A loco lifetime

[mugbuilder]

These were the component parts for the fabricated cylinder assembly.

[mugbuilder]

The injectors are now fitted. The clack with the hard rubber balls can be seen going through the running board.

[steamer5]

Hi Barry,
Nice bit of plumbing going on there!
I’ve mentioned it before on another thread here, I’ve had issues with nitrile balls, they seem to work very well for sometime & then begin to give issues. By chance I found that mine had either got out of round, or had been had a “seat” impression which meant they pass. Being on 3 mm in dia not easy to decide which! Suck & blowing thru them would give a good seal & then not & back again.
I’ve only ever seen one reference to the fact that the seat for a nitrile ball shouldn’t be flat, rather a small taper to increase the sealing surface, & decrease the chance of a seat impression. I haven’t tried this as I’m not sure I could pull it off! I’m going to move on to silicon nitride balls & see how that goes following Rogers advice to use the ball to form the seat by careful use of the vice as a press.

Cheers Kerrin

[mugbuilder]

Hello Kerrin, Some of mine have been there over 20 years without any trouble at all. The seat should be 3/4 the size of the ball and should be seated with a steel ball the same diameter as the nitrile one and be verticle. Occasionally they will leak a bit until pressure builds up but then be ok. I have used them dozens of times always with complete success.
Mind you ,I never fit them to close to the boiler as this keeps them cool and there may be a problem if they get too hot. If they are mounted with the feed into the boiler below the water level then they may drip when there is no pressure in the boiler.
Regards, Barry

[Jim]

I like your idea Barry of fitting inline clacks where the situation permits both for ease of maintenance and keeping the clacks cool.

Jim

[steamer5]

Hi Barry,
Thanks for the reply! Another bit of info that I haven’t seen or heard before! Great stuff!!
Lightbulb goes on.......the clacks are mounted on the boiler! Ok half way down the length but still subject to boiler temp when not feeding water. Hmmmm I’ll have to have a think / look to see if they could be relocated, the loco is Nigel Gresley.


Cheers Kerrin

[uuu]

I just have a feeling I'd like to see all openings of the boiler guarded by a clack or valve directly on the boiler. Have another clack remotely by all means, but don't miss out the close-up one.

Now I don't know if this thought is backed up by any rule or best-practice statement - it just feels like a safe approach.

Wilf

[steamer5]

Hi Wilf,
I totally agree!
Real life work with steam is like that, there are a couple of exceptions but for a very good reasons.

My plan is to replace the nitrile balls with nitride, but I’m going to investigate the idea of placing another non return upstream.
It’s a pity that we don’t have a section on here to capture all these great ideas for the various auxiliary parts to make is easy to find in the future.

Cheers Kerrin

[mugbuilder]

Hello Wilf.
What do you consider is the problem? The worst that could happen is a ruptured or broken pipe which always has the posibility to scald anyone that is too close. In my 60 years of model engineering of have never encounted this.
It would not be any worse than a burst water gauge glass that can scald the driver. This is not an unusual occurance and they can really explode at times. Most 5" gauge and smaller don't have 3 cock valves that can be turned off and I wouldn't like to put my hand on one that has burst to turn it off. Some boiler inspectors insist on fusible plugs be fitted to the firebox crown. This may seem to be a good idea at the time but it has shown not to be as if the plug does burst it can and sometimes does blow the fire out through the firebox door burning the driver. It has happened.
In my experience people [usually passengers] get hurt ,not from boiler problems but from falling off trains. We can never fully prevent this from happening.
Another point to make is that injectors require the minium number of sharp bends or restrictions in their delivery pipes and an extra clack does this. Also it is not easy to make a realistic scale clack fitted to the boiler.
Regards, Barry

[Jim]

I couldn't agree more with your observations Barry. Having had a burst gauge glass on my Burrell and looked with caution at the required copper syphon tubes in the fire box of the Burrell's Briggs Boiler. If one of those burst due to fire thinning of the copper tube some serious damage could be done to the driver.

Jim

[mugbuilder]

G,Day Jim, Brigs boilers have hurt more drivers than any other boiler incident due to the firebox circulating tubes bursting and blowing the fire out the door. Ben D. has first hand experience as does Craig H with blown firebox fusible plug. The plug let go not because of low water but because it felt like it at the time.
Regards, Barry

[mugbuilder]

About 5 years ago we had a new very keen 17 year old join our club. Shortly after he purchased a part built 'blowfly' 0-4-0 rolling chassis. He had no equipment and in a moment of weakness I offered to help him finish it off.He came around a couple of afternoons a week and I helped him gain some knowledge with the build. I happened to have been given a finish machined set of simplex cylinders and after a bit of thought we decided to fit them to the frames and drive the valves through rockers. He was a bit keen on Koppel locomotives and we altered the upper works to look like one. We built a superheated 'Blowfly' boiler [ during which i received a very serious burn on the back of my right hand] and gradually finished it off. It turned out to be a great little engine,powerful and free steaming.

[mugbuilder]

This is a variation of the NSW 'Standard goods engines' that I made some years ago. It is a '53'class 2-8-0 in 5" gauge.
This one is fitted with a Commonwealth turret tender. Most of these engines were fitted with these tenders mid way through their long lives.

[mugbuilder]

Been a bit distracted from the 24 class over the last several weeks due to some work that I have been doing on a friends engine. He is building a 5" gauge NSW 21 class 2-6-0 that was purchased from Baldwin in the 1880's. There is a limit on the machining that he can do himself so has left the mechanical work to me. There is very little information on the full size engine and as a result it is a bit like reinventing the wheel every time I do something on it. The cylinder castings were cut down from a very small 7 1/4" design with intergrated half smokebox saddle and the only drawings that we have is a blown up HO gauge drawing. I have done the cylinders, pistons, slide bars motion bracket,side rods and crank pins. he has done the frames, bufferbeam, brake gear and cylinder drains. A break from it for a while will let me get back to the 24.

[mugbuilder]

The owner also did the wheels ,axleboxes etc.

[Jim]

Were they the Baldwins that operated over the Lithgow Zig Zag Barry?

Jim

[mugbuilder]

Possibly Jim. I don't know much about them as they are rather unusual and not to my taste.
Barry

[mugbuilder]

Started on the backhead detail beginning with the cladding.

[mugbuilder]

Most of the backhead fittings are now in place.

[mugbuilder]

Backhead done and ready for the roof.