The Drawing Office - CAD Road Steam

The Drawing Office - CAD Road Steam A showcase of CAD work relating to steam traction engines.

Another good week of progress, Clyde is progressing well in the background but this week my attention has been primarily...
08/02/2026

Another good week of progress, Clyde is progressing well in the background but this week my attention has been primarily back on the Burrell 'Universal' ploughing engine.

The boiler is now not far off finished, with the box brackets added which became the biggest hurdle. This has allowed the gear change to be modelled and completed and a start to be made on the controls. The motion is now all complete except for the water pump drive and all controls except for the same complete. Steering also added which was a challenge in itself.

The list of jobs to finish this one is getting shorter by the day, with the largest parts being gear guards, water pump, running board and toolboxes, but lots of little details in between need finishing off. Hopefully another few weeks will see the CAD work complete.

Thanks as always to the RLS for their great wealth of information and to Colin for working it along with me. Fingers crossed this will make for a great model when complete!

Back to Clyde most likely for the next update, before a final update on this when it is finished!

I've been quiet on here for the past month, so here is what I have been working on in between bouts on the Universal plo...
31/01/2026

I've been quiet on here for the past month, so here is what I have been working on in between bouts on the Universal ploughing engine, which is progressing very well. Pics to come when the CAD is finished.

This one should take very little introduction and is a project that I am delighted to finally be working on having been obsessed with the original for as long as I can remember.

Burrell 3419 'Clyde', built new for William Kerr of Glasgow, leaving the St Nicholas Works on the 18th October 1912. This engine has achieved an almost mythical status of its life, being one of the largest and most powerful Burrells used in Britain. Clyde was rebuilt in August 1924, having a number of alterations made, most notably the new rear wheels with press on rubber tires.

Later in its life, the engine was working for Road Engines & Kerr Ltd of Glasgow, with a great number of photos surviving of the engine working, hauling some rather impressive loads including export locomotives from the North British Locomotive Co Ltd to the dock for export around the world. This is one of the few engines which was videoed in its working life, which can be found on the British Pathe channel. Sadly Clyde was scrapped in July 1950.

I estimate that I am approximately 25% of the way through this model so far, with most of the major components nearly completed but thousands of little details to add. This model is another that I aim to 3D print in 1:12 scale in due course, with various additions to be made to add to the model including firing irons, lamps, sheets, sn**ch blocks and various other additional details.

As always with my works, this would not be possible without the gracious help of other individuals and organisations for works drawings, build sheets, photographs and other information. To that end I would like to thank the Road Locomotive Society for their endless help with my models, the Museum of English Rural Life for copies of works drawings, Michael Webber, Kevin Lockyer and James Allison for their help with drawings, photographs and other information pertaining to Clyde and Burrells other single drive engines.

This is a project I am over the moon to finally be undertaking and I am looking forward to progressing it further as and when more drawings arrive.

I hope the photos and above text is of interest and I will aim to get another update out soon.

Final post of 2025I often look back at this time of year and catastrophize about not having progressed my various projec...
31/12/2025

Final post of 2025

I often look back at this time of year and catastrophize about not having progressed my various projects as much as I would like, This year has probably been my most productive in terms of CAD work, with a vast number of projects either finished or massively progressed.

Most notably this year has been the 7hp Foster showmans and the Burrell Universal ploughing engines, but in breaks from these I have crammed in a lot of work on various other projects, including the Burrell 7 1/4 ton tractor, 5hp road loco, a Robey agricultural and a roller, and even started thinking about modelling a threshing machine.

2 not mentioned above are older projects that I started a few years ago and parked but have been tinkering away with a lot more recently.

Firstly Burrell 3713 'Sir Douglas Haigh', a 3 speed single cylinder 8hp double drive road loco on 7' wheels, the original working in Scotland for R & T Chalmers. This one is an interesting engine with quite imposing proportions, and a rare beast as a single cylinder 3 speed spring engine.

Secondly, when I built the 7hp Burrell showmans 2984 'Premier', I modelled everything up for the engine but never pulled everything together into a finished CAD assembly. I decided recently to pick this project back up but have decided to model it off of 3159 'The Gladiator', a rather well known west country showmans. This has involved a lot of little amendments to suit the engine along with remodelling and modifying some parts to reflect what I have learnt through 3D printing some of these engines. At the moment I am modelling it in as new condition but will be making all necessary changes at a later date to reflect how it looks today.

