3.5" Britannia restoration

[philh1aa]

Stephen,

I am building a LBSC Betty which has an Atlantic style wide firebox boiler. I found this text towards the end of the build notes;

"No lagging is needed over the boiler barrel, but a sheet of very thin brass or copper can be put over the firebox to hide the stayheads".

He suggests putting the boiler bands directly onto the copper boiler barrel.

I need to put this idea past the club inspector but I am thinking of using a smaller barrel (4" diameter instead of 4 3/8") so that a lagging and cladding sheet can be used.

Phil H

[Deleted]

LBSC's boiler to smokebox join seems to be one of his trademarks, resulting in the smokebox being a smaller diameter than the boiler barrel if clad. Some do have lagging though, his Heilan Lassie, for instance, is lagged. When cladding my 'Great Northern' I managed to get some fibreglass matting under most of the cladding except for the parallel section at the front, here I used tinfoil under the thin brass cladding to reduce the step at the join. It doesn't look too out of place as this picture of mine hopefully shows...admittedly it's not a 'Brit' but they are of similar size so I would expect Curly to follow the same practice



Pete

[dhamblin]

Mar 21, 2019 12:18:35 GMT westlin said:

Dan, im just building a 3 1/2 brit. It looks like there is cladding on boiler if so can you measure the diameter of the smoke box, im trying to work out what size it needs to support the cladding. Thanks Stephen

Just measured it - shade over 114mm OD, which is consistent with 4.5" diameter for boiler barrel at smokebox end as per LBSC's drawing in ME issue 2674.

Regards,

Dan

[westlin]

Thanks, that what i thought it would be

[JonL]

So did the Hydro test get carried out?

[dhamblin]

Apr 25, 2019 19:21:13 GMT JonL said:

So did the Hydro test get carried out?

Not yet. I made the fifth (and final) 6BA bronze stud tonight and will move on to the brass blanking plugs tomorrow.

I'll need to get a slitting saw for the studs and make up two blocks to lock them into in order to finish them off. Then Loctite all into the boiler. Probably a couple of weeks off at the moment.

Regards,

Dan

[JonL]

Very best of luck Dan, keep us informed please, I'm watching with interest (and to get tips)

[dhamblin]

Showed the boiler to the society inspector at Monday night's meeting - he's happy with everything and we confirmed the test kit can attach to the fitting into the firebox turret bush. Just got to Studlock in the 6BA studs and screw down the dome cover and it'll be ready.

Test will take place in June as the test kit has been borrowed by a member to test his new 7 1/4" 'Dart'.

Regards,

Dan

[JonL]

Fantastic news.

[dhamblin]

First attempt at hydraulic testing the boiler tonight - not a total failure but lots of little jobs to do before attempting a repeat. Mostly remaking some of the bushes and studs with larger diameter threads by opening the die out further. Two of the firebox back head stays are weeping on the inner firebox side, one of which has a generous amount of solder on it so probably gave problems in the 60's or 70's. That's probably going to be the more problematic to fix out of all the issues identified.

Managed to get it up to 160psi briefly, with no leaks at the smokebox tubeplate end, nor in the combustion chamber or down the tubes. The regulator seal worked as well so quite a few positives to take away. The tester thought it was still worth persisting with, so will begin making the tweaked fixings this week, starting with boring out the die holder slightly.

Regards,

Dan

[JonL]

Ok, as you say it all seems positive. I suspect there will be life in this one before you know it!

[dhamblin]

Fingers crossed! If we can get it through the hydraulic I reckon all the backhead fittings will need to be remade with enlarged threads. Not necessarily a bad thing as it allows me to convert all of them to bronze and incorporate captive valve spindles where needed.

Regards,

Dan

[dhamblin]

Small update - lots of things taking me away from the workshop but put in a solid stint over the last two days. Die holder bored out and used to make a few enlarged 1/4" x 40 ME threaded blanking plugs.

When we did the trial hydraulic test the lower gauge glass bush plug (where I had to drill out the remnants of the broken fitting and re-tap) was found to be very loose, so we had already tried an enlarged thread plug with partial success. Unfortunately the even larger plug ended up with a damaged thread and on inspection the bush thread is pretty poor, so have taken the decision to go up to the next practical size - 5/16" x 40 ME. Gently enlarging the hole with a hand drill again, with the boiler tilted to make sure it is square to the drill when that is level.

Regards,

Dan

[steamer5]

Hi Dan,
To late now but you can get a standard tap to cut oversize, & likely clean up the thread, by putting a sliver of wood, a match works well, down one of the flutes, it pushes the tap off to one side. You would then need to cut a “special” plug to fit, ie oversize.

Cheers Kerrin

[dhamblin]

Aug 26, 2019 3:12:34 GMT steamer5 said:

Hi Dan,
To late now but you can get a standard tap to cut oversize, & likely clean up the thread, by putting a sliver of wood, a match works well, down one of the flutes, it pushes the tap off to one side. You would then need to cut a “special” plug to fit, ie oversize.

