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Post by andyhigham on Jan 24, 2020 20:31:21 GMT
As I mentioned in the "what I've done today" thread I have bought a Hunslet "Alice class" to Don Young's design. It is in pieces! The chassis is in good order, everything feels taught and free of slop. Someone has fitted deeper buffer beams to make it more like a Penryhn loco, these locos had straight frames, the beams look daft on tapered frames. Luckily the original beams were included. The chassis has recently been very badly painted, there are more brush marks and blobs on this than the Forth bridge, Blackpool tower and Eiffel tower combined. I will strip the chassis and take the parts to Ribble Technology www.paint-strip.co.uk/ to take a swim in their magic potion before re assembly and spraying. The cab and tank have old faded and scuffed paintwork, I will probably take these to Ribble before re spraying The boiler, there has been a repair to the super heater flue/ front tube plate joint. unfortunately comsol was used FFS the easiest place to repair a boiler and they used f ing comsol. There is no paperwork other than a photocopy from 1987. I have budgeted for a new boiler but I will give this one a 2 X test to see if it is viable, even just for one season whilst waiting for a new one. By all accounts these boilers make steam for fun, wide firebox and a short fat barrel (6" ID) allowing a decent number of tubes The water gauges will need to be replaced as the blow down cocks are not captive There are two immense mechanical lubricators. My impressions are this was a very well made model, it was sold by SRS in 2016, I wish I'd bought it then www.stationroadsteam.com/5-inch-gauge-hunslet-0-4-0st-stock-code-7256/ |
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Post by andyhigham on Jan 24, 2020 20:54:43 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2020 20:57:02 GMT
That's a nice loco Andy,look forward to seeing your progress in restoring her..
Pete
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Post by andyhigham on Jan 24, 2020 21:06:06 GMT
It should draught well, the chimney is just over a foot tall
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stevep
Elder Statesman
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Post by stevep on Jan 25, 2020 10:09:42 GMT
The paint may well look rough, but it's probably more accurate to full size than a pristine coat.
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Post by andyhigham on Jan 25, 2020 17:37:02 GMT
This I spent a few hours undoing painted over nuts and bolts.
A couple of things surprised me. The horn blocks are cast iron as are the axle boxes. The front axle will not drop out, the wheel flanges just touch the stretcher. I may mill a couple of grooves to allow the axle to be removed. The crossheads are one sided!
The lifting pin for the valve link is on the slot centre line, I believe that it should be 0.1" in front. Does it make a big difference to the running of the loco?
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Post by John Baguley on Jan 25, 2020 18:01:07 GMT
I am sure that there are plenty of Hunslets running built to the drawings but altering the suspension point of the expansion links will certainly help to equalise the cut offs over the whole range of reverser position. If you intend to strip the whole motion then I would recommend doing it. It's not a difficult job to do, just a case of making some new trunnion brackets for the expansion links to move the suspension pins further forward.
John
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Post by Roger on Jan 25, 2020 18:54:03 GMT
If it's anything like our Club Hunslet, you won't get any appreciable benefit from notching up. Ours just gets lumpy so it's normally run in full forward and reverse positions. It's a real workhorse though, and I'm quite fond of it. It hauls three trucks loaded with adults on the ground level portable track at the fetes we attend without difficulty, even on some heavy grades. They're remarkable little locomotives.
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jma1009
Elder Statesman
Posts: 5,900
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Post by jma1009 on Jan 25, 2020 18:57:06 GMT
To deal with Baggo's above post and that of Andy's, I ran the Don Young valve gear on the simulator for Malcom ('rrmrd66') on here,
And Andy you are correct the suspension offset should be 0.1" forward (actually 0.1093"), but there is little point doing this alteration if you don't correct another error with the gear in that the expansion link slot is the wrong radius for the 'OJ' length of the eccentric rods. The correct expansion link slot radius should be 4 5/8" radius. So new trunnions and expansion links should be fitted.
I also did a re-draughting of the smokebox for Malcolm.
I can supply full details if you are interested. I suggested to Malcolm a better more accurate method of fitting the trunnions to the expansion link compared to Don Young's design.
The boiler is indeed a free steamer - have you thought of cutting off the smokebox tubeplate and boiler barreljust aft and fitting a new smokeboke tubeplate further back with a spacing ring to the smokebox? The boiler is quite a lump, and a brand new boiler will cost quite a bit.
Cheers,
Julian
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Post by andyhigham on Jan 25, 2020 19:24:13 GMT
Julian, I would be very interested in any information you have, including the smokebox mods
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jma1009
Elder Statesman
Posts: 5,900
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Post by jma1009 on Jan 26, 2020 23:51:45 GMT
Hi Andy,
Send me a PM with your email address and I will help out as far as I can.