Renders of both mentioned are attached, along with a few other renders, all engines that have been worked on this year. Lots more in the pipeline that aren't quite ready to showcase yet!

Once I receive an order of works drawings for the Universal, that one should fly along and I am hoping to complete the CAD work in the first quarter of 2026.

I have been toying for a while with the idea of starting a YouTube channel to post updates, videos of assemblies and work in progresses along with how I model some things to explain my methodology behind why I make these the way I do, if that is of interest let me know.

Here's to a happy, healthy and productive new year, lets see what new projects 2026 brings!

Well it has been a solid week of progress on the Universal Ploughing Engine, Burrell 2890 of 1907. Most notably the tend...
30/12/2025

Well it has been a solid week of progress on the Universal Ploughing Engine, Burrell 2890 of 1907.

Most notably the tender has been started and is now nearly complete but waiting on some drawings again to finish the last few details on it.

This week has also seen the 2 countershafts and associated gearing modelled, the cylinder very nearly finished, the hornplates adjusted to correct the gear centres and an awful lot of time spent studying and modelling the boiler. I am working from the 20hp boiler drawing as the 16hp drawing does not seem to exist these days. Sadly all of the work done on the boiler is hidden currently by the cleading.

The cylinder is all ported as per full size, and I have designed in liners and separate faces for the valves and regulator, with a view to being able to run on air, but I will be keeping a non ported version for a static model should this not go to plan.

Next on the to do list is to try and finish the boiler (waiting on drawings for some parts), model the injector and all relevant pipework, finish the last few details on the front wheels and to fill in various fittings and fixtures as appropriate. With any luck the first few parts should be hitting the printer any day now once I have confirmed a few things.

Thanks again to Colin Dix for the help with drawings and information that has enabled this project to progress so rapidly.

Happy new year to you all and thank you for the continued support and interest

Now then, a quick one before Christmas. This is a project that I have wanted to do for around 5 years, and with the gene...
24/12/2025

Now then, a quick one before Christmas.

This is a project that I have wanted to do for around 5 years, and with the generous help of Colin Dix and some support from the RLS, it is finally happening. This is the first of two Burrell 16hp Universal ploughing engines, which will be based on engines 2889 and 2890 of 1907, a cancelled export order that were sold to George Flack of Orwell. Pictured is my work to date on 2890, the right hand engine of the pair.

This one has been a challenge due to very limited information and drawings for this type of engine, along with the complexity and major differences to anything else that Burrell produced, along with never having worked on a Single Crank Compound before. That said, the challenge has made for a lot of fun and head scratching, filling in the blanks as I go. Fortunately for me, Colin had put in a lot of work previously in CAD which has been a huge help.

I am hoping to push on with this one over the Christmas period and once it is complete, probably a few months away yet, I will be making the necessary modifications to suit 2889, its left hand counterpart. 2889 will not be quite such a pretty engine with the flywheel, gearing and winding drum switching sides, but they should make for very interesting models, and as far as I am aware, no one has built one of these so they will be completely unique.

I will be aiming to get another update out before the new year on the Universals and the Fosters as previously posted, watch this space.

Hope you all have a very happy Christmas and thank you for the continued interest in my ramblings!

The Fosters are still progressing well, although I must admit that the 65BHP has been left behind a bit due to my attent...
06/12/2025

The Fosters are still progressing well, although I must admit that the 65BHP has been left behind a bit due to my attention turning to the 7HP to catch it up, and then getting stuck down the rabbit hole for it.

The 7HP I have chosen to model as mentioned in the previous post is 14501 Victorious which worked for T Pettigrove. It is one of the most handsomely proportioned showmans engines out there in my opinion and it has been nice to have it come together on my screen.

There is still probably another week or two of work in this one to get through the remaining jobs to call the CAD finished, and then it will be back to the 65BHP to bring The Leader on to the same stage.

I have finally gotten more familiar with the Visualize software for rendering and I am very pleased with the results, and I've been stress testing it somewhat. The limit appears to be the Fowler, the Foster and the McLaren in the last picture.

