interesting that most appear to have a chain drive to the driving wheels except that one looks to have a bevel geared shaft drive. -- Last edit: 2020-12-23 16:27:43
Sunbar ◊ 2020-12-24 10:31	Almost the same as this example a HSCS Traction Engine. A Self-Moving Portable Engine conversion which explains the similarity with other portable engines. "HSCS TE/self-moving PE #58768 of 1927. The rear wheels have the MAVAG name on them though, so perhaps they provided conversion kits for various portables to make them self-moving?" https://tractiontalkforum.com/showthread.php?t=5850

HSCS Traction Engine - Self Moving / Portable Engine

HSCS in Gauja, Documentary, 1934

Comments about this vehicle

Add a comment

Advertising