Rebuilding a 3.5" LBSC Pamela/Bulleid "Blackmore Vale"
Jun 11, 2020 4:47:51 GMT
dhamblin, ilvaporista, and 14 more like this
Post by osiris09 on Jun 11, 2020 4:47:51 GMT
Hi everyone. I'm a long time lurker and rare poster but thought i would post my rebuild of a 3.5" Pamela which has been rebuilt at some point to resemble a Bulleid Pacific, namely the Blackmore Vale.
Prior to me owning the locomotive, it belonged to a Mr R. Mathews of Lancing. He moved out to NZ 30+ years ago and brought his Britannia, Pamela, and Simplex with him. Once here they never steamed again. After his death his family sold all of his locos which is when i got it. If anyone knows of these locos, I'm interested to learn of their history. The Pamela was at some point a normal pacific as i still have the original tender for the loco and some original paintwork remains under the faring.
The above is when i went to view the locos while they were up for auction. To be completely honest i wanted the Britannia, however i knew by looks, the Blackmore Vale would be the cheapest at the end. I was correct and it went for quite a bit less than the other 2.
I knew that i was in for issues when i brought the loco as being english, with no nz boiler certificate i knew there was a chance that it might not be accepted by a club. But as there was room in the boiler code for imported boilers i thought it was worth the risk, especially when it was silver soldered rather than soft soldered. I also thought that it would be an easy rebuild. Its amazing how quickly easy rebuilds become nightmares. :-)
When i got it home i quickly began stripping it down, wanting to get the boiler off and tested. My plan was to strip, test, reassemble, run, find issues, strip, fix, paint, enjoy.
From here i tested the boiler and found that the wet header was leaking. Someone had tried to seal it with glue. First sign of things to come really. It was an easy fix though with a bit of loctite 567. After another pressure test i confirmed that it would hold pressure and organised a boiler test etc and thankfully passed. During this time i was also stripping parts of the loco and insuring things worked as they should. When this loco was rebuilt it had an extra cylinder added between the frames. The outer cylinders are bronze and the inner is cast. Different to a lot of 3 cylinder locos, this one runs the front set of wheels.
You can see the initial run of the loco chassis here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=stM-VXhHbpI
An initial steaming turned up a few issues, such as a few pipes that weren't soldered properly and were leaking quite badly. The injector also didn't work properly and like the steam pipes the water feed in the tender from the pump wasnt soldered and was dumping most of the water pumped back into the tender. The regulator also leaked and the face needed resurfacing. These issues were fixed and another steam test was done to see what would happen. Apart from the injector not working still, the wheels turned and i thought i was getting somewhere.
You can see the steam test here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-0BvUlwJoE
After this test i took it to my local club on a run day and we had a good look over the loco and fired it up, testing things etc as you do. It was at this point that i realised that when pushing the loco along the track in the steaming bay, it wouldn't go around a corner. it just bound up, and in some cases road up the rail and derailed. You can imagine my happiness at this fact. On measuring the wheels it turned out that the wheels were set far to wide, the flanges were to thick and to make matters that little bit worse, they wobbled indicating the hole wasnt bored true. I think when measuring i worked out that the worst wheel moved 1 - 1.5 mm top to bottom so of course every time it closed up on the rail it jammed, especially on the corners.
I pressed the wheels off and one of the very kind model engineers at the club offered to look at them for me. I dont have the gear at home to work on them and am not sure i could have fixed them. But he did a great job and they are now straight. I did hand over a few bottles of wine for this service as i was extremely grateful.
While the wheels were away, i built a new axle pump for the loco as it had room for 2 but only 1 fitted and the single couldn't keep up with the demand. I designed and had cut a wheel quartering jig for when they were finally returned, and made an eccentric strap from solid for the axle pump.
All of this latest work done while trying to look after now 4 month old twins. As of last night i have all of the quartered wheel sets back in place and thankfully the rods fit and it turns over freely. But now of course the issue is the wobble caused the bushings in the rods to become a slight oval, and really i should replace them. My only worry is of course is that when i machine new ones and fit them the quartering will be out and it will bind.
