This gives plenty of room of variety of scale. Machines could be large or small.

Steam powered winch that must pull itself in a race against the other.

Seeing which machine can lift the most weight or lift a given weight fastest is too obvious and not very entertaining.

Having steam-powered winch machines, possibly of very different design and size, racing each other to pull their own weight by winching in a rope/cord/wire/cable, fixed at the far end of a two lane race course ought to be a lot of fun to build and watch.

As I said there is plenty of room for different size and type of "winch"

Hey, how about having them perform an "Inverse" tug of war? i.e. Have the two connected at each end of the SAME rope and first one to pull itself across a line in the middle is the winner?

(Maybe there is a danger of a crash? If the machines are not manned perhaps that would make for a Grand Finale!? :-))) )

Steve

-- Steven C. Potter IEng, MIED (Steven.Potter@sympatico.ca), February 28, 2001

Answers

I like the reverse tug-of-war idea - with a big smash at the end!

Especially with steam powered winches on the same rope - guaranteed to smash, with boiling water, steam AND FIRE at the end!

Great idea!

-- Jayson Stansfield (jaysonstansfield@hotmail.com), February 28, 2001.

An afterthought: Having them pull on the same rope in a reverse tug- of-war would make sure that the lightest, least friction-impaired machine would win, using the power from BOTH winches to race to the center finish line! :-)) So a SMART team could build a weak, but very light machine and steal winch power from the other. Would that be ingenuity or cheating?

Steve

-- Steve Potter (Steven.Potter@sympatico.ca), February 28, 2001.

I can see the things hufing and puffing as they move along. How to make a steam engine is another matter - parts are not common.

-- Ed Prest (prest_e@hotmail.com), February 28, 2001.

Awesome idea! Where do I sign up? I really think they should not be manned. There's a certain sort of interesting dynamic in having the symbol of the start of the "modern age" built from scrap and headed for self destruction.

-- Alan Hazlewood (pstgi@direct.ca), February 28, 2001.

Actually, a pretty good idea, but I think anything involving steam is right out...especially if filmed in the good ol' litigous US of A. When things go wrong with steam, you are in a world of hurt PDQ.... Insurance carrier would either cancel the idea or raise the rates and take *everything*.

-- SG (rover@pinn.net), March 02, 2001.

Ya, Alan..... that's what John Hazelwood of the Exxon Valdeez said too.....Any Relation???

-- John Gap (mindthegap64@hotmail.com), March 04, 2001.