Garden Railway Forum

Big Jim wrote: ↑Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:13 pm The new beastie had its first run today. Not as good as I hoped, the blower is blocked and we struggled to raise steam. This was not helped by some rather iffy coal. It was more than happy to pull me around with 15psi, albeit slowly. This suggest that all is okay and once the blower is sorted and some decent coal is sourced, all will be good.

Ah yes, good coal. We got some cheap stuff on the preserved railway where I volunteer and the engines wouldn't steam. My understanding of the blower is that when the engine is working the blast from the exhaust creates a vacuum in the smokebox which draws the fire throught the tubes. If you get better coal and fix the blower and the engine is steam shy, My inclination would be to check the blast pipe alignment. I've seen (and esperienced) that affect the steaming.

Enjoy the locomotive. I suspect they're only teething problems. pulling at 15psi suggests a good engine.

Ian

My thoughts exactly.
The blower was clogged up good and proper, it has now been cleaned and should work okay. It is a bit wet to go and steam it up now but I may get a chance tomorrow.
Regarding the coal, one of our members informed me that as the coal had been acquired last year it had gone off.....
I checked the expression on his face and yes he was being serious. No wonder he only plays with battery engines.

If you can video it in steam Jimbo that would be good to see.

Big Jim wrote: ↑Fri Apr 27, 2018 12:28 pm
Regarding the coal, one of our members informed me that as the coal had been acquired last year it had gone off.....

Didn't you know that? It's like wine, you've got good an bad years in coal. 2017 coal was fine, a bit earthy flavour, but a nice burn and red hot glow. When I read you tried 2018 coal I only thought " why" ???

Big Jim wrote: ↑Fri Apr 27, 2018 12:28 pm Regarding the coal, one of our members informed me that as the coal had been acquired last year it had gone off.....
I checked the expression on his face and yes he was being serious. No wonder he only plays with battery engines.

I couldn't have said that and kept a straight face. Just reading it made me laugh. Made my day.

Ian

A little picture of yesterdays fun. I hope to get some more tomorrow and some videos of the steam up.

Hammer in that shot, work you b@rst@rd!

Coal does go off BTW depending on how it is stored once it's removed from the ground, Google it.

I was trying to scare the steam blower into life.

The link below does show that coal can deteriorate over time. Looking at the way that we store ours and the type that it is, I don't think it would have deteriorated much.

Frankly the chap who mentioned this is not exactly bursting with O levels and the finer points of mineral chemistry are probably a closed book to him.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/18732-storage-of-coal/

Today was a good example for me in coal that has 'gone off'.

I normally run with anthracite coal that I bought with the loco and the blower on most of the time but today I wanted loads of clag so I ran with smokey house coal and wow what a difference no blower and the safety valve kept wanting to blow!

Well, I must honestly say that I had absolutely no clue that coal could get "off".. In the links provided it seems that when stored for a longer time in rain or on a pile outside (where it can get hot in the middle) the flamable content of the coal whashes out or vapourizes. So I also learnt a lesson here..

Erm, coal getting off sounds odd...

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Sat Apr 28, 2018 9:31 pm Erm, coal getting off sounds odd...

Strange but true!

A quick update on the Railmotor.
Any form of modelling has taken a huge back seat at the moment but I have managed to have a couple of steam ups. The down side of large scale steam is that it cannot be played with quickly. At least two hours are needed for a good run from cold and at the moment two hours when my diary is empty and it is daylight are few and far between.

The loco does run reasonably well but I have had an ongoing problem with the water gauge. Initially it was a bit grubby so it was removed to be cleaned. This of course meant that a fair amount of dismantling was needed and various seals were disturbed. I must have not got the glass seated right as it cracked the first time I steamed her up. This means dropping the fire and waiting until things are a bit cooler to dismantle again and then firing up to check things.......

I have managed a quite a few laps around the local track and the grin factor is enormous. However the other factor that has become apparent is that unlike with 16mm steam you end up filthy after a stint on (behind?) the footplate. This became clear when I went of to take an evening service after a steam up and got greeted by a church warden with the comment "Cor, you don't half pong".

Hopefully my diary will clear over the summer and my day off might become a reality again.

If any one is in South West Wales and fancies a steam up with something larger than 16mm drop me a line.

I think I am going to give up on railways, move to Rockall and become an 'off-grid spoon whittler'.

My local ME society have had a steam ban for the past month or so due to the tinder dry conditions and vast amounts of highly flammable undergrowth around. The park where we are located had also banned BBQ's for the same reason (Four major blazes had been due to wally-type behaviour with disposable BBQ's. I mean what kind of twerp empties a still burning tray of coals into a clump of gorse as they didn't want to set the grass on fire, but I digress)


The steam ban was lifted yesterday due to the more traditional summer weather and so I decided to fire up the Railmotor.



I had the best run I have ever had with her, plenty of steam, a good fire and everything else going great. I trundled around the circuit at a good pace for the first lap and then stopped to fill the tanks with water. On opening the regulator she shot off like a scalded cat, I shut the regulator and nothing happened. Have you every tried to stop a small and very hot steam engine that is trying to go like the clappers?

It appears that the regulator linkage has broken or become detached. never a dull moment with steam engines.

Sounds like a really rewarding experience, Jim. As you know, I'm not heavily into live steam, but I can see the attraction of being hauled around by a living, breathing, puffing and wheezing steam loco. I've often wondered how the drivers cope with sitting in the slip stream of the exhaust output. Do you wear goggles?

Rik

My shed-cred would be damaged severely if I was seen wearing goggles.

I have had to buy a second 'clergy issue' Panama hat for best use as my old one is covered with smuts and the odd burnt bit after an afternoon driving one of the club engines.

Much as I enjoy steam in the larger gauges there is a lot to be said for just pressing a button and trundling off behind a battery or ic engine.

I managed to strip the regulator down today only to find that it seems to have more than a passing resemblance to a Mamod's


I still have no idea what caused it to stay open as the lever and rod moved but seemed not to have any effect. I wonder if a bit of crud had got stuck on the face kept the two pieces apart, it all looked good on examination and she ran well on air.

The only thing I can think of, is that after the first run some limestone from the boiler got into the regulatorvalve, lifting the spring and thus opening the throttle to full. When you then try to shut the regulator the limestone acts as a bearingball keeping the valve away from the valveplate.
What happens to the spring when it's getting hot? Does it weaken?

It's a very simple device, it should not be too difficult to get it working properly again..

That is about what I was thinking. The spring seems okay and it appears quite strong. I will steam it tomorrow and see how it goes.

Well the Railmotor is now behaving itself and has now been put away for the winter.
However another engine has appeared on the scene. I was not looking for another steamer but an elderly member of the club needed to find a new home for an engine that he had owned for a number of years.....

Pictures to follow tomorrow when I get back to my PC.