Sisyphean

[delaplume]

Hello David,

Quote}---"How did you get a drill down into the Simplex axle, didn't the wheel get in the way?"........

In this particular instance I had removed the wheels in order to make a new axle..... a previous owner had let it run dry of oil for some time it would seem and the Cast Iron axlebox had put some nasty grooves in the axle.....I also took the opportunity to pin all wheels onto their hubs...

[David]

Jul 30, 2019 3:42:10 GMT racinjason said:

Drill a 3/32 hole in a piece of 1/4" rod in the lathe then loctite the drill shank in the hole. Cut it long enough to clear the wheel and you gave a simple long series drill.

Of course! I've even done that before, more than once. I even saw one of them not that long ago.

[David]

I mentioned to my father-in-law that only the front wheels seemed to be suffering from the tyres coming off and he speculated it was because those are the ones taking the load leading the loco into curves etc. That makes sense to me because it had occurred to me over the weekend too.

If nothing else breaks next running day I may take the axle off again, drill the oil holes, and put the screws through the treads.

[David]

I tackled the front axle today. First up I drilled through the tyre and into the wheel, tapped M5, and put setscrews in leaving their heads just below tyre level. 3 each side. I made a few mistakes as usual - things like forgetting to ensure the hole was going in the middle between two spokes rather than just on the edge of one, etc. I'm so tired and distracted most days I can barely think straight to this sort of thing is quite common. But there's 3 screws per side, about equidistant, so that should stop the loctite getting so many shocks and keep the tyres in place.

Then I searched my various boxes of drills and found an extended 1.5mm drill I'd made in the past. I drilled that through the axle in about the middle of where the axlebox sits and then drilled down from the axle end to meet this. I flushed the holes out with oil and should now have much better lubrication for this axle.





When I put the axle back in I noticed there is no way to oil the sliding surfaces of the axleboxes.

Before I took the rear axle off to repeat the lubrication fix I had a look and a think. I decided against it because I'd have to remove the eccentric straps and rods and loosen the slip eccentric stop collars so they and the eccentrics could all be slid to one side or the other to get enough space to move the axleboxes out of the way, so have to redo the valve timing. The valves are between the frames and I just couldn't be bothered. So the back axle will have to continue on as is.

There's no reliable way to oil the rear axle, no way at all to oil the axlebox sliding surfaces, and if I want to oil the eccentric straps I need to get underneath with an oilcan long enough to get over the top. The straps need bigger holes too - at the moment they're just small drilled holes which is my fault. So lubrication is a bit of an issue. This straps could be fixed by drilling a hole in each frame and sticking a bit of copper tube in there to take the oil to somewhere over the straps but I'd need to make the holes in the straps bigger to make it worth it.

I thought I'd put something on back-to-front last time when I noticed numbers stamped on the bottom of the frames which didn't match up with where I'd had things. You'd expect the numbers to coincide with the numbers stamped on the axleboxes and crosshead covers. Except I tried to put it back together with the numbers all the same both sides and things don't fit!

The crankpins have strange wear on them so they look a bit like two cams set slightly differently on a shaft - with a much reduced difference of course. That might be totally normal with the loads an outside cylinder locos crankpins are exposed to. I'm not worried about that because the loco basically runs and has more power than adhesion.

There's a running day in two weeks which will be the first time it's run in 3 months. 2 months ago the tyres fell off, and last month it snowed! Which was great and I did take the loco to the track but the general public didn't show and it seemed pointless to get it out, then have to clean it up afterwards just to drive around on my own. I took one family of six for a ride behind the club electric, someone else took a couple of guys around for lap and that was all the passengers we had for the afternoon.

[David]

The loco finally got a run today and I'm pleased to report it was mostly plain sailing.

One injector got blocked almost immediately. I was expecting this so came prepared with a TIG welding glove to help get the thing off and back on and a set size >60 number drills to poke into it. I took it off, poked through from the delivery side assuming the blockage was in the steam cone and then tried sucking at the steam inlet side. I was rewarded with some grit on my tongue. Some further poking produced another piece. I put it back on and it started working again. Not reliably though and I don't know if it is due to a leaking clack overheating it or a loose connection from the tender allowing air in because I haven't redone the tender to loco coupling on that side. In any case it worked on and off for the rest of the day but the other one was reliable all afternoon.

I think the blocks are going to be a fact of life for this loco because the boiler is so full of crud it's just going to keep getting shaken off and distributed around the steam circuits. At least I know this now and had the problem fixed in about 15 minutes.

The tyres didn't fall off, nor did the wheels. That was a bonus.

