Heywood Radial Axle Project… Part 1
5th January 
no responses · Modelwork As mentioned in the previous post on the various Radiating Axle systems, I accepted a challenge to build a 1:24 scale operating model of the Heywood Radial Axle. One of the early stumbling blocks I had to overcome was a scarcity of dimensional information and contemporary drawings to use as reference sources for my CAD work. Through the assistance and generosity of James Waterfield (who knows more than a little about the design and construction of Heywood locomotives), I now have the information I was lacking.
With that in hand, I produced the first preliminary renderings (see below) of a typical Heywood driver tyre as used on the Heywood locomotives Ella (built 1881) and Muriel (built 1894). Tyre width was 3 inches. Ursula (built 1916) had a fractionally narrower tyre at 2.75 inches. Flange profile was derived from British standard practice as was tyre slope – 1:20 as opposed to the AAR standard of 1:40. The large center hole accommodates the large cast-iron sleeve that joined each driver pair and allowed for the rotation and swivel action of the primary steel axle that passed through the center. The next component to draw will be the cast-iron sleeve which I’ll publish in a subsequent post.
Preliminary Rendering of Heywood Driver Wheel
The rendering above shows the outer, profile and inner views of the driver.