The Oily Rag's excitment

[chris vine]

Hi Darrell,
In my thoughts, you have done things in the right order. The loco is now built and tested and ready for paint. Clearly you will paint it to a high standard, so it would be shame to have to take it apart after painting to rectify problems.

Having run it a lot before painting, you should have ironed out most of the teething troubles.

One thing to watch out for: Make sure you have enough clearance for the paint thickness for reassembly. The most obvious point of trouble with this is where the boiler goes through the spectacle plate. Paint thickness is not to scale!!!

Will watch with great interest...
Chris.

[Oily Rag]

If you know the name and where abouts of this trespasser in the rail corridor please contact the authorities
www.flickr.com/photos/llewellyncustombicycles/53440904949/

[Oily Rag]

When Gunnedah Uranium is laid on top of Welsh Plutonium. Community service keeping the mossies away. Video credit Sam Barnes.

www.flickr.com/photos/llewellyncustombicycles/53440588516/

[Oily Rag]

Jan 3, 2024 17:42:32 GMT chris vine said:

Hi Darrell,
In my thoughts, you have done things in the right order. The loco is now built and tested and ready for paint. Clearly you will paint it to a high standard, so it would be shame to have to take it apart after painting to rectify problems.

Having run it a lot before painting, you should have ironed out most of the teething troubles.

One thing to watch out for: Make sure you have enough clearance for the paint thickness for reassembly. The most obvious point of trouble with this is where the boiler goes through the spectacle plate. Paint thickness is not to scale!!!

Will watch with great interest...
Chris.

Chris, thanks, knowing you are watching my painting that is to come is a bit nerve wracking however, I do have your book to assist me. Right now I am exhausted from the last 3 weeks of intensity in the Red Room Workshop and I have my Mary Valley Rattler duties and also 5 weeks mid year at Boston Lodge and on the Welsh Highland Railway to give passing out as a fireman a real nudge. So paint will be when I recover. I am sure to be asking for advice from your good self.

[Oily Rag]

Sam and Captain Plod concluded that the 4 1/2 hour steam test and the bottle of Red he brought along was a complete success and most enjoyable. There were two fire cleaning and ash pan rake outs, refilled the lubricator 3 times all while in steam. New headlight-tick, new ash pan- tick, water pump was not working but came good -tick, only thing left to do is to hard wire the cab light. Please do not ask Plod what colour the Loco will be, if you do he will say Candy Apple Red with gold and white lining 😉

www.flickr.com/photos/llewellyncustombicycles/53441076559/in/dateposted-public/

[Oily Rag]

This morning Plod went up stairs holding two books and said to MAM "it is time" She looked a bit puzzled, for a moment she was even alarmed for what this might lead to, and then she smiled.

[Oily Rag]

When Gunnedah Uranium is laid on top of Welsh Plutonium. Community service keeping the mossies away. Video credit Sam Barnes.

[banksy512]

This was a while back but a view of servicing Llewellyn No.1

[banksy512]

And another video yesterday after visiting the live steamers convention at our local track 

[barlowworks]

Check out Ian Rathbones YouTube channel for videos on painting and lining. I think it is always better to watch someone rather than read it in a book, mind you, he does make it look deceptively easy.

Love the little loco.

All the best

Mike

[Oily Rag]

Dazza still has a pulse.
1/3 of my yearly total of heartbeats are spent at 12" to the 1' railways, still working full time and garden railway projects to be completed before the 4 1/2" Foden lorry build, thus the year is full.
During my annual pilgrimage to North Wales this year I fooled them! They passed me out as a fireman on the Welsh Highland Railway on the 20th June.





Recently I did a 10 hours and 50 minutes of non stop steaming of Llewellyn # 1 around the Potters Orchid Railway.
All worked flawless. Tom who is a trainee loco crew lad at the Mary Valley Rattler drove, I fired. Stop every 10 to 15 minutes to stuff more Welsh Plutonium into the box. Every second firing stop top up the water tank and a few squirts via the Goodall valve. Stops every hour to lightly clean the fire and rake out the ash pan. (all while in steam on blower steam) Every 1.5 hours top up the lubricator and just roll the laps off at the POR. The load was a 16 axle goods train. Well into the dark hours we called it quits as we were both knackered. The point is proven to myself that the design work and effort in construction that a good wet leg boiler, proper attention to design and using Welsh Plutonium one can coal fire 32mm gauge and just go on and on, even if the Welsh Plutonium is boring due to the lack of a clag plume. We even had genuine Welsh Clinker when we looked at the leftovers the next morning. I still have to paint the loco but at the moment I am working on 4 Brandbright carriage kits and a track extension loop is planed for next year and a stint at the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway.  Then in the years to come, the Foden, then the 5" QR C17 #253 as built in 1921.





Little steam locomotive poo after an ash pan rake out