Helen Longish

[baggo]

Thought I'd post a few pics showing progress so far on the latest project. It's my version of the 2-1/2" gauge 4-8-4 tank loco (Helen Long) built by LBSC for J A Josslin. I've called her Helen Longish because she's sort of based on the original but I've added a few ideas of my own.

The three cylinders are 7/8" bore by 1-1/8" stroke (see thread on fabricated cylinders), valve gear will be Walschaerts with the inside valve driven by Gresley conjugated drive. All axles are fitted with needle roller bearings and I've made extensive use of Peek bearing grade material where possible, more as an experiment rather than any other reason. Boiler barrel is 3-1/4" diameter and the firebox is 6" long which should make firing rather interesting. Working pressure will be 90PSI. The only castings used so far are the wheels (still waiting for the bogie wheel castings!), everything else has been either fabricated or cut from the solid.

Time taken so far is about a year of pretty intensive workshop time but a lot of that time has been taken designing and drawing out plans for the loco as well as cutting metal. I'm hoping to have the chassis running on air by Xmas and the loco in a steamable state by the spring, but we'll see! Next job is the valve gear which I'm not looking forward to!

John

[spurley]

Hi John

What an excellent looking machine and top class workmanship. Not surprising really as you appear to be working in an operating theatre ;D

Cheers

Brian

[chameleonrob]

very nice indeed, i'd like one in 7 1/4! I assume the the backhead hasn't been soldered yet otherwise you could have a problem...

rob

[baggo]

Brian - you should have seen the tools/junk/rubbish I had to move out of the way to make room to get the loco on the bench! ;D Believe me, I am definitely not one of the world's tidyest workers! I start out with good intentions but...

Rob - no, it's not soldered yet ;D I got the boiler to this state so that our local boiler inspector could give it the ok before finally fitting the internals and fitting the stays. I've another boiler for my 2-1/2" A1 in the same state for the same reason.

Funny you should mention building one in 7-1/4". I had an email recently from a chap in Oz asking if I had a set of drawings as he wants to build one in 5"!

John

[lancelot]

Hello John,
Is it too early in the day to say what the wearing properties of ''PEEK'' might be, I am thinking of the use of it for the valves on a ''CORLISS'' build?
All the best for now,
John.

[baggo]

Hi John,

I can't really say about the PEEK until I get it under steam which probably won't be until the New Year. I don't think there will be any problems with wear but I am a bit concerned about whether it will stand the temperature (in my case). I'm fitting the boiler with two radiant superheaters extending to the back of the firebox rather than just the end of the tubes so the superheat will be fairly high. I wouldn't think there would be a problem with saturated steam. It's supposed to withstand a working temperature of 260 degrees Centigrade but we'll see!

John

[ron]

Hi John
It's looking great, I'm more in appreciation of other peoples boiler making skills now that I've dabbled a bit, well done.
Ron

[Shawki Shlemon]

First I want to say well done. Why are you concerned about peak temperature as the boiler will only be subjected to temperature produced by 100 psi .The steam in the super heater may be higher temperature but it will not affect the boiler as it is only in the super heater going to cylinders.Super heater is an accessory and not part of the boiler . Every thing will be OK .

[Myford Matt]

First rate work (and pics), thanks for sharing

[alanstepney]

Just had a look at your website, which I saw on another steam site.
(http://www.baggo.copperstream.co.uk/me/locos/25inch/helen%20longish/helen.htm)

Superb work on "Helen" and an excellent write-up.

[Myford Matt]

Just wanted to add my appreciation of your website too. I've just started an LBSC Pansy and will definitely refer to your website as I progress through its construction.

Cheers

MM

[Phil Sutton]

Nice work John.

[baggo]

Thanks for your kind words on the loco and the website

I must admit that I got the inspiration for the website from two others that I came across:

www.saunalahti.fi/~animato/steam/

mokei-jouki.hp.infoseek.co.jp/index_e.html

I thought it was a brilliant idea to be able to follow the building of a loco etc. from start to finish, warts and all! I got a lot of ideas and inspiration from the two sites and, hopefully, others will from mine. I think such sites are very useful for anyone just starting out as they can see just what they are letting themselves in for ;D

I only hope I can complete most, if not all, of the projects mentioned

John

[Myford Matt]

Totally agree John - I've been following the Japanese site for a year or two and the Finnish one intermittently.

Keep up the quality, cheers

Matt

[baggo]

Hi all,

Just a quick note on Helen's progress. I've spent the last couple of days giving her a steam test after completing the boiler. Great fun! ;D

I used the propane torch through the firehole as the heat source as I didn't want to muck around with a proper coal fire just yet. As expected, the PEEK valves were still too tight as the pressure (and the temperature) rose so I had to keep removing the valves and skimming a few 'tenths' off and trying again. Must have done this at least six times till I was happy! Fortunately it's easy to remove the valves and reset them afterwards. As mentioned in an earlier post (by Chris Vine I think), the valves showed tight spots mainly in the centre of the bobbin where they are exposed to the incoming steam. I'm not sure of the cylinder temperature when running but my digital thermometer reads to 150° C and that disappears off the scale! I reckon we're looking at 170° plus. The superheaters are radiant type which extend right to the back of the firebox.

