[Jeroen]

Some of you might recall I have participated in several workshops on Brazing techniques". I use brazing mostly when working on model engines, but it is an extremely useful technique to connect different kinds of metal and or alloy.

As part of my model engine building, I am a member of a Dutch Model Steam forum. One of the gents on the forum, Willum, had organised these workshops. We had one of these workshops in my garage! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/diy-d...ml#post5434131 (My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One)).

Several of these workshops have been held at a unique place; In the engine room of an old monastery in Steyl, the Netherlands. I have participated in one of those as well. But as we spent the whole day working on our brazing techniques, we hardly had time to look at the magnificent surroundings. So Willum organised a tour for us, just to look at the steam engines, boilers and some of the other parts of this fascinating place.

Steyl is a small village just south of Venlo, near the German border and on the river Maas. Steyl is located in the province of Limburg. Traditionally the south of the Netherlands, and in particular Limburg has always had a Roman Catholic orientation. Which also meant there used to be hundreds of monasteries. All kinds of congregations. Both my parents came from traditional, very large Roman Catholic families. In those days it was customary for a lot of the kids to join the church in one way or the other. Which meant I had lots of aunts who became nuns and uncles who were priests.

The "Kulturkampf" in Germany, the confrontation between church and state that was directed, among other things, against all Catholic ideas and Catholic cultural heritage, is the reason why the German priest Arnold Janssen came to the tolerant Netherlands in 1875. The political situation in Germany did not permit the establishment of a mission house. In Steyl, he founded the Congregation of the Divine Word - Societas Verbi Divini (SVD), the missionaries of Steyl. There he built the Mission House St. Michael. In 1879 the SVD sent its first missionaries to China and from China the first items came to Steyl. Missionaries were sent to more countries and the collection of items grew, becoming the basis and beginnings of the present-day museum.

Some of the Catholic congregations could be very secluded, with virtually no interaction with ordinary people. From all that I have seen here, this was not the case in Steyl. The congregation was very active in all sorts of things. One of their big activities was book printing. To print in volume, they needed the power of steam. Over the years the steam engines, and to some extent the boilers have been moved between different buildings. There have also been different steam engines and boilers. What is left today is more or less how it was ultimately decommissioned a couple of decades ago.

By then the steam engines were driving generators, rather than a complicated system of overhead pulleys and belts.

So let's have a look: Check the various walls, and you will see several religious artefacts, and reminders of who owned and ran this place!

This is the main steam engine;



This is a two-cylinder steam engine, 230 HP, built in 1909. It was in use till 1956.

Recognize that manufacturer:



This is the company we still know today as Hanomag!

This steam engine is a bit different from others in the sense it has both inlet- and exhaust valves. You can't see them, they are built into that large cylinder you see. But you can see the mechanical lever and cam system that drives it.





Originally, in this engine room, they had three steam engines. Not sure what happened to the third. There is still a photograph which shows all three engines.



The control console



Massive flywheel. Made out of two halves. If you look closely you might just spot some very large bolts and nuts holding the two halves together. In those days they did have the techniques to cast these large flywheels in one go as well. But another consideration is transportation. All of the components were brought to the monastery by train and the last couple of miles by horse and cart. So size and weight of each component was something to take into consideration.



If you look closely at the various images and the video below, you might notice that the two cylinders have different diameters. The steam expanded twice, first in the smaller of the two cylinders and then in the larger diameter. Thus more power could be extracted from the same volume of steam. Once the steam leaves the second cylinder it goes into a condenser where it is cooled down to water again. From there it gets pumped back into the boiler again. So these sorts of steam engines don't use any water. Just a bit of leakage here and there. They told us, less than a bucket during a day of running. Steam trains use all their water and need to replenish it. They can't be fitted with condensers.

This steam engine drives a Direct Current (DC) generator. Manufactured by Bermann Electricitats-Werke AG. It delivers 165kW, 230V at 580 rpm.



My friend Ruud made a nice little video and he was happy to share it with me.

The steam engine is running on compressed air. Unfortunately, the boilers are beyond repair. Still, a steam engine running on air is just about identical to running it on steam. Sounds identical and nothing gets hot. This engine had one condenser.

Towards the end, you see a simple pump. This is down at the condenser and this pump feeds the water back towards the boiler. (Technically it goes into a feedwater tank first and from the feedwater tank it goes into the boiler)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMeuGvzYYy0

Next to the more traditional steam engine is a steam turbine.





The steam turbine was manufactured by BBC. (Brown Boveri company).
BBC still manufactures steam turbines (and boilers?). They are also well known for manufacturing exhaust turbochargers. I have sailed on several ships that had BBC turbochargers. Massive ones, more than 1,5m in diameter!

This one was built in 1956, delivers 700HP at 6500 RPM and drives a three-phase AC generator.

