Tribe & Astin were one of those many British steam toy makers that sprang up around the middle part of the 20th century and soon disappeared. This is the only example of their products I have seen in the flesh, so to speak, and I've seen photos of a very few others. As far as I know, their products had no model numbers and were advertised by description. This is the Single Cylinder Stationary Engine.
The boiler is brass, 4 1/4" long x 1 3/4" diameter. It is heated by a vapourising type meths burner, which should clip in place under the raised base. However, the burner and it's fixtures are missing. The boiler has a holder for a dummy chimney (also missing), and a rather fancy looking safety valve (with an unusual 1/8" BSP thread). Steam is fed directly via a short copper pipe directly to the back of the port face of the single oscillating cylinder. Exhaust escapes directly to the atmosphere through a gap in the port face. The engine os mounted on a tin-plate bracket on top of the boiler. The cylinder is single acting, approx 7/16" bore x 3/4" stroke. The crankshaft is bent to form a simple crank at one end and has a 2" diameter brass flywheel at the other. The flywheel incorporates a 1/2" diameter pulley. The thin tin-plate base has a decorative copper handrail around the firebox. It is supported by tin-plate feet, one of which is missing and replaced by a Meccano part! Apart from the missing parts, there are indications of several repairs (of varying quality) and has obviously been repainted at some time. The engine runs freely on compressed air. I have not yet tested it on steam, mainly because of the missing burner, which is somewhat specialised.| Make | Tribe & Astin |
| Model | Single Cylinder Stationary Engine |
| Date Made | c1920 |
| Description | Stationary |
| Cylinders | 1 |
| Cylinder Type | Single acting |
| Bore mm | 11 |
| Stroke mm | 20 |
| Valve Type | Oscillating cylinder |
| Boiler Type | Horizontal |
| Boiler Diam mm | 45 |
| Boiler length/height mm | 105 |
| Fuel | Meths |
| Mechanical Condition | Good? |
| Cosmetic Condition | Fair |
| Paintwork | Repainted |
| Packaging | |
| Purchased | 28 November 2021 |
| Purchase cost | £239.56 |
| Additional spend |