5" Gauge Maid of Kent Rolling Chassis

[livesteambookham]

Hello,



I acquired a 5" Gauge Maid of Kent rolling chassis a few months ago. It has inside cylinders and I think it has Stephenson's valve gear. It rolls along freely without any binding. The crankshaft is in situ but doesn't appear to have the eccentric sheaves in place for the valve gear eccentrics and rods.



Presumably, I am going to have to remove and take apart the crankshaft to fit the eccentric sheaves. Have I overlooked anything here? I would be grateful to hear from more experienced model engineers about how I can move forwards with this 'project'.



I tried to upload an image but the following message appeared: "Error: This forum has exceeded its attachment space limit. Your file cannot be uploaded." Is there another way I can upload an image?


Many thanks. Mark

[weary]

Split eccentrics?

Regards,
Phil

[stevep]

Jun 27, 2023 11:21:54 GMT livesteambookham said:

SNIP

I tried to upload an image but the following message appeared: "Error: This forum has exceeded its attachment space limit. Your file cannot be uploaded." Is there another way I can upload an image?


Many thanks. Mark
SNIP

You cannot load pictures onto the forum, you must store them on an external hosting site, and embed a link.

See the sticky thread at the top of the forum for instructions on how to do that. (It's entitled 'Forum attachment limit').

[uuu]

If the loco rolls freely without binding, it would be a shame to disturb things to fit the eccentrics. It may not be apparent if the cranks have been pressed onto the axles, or glued with Loctite. If they have some positive location, pins or keys, then there'd be a better chance of reassembling all square. So spit eccentrics are well worth a look.

To post photos, you need to upload to some photo-hosting site like Flickr. There's a thread explaining here: posting photos

Wilf

[johnd]

It might be of interest to look at the “Station Road Steam” website in the “Archive” section, search on “Maid” there are photos of a number of part buit inside cylinder locos showing eccentric details. Might give you some useful info.
Their Archive is a great resource, i have made use of it on a number of times.

[borderer]

Mark - are you sure it is intended to have Stephenson gear? There is a version with Joy gear, which would explain the absence of eccentrics - it seems unlikely that anyone would assemble the crankshaft and not fit them.

[brucevoelkerding]

did you also get the inside Connecting Rods ? If yes, look at them. do they have a (bushed) Hole approximately in the mid-length ? If yes, then the intended Valve Gear is "Joy". I believe LBSC designed both Stephenson and Joy Valve Gear for this Locomotive.

By casual reading, I believe both K.Harris, D.Young and perhaps D.Ashton (?) redesigned the original LBSC Stepheson Valve Gear, whereas the LBSC Joy design was OK as is.

Please do not be confused, I am not talking about the Coupling Rods which are on the outside, coupling the two Wheel Sets together.

[gwrfan]

Jun 28, 2023 11:05:21 GMT brucevoelkerding said:

did you also get the inside Connecting Rods ? If yes, look at them. do they have a (bushed) Hole approximately in the mid-length ? If yes, then the intended Valve Gear is "Joy". I believe LBSC designed both Stephenson and Joy Valve Gear for this Locomotive.

By casual reading, I believe both K.Harris, D.Young and perhaps D.Ashton (?) redesigned the original LBSC Stepheson Valve Gear, whereas the LBSC Joy design was OK as is. .

I purchased a MOK in pieces, in 2 plastic boxes some years ago. I'd never heard of Joy valve gear, but this one does have it. It seems to be a very straight forward gear and in my case it works without fault. After the re-build I only managed to run the loco once (we were forced to give up our track!!), but it ran very well. The only problem (adjustment really) I had to do was to slightly alter the position of the slide shaft as the Die Blocks were a little low in the slide. (Hope you can follow this, LOL!)

[livesteambookham]

Much obliged for all the feedback and suggestions.

It is in fact Joy valve gear. The connecting rods have a small hole approximately midway for the links. Looks to be well advanced. I managed to buy the drawing for how it all fits together.

I've uploaded some pictures (to a third party site) and included the link: www.flickr.com/photos/94687446@N08

Thanks again.

[jo479]

judging from your photos it's definitely Joy Valve Gear, try and get hold of Martin (Errors)Evans drawings, they're not that clever, they have two different valve gears on one drawing, one of our members didn't realise this and was making parts for both gears (unintentionally) I was asked for an opinion on something and I asked him did he realise there were two different valve gears on the one drawing, obvious to an old hand ,but not to a beginner. nothing wrong with Joy Gear, I have it on Jeanie Deans.

[Geoff]

Hello Mark,
That looks like a nice chassis! I think the Joy gear will be much better than the Stevensons gear that I built for this loco. One of the problems was the tortuous levers required for the axle pump - all now disconnected and useless.
Geoff