Here's something I have modelled, but I’m fairly sure is not to be found elsewhere on the net: a Ransome, Sims and Jefferies “Automaton” roller. “What!” I hear you cry; “steam rollers aren’t that unusual!”. Well the Automaton was smaller than the Ransome concerns other rollers, but although it had a good water capacity, it never made steam – it’s a lawn roller, meant for the tending of cricket pitches and the like. The Automaton Mower may be more familiar to older folks. Automaton was their first really successful mower, first produced around 1880. It appears the ‘Automaton Roller’ was an attempt to exploit the market and reputation established by the mowers, much as the name ‘Mini’ now graces people carriers!
The Autmaton is not just a cast iron cylinder with a handle, it’s a very distinguished cast iron cylinder with a posh handle. What makes the roller interesting to model is the name-plate, more complex than the ‘ring logo’ adorning Ransome’s traction engines and steamrollers. The same outer ring is used as on their traction engine smokebox doors, but the word ‘Automaton’ is proudly added across the centre, with ‘water ballast’ above and below.
Model Ransome Sims and Jefferies Automaton Roller
I don’t propose to give full constructional details, or to give fully dimensioned drawings, but just give enough information to whet the appetite of prospective modellers. However, as I have made a model of the automaton roller, I will throw in a few of the lessons I learned along the way.
First lesson, get more and better photographs! I found an Automaton by the pavilion of the former Cape Hill Brewery playing field. It was a cloudy day and I was in a hurry so I got two pictures on my phone, a reasonable one of the makers plate and a useless one from the side.
Ransome Sims and Jefferies Automaton Roller Nameplate
A google search finds one more picture on the web, of a similar roller. My drawings of the roller are not dimensioned, as they have been scaled from photographs. The roller is about 18” diameter and 2’ wide, the overall height is about 5’. No excuses for imperial dimensions, I prefer to follow those used for the prototype.
The ‘Automaton’ I saw was a water ballast version, and presumably the round covers allow the water ballast to be added via a hollow axle. The non-water ballast version has prominent nuts at the ends of the axle instead of the round covers. A cosmetic difference is that the areas with the words ‘water’ and ‘ballast’ are replaced by cutouts on the plane version. Finally, a very subtle change is that the cutouts for the nuts holding the plate in position are larger, presumably to make fitting them less of a challenge!
The trickiest part of any model is making the distinctive maker’s plate (photo 3). The only practical approach will be to photo-etch this in brass or copper. I think the pattern is too fine for the ‘toner transfer’ techniques to be used. Etching can be done at home if you have the equipment (I use my PCB etching equipment), or you could approach someone who specialises in making nameplates for model engineers.
I think my drawing of the nameplate is pretty accurate; the font I used was ‘Franklin Gothic Medium Condensed’, however, I had to modify a few characters, most noticeably the ampersand and the ‘J’. I also had to add a border to ‘bulk up’ the characters and arrange them individually over an image of the plate. Hopefully the nameplates (figures 2 and 3) will be useable, and can be reduced or enlarged for any scale model.
Once you have an etched plate, your troubles aren’t going to be completely over. At 1:12 scale it will be more or less impossible to screw it to the frame, I resorted to silver solder. At larger scales it should be easy enough.
Etched Ransome Sims and Jefferies Automaton Roller Nameplate
The roller itself is in two parts. I don’t suggest making these hollow and filling them with water. I think the water goes in through round covers at each end of the axle. Care is needed when turning the raised concentric rings at each end. The two parts should be able to rotate separately on a fixed axle. My axles is shouldered slightly wider than the rollers, with spacers between the shoulders and the frame. The ends of the axle are threaded for 8BA nuts, hidden under the end covers. The non-water ballast version can have 6 or 7BA nuts out in the open.
The frame can be bent up and silver soldered from strip, I cut 1/8” wide strips from 1/32” steel with snips. They took a deal of straightening and cleaning up. Tiny copper rivets could be used to hold it together, but I used silver solder. The frame end pieces need to be recessed for the frame, and also counterbored for the fixing nuts (in the water ballast version). I milled them roughly to shape and then used filing buttons and hand filed them to shape.
Another view of the model
The roller I found had lost its handle, and the picture on line is cut off just below the handle as well. For simplicity I have assumed a plain wooden handle, but if anyone knows different, please let me know.
Update! An older version with an even more florid plate and a very ornate handle (the bent strip of my model is accurate) is HERE.
