Garden Railway Forum

Go on then: how on earth do you get access to the bunker base?

It is definitely non-trivial to disconnect the rear bunker so you can drill the hole for the silicon tubing - how have other people done it?

I can see two possibilities without disturbing the rear bunker:

1. Long series drill from above.
2. Lay engine on side suitably packed so one corner is accessible for drilling from underneath.

After all it is only one small hole and I'd rather not spend all day making it!

Any advice or experience gratefully accepted.

Ta VM.

Marquis DeCarabas:53619 wrote:1. Long series drill from above.

That is how I did mine.

TonyW:53620 wrote:

Marquis DeCarabas:53619 wrote:1. Long series drill from above.

That is how I did mine.

Splendid - thank-you very much indeed, most kind.

Forgot to say...

The only long drill I had was too small in diameter, so I drilled the hole then opened it out using a round needle file held in a drill chuck and rotated anti-clockwise. Needless to say, you have to be careful not to break the file if you end up doing this!

Thanks for that tip - I had a suitable long series to hand, but might use your advice for deburring the hole.

JOOI how long would would you warm the ½" of water for - a quick squirt or about 5 seconds?

I just give it enough to hear the change in the burner note. It really does not need much, just enough to take the chill from the water that the gas causes.

Leave the valve open when you have finished running and the water in the tank bath will be sucked in to the boiler, which may be a good or bad thing.

As a corollary to the original question (in doing the prep work for fitting the warming valve) - do the gas jets just sort of casually push-fit into the burners - in the condition the engine arrived, the collars were fully clear of the air holes in the burner bodies, but the burners themselves weren't parallel:



You can see that the upper jet in this shot is slightly further out of the burner than the lower burner - the collars have their left hand edge matching the left hand edge of the burner. I've removed the screw reverser for this picture.

Sorry if this is an obvious question - I've got far more experience with Roundhouse burners than Accucraft.

My Accucraft edrig's burner is also a push fit so i pressume thats how its mean to be but then again accucraft never seem to be consistant ifind

Warming valve now fitted and engine prepped for a little romp-ette round Llechfan over the weekend.

Have you removed the exhaust pipe from the smokebox? A two-minute job that transforms the performance and reduces water and gas consumption.

TonyW:54611 wrote:Have you removed the exhaust pipe from the smokebox? A two-minute job that transforms the performance and reduces water and gas consumption.

I'm tempted - you have haven't you? What did you replace the exhaust with - a larger diameter pipe?

Marquis DeCarabas:54612 wrote:I'm tempted - you have haven't you? What did you replace the exhaust with - a larger diameter pipe?

I have, and so have many others, as it creates a lot of exhaust back-pressure. You need to replace it with ...... absolutely nothing.

TonyW:54615 wrote:

Marquis DeCarabas:54612 wrote:I'm tempted - you have haven't you? What did you replace the exhaust with - a larger diameter pipe?

I have, and so have many others, as it creates a lot of exhaust back-pressure. You need to replace it with ...... absolutely nothing.

Thats got to be possibly the best mod I have heard of on here! I thought every mod had to cost money..

I have only been following this thread as one day...one day... I will get a NGG16 & I have banked that advice for then.
Thats if one fits on the line of course.

I couldn't work out why mine gave such poor performance and used loads of water and gas to do so. Suspecting the valve timing, I put it on my bench and connected it to my compressor, locked one end in mid-gear and the other in forwards and set it running. It ran OK, and there was nothing wrong with the valves, but seemed to be making hard work of it.

The wheels turned happily by hand too with no resistance or tight spots, so I wondered if it was lack of lubrication or an amount of hydraulic locking. So I opened the drain cocks....

It sped up!

What???

OK... stop and think time. It speeds up when the drains are opened, which means that the problem must lie with back-pressure in the exhaust. Let's look underneath... two 3mm copper tubes (one from each end) take the exhaust to a tee under the smokebox. On top of the tee in the smokebox is another length of 3mm tube that has to cope with both exhausts and only has a tiny hole at the top (in the side of the pipe), so restricting the exhaust even more.

Solution: Remove stupid exhaust pipe. Enjoy an engine that performs as it should, and chuffs properly when under load rather than just making a hissing noise.

A friend of mine had his NGG16 in pieces for other work and went one step further than this by boring out the smokebox tee as large as he could, but the difference this makes is negligible and not worth the dismantling unless you are doing so for other reasons.

Pendo Pilot:54617 wrote: Thats if one fits on the line of course.  :D

Well; one day I shall visit the Elmdon Light Railway to see RAH(I), it isn't outwith the bounds of possibility that we could both come over and see you. My NGG16 will be leading a peripatetic existence for a wee while.

Here is a picture of the exhaust pipe:



TVM to TonyW for the tip.

Marquis DeCarabas:54623 wrote: Well; one day I shall visit the Elmdon Light Railway to see RAH(I), it isn't outwith the bounds of possibility that we could both come over and see you.

That sounds like fun.

Just now, my line is only around five times the length of this loco! But, a further seven feet or so of trackbed is nearly ready for tracklaying, which will bring the line up to around seven and a half NGG16s.

hussra:54624 wrote:

Marquis DeCarabas:54623 wrote: Well; one day I shall visit the Elmdon Light Railway to see RAH(I), it isn't outwith the bounds of possibility that we could both come over and see you.

That sounds like fun.

Just now, my line is only around five times the length of this loco! But, a further seven feet or so of trackbed is nearly ready for tracklaying, which will bring the line up to around seven and a half NGG16s.

Elvis Trundle will be getting her birthday present over the weekend, which is considerably shorter than a NGG16 - that might well come on tour.

Marquis DeCarabas:54623 wrote:Here is a picture of the exhaust pipe:
TVM to TonyW for the tip.

That's the one, and it was my absolute pleasure.

Please say "Hello" if you are at Llechfan on 2nd July as I shall be there that day. It would be good to put a face to a name!

TonyW:54626 wrote:Please say "Hello" if you are at Llechfan on 2nd July as I shall be there that day. It would be good to put a face to a name!

We have met, many moons ago - I think at an NGGT.

Another benefit to removing the exhaust pipe is that at the end of a run the loco is no longer covered in snot, (a technical term for emusified oil)