Cheers Kerrin

Thanks Kerrin - that's a useful trick to remember for the future.

I think the problem has arisen because the bush sits on the transition between vertical and sloped sections of the backhead. The fitting should be level, but on closer inspection the bush isn't. So when I carried out the thread recovery operation I inadvertently created a crossed thread. I should have guessed something was awry when I found out last year that the gauge glass was too short to the drawing.

Lesson learnt!

Regards,

Dan

[alanjj]

Hi Dan, Just came across your pictures of your Grandad. I lived at 16 Lindfield Road (which you can see over his right shoulder) and used to ride on the trains a lot. I remember your Grandad and his Train, I thought he had a smaller one too, but that might have been one of the other guys. Anyway just wanted to say it was an amazing experience when I was a young boy and a big thanks to your Grandad and his friends.

[dhamblin]

Sept 29, 2019 6:46:22 GMT alanjj said:

Hi Dan, Just came across your pictures of your Grandad. I lived at 16 Lindfield Road (which you can see over his right shoulder) and used to ride on the trains a lot. I remember your Grandad and his Train, I thought he had a smaller one too, but that might have been one of the other guys. Anyway just wanted to say it was an amazing experience when I was a young boy and a big thanks to your Grandad and his friends.

Wow, it's good to know that people still remember the track, thank you for those kind words about Grandad. It was closed in the early 80's and the money from the lease sale used to improve the portable track. Whether it would still be viable now is debatable, I think the land has been used to extend all the gardens rather than build new houses.

He only ever had one working loco to my knowledge, but I do have a photo of him driving the societies 5" 0-6-0 tank loco 'Pop', now owned by one of our members.

My Uncles were reminiscing the other month about how they would travel there on the handlebars of Grandad's bicycle to help build the track. That would be late 1950's.

When I sort out an alternative photo host I'll upload some screenshots of cinefilm footage from the early years of the track, perhaps you might see other locos and people you'll recognise.

Regards,

Dan

[dhamblin]

I promised some images from the boiler endoscope inspection, so here is a short video clip showing the top of the combustion chamber and looking towards the girder stays:

youtu.be/xDwgBHmzwDE

In other news the loco chassis has replaced the tender on my main workbench, with the motion partially dismantled to allow the driving wheelsets to be released. Rear set has been cleaned up and a note made of the shims fitted to each axlebox. Boiler is being sealed up again ready for the next hydraulic test attempt - currently working on the feed clack holes, made up a few more 10BA bronze studs with enlarged threads to provide a better seal. The gaskets have been augmented with Stag A and I should be back in the workshop tomorrow night after a few days away with a head cold.

Regards,

Dan

[dhamblin]

Long overdue photographic update on progress now I've finished work for the year.

Turning Cradle by Daniel Hamblin, on Flickr

Chassis turning cradle, fairly basic but it does the job I need it to for the moment. The drag beam slots into a letterbox arrangement of L angles on the rear disc and there are two steel spigots that lock into the buffer stocks on the front disc.


Smokebox by Daniel Hamblin, on Flickr

The smokebox took a lot of effort to clean all the congealed soot and steam oil.


Front Bogie by Daniel Hamblin, on Flickr

Front bogie and combined blower & blast nozzle assembly after cleaning.


Boiler Internals by Daniel Hamblin, on Flickr

Screenshot of the image from my USB endoscope showing top of the combustion chamber with one of the water tubes visible in centre.


Tender by Daniel Hamblin, on Flickr

Tender with the hand pump removed for servicing. The wheelsets need to come out again to have the flanges reprofiled and one of the wheels resecured to the axle.


Trailing Truck by Daniel Hamblin, on Flickr

Trailing truck after cleaning. Wheelsets also require the flanges reprofiling.


Boiler Testing by Daniel Hamblin, on Flickr

Boiler being pumped up on the first attempt at hydraulic testing.


Tapping Boiler Bush by Daniel Hamblin, on Flickr

As previously noted I had to re-thread the lower gauge glass bush and employed a timber guide to try and get the thread square in the bush.


Chassis Dismantling by Daniel Hamblin, on Flickr

The valve gear partly dismantled to allow the driving wheelsets to be removed. Trailing wheelset has already been removed and cleaned up.


Lastly, I was lucky enough to drive the real 70000 Britannia on the Bluebell Railway on 14th October after its appearance at the Giants of Steam Gala. This screenshot from my GoPro footage shows me in the driving seat being supervised by the Bluebell's driver whilst travelling between Sheffield Park and Horsted Keynes:

70000 Britannia Cab by Daniel Hamblin, on Flickr

A lot of work planned for the Christmas break, starting with an adapter to attach my vacuum cleaner to the boiler so I can plug the two weeping stays prior to a repeat 2x hydraulic test in January. The material for that arrived today so I should be able to get that started on Saturday.

Regards,

Dan

[Deleted]

Hi Dan..good to see an update and grear progress sir.....who was a lucky boy them?.....

Pete