Here it is rolling again: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaDvoXsqjsk
Still a bit to do, but having wheels again makes me feel better. I will begin the slow process of putting it back together, painting as i go, and repairing and repacking what i haven't yet done. I will no doubt ask questions especially around correct colours etc, as i will need to have it mixed here in nz, so need something close. This was a very abbreviated account of smacking my head against a wall, but its getting there. :-)
Prior to me owning the locomotive, it belonged to a Mr R. Mathews of Lancing. He moved out to NZ 30+ years ago and brought his Britannia, Pamela, and Simplex with him. Once here they never steamed again. After his death his family sold all of his locos which is when i got it. If anyone knows of these locos, I'm interested to learn of their history. The Pamela was at some point a normal pacific as i still have the original tender for the loco and some original paintwork remains under the faring.
The above is when i went to view the locos while they were up for auction. To be completely honest i wanted the Britannia, however i knew by looks, the Blackmore Vale would be the cheapest at the end. I was correct and it went for quite a bit less than the other 2.
I knew that i was in for issues when i brought the loco as being english, with no nz boiler certificate i knew there was a chance that it might not be accepted by a club. But as there was room in the boiler code for imported boilers i thought it was worth the risk, especially when it was silver soldered rather than soft soldered. I also thought that it would be an easy rebuild. Its amazing how quickly easy rebuilds become nightmares. :-)
When i got it home i quickly began stripping it down, wanting to get the boiler off and tested. My plan was to strip, test, reassemble, run, find issues, strip, fix, paint, enjoy.
From here i tested the boiler and found that the wet header was leaking. Someone had tried to seal it with glue. First sign of things to come really. It was an easy fix though with a bit of loctite 567. After another pressure test i confirmed that it would hold pressure and organised a boiler test etc and thankfully passed. During this time i was also stripping parts of the loco and insuring things worked as they should. When this loco was rebuilt it had an extra cylinder added between the frames. The outer cylinders are bronze and the inner is cast. Different to a lot of 3 cylinder locos, this one runs the front set of wheels.
You can see the initial run of the loco chassis here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=stM-VXhHbpI
An initial steaming turned up a few issues, such as a few pipes that weren't soldered properly and were leaking quite badly. The injector also didn't work properly and like the steam pipes the water feed in the tender from the pump wasnt soldered and was dumping most of the water pumped back into the tender. The regulator also leaked and the face needed resurfacing. These issues were fixed and another steam test was done to see what would happen. Apart from the injector not working still, the wheels turned and i thought i was getting somewhere.
You can see the steam test here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-0BvUlwJoE
After this test i took it to my local club on a run day and we had a good look over the loco and fired it up, testing things etc as you do. It was at this point that i realised that when pushing the loco along the track in the steaming bay, it wouldn't go around a corner. it just bound up, and in some cases road up the rail and derailed. You can imagine my happiness at this fact. On measuring the wheels it turned out that the wheels were set far to wide, the flanges were to thick and to make matters that little bit worse, they wobbled indicating the hole wasnt bored true. I think when measuring i worked out that the worst wheel moved 1 - 1.5 mm top to bottom so of course every time it closed up on the rail it jammed, especially on the corners.
I pressed the wheels off and one of the very kind model engineers at the club offered to look at them for me. I dont have the gear at home to work on them and am not sure i could have fixed them. But he did a great job and they are now straight. I did hand over a few bottles of wine for this service as i was extremely grateful.
While the wheels were away, i built a new axle pump for the loco as it had room for 2 but only 1 fitted and the single couldn't keep up with the demand. I designed and had cut a wheel quartering jig for when they were finally returned, and made an eccentric strap from solid for the axle pump.
All of this latest work done while trying to look after now 4 month old twins. As of last night i have all of the quartered wheel sets back in place and thankfully the rods fit and it turns over freely. But now of course the issue is the wobble caused the bushings in the rods to become a slight oval, and really i should replace them. My only worry is of course is that when i machine new ones and fit them the quartering will be out and it will bind.
Here it is rolling again: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaDvoXsqjsk
Still a bit to do, but having wheels again makes me feel better. I will begin the slow process of putting it back together, painting as i go, and repairing and repacking what i haven't yet done. I will no doubt ask questions especially around correct colours etc, as i will need to have it mixed here in nz, so need something close. This was a very abbreviated account of smacking my head against a wall, but its getting there. :-)