Cheers,
Julian
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Post by andyhigham on Jan 29, 2020 18:31:50 GMT
I was thinking about how to check the eccentrics are in the correct position on the axle. Julian has told me the angular setting, if I draw the eccentric and axle using CAD, I can rotate the eccentric the correct angle then dimension the distance from the axle centre to the front edge of the eccentric.
If I put the axle on a "V" block and place it on the surface table, I can use a height gauge to measure the top of highest position of the crank pin, divide by 2 and set the crank pin to that figure and clamp it. It will then be easy using a vernier caliper and set square to measure the distance from the axle to the front of the eccentric.
Please feel free to tell me if I am completely off track here but I figured it would be easier to do on the surface table than trying to work between the frames.
Any other tips will be most welcome
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jma1009
Elder Statesman
Posts: 5,900
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Post by jma1009 on Jan 29, 2020 20:27:22 GMT
Hi Andy,
You can certainly do it the way you have described, perhaps with a bit of modification, and I think you will find it much easier anyway with a loco with (outside frames and) outside cranks.
Note that an inclined gear such as on Don Young's 5"g Hunslet is quite sensitive to the driving axle running height if not dead on the inclined centre line of the gear normally.
You can do a bit of 'trig' to work out what a 6.75 degrees angle of advance works out as perpendicular to the gear centre line in linear measurements. Or I presume CAD, which I am ignorant of!
Personally, given the very free steaming boiler of the Don Young 5"g Hunslet, and the balanced slide valves, it is one design I would consider very worthwhile to correct the errors in the valve gear; so that you can enjoy a well behaved loco that is a real pleasure to drive, and even more so if you can sit back and drive it on the reverser 'notched up', and with the regulator whacked open, using hardly any coal or water!
Bit bouncy on the track at speed if the leaf springs are too soft. I have a vague recollection that the ashpan and grate will not drop down through 5"g rails, and that the end of the loco had to held up over the end of a 5"g steaming bay for dropping the ashpan etc.
Lovely loco - one of my favourites, and one of Don Young's best designs (with minor niggles over the valve gear).
Cheers,
Julian
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Post by andyhigham on Jan 29, 2020 20:34:41 GMT
My 3 1/2 Conway has the same issue with dropping the grate out, it is inevitable with outside frames and the firebox filling the space between. We have spoken about it at the club and are looking at modifying the steaming bays
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stevep
Elder Statesman
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Post by stevep on Jan 30, 2020 10:23:27 GMT
SNIP I also did a re-draughting of the smokebox for Malcolm. SNIP Julian Sorry to hijack your thread, Andy. Julian, have you ever done a re-work on the draughting of Rob Roy? I'd be most interested. |
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jma1009
Elder Statesman
Posts: 5,900
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Post by jma1009 on Jan 30, 2020 21:16:16 GMT
Hi Steve,
No, but it would not be difficult to do, and I have the boiler drawings, and most of the ME construction series. If you send me a PM we can then exchange email addresses, and if you can then send me the smokebox drawings etc it ought to be an easy task.
Cheers,
Julian
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Post by andyhigham on Feb 6, 2020 8:40:06 GMT
The boiler gauge glasses do not have captive blow down cocks. I believe these will not pass current regs. Commercial 3 cock gauges are bloody expensive and put the glass a long way from the backhead and vunerable to shovel damage. Commercial single cock gauges are offensive to the eye with the valve handwheel protruding such a long way. As an experiment I bought a cheap gauge glass with no blowdown, I drilled and tapped the bottom fitting to take a stationary engine cylinder drain cock. Whilst I was at it I extended the thread that screws into the boiler so I can fit lock nuts for positioning Quite pleased with the result so I have repeated the exercise for the other side  20200206_081446 by Sigma Projects, on Flickr |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2020 9:33:42 GMT
Love it.. what a neat idea...  Pete |
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Post by John Baguley on Feb 6, 2020 9:55:28 GMT
The boiler gauge glasses do not have captive blow down cocks. I believe these will not pass current regs. The fitting of captive valve spindles is only a recommendation (a good one though!) and not mandatory. Non-captive valve spindles would be no reason to fail a boiler.
John
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mbrown
Elder Statesman
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Post by mbrown on Feb 6, 2020 13:58:23 GMT
It will be interesting to see how long the plug cock remains moveable when in service. I used a similar cock as the steam feed to the hydrostatic lubricator on LYN but it quickly seized solid and trying to turn it just bent the handle (which admittedly, was not as robust as yours). I tried using molybdenum disulphide grease (Rocol) but it seized again after a few steaming.
You may be luckier, especially as my water supply was quite hard.
Malcolm
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