It steamed well to begin with on a mixture of Welsh coal and our Bacchus Marsh but steaming went right off after about 2 hours. I knew the grate must be clinkered up and I should have dropped and replaced the fire when I fixed the injector but didn't think of it. When I went back on I only took one passenger coach so it didn't have to work so hard and I got around using plenty of blower for the rest of the day.

A problem was narrowly avoided when the collar that traps the conrod on the crankpin had worked its way half-off because I didn't do up the grub screw tight enough but happily it lasted for the day. I just need to remember to fix it tomorrow! I didn't want to overtighten it and break the screw, something I've done many times.

The heaviest load it pulled was 7 adults (incl me) plus 2 children. It slipped up every hill because it doesn't have its side tanks full of sand on, but it did get around. I was out of water and pressure at the end of it and we were busy so there was no time to recover at the station. I did another lap on about 50 PSI and putting in just enough water to see it in the bottom nut and then pulled in to get things back in order after that. I know a lot of people say saturated engines are just fine but I'm looking forward to having a superheater in the mogul. I don't expect more power, I just hope it uses less steam!

So there were two pauses for recovery but other than that it ran for about 4 hours. I just kept going so I could say I was the last steam loco on the track!

[ettingtonliam]

Is the boiler copper? If so why not take the boiler off and dump it a citric acid bath for 24 hours or so, and get rid of the scale thats causing (and will continue to cause) you so much trouble. Apart from anything else, the scale acts as an insulator and reduces the passage of heat from the firebox and tubes to the water. There are numerous examples of full size boiler explosions because excess scale build up caused the firebox plates to overheat and fail.

[suctionhose]

Hi David,
From your running report, maybe you're getting on top of it.

I read in an earlier post of yours something about, "Never mind, this loco's not worth it" or something to that effect...

It amused me at the time because I feel that attitude is 'an IT attitude"... Does anyone think computers are reliable??? They foul up everyday! You just need to run this or try that or reinstall some other thing...

The last time I broke down on the track was 1987. New engine. Lubrication deficiency. Crosshead seized. A lesson learnt. No repeats.

My flying instructor taught me the 6P's: Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. He didn't have to teach me. I knew. Machinery is not like a computer. Things work because they do and they don't because something is wrong. If something is wrong it needs to be put right or it will give trouble.

I think your tyres will come off in due course. Properly fitted they will stay on for 10000 years. Bodged with Loctite? I give it 5 at best. These are the truths of hardware. If it's wrong it's not right.

A Blowfly has less parts than any other loco. No doubt there's work to fix another's failings but once done it's done for ever. We built a Blowfly. It ran 6000kms without a single breakdown! Wore 1/4"off the wheels and a 1/16" off the axle journals but nothing blocked, shifted, came loose, worked off, leaked, jammed, or any other misadventure. Brilliant in its simplicity.

If you prepared a helicopter as you do your loco, would you go up in it?

[David]

The good news is the right-side injector worked first time every time last weekend. Which is just as well because the left-side one couldn't be used due to the barb breaking off the water connector fitting where the hose from the tender slides over it. This must have happened last month because the barb was already in the hose when I went to slide it onto the connector.

Given the right-side has worked well (aside from blockages care of the boiler) with its new flat-flange connector from the tender I made the same parts for the left-side yesterday and fitted them. I also made a 'blanking plug' to screw the pipes onto when the loco isn't in use to keep dirt from getting into them.

The hose clamps are a horror but they're the best I can get hold of. If I get a couple of trouble free runs with them in place I'll take them off for the run after that and see if they're necessary.

[steamer5]

Hi David,
If your tubing is silicon.....hard to tell from the pictures, then you don’t need clamps, providing the tube isn’t a slip fit on the barbs. I have silicon on my loco & it’s great . Tube clamps in small sizes are, well mostly, seem to be oversize for our stuff.

Cheers Kerrin

[David]

Hi Kerrin,

The tubes are plastic 8mm OD 5mm ID, the fittings are 5.5mm OD, 1/8" ID. If I can get some silicone of that dimension I might try it. I'm sure it would be better.

[ilvaporista]

I use the same tubing between my Toad riding truck and the loco. Trying to find decent jubilee or similar clip was a bit of a challenge, so I use cable ties. At the end of the running session just nip one of them off with side cutters. The search for the definitive solution continues.

[Deleted]

If wanting hose clamps I would use the crimp type, less obtrusive than the screw type. You can get them from most auto suppliers/fasteners, even amazon.. here's one outlet that shows pictures

www.clipsandfasteners.com/crimp-type-hose-clamps-s/669.htm

Pete

[David]

Hi Pete, thanks for the tip. I should have checked Amazon. I'm going to have a look on there for both silicone tube and the clamps. I've checked all the auto shops in town and you can get the ones I have, or the more usual jubilee ones that are completely useless at these diameters.

