A few photos I took when in the machinery spaces. Around 2015 or '16 I received a query from Hayne's Publishing in Yeovil, England, - they believed I might have a few photos taken in Off-limits Areas that they would like to use in their up-coming manual on how to operate the QE2. So I sent them around 1,100 photos taken by my son and myself, and they used nearly 50 of them in the book.
I have attached just a few below,
1. In the Engine Control Room - there had to be a senior engineer in here at all times.
2. Chief Engineer Paul Yeoman at the shaft telegraphs.
3. A spare main engine cylinder liner - the engines are 580 mm bore x 640 mm stroke.
4. Between two of the nine engines. The engines are 227 tonnes each, the bedplate for each DG set weighs 50 tons, and each
10,000 volt alternator weighs 70 tons. (I don't know how the C/E's pamphlet on the engine room got the engine weight wrong by
127 tons? Just by looking at them I knew the value was wrong, so I went onto the M.A.N B&W website and got the correct
weights). I operated 4 smaller versions of this same engine design on another ship I was on for a while. Very reliable if you look
after them correctly. And they are NOT MAN engines, as in 'man'. They are M-A-N engines-with each letter said individually.
5. Looking aft down the port propeller shaft tunnel. The doormats keep the shaft polished so corrosion pits and defects can easily be
detected.
6. The Stbd prop shaft Oil Delivery Box - this unit is held stationary on the spinning shaft, and has chambers within it that have oil
seals that run on the shaft to prevent leakage between the chambers, and out the ends of the unit. High-pressure hydraulic oil is
forced into one chamber or the other, and that oil then passes through drillings in the propeller shaft to the propeller hub at the aft
end. Once at the hub, the oil pressure then forces the servo piston in the hub to move either forwards or backwards in the hub
cylinder, and thus rotates the propeller blades via the crosshead and the individual slipper blocks. Hope this isn't too complicated.
7. The motor shaft pedestal bearing, just behind the propulsion motor. The casing on the left of the photo is the aft end of the 400-
ton propulsion motor, and stands 5 decks high, so is a bit awkward to photograph in situ!
8. A photo of one of the two 400-ton, 44-MW prop motors being assembled. Every now and again a USA website will advertise they
have just manufactured the world's largest ever electric motor. I just forward them this photo, with a few specs, and funnily
enough, their website will suddenly undergo a couple of changes! The motors were manufactured at the G.E.C. Rugby Works.
In the Hayne's manual, I sent in the photos to them with a brief description, and Stephen Payne (naval architect who was responsible for the QM2) then expanded my text if so required.
