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First run of my new Retrol VE-01 Crossbeam Vacuum Engine


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First run of my new Retrol VE-01 Crossbeam Vacuum Engine, maybe some of you will be interested in this vacuum engine (or flame licker engine or flame gulper

engine they can be called) I have a few of these in my collection. They really fascinate me that they simply run off an outside naked flame.

I'm mostly into vintage model and toy stationary steam engines (not trains) and some IC engine models, but these engines below I have around 6 now. Anyway its the Saloon I hope you enjoy seeing a very different type of engine running.

 

 

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21 minutes ago, DocWard said:

Very cool!

 

Thanks Doc, I've read how they work.....I'd be fibbing if I said I totally 100% understand exactly.

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37 minutes ago, Buckshot Bear said:

 

Thanks Doc, I've read how they work.....I'd be fibbing if I said I totally 100% understand exactly.

 

Well don't look to me to explain it!

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Pretty dang cool, thanks for posting.

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1 hour ago, Buckshot Bear said:

First run of my new Retrol VE-01 Crossbeam Vacuum Engine, maybe some of you will be interested in this vacuum engine (or flame licker engine or flame gulper

engine they can be called) I have a few of these in my collection. They really fascinate me that they simply run off an outside naked flame.

I'm mostly into vintage model and toy stationary steam engines (not trains) and some IC engine models, but these engines below I have around 6 now. Anyway its the Saloon I hope you enjoy seeing a very different type of engine running.

 

 

I don’t care who you are, that’s just plain cool right there. 
 

I have a toy/model steam engine given to me when I was 9 or ten. This makes me want get it out and fire it up. 

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That's a way cool engine Bear! Thanks for sharing.:D

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40 minutes ago, Yul Lose said:

Pretty dang cool, thanks for posting.

 

Thanks Yul. I have an assortment of Stirling engines that amaze me how they run but its these flame licker/gulper engines that really amaze me.

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2 hours ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

I don’t care who you are, that’s just plain cool right there. 
 

I have a toy/model steam engine given to me when I was 9 or ten. This makes me want get it out and fire it up. 

 

I'm a toy/model steam nut!

I'm gonna' ask you a favour....I would dearly love to see a pic of your engine. Did you used to run it off a liquid fuel or those stinky white Esbit blocks of fuel?

My Dad bought one for my older brothers, I inherited it as no one else was interested in it. Did a web search to learn about it, found a forum of steam engine nuts and over a decade later the house is getting overrun with them :lol:

Jensen was (and still a family company in Jeannette, PA USA. wonderful people) a maker of many different models that lads would have received on Xmas day or their birthday.

Imagine kids of 9 getting bought a toy that ran on flame these days!

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It's easy, magic makes them work!  Or physics, which is about the same thing. :lol:

 

Nice looking little rig.  I know that I could look it up, but how big can these be made?  How powerful can they be?  Is there any practical application?

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

It's easy, magic makes them work!  Or physics, which is about the same thing. :lol:

 

Nice looking little rig.  I know that I could look it up, but how big can these be made?  How powerful can they be?  Is there any practical application?

 

 

All the factories that used em burnt down:lol:.

A big one must be wicked impressive!

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Pretty darn neat!  I wish there were sub-titles.  The guy narrating is speaking some kind of furrin language.  I mean what the heck is a grub screw?  In these parts grub is what you eat.  :P

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1 hour ago, Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933 said:

Pretty darn neat!  I wish there were sub-titles.  The guy narrating is speaking some kind of furrin language.  I mean what the heck is a grub screw?  In these parts grub is what you eat.  :P

:D:D:D

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1 hour ago, Buckshot Bear said:

 

I'm a toy/model steam nut!

I'm gonna' ask you a favour....I would dearly love to see a pic of your engine. Did you used to run it off a liquid fuel or those stinky white Esbit blocks of fuel?

My Dad bought one for my older brothers, I inherited it as no one else was interested in it. Did a web search to learn about it, found a forum of steam engine nuts and over a decade later the house is getting overrun with them :lol:

Jensen was (and still a family company in Jeannette, PA USA. wonderful people) a maker of many different models that lads would have received on Xmas day or their birthday.

Imagine kids of 9 getting bought a toy that ran on flame these days!

I’ll find it and do a video. I’m the meantime, it’s a Wilesco like this fired with the Esbit blocks. Yeah imagine a 10 year old today getting a flame fired steam boiler! They haven’t  changed much in 60 years!

 

https://www.amazon.com/Wilesco-D9-Steam-Engine-Kit/dp/B0008EJ220/ref=asc_df_B0008EJ220/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=416672155323&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13335947560207654189&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=21155&hvtargid=pla-570013555190&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=93457066509&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=416672155323&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13335947560207654189&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=21155&hvtargid=pla-570013555190

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1 hour ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

 

Super cool and Wilesco is still in business!

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My physics class lab partner and I built one from a kit.  I was a vertical engine rather than horizontal and ran on liquid cigarette lighter fluid.   We never even considered a "solar drive".  It was about 20 inches tall and  sat on a base 12 x 12 inches .  That was 65 years ago and I don't remember who made it nor who sold it.   We had a half dozen or more gadgets that we ran with that engine: a fan, a windmill,  a little table saw, a drill press, a water pump, a small generator (that powered a little electric train, but not very well), a small trip hammer, and a lathe (that also didn't work all that well). and some other things that I can't remember.   I was fun and got us an A for the class and a ribbon in a local science fair.

 

After I graduated and went to college, I lost track it it and my lab partner.  I was at USU and he went to Annapolis.   I don't even have a picture of it and I can't remember Neil's last name.

 

I've seen a few since then but that was the only one I ever owned.  I do remember how quiet it was and how heavy for its size.

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