One of our club members is a mechanic and he had some nice clamps on his riding truck but he lives in Sydney and doesn't carry a pocketful of them with him sadly! He said he had to buy a large assorted box of them for work but it was quite expensive and required a special tool to do them up I think.

Cable ties might also be an option, so thanks for that idea too. Glad I posted.

[Deleted]

If careful you can crimp them with normal side cutters, the proper crimp clamp isn't expensive, in the region of a cost of a pair of normal pliers...

Cheers

Pete

[jon38r80]

If you need them to be reuseable the spring clamps used on car vacuum hose etc would do the trick. The sort you can get here on that well known catalogue of everything you might want to buy. You only need pliers to open them.

www.ebay.com/itm/Double-Wire-Spring-Hose-Clamps-Clips-Silicone-Pipe-Air-Band-Fuel-Pack-of-10-/301687281676

[David]

I've pulled the red loco out from it's corner to have a go at cleaning the boiler. I did a search and found most people recommended citric acid or white vinegar. I have citric acid crystals so chose that. I was considering CLR until I read on their site that they both recommend it for cleaning copper and then claim it can cause pitting in some copper, although I can't see how there are different types of copper unless they're talking alloys and they didn't specify. So I decided against that.

The injectors, clacks, a few pipes, and the dome cover came off and the boiler was filled with warm citric acid to a level up into the dome to ensure it got as much coverage around the firebox and manifold as possible. I saw the occasional bubble so something was happening. Then water started coming out of the cylinders and dripping down from the smokebox which when opened showed the water coming out of the blastpipe.

I'd say the acid cleared some scale away from the loose thread where the regulator collection pipe screws into the regulator body. It also means the regulator valve is leaking because it's been closed for the entire time - I didn't want to fill the cylinders and steam chests with water! I hope no oil finds it way back from the cylinders and steam chests into the boiler.

Being the red loco, this was not entirely unexpected and I was pretty sure a leak would show up somewhere. I'll have to fire it up later this week and see what the result is. Although it fooled me last year when I ran it for 5 hours without a problem on it's stand!

The damage done I'll leave the acid in there for a few more hours to try and get some benefit from it around the firebox.

[suctionhose]

David,
I've recently done a citric acid clean in one of mine having evaporated an estimated 2000 litres water since new.

The cleaning happens when you boil up the acid brew. I left the citric acid boiling (in steam) for 3 hrs before blowing down and flushing.

Hard to get the dislodged muck out of the boiler. On the first run on the track, the sloshing around got the muck floating and blocked water gauges after an hour.

Another blow down while muck was suspended in the water got it out and no further problems thereafter.

Just a heads up for first steaming after the acid - high potential for blockages!

[David]

Thanks Ross. I'll flush the current lot of acid out today and see if anything comes with it, then when I steam it up I'll fill it with fresh acid before closing the dome top. I'll do that at home, hopefully this week, then I'll do it's first run on the track at a work day or something in case it does what you say.

To keep the acid in at pressure did you light it up but keep everything closed so you didn't use any steam and then just keep the pressure for 3 hours?

[suctionhose]

Feb 18, 2020 21:07:31 GMT David said:

To keep the acid in at pressure did you light it up but keep everything closed so you didn't use any steam and then just keep the pressure for 3 hours?

Yes the engine just sat there with 20 to 40 psi on the clock. I gave it a regular sloshing back and forth. It takes some time to see flakes of scale appear in the water gauges but that's an indicator of success.
I think the continuous boiling and agitation once on the track is what gets the softened scale into suspension in the boiler. Don't let it settle. Into the steaming bay and drop the lot asap.
While this is the first washout on this boiler, I've done this many times on various engines over the years. My dad and I noticed a cycle of about 200 hours steaming worked for us. That would vary with work load and local conditions; Orange being hard water compared to Sydney. We used to do it with dilute HCl but citric is easier to get now and just as effective.
Other club members simply add a cup full of vinegar to the tender once in a while and blow down several times during the day. I like what I'm doing because of prior experience mainly.

[David]

Thanks Ross. I saw Shawki mentioned the cup of vinegar in the tender and that seems a simple and cheap thing to do. E&J sells some boiler treatment stuff which I'm planning to try too.

I was choosing some AMEs to take to a doctors waiting room a few minutes ago and noticed a blue traction engine with a coiled hose on the cover of one ... thought it looked familiar! Very nice.