Nearly There

[ron]

Looks like i'm going to finish right in the middle of winter


The brakes are on the rear four wheels only, not enough room on the front ones and the cylinder drain cock design is courtesy of Dr J.
The brass bar through the 'cowcatcher' will be replaced by steel when I get some!
The dome cover is finished but too shiny for flash photography
Ron

[lancelot]

Cracking job Ron...Well done.
John.

[mutley]

nice work Ron. What colour are you going to paint it?

Andy

[baggo]

Looks really good Ron. I've no doubt it will run as well as it looks

John

[jgb7573]

A good looking engine. Well done! And steam engines still, work in winter time ;-)

[drjohn]

Looks magnificent Ron - you're beating me!

Yesterday I took the bull by the horns and poked 50PSI into the new boiler to test the Stroudley regulator and steam connections - plus of course the whistle and was pleasantly surprised by the lack of leaks.

What colour scheme are you going for?

DJ

[ron]

Hi
Thanks for the kind words, the plan now is to dismantle it and paint the chassis, I don't think I'll paint the upper parts until all the bugs have been ironed out, Baggo seems to have more faith in my work than me
Colour wise I'm not really sure, I've plenty cellulose left over from car spraying, but it's Sapphire blue which is a bit corny for a tank engine and Chris didn't seem to be over the moon about cellulose for locos in his book. John, I've also got plenty black celly
I've nearly finished a cheapo driving truck and I've made up nearly 100ft of track panels [50 more to go ], so I think the effort over the winter night be better spent getting the track layed, weather permitting.
Ron
PS Steam locos work OK in the winter, not so sure about Ron though ;D

[drjohn]

Hi Ron - this is the colour scheme I'm going for, and as we're 7,000 mile apart, I doubt anyone is going to compare ;D



I think it looks neat - and would blend with the TR!!

The BR logo is too big, so I've settle for Precision Paints' "large 3 1/2" one.

DJ

[Laurie_B]

Excellent work Ron.It has been very interesting to follow the progress of your loco on this site
Never mind though,Spring is just around the corner,as they say!

[drjohn]

Ah, but Laurie, by spring, the idiots in Cern may have got their particle thingy working again and make a black hole for us all to disappear down

Go for it by Xmas, Ron!

DJ

[Laurie_B]

Ah yes,Dr John,the giant particle accelerator!
If the scientists want to study a black hole,all they have to do is look at the banking sector,where large amounts of money seem to have disappeared -never to be seen again!

[sapper]

BR Logo's are both the same hand and not a pair as sold by the dealers. The one on the platform side faces forward, the other back. The story goes that BR would not pay the Royal College of Heraldry for two seperate designs. Sorry but you need to buy two sets of transfers.
Sapper

[drjohn]

Perhaps I should start a new thread ...There!

Apart from transfers and maybe lining I'm done with this one.

[drumkilbo]

Looking good John ! Fit's next ?

Ian.
P.S. Plenty o' sna' back in yer mither country.

[sapper]

Hi Drjohn.
The engine looks great, you will have lots of fun when you steam up and start giving the kids rides. Simplex is a powerful engine and will make short work of a heavy load.
It was a good move to change the screw reverser for a pole and moving the regulator to the top makes for easier driving.
I fitted a gauge glass to the end of one of the side tanks so that I could see how much water was left. Sapper

[drjohn]

Thanks for the comments - I removed the now superfluous pictures of "almost there".

As to a sight glass in the tank, sapper - they were difficult enough to seal without any more holes ;D

Anyway, what about a picture of your black 5 in the Don Young thread to inspire me to get the workshop cleaned up and continue with mine?

And Ian - I hope you remembered to put antifreeze in your boiler

DJ

P.S. The Phoenix (Precision paints) transfers were a complete disaster. Apart from the fact that they float off the backing in 12 seconds in our "cold" water (PP say 15 - 45 seconds in lukewarm water), the bl**dy lion turned out to be virtually transparent and consequently invisible on the black paint - and the red lining again was damn near invisible.

So I'll need to dig out my old photo-etching stuff from PCB days and make some brass plates for the sides instead.

[drjohn]

Did a first steam test today with interesting results:-

1) A bit of paint blistering on the smokebox which settled down when it cooled.

2) Mahogany doesn't work as a fuel, but charcoal seems ok.

3) Started up fine but then stopped all of a sudden. The reason being the feed to the axle pump in 1/4" stainless had bent - plus the bolts holding the pump stretcher on one side als sheared - a lot of power in these Simplexes ;D



4) The injector refused to pick-up, but probably because of the high ambient temperature of the water (hence my post in the general bit of the forum)

5) My nifty idea for a bar through the ashpan and another to hold the grate in place are all very well, but when it seizez up with the coupling rod blocking the removal of the ash pan, I couldn't drop the fire. A bit of re-design needed there too.

Otherwise, once I'd ground through the axle-pump feed, and found that it is the axle pump which has seized (odd, because it ran for an hour last night on air, no problem), tomorrow I wil try again without the axle pump.

DJ

[drjohn]

Incidentally, I did check my weeny boiler pressure gauge against the 3 gauges on my compressor, and it checked out OK.

[baggo]

Ouch

[drjohn]

Yup, John, it takes a bit of "poke" to bend a 1/4" stainless bar like that!

DJ