If anyone has any detail photos of this engine, or in fact any other 7HP Foster showmans showing the footplate and controls, motionwork and cylinder parts they would be a massive help to make sure I get the details correct!

As seems to be customary for this page I'll start with an apology for the lack of posts of late, other commitments have ...
17/11/2025

As seems to be customary for this page I'll start with an apology for the lack of posts of late, other commitments have kept me suitably busy but there have been a number of projects both new and old progressing in the background.

I'll start with the latest obsessions as the excitement of something a bit away from the norm for me has kept me very much on the hook for 2 particular projects. I have been primarily working on the CAD for 1:12 scale models of Fosters 14446 'The Leader' and 14501 'Victorious'.

I started out these 2 with the plan of building both, on the assumption that they were much more similar than they have turned out to be! Work began modelling The Leader, a rather well known example of Fosters 65BHP engine, originally 14405 'William Henry', ordered by J. E. Whiting and later returned to Fosters to be renumbered as 14446 for Pat Collins as it is much better known. The first 3 Screenshots depict the CAD work thus far for The Leader, most of the significant parts are complete but there are many, many details to complete.

This past week I decided that the files for The Leader were at a sufficient stage that shared parts could be duplicated and modified to suit Victorious, originally built for T. Pettigrove, an engine that is held in very high regard. The amount of differences between the two was very much unexpected but has resulted in a very nice project to date in it's own right. The 4th and 5th screenshots show Victorious as it stands, quite a way behind The Leader at present.

In the background I have also been working on a Burrell 7 1/4 ton tractor 4015 'The Baby', the original being built for James Taylor for timber haulage and later working for Jabez Barker which has been a very enjoyable engine as it has always been a dream new build of mine! The 6th screenshot shows 4015 as it is currently, having been put aside to progress the 2 Fosters.

There has been another big project in progress but that one will have its own postings at a later date as it is rather special to me and should make for a lovely model to go with it full size equivalent. More on that in due course...

Finally, the 5HP Burrell road locomotive has also progressed somewhat, with lots of components now printed and trial assembled. The final 2 photographs show work to date on this project which has been very enjoyable, although the usual task of painting will soon manage to remove any enjoyment experienced for the rest of the build! The plan is for this one to be able to run on compressed air, and as such it has a fully ported compound cylinder, with the air supply strategically hidden. Once the cylinder and motion have been fully completed I will attempt running it on air and hopefully have a nice video to post of it running.

That's all for this posting, I will strive to post more regularly in the future as I certainly have enough projects in the works to keep some semblance of continuity.

Cheers for now

Happy new year to all, apologies for the lack of updates this year, been working the past month or so on re modelling a ...
31/12/2024

Happy new year to all, apologies for the lack of updates this year, been working the past month or so on re modelling a 5hp Burrell again (for the 4th time) to print in 1:12 scale at some point, hopefully get back to it again in the new year for some exciting projects I’ve got on the go!

Over the past few months I've had quite a few people asking if I'd sell kits/files/completed models for my 3D printed tr...
21/08/2024

Over the past few months I've had quite a few people asking if I'd sell kits/files/completed models for my 3D printed traction engines that I make.

This is something I have wanted to do from the start but sadly have been unable as yet to find a way in which I can sell these models without having to print all of the parts myself which is something I am not in a position to do due to the hundreds of hours of printing per model.

Naturally I want to do this in a way where I safely retain the intellectual property rights due to these taking anywhere from 4 months to a year to create the files for each model, along with thousands of pounds invested in original manufacturers drawings and countless hours of research into the engines themselves to achieve the level of accuracy I strive for.

The best way around this I can currently see is sub contracting a 3rd party individual or company to print the parts to my files and sell on to those who would like to build them, the obvious choice was Shapeways but sadly they seem to have ceased trading recently.

If anyone has any suggestions on people or companies who could take this on I would be very grateful, alternatively if there are any sites that handle large quantities of STL files under one project that can safely sell my files. Naturally I expect that these kits or files will not be as cheap as we'd all like due to the time and material costs.

Examples are pictured of some of the more 'complete' models to date that will be available if this can be figured out... Not pictured are a Burrell 10 ton roller in single cylinder and compound, Robey 7HP traction engine and a Burrell 7.25 ton tractor based on 4015.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

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