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Post by Roger on Oct 10, 2024 12:35:04 GMT
I suspect you won't really notice much difference in efficiency until you start looking at things like water and coal consumption over a full day. At this scale it does make a difference, but not enough to notice lap by lap, if you see what I mean. You have the patience of a saint; I'm desperate to see this in action! It will certainly be interesting to see how it pans out. I don't think we tend to notice much about efficiency, as long as the supply of Steam is plenty for what we need. However, I once drove a friend's Locomotive that was in such a dire state that you had to keep the blower on hard, all of the time, and the fire almost White hot with the bypass almost closed to be able to generate enough Steam. The Club Locomotives are pretty well sorted out and well designed, but if you get one or more of the bottom flues blocked, you can be in real trouble when you're pulling a full train. My point is that the margins on some designs may not be that great. People like to talk about a free Steaming Boiler, and what this says to me is that the potential rate it can produce Steam is greatly in excess of what's needed. The bigger that margin, the easier it is to drive, because you don't get caught out so easily when the pressure is low, the water is low and the fire is low, or any combination thereof. Obviously you try to stay on top of things, but you get my point. So my aim is to use the Steam as efficiently as possible, while having the capacity to make much more than I need. This is why I've gone for more Superheaters rather than less. Time will tell, but it's fun trying to figure these things out.
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Post by Roger on Oct 10, 2024 15:09:51 GMT
Time for some plumbing, this time for the RH Injector. First up is the 4mm Steam Feed Pipe... PXL_20241009_210127981 by David Buckland, on Flickr I didn't show it, but all of the Flanges have a shallow location pocket for the pipe which not only makes it easier to set up, but also makes it a lot stronger. All of the Flanges are made from PB102. PXL_20241009_210132679 by David Buckland, on Flickr ... which looks a bit peculiar here, but it's the effect of the flux. PXL_20241009_210559723 by David Buckland, on Flickr This is the Water Feed Pipe... PXL_20241010_094402859 by David Buckland, on Flickr ... and the other half of it. PXL_20241010_101612625 by David Buckland, on Flickr I find that two turns of the 0.5mm Silver Solder wire is about right for the fillet I want. I wind it around a drill shank that's 1mm smaller than the pipe size. PXL_20241010_101620765 by David Buckland, on Flickr You can see the groove for the 1mm section O-ring. The bolts are M1.4 Stainless which are screwed into threaded holes in the Injector Flanges. Obviously these should be nuts and bolts, with a gasket for the seal. I'll live with the lack of noticeable nuts for the sake of convenience. PXL_20241010_110248402 by David Buckland, on Flickr The brass unit on the end of the pipe is a coupler. This is a Water feed pipe, so there's no pressure. I've used two 1mm section O-rings in that to make sure it forms a good seal, even if the pipe isn't perfectly smooth and round. PXL_20241010_110346705 by David Buckland, on Flickr This pipe goes from the LH Pannier Tank Water Valve, heads forward, then dives under the Boiler behind the Firebox, and then back to the RH Injector. Hardly ideal, but hopefully it won't pose a problem. PXL_20241010_110721566 by David Buckland, on Flickr This pipe passes across the top of the two Blowdown Valves, and it's impossible to thread it through once the Boiler is in place. I could have decided to install the pipe along with the Boiler, but that makes it a bit too much of a Chinese Puzzle. This way I can remove the pipe without taking the Boiler off. pxl_20241010_144839279 by David Buckland, on Flickr So this is how that ends up looking... pxl_20241010_144901169 by David Buckland, on Flickr ... and for reference, this is how it looks on 1501, so tolerably close. I'll make the overflow pipe when the Rear Steps have been fitted, because the pipe runs back to those, exiting through a hole in the support bracket. DSCN5646 by David Buckland, on Flickr
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Post by andyhigham on Oct 11, 2024 21:14:17 GMT
I suspect you won't really notice much difference in efficiency until you start looking at things like water and coal consumption over a full day. At this scale it does make a difference, but not enough to notice lap by lap, if you see what I mean. You have the patience of a saint; I'm desperate to see this in action! It will certainly be interesting to see how it pans out. I don't think we tend to notice much about efficiency, as long as the supply of Steam is plenty for what we need. However, I once drove a friend's Locomotive that was in such a dire state that you had to keep the blower on hard, all of the time, and the fire almost White hot with the bypass almost closed to be able to generate enough Steam. The Club Locomotives are pretty well sorted out and well designed, but if you get one or more of the bottom flues blocked, you can be in real trouble when you're pulling a full train. My point is that the margins on some designs may not be that great. People like to talk about a free Steaming Boiler, and what this says to me is that the potential rate it can produce Steam is greatly in excess of what's needed. The bigger that margin, the easier it is to drive, because you don't get caught out so easily when the pressure is low, the water is low and the fire is low, or any combination thereof. Obviously you try to stay on top of things, but you get my point. So my aim is to use the Steam as efficiently as possible, while having the capacity to make much more than I need. This is why I've gone for more Superheaters rather than less. Time will tell, but it's fun trying to figure these things out. With my 3 1/2" "Lucky 7" its just a case of chucking as much coal and water in as is physically possible. Those big 2" cylinders consume a lot of steam!
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Post by Roger on Oct 13, 2024 21:07:48 GMT
The Cab top half is bolted onto the bottom half with M1 nuts and bolts if it's going to be close to scale. However, this is really too small and fiddly to be practical. So I've decided to drill out the M1 clearance holes to 1.1mm and tap them M1.4 This avoids having nuts altogether, while using bolts that don't look unduly large. It's a compromise, because I don't want this to be a nightmare to maintain. As it is, there will be 12 M1.4 bolts to undo to get it apart. So here's a supporting arrangement so I can drill and then press firmly down to get the Tap to bite. I think they're a bit blunt, I ought to get some new ones. PXL_20241013_204724586 by David Buckland, on Flickr
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