Been there, done that, got a tin foil hat for a souvenir
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Devon it resides in the valley between
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Lumber_Company
AND
https://davecathell.tripod.com/kal.html
Kalbach’s Shay is rather high on my bucket list to build while being hauled on a CVRR flat car back in the day in the hood.
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I think we ALL KNEW that Rooster is just full of bad ideas!
He REALLY wants your project list to be even longer than it is!
Nice ideas, though. 
Very Cool. Thank you Rooster. As I am making the 3D model of it and looking at pictures I think I would be remiss if I didn’t also produce a likeness of the boiler(s). It to is a unique arraignment the way they used separate furnaces to heat them. And instead of a single large boiler that would be hard to heat from a source that is only heating the bottom they made two boilers to increase the heating surface for the overall volume of water. And then I am assuming the cross piece is a “boiler” if you will that is acting as a pressure stabilizer equalizer. So as they heat them, of course they will heat up at different rates from each other and develop unequal pressure so I am guess that is the purpose of the cross tank to equalize that out.
I am going to just have to invent an entire reason for this to be on my pike.
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Pre tin foil hole in the head days?
Glad I saved that and I don’t even know why but I guess I do now!
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Tha’s Funny. I forgot about that picture. And yes most definitely pre-hole in the head days. A picture of that forehead these days would have a very ugly scar and a giant lump from my bionic pop off valve.
Devon,
I don’t know how the stuff works I only fix it and sometimes model it! I still don’t know to this day how the CVRR Utility worked even though I probably know more about it than anyone still alive can tell me. Maybe not but I don’t care cause all I know is that Utility was cool and I built a model of it.
I have seen you post this before and it is a very unique design. And I would love to see it up close and figure it out. It is very odd to me to have the drivers at far ends and then run each driver what appears to be 180 from each other on the same side and quartered on the opposite side. And then the steam cylinder (which is a double action cylinder) is rocking that linkage back and forth at the right distance to get each wheel to do a 360 revelation (like it would normally do). Where most normal locomotives use the cylinder to drive a single driver that is then tied to all the other drivers on that side, this one drives each driver basically independently. In some ways it seems a simpler design. But it creates a lot of opportunity for things to get bent or otherwise knocked out of alignment and therefore out of time. I would be real curious if the guys who operated and maintained this loco liked the design or pulled their hair out trying to keep it running right.
Got a little more CAD modeling done.
I am starting to pile up print projects. Need to get that filament printer printing and get my resin here (Siraya tech says the 14th so lets see if it shows up tomorrow). This will be a cool model.
What else can I say to get me beyond the 20 character limit which was my fault as well I believe !
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See but it has a damn eccentric rod. 
This picture sells it though. I am still confused. I thought I had it worked out but I see nothing that resembles an eccentric rod or anywhere where one would go. I also see that the exhaust from this thing comes square out of the middle side.
And this picture clearly shows a steam chest. So I am back to being confused. It sure looks like a double actuating steam cylinder.
But wait!!! On a locomotive the valve rod is right above and inline with the piston rod. So the only side we have not gotten a great view of is what I am calling the back side which is the side opposite of the lettering and the same side as the steam chest is on.
What if what I am not seeing is that the valve rod is connected to the horizontal bar that is driving the con rods to the flywheel. If we attached the valve rod to it then there would be no need for an eccentric rod to operate the valve rod. As the piston drove that bar up and down it would in turn drive the valve rod up and down in exactly the same motion and distance as the piston. Thus the valve in the steam chest would open and close the steam inlet and exhaust valves in perfect time without the need for an eccentric rod.
Whats more, is that I don’t think there is an exhaust valve per se. I am guessing there is only an inlet valve that is being operated by the valve rod. With the exhaust being dead center of the cylinder body it could simply have an opening and you would only need one. As the side of the piston clears the hole the steam would be exhausted from the current driving side. And then as the steam pushes it the other way and the other side of the piston reached the hole the other side would be exhausted. Each time this happens the hole is sealed by the piston to the side of the cylinder that is in turn trying to build pressure.
Heck for all I know this is how it works on ALL double actuated steam cylinders even in a locomotive. That is a very plausible way to get the job done. But we still need a valve rod to determine which side of the piston is receiving steam. But I think the aforementioned horizontal bar could do the job.
They are driving the main air inlet bellows. The bellows made of wood and fabric (leather) have long since melted back to the earth. Probably much larger than you are thinking mounted on top of the metal steam engine structure, maybe even overhanging it.
(I’m looking for pictures for you now)
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Inlet bellows? So this thing not only was forcing air out but was having air forced into the tub? I assumed the big can on top was sucking air in as part of its operation and then spitting it out. But I think that is very plausible. But for sure they were being driven by that horizontal bar with a connecting rod down to the flywheel. The pin on that bar and the pin on the flywheels line up perfect. So if external inlet bellows were attached and driven by the flywheels then how an were were they connected?
Lots of air required for a blast furnace. Pictures from Hopewell Furnace. Bellows powered by a large water wheel.
You can see the bellows above the water wheel, they are huge.
The metal tub above the steam cylinder is the collector for the air coming from each bellow. The moving rod into that tub is most likely working a valve to receive air from one side, then the other.
The Hopewell Furnace is still operational. They make their charcoal on site. Much like there are volunteers rehabbing and running steam engines, the furnace is fired up by a large crew several weekends a year.
There’s no (missing) bellows, the cylinder on the top is the air pump. It’s a ‘blowing engine.’ The pictures and description in the patent document describes how it worked.
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I have to agree with Bob on this one. The video he posted did a great job of explaining it. There is also some stuff online of a couple brothers that built a replica of a dual blower of the same design.
But in that video Bob posted the guy does a good job of explaining how and why this type of blower replaced the older technology.
I’m pretty sure they are simply fly wheels for inertia to keep the thing running smoothly.
But I do very much appreciate the input. One thing about living in th NW is we are babies. Our history is barly 125 years old. Not the 200+ of the east much less that which was brought from across the pond.
So all of this is more than fascinating to me because we have no such stuff.
On a side note. . . I have been accepted as a “friend of the Carrick Furnace”. And right off I found out this group has only recently taken possession of the site. They are the ones responsible for clearing the site and putting up the signage. The lady that is admin for the Facebook group said the hope is to restore the blower.
So its a place that at least for now is being saved. Hopefully more pictures to come.
Nice job, Devin!
I’ve been to this furnace, but it’s been a long time… and I’m sure the photos I took aren’t as good as Rooster’s.
FWIW, the impression remains with me that the “engine” in the foreground is a compressor, replacing the old-school bellows of the furnace. I could of course be wrong, but the huge cylinder above the “engine,” and the large outlet from it, indicates to me a low-pressure output; and the small driving actuator beneath all that seems to be the high-pressure driving actuator of the compressor, fed by the high-pressure boilers on the hillside above.
I’d guess that the flanged wheel was originally bolted to a much more substantial flywheel that got sold for scrap at some point.
Keep going!
Cliff (in Osaka)