Latest 'job'

[baggo]

This is the most recent 'project' I've been working on for the last couple of weeks. The owner had this loco built some time ago but had not run it for a few years. Recent attempts to 'bring it back to life' had been pretty unsuccessful and it seemed impossible to bring the boiler up to working pressure, let alone actually run the loco on the track.

I 'volunteered' to give it the once over and found no end of little problems that all added up to make it nearly impossible to build up any pressure in the boiler.

There were numerous leaks on the fittings, the regulator leaked badly (dreadful disc in tube type), the chimney was loose and not sealing to the smokebox, and one of the superheater elements had a 1/16" diameter hole in it!

The chassis is virtually LBSC's Pansy with a few mods. The valve gear on Pansy is a very poor design (thanks to Don for confirming my initial analysis of this) and the builder of this loco had made it even worse by shortening the lifting arms on the weighshaft considerably, making the valve events completely unbalanced. I got around this by making a new weighshaft with longer lifting arms designed to make the cut offs as equal as possible in forward gear.



We took the loco to the track today for a test run and had a good couple of hours running. There are still a few issues which need sorting but the owner was dead chuffed to have it running again. The crosshead pump doesn't work very well (the inlet ball valve has way too much lift and merrily bounces around instead of sealing) and the injector is next to useless. The side tanks get so hot that it just won't work after a few minutes. It really needs a separate feed from a tank on the driving trolley. Apart from that,it runs really nicely now on just a wiff of steam and just purrs along.

I love the look of grim determination on the owners face in the photo below!

[jbodenmann]

Well done Baggo.
Jack

[Shawki Shlemon]

I am sure that you were even happier than the owner , its a good feeling to make someone happy , good on you .

[drumkilbo]

Job satisfaction is all important, well done Baggo. Lovely looking loco too, paintwork looks superb.

Ian.

[drjohn]

Baggo - if I send you the bits for my Black 5, will you finish it for me? ;D

DJ

[baggo]

Probably be quicker to do it yourself John. I seem to be getting further and further behind with things

This was going to be a simple 'cure a few leaks' job but, like a lot of things, turned into a bit of a major operation. Hopefully over the next couple of days I'll get the pump sorted and try and improve the injector performance.

John