george

Ruston Proctor Steam Tractor

George is a 1911 Ruston Proctor single cylinder 4HP Class SP Number 43135

History

"George" left the Ruston Proctor works in Lincoln England and was imported into Australia by the Melbourne agents H.V. Mackay. He was eventually purchased by farmer George Cook and spent his entire working life pumping irrigation water on a farm "Fernlie" at Woodstock near Townsville Queensland.
He was spotted in a derelict condition still on the river bank, by a local Doctor, Pat Flecker, in 1967. The smoke box had rusted through and the cladding was rusting away but the engine appeared complete. The owner had not used the engine for 30 years but would not contemplate parting with it, so it remained where it was for several more years. When Pat called back for another look in 1976 a sapling tree had grown through the remaining cladding and more rust had appeared BUT the old farmer had died and his executors were only too happy to part with the engine. Pat enlisted the help of the army reserve to get the engine out.

On the river bank Pat found a complete set of wheel spuds and even a number of the original frost plugs that were delivered with the engine. Hardly items of great use in tropical Townsville!
George had had extremely little use. The wheel strakes still showed all the machining marks and because he had never moved from the river bank the gears were in perfect condition. All the original fittings were still in place down to the lids on all the oilers. The only thing missing was the whistle.
Over the next three years Pat cleaned out the boiler, which the inspector considered in fine condition and gave the original pressure of 140 psi. He replaced the ash pan and wood baskets and repaired the water tank and smoke box but the pump and motion were in good condition except for a bit of pitting on the rods. By 1979 George was back steaming. The boiler was re-tubed in the mid eighties with the exception of the stay tubes.
By 1998 the stay tubes had come to the end of their life. Steam expertise was not available in Townsville and Pat decided the time had come to find George new owners and we were lucky enough to get the job!

Here is George just before leaving Townsville. Pat had wrapped brass around the cladding straps because he felt "George deserved brass". Pat's interest in George continued and he sent George a birthday card on the date he left the factory for the rest of his life.

One Thing Leads to Another.

Back in Melbourne the task of replacing the stay tubes began but a closer inspection of the engine showed a number of other small problems that also needed rectifying. When Pat had replaced the lagging he had used fibreglass batts to give extra insulation. This proved a mistake as they had absorbed and held moisture resulting in the cladding rusting through again and surface corrosion to the barrel. It was decided to sandblast the barrel which meant pulling everything apart and before long George was in pieces again.

A new chimney was made, with the tubes removed a bit of pad welding was done on the tube plates.

Fitting the stay tubes was a lengthy process and taught us a few lessons. The threads at each end had to be synchronised to allow them to be screwed into the tube plates. We were surprised to find the treads were half a turn out of synch. The holes in the tubeplate are bigger in the smokebox to allow the tube to fit through so the tubes had to be expanded at this end before being threaded. Some of the holes at the firebox end were under the nominal 2" even for the normal tubes so these tubes had to be swaged down to fit.