[DaveTheTrain]

I remember the Aveling & Porter steam engine, arriving outside our house, in 1938. I watched eagerly as
The drivers mate went to the back of the roller and wound down the three digging prongs. A sign to the
driver, then he steered it up the steep hill of Castle Road, big chunks of tarmac were ripped up, then the mate wound the prongs down further with the wheel at the top. soon we had a long deep hole, then the
steamroller moved out the way, as a gang came to dig the hole out more. My fascination waned then, as
the steamroller moved away, to the next job.

Those scarifiers had some strength to them.  I would not want to take a steam roller down Castle Road, the risk of sliding is quite high.

[lutonman1]

I remember the Aveling & Porter steam engine, arriving outside our house, in 1938. I watched eagerly as
The drivers mate went to the back of the roller and wound down the three digging prongs. A sign to the
driver, then he steered it up the steep hill of Castle Road, big chunks of tarmac were ripped up, then the mate wound the prongs down further with the wheel at the top. soon we had a long deep hole, then the
steamroller moved out the way, as a gang came to dig the hole out more. My fascination waned then, as
the steamroller moved away, to the next job.

[MartinR]

Prior to 1860 Aveling was based in Rochester (24, High Street and 27, Edwards Yard) with a small foundry at the future Strood site.  He moved production to the one expandable site in 1860 and in 1862 formed a partnership with Porter.  Perhaps it is a hangover from that time?

[smiffy]

Understandable really. I mean, who would want to be associated with them oiks what live in Strood? 

[Longpockets]

Rugby Cement used to market their works at Halling as Rochester upon Medway,

More recently Berkeley Homes actively refused to refer to their development in the redundant Holborough quarry as being any where near Snodland. It was and is referred to Holborough Lakes or ME6, they even went as far to promote it as being between Ebbsfleet and West Malling.

[filmer01]

The postal address was surely Strood, Rochester, Kent, so why not go for the better known, more prestigious part of that.

[Mickleburgh]

Does anyone know why Aveling & Porter always stated, even in their own advertising that they are located in Rochester - when in fact the business was actually in Strood?

Simple answer is that potential customers, home and abroad, were more likely to recognise the location of Rochester than Strood and it sounded better. You still see the practice today, office space prices often depend on the prestige or otherwise of the postcode.

[smiffy]

Does anyone know why Aveling & Porter always stated, even in their own advertising that they are located in Rochester - when in fact the business was actually in Strood?

[smiffy]

Advertisement from an Australian dealer.

[Sentinel S4]

Thin ice Blakey, very thin ice there...... Fodens were only small traction engines with a trailer body bolted on. Enough of that.

Cross heads coming on well, thanks.

An interesting point is how small the hind rolls are. Today I was looking at an engine close up and being just over the 6 foot mark I can just see over the tops. However this engine, and the one drawn, seem not only to have thicker rolling surface but those rolls can not be much more than 5 foot. Yet the front rolls, coned or not, seem to be the size that we accept as normal for a roller (just thicker).

 S4.

[Blakey]

Fair enough Sentinel - its just we all know Foden's were the more superior steam wagon makers...  didn't want to get too bogged down with technicalities !

How are those cross heads coming on mate?

[Sentinel S4]

Please don't worry about getting into the tech details, Blakey. Many of us can handle that! Some of us thrive on that (DTT and I for certain), two of us certainly know the difference between piston and slide valve, compound and simple and certainly two of us still have close workings with steam. Never worry about details...

Sentinel S4 (subtle hint in the name there....).

[Blakey]

The safety valves are "Salter Spring Balance" safety valves. The issue with these is that it is possible to "wind them down" and hence increase the pressure in the boiler / the point at which they lift - this was the cause of several boiler explosions during the early years. The standard design of Aveling Safety Valve had been developed by 1884 - these had the advantage of not being able to be adjusted in steam (you could make them "blow off" under lower pressure, but not increase the pressure) Salter Safety Valves were used on export engines (by many manufactureres, not just Avelings) due to their simplicity, however often they also had additional safety valve which was locked into position so again, couldn't be tampered with whilst in steam.

The roller with the "conical rolls" in the photo is definately a single cylinder. The last of these engines were built in the very early 1880's. The first compound Aveling was built in 1881, but they didn't go into production until 1886, by which time the "standard" design of front end of roller had been developed - parallel front rolls held in place with "forks". Compound Avelings at this period were called "overhead slide valve" engines. They are often erroneously refereed to as "Fowler type" but this is not the case, not wishing to get too technical but the difference is in the slide valves, on an Aveling they are flat (the valves sitting on a horizontal plane) whilst on a Fowler they are angled, at aprox 45 degrees.

Hope this is of interest.

[Sentinel S4]

Love these early Rollers. The thickness of the front rolls is just fantastic, a very long wheel base as well, and that massive heavy headstock. A pity none of these cone rollers has survived in original condition. I believe that there is a former cone roller rebuilt with cylindrical roll still around. I certainly have seen a bobbin steered roller in the 1990's at Sellindge. Fantastic pic. Thanks for posting .

S4.

[grandarog]

That detailed etching answers my question what the "thingy" on the boiler by the chimney was. Bracket for a running Lamp .