Garden Railway Forum

Rod (FWLR) sent me his Billy recently as he was not happy with how it performed and had concerns that the Summerlands chuffer was not fitted correctly (and you will see he was right to suspect this).

This is how she arrived:


Unfortunately, the loco has had a little accident in Rod's ownership and when steamed it was evident either the timing or return cranks were at fault.

But before looking into the poor running I wanted to see why the chuffer was wobbling about in the smokebox and was not making much of a chuff noise.

Smokebox removed, mystery solved:


I have come across some botched chuffer installs since tinkering with locos but this one beats them all.

Once both exhaust pipes were connected to the chuffer it was on to fixing the running issues.

I played about with the timing but got this far before I suspected something else was wrong as I was not happy with her performance:



Inspection of the return cranks found the culprit, one was not set correctly (possibly from her little trip off the line as the cranks had not been pinned).

Second attempt and much happier with her:



She was ready to go home, however, Rod mentioned he would like the loco to be repainted. I am not a big fan of painting and replied that for a professional look he should use our Tony but as funds were short the compromise was to retain the existing paintwork and to weather away the chipped paintwork to mimic a well used looking engine.

This is what I am working towards although artistic licence has been given by Rod as I see fit:

http://www.rail.co.uk/rail-news/2012/th ... rs-in-usa/

The safety valve bonnet was badly chipped so this got stripped back to brass and then chemically blackened with highlights of high temperature paint. I like the fact I have retained a metallic shine which even the most dirtiest of locos retain:


The sanding gear is up next which is currently being treated to a bath of paint stripper, however, before that I got my rivet counter head on and cleaned up the cuts on sanding pipes while also drilling out holes to represent piping (no one will see it but hey ho):

It is good to see her in safe hands after Rod has already had poor service elsewhere. She still looks a fine locomotive and I spent some time stripping, painting and re-building her very carefully. I am surprised to see the Chuff-pipe detached in this way and can only suggest that at least two journeys in the post, plus the off-the-rails incident wouldn't help. It certainly made the right noises on my line.
As I have said from the beginning, I did not do the initial build and, having no knowledge of such, had to presume all was well. I'm sure she will now give years of reliable and enjoyable service. Thank you Tom.

What paint did you use on the boiler wrapper Peter?

Rattle can acrylic. Possibly Halfords?

She sure does run better Tom. Has for the little accident, that was caused by the eldest grandson, who was extremely upset about causing it to come off the track, but in his defence it was after I had her serviced before and I think I said on my thread about her that I wasn't happy, only reason I went to him was because he was only 1/2 an hour away. You live and learn.

When I got her off Peter, she was in excellent condition and she ran really well, but then I took her to a steam up and she wouldn't light up at all, so a replacement gas jet was installed. But for some reason she didn't run well, although she did pull a long rake of coaches ok, on her own she performed somewhat like Tom got her, but not has bad. so off I went to hat guy...

On the weathering/repaint, she does look a whole lot better already. I am waiting with bated breath to see more of her, by the time I get her back maybe FWLR will have it's track back to operating again.

Thanks Tom

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Sun Jun 16, 2019 7:40 pm Rattle can acrylic. Possibly Halfords?

Would that not start to orange peel Peter. I thought you needed to have a heat resistant paint of some sort....But what do I know really, glad I am leaving her to someone who knows this time.....

I asked about the paint used on the boiler wrapper as it hasn't fared well although Halfords acrylic based paints should be fine (I wouldn't use them for smoke boxes though):


The sanding gear has been chemically blackened but will be weathered like the safety valve bonnet. The brass cover for the sandbox was glued in place for some reason (it screws down) but with a bit of heat I managed to get it off.

I think I will strip the wrapper Rod and paint it black as I want to redo the smoke box as well with a different colour high temp paint so we have some variation.

Sounds good Tom. The Safety valve cover does look good too.

Don't know anything about the sandbox Tom, I suspect Peter doesn't either. But it is coming along great.
By the time my back sorts it's self out, ( I was putting 2 lengths of line down on Sunday ) now it's hurting so much. I will be well on the way to having most of not all of the track down.

Take your time Rod, like I said to you my projects take months not days!

I am Tom, when I feel ok with the back, there will be another straight done only.....

FWLR wrote: ↑Tue Jun 18, 2019 8:21 am Sounds good Tom. The Safety valve cover does look good too.

Don't know anything about the sandbox Tom, I suspect Peter doesn't either.

Absolutely right Rod, no need to glue something which is screwed.

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Tue Jun 18, 2019 10:16 am

FWLR wrote: ↑Tue Jun 18, 2019 8:21 am Sounds good Tom. The Safety valve cover does look good too.

Don't know anything about the sandbox Tom, I suspect Peter doesn't either.

Absolutely right Rod, no need to glue something which is screwed.

Fortunately, Rod's health has improved recently and as his line is up and running again he has decided to take the loco back unfinished but in running order.

Looking forward to seeing you finish it Rod and her running on your new line.

Enjoy,

Tom

Thanks Tom for all you have done for us, we both very much appreciate what you have done.

No problem.

Looks like you signed for it this morning so hopefully you have been running her today in the sunshine!