Lubricator position

[ron]

I've normally fitted a diplacement lubricator on the inlet steam line but I was wondering how one would work fitted directly to the side of the steam chest, not on the inlet pipe, some engine designs don't lend themselves particularly well to making a neat installation on the inlet line, anyone any experience or comment,
Ron

[Tel]

No experience with doing it, but I can't see why not.

[spurley]

Displacement lubricators rely on a supply of steam to condense into water and thus displace the lubricator's contents into the steam chest. Therefore normal practice is to arrange them i'in line' with the steam chest steam supply. I am not sure if a lubricator fitted and supplied only with steam chest steam would work as well as one in the supply. However, a lot of full sized locomotives had 'tallow cups' (look a bit like brass onions!) arranged above each cylinder which would allow steam to enter the cup and then displace the contents, whether tallow or oil. I think for yours to work I would arrange it in such a way for both gravity and displacement to do the business.

It is probably not relevant for stationary engines but the oil supply should be constant when an engine is running, locomotives could potentially starve themselves of lubrication if a seperate supply to the lubricator was not available when running with steam shut off. GWR locos have the steam supply to the lubricator arranged to be regulated via a link from the main regulator handle.

Cheers

Brian

[baggo]

Hi Ron,

On the Station Road Steam website there is a photo of a Stuart No. 4 which has the lubricator screwed into the steam chest as a seperate item, so it's been done before!

John

[ron]

Cheers John
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, I think I'll give it a go, I was a bit reluctant to drill and tap a hole in the steam chest in case it didn't work, but I couldn't think of any reason why not, and it certainly makes for a tidy installation on the Victoria.
Thanks also to Brian and Tel for your replies.
Ron