I managed a run of about half an hour last night. She ticks over nicely with the regulator just cracked open and the gear notched up nearly to the middle. I did notice however that the oil in the lubricator didn't seem to be going down so I have a suspicion that it's not doing it's stuff and the valves have probably been running dry!. I'll have a look at that today and find out why.

I got a bag of steam coal from Signal Fuels of Ripley yesterday (they dropped it off at my door!) so I just need to make the ashpan and the grate!

John

[ron]

Great stuff John.
Ron ;D

[baggo]

Another quick update on progress. Took Helen to the 2½"gauge rally at Rugby on the 10th for the official steam test which was passed with no problems. I had half hoped to give her a run on the track but everybody said' Well, are you going to run her then!" so I didn't really have much choice. I borrowed a driving trolley and next thing I was on the track thinking "oh dear, what if this all goes terribly wrong!" Bear in mind that I had never driven a loco at all before let alone one that was completely unproven. To make matters worse, the first stretch of track from the traverser is a steep uphill gradient which a lot of 2½" gauge locos struggle to get up. Anyway, put her in full gear, opened the regulator gently and away we went. No slipping at all and nice solid exhaust beats. She accelerated rapidly up the gradient as though it wasn't there and reached the curve at the top at a fair turn of speed (or so it seemed to me!). At this point I closed the regulator a bit and wound the reverser to just off middle gear and we carried on nicely until I lost pressure about 3/4 of the way around. I was far too concerned about not falling off to worry about the fire!Pushed her back to the steaming bays and had a second go building the fire up. Peter de Salis Johnston gave me some different coal he was experimenting with ( a long flame steam coal which makes quite a bit of smoke!) so I mixed that with the coal that I had. The second run was much better and I completed two laps with the safety valves blowing off all the time. After stopping to build up the fire again ( I didn't try firing on the run - too much to think about!) we completed two more laps in fine style. This was fun!! ;D
Did another three laps before losing the fire again (let it get too low) and decided to call it a day.

All in all a very satisfactory first run. One of my biggest doubts was the ability of the boiler to produce enough steam but those fears appear unfounded. She runs with the valve gear well notched up so the valve gear design must be ok and she seems to hold the road well and seems very steady on the track. Can't wait for the next run!

Unfortunately in all the excitement I didn't manage to get any photos but I am hoping some will be forthcoming as everyone seemed to be taking photos and videos of the run. All that remains to do now is fit the boiler cleading and finish the cab plus a few small bits and bobs. I'll run her till the end of the season and then strip and paint over the winter ready for next year (after thoroughly reading Chris's book!)

A couple of pics of her undergoing steam testing on the rolling road prior to Rugby:

[chris vine]

Hi John,

Sounds like you are having a lot of fun.
I am interested that you found the same as I with your valves rubbing mainly at the inside edges of the bobbins. I expect the steam temp is above 170C. I don't know what pressure you work at but 120 psi is already 180C saturated.

Did you turn the bobbins slightly tapered to counter the differential expansion??!!

I wonder if you might benefit from sharpening the blast a little (I know it is the easy way out) but when in mid gear with well made valves and cylinders there is not much steam to fill a blast pipe. I know on Bongo that when you notch right up, you get wet when driving but stay dry in full gear so there is not much puff left in the exhaust in mid gear. One day I hope to run on a continous track and see if things change when the superheaters get really hot through......

Look forward to seeing the paint job!!!!...

Chris.

[baggo]

Hi Chris,

Yes, it's a great feeling when something you've made actually works! ;D
The boiler is pure LBSC apart from an extra tube sqeezed in. The superheaters however are radiant and extend right to the backhead so there's six inches exposed to the fire. I reckon the steam temperature is pretty high (200°C plus) even though working pressure is 90psi. Cylinder temperature is well over 150°C which is the limit of my digital thermometer. Valve gear is my own design to formulae given in Martin Evan's book. The dimensions were put into Charles Dockstader's valve gear software and tweaked to give equal cut offs at both ends of the cylinder etc.
In the final stages of valve fitting I kept removing the bobbins and relieved the high spots (those polished) using a fine flat needle file rather than turning as it was easier to remove very small amounts this way. This was mainly on the centre of the bobbins so the valves are probably tapered now!
I'm hoping to have another running session on July 7th and I'm going to turn up some sleeves to fit into the blast nozzle with different size holes and see if there is any improvement in the draughting. As you suggest, the present nozzle may be too big and give too soft a blast when notched up.
I have yet to decide on the colour scheme but I think the loco looks so much like a Hughes Baltic that I may decide on Crimson Lake!
Cheers,
John

[spurley]

Hi John

How about the 'photographic grey' applied to the Brighton Baltics, with L.B.S.C on the large tanks, just before grouping? That way you also have a chance to pay homage to LBSC as well as having a subtle variation on normal paint jobs but remaining prototypical too.

By the way this is only an opinion, it's your loco and you've worked hard to get to this stage. I'm sure she'll look great whatever colour you finally decide upon! Brilliant work!!

Cheers

Brian