Ayesha runs again!

[John Baguley]

At the N25GA rally at Rugby yesterday we ran LBSC's Ayesha for the first time since his death in 1967. I had been determined that the loco would not end it's days as a glass case exhibit following it's purchase by the N25GA. The boiler was given a hydraulic test a few weeks ago which proved it to be sound and I then gave it a steam test and a run on a rolling road. I contacted the various Officers in the N25GA to see if anyone objected to the loco beng run and everyone was in full agreement that she should indeed be run again.

I fired up the old girl and did a couple of laps before handing over to Steve Eaton. Unfortunately, the blower got blocked after Steve had done another few laps but we were all very happy that Ayesha still had it in her after not being run for nearly 50 years! She's now 90 years old, although LBSC did replace the original boiler in 1937 and I believe did other various modifications over the years.



The motion is pretty worn and the valve timing is out because of this but the boiler still steams like a witch. I had to fit another pressure gauge as the original leaked and the injector needed a clean in citric acid to get it working but apart from that, nothing has been touched. The injector is really too big for the loco (it's stamped with a number 3 so may be an 18oz?) as it puts the water in quickly but drops the boiler pressure just as fast.

She won't be run regularly but will make appearances at some of the N25GA rallies in the future. She could do with some mechanical restoration but we don't intend to carry out a full restoration such as a paint job as we want to try and keep her as original as possible.

Altogether, quite a historic day. I'm sure LBSC would have been pleased

Thanks to Cedric Norman for the photo.

John

[waggy]

Good morning John,

Good to see you and Ayesha back on track. Will you both be heading north this year I wonder?

Waggy.

[mbrown]

I wish I'd been there to see her run!

I got into model engineering as a young teenager through reading all LBSC's ME columns in the back issues kept in our local library basement - goodness knows what has happened to them since the library was "modernised" - and Curley's fondness for Ayesha shone through and is one reason why I got into 2.5"g.

But it's the eternal dilemma of conservation, isn't it. If you don't use things as they were intended, nobody ever gets to appreciate them properly, but as soon as you use them they start wearing out and soon you have lost the original artefact. It sounds as if Baggo has got just the right balance here - but I hope the mechanical refurbishment is confined to "expendable" bits like valve gear pins and nothing more radical.

Malcolm

[John Baguley]

Malcolm,

Don't worry, we've no intention of doing anything like a full restoration as that would destroy the loco's originality. Ayesha will run for a long time yet as she is but would benefit from a few pins and bushes replacing and maybe new cylinder packing. Nothing that LBSC would not have done himself had he had chance.

LBSC made quite a few changes to Ayesha since she was first built. Obviously, she's had a new boiler but I believe the cylinders have been bored out at some time and the porting changed. I have been told that the ports were originally semi circular with a round valve but these may have been changed to conventional square ports with a square valve. No one has had the cylinders apart so we can't confirm that.

Many of the castings LBSC used on Ayesha were commercial ones available at the time. I think it was only later that he started to produce his own patterns and had them cast to suit.

I'm not convinced that the paint on the boiler is LBSC. It's a completely different green to the tender and the cab and I wonder if it was done to 'tart' the loco up after LBSC's death when it was just on display?

Ayesha Photos

John

[runner42]

Hi John,

thanks for the photographs. Yes the injector does look a might large for the locomotive. It looks like one that LBSC made himself so I am wondering why he chose such a size, is it that it is very difficult to make a injector for a 2 1/2" gauge locomotive not so much physical size but small in output so as not to materially affect the boiler pressure?

Brian

[John Baguley]

Hi Brian,

Yes, the problem is making an injector small enough in output to suit a 2½" gauge size boiler. You really need an 8oz injector but they are very temperamental in that size and the slightest bit of muck stops them working. I think you could buy them years ago (number 1?) but the smallest nowadays seems to be the No 2 (11 or 12oz). I have made  an 8oz one that worked quite well and even a 4oz one but my Helen Long now has two 12oz. That's quite a big boiler though so the pressure drop is not that bad if you turn the blower up when you use them.

I'm going to have to read through LBSC's notes on Ayesha and see if the number 3 that is fitted is original or not. With it being stamped with number 3 I'm wondering if it is actually a commercial one rather than one of his own. He did make them for various people as gifts though so it could be one that he made.

John

[mbrown]

Given LBSC's disdainful comments about most suppliers of commercial bits and pieces, I very much doubt if he ever fitted a commercial injector to any of his locos.

The one on Ayesha is certainly made in his trademark style. But is there any evidence that Curley used the number system to identify the capacity of injectors? His articles never specified capacity as far as I am aware. It seems more likely to me that the number is some kind of serial or other identification mark unique to him.

Malcolm

[jma1009]

Hi John,

Many thanks for the excellent pic and link. I am so pleased to know this very special loco has been steamed and run again.

There is a pic of Ayesha taken circa 1949 in the first edition of LBSC's 'The Live Steam Book'/'Shop, Shed, and Road'.

This shows an injector identical to that now fitted, and also matches LBSC's description of a small injector in the same book, cones 65-70-75 which is 12 oz per min delivery.

There are numerous references to Ayesha being the test loco for LBSC's injectors. According to ME 24th Jan 1952, he made a dozen a year as Christmas presents for friends, in addition to those he made for his own locos.

LBSC never used the rather obtuse 'number' nomenclature used by some ME suppliers of injectors in more recent years. A 'number 4' or 'number 2' injector means nothing to me for miniature injectors.

Bearing in mind that Ayesha has slip eccentric valve gear I doubt that renewing the valve gear pins would make any difference to the running of the loco.

Cheers,
Julian

[John Baguley]

Thanks for that info Julian. I agree that it does look exactly like one of his own designs. Maybe he just numbered them as he made them? The one on Ayesha could be the third one of a batch that he made? It still works very well anyway!

John