Next door to the engine room is the boiler room. Over the years there have been different boilers. The steam engine used saturated steam, but the steam turbine required superheated steam.

In simple terms, once the water is heated to the boiling point, it is vaporized and turned into saturated steam. When saturated steam is heated above boiling point, dry steam is created and all traces of moisture are erased. This is called superheated steam. Superheated steam is a gas. It's invisible. You do need a very different boiler to create superheated steam. It comes equipped with a, you guessed it, a superheater!!

Here you see the two boilers. Notice the tiling on the outside of the boiler? These boilers were heavily insulated of course. Any heat escaping through radiation means a loss of efficiency.



I spotted a photograph of the removal of one of the old boilers. It gives you some idea of what a boiler looks like on the inside.



You might have this image of a larger cylindrical vessel when talking about boilers. Those are not the sort of boilers used in these applications.



Here you see a side-view drawing. It will give you some idea (I hope) of what a boiler looks like. There is only one cylindrical vessel, a so-called steam drum not even that large. You see it in the top right-hand corner. The walls of the boiler are lined with pipes. These so-called water tubes are fed with boiler feedwater from the bottom. This is where the water gets heated up from the flames in the middle of the boiler. The water starts boiling, becomes saturated steam and is subsequently fed through the superheater.



A couple of shots inside the boiler;

Here we are looking inside the steam drum. You can see some of the water tubes



some of the intricate piping



One of these boilers would be in use to provide the steam turbine with steam, the other one would be on standby. Initially, these boilers were coal-fired. You can still see the automatic coal feed inside the boiler furnace. (sorry no images). The more power was needed, the more steam needed to be produced, so more coal needed to fed into the furnace. This was already automated on these boilers.

The specification of the boilers:
Manufacturer: Steinmüller , Gummersbach Germany.
Year of construction: 1952 and 1954.
Original with automatic coal supply on a running burner network. Adapted to gas burners in 1970.
Capacity: 6 tons of steam/hour.
Pressure: 22 Atmosphere.
Temperature: 350 ºC
Efficiency: coal 83.5%, gas 92%.

Here you see the first gas burner on the right-hand burner. The left boiler had a more modern gas burner arrangement.



Some more details;

The safety valves on the top of the boiler. I was a bit surprised to see how the weights could be moved so easily. Safety valves are supposed to be set to a very specific value. They are checked by the authorities and sealed to the best of my knowledge. But it could be the rules were very different in the days when these boilers were still running. I seem to recall from my naval college days, that in those days, boilers, irrespective of size or volume, in private use and ownership were not controlled/checked at all.



The boiler sight glass. This indicates the water level of that steam dream at the top. These boilers have a relatively small amount of water in the steam drum. So when the water levels drop, you need to act immediately. In the drawing shown above, you can see some sort of lever sticking out of the steam drum. This was an automatic level guard. If the water level dropped too much, this lever would pull some large shutters in the chimney shut. That means the flames in the furnace would start going down. Just a safety feature. Remarkable, both these boilers had only one sight glass each. These days at least two independent ones are mandatory.



Lots of valves. This is the main steam distribution setup. Steam was not used only for running the steam engine/turbine. It was also used for heating and various other means.



Of course, these boilers are not in use. But they look immaculate!



This image is taken from the top of the boiler. Below you can see some steam models on display



Some close-ups

[Jeroen]

As I mentioned at the beginning, this tour was for the members of the Model Steam forum. Some of us brought our models to show as well.

First this lovely steam tram Brutus, built by Ruud. It has a real working steam engine. Ruud has done a tremendous job on all the little details.











A tiny little steam boiler!



Without any doubt, the "star of the show" was this gorgeous tug "Maarten", built by Jan.



Lovely detailing:





Inside the steering cabin



Notice the coffee mug!



Very nice steam engine and boiler arrangement of the "Maarten".





Jan had also brought a small compressor so we could see "Maarten" engine run.

The humming noise you hear is the compressor. The engine itself ran ever so smoothly!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwq_KIxYKek

The steam tug "Maarten" is still sailing today!! Jan is a volunteer and one of its skippers. Have a look here:

https://www.stoomsleepboot-maarten.nl


Finally, my Scuderi engine is still under construction

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[handsofsteel]

This was a trip down memory lane for me. Having spent decades with boilers and steam, thoroughly enjoyed the post. There are so many nitty-gritties which originated from those days and the evolution of steam drivetrains, several of which are still in use. Steam, truly, was the driver of industrialisation.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by handsofsteel

Steam, truly, was the driver of industrialisation.

It really was! In many ways.

This Saturday I am taking my grand son Ben to the Dutch Railroad museum. Lots of steam engines too!

Have to start them young! (Ben is two!)
Jeroen