Garden Railway Forum

I seem to be getting around a lot Today's unsuspecting line happened to be the Dinorwig Light Railway, the home of Mamods, and today really did end up as a Mamod only day!



Britomart happily trundled round with the rolling stock



Amazing Dan by the amount of fuel the loco needs!



Peace and tranquility



Until Britomart runs through the station (Not on fire I'll add )



Things became even more hectic when Falcon was sent out of passenger duties!



and in the mean time, Britomart carried on giving off a rather good display!









and then disaster struck, Britomart's cylinder end came out again! But that didn't stop it running!



and it may have possibly ended up with this....







Cheers for today Dan!

and it may have possibly ended up with this....

Yep, it doesn't take too large a stretch of the imagination to see the errant cylinder clouting the deck and launching the flaming (lit.) loco off the track!

I must say though, that you were in the right place for a Mamod to have a fault!

DolwyddelanLightRail:64661 wrote:Amazing Dan by the amount of fuel the loco needs!

:tool: James -- a little hint here -- does it not occur to you that if Britomart uses an amazing quantity of fuel, this may be the cause of the inflammatory events ?

Hint 2 -- how about trimming the wicks a little (or a lot) ?

NM - It wasn't the cylinder coming loose that caused it to come off the tracks, the cylinder fell off because it had a heavyish load behind it! It came off the tracks as I set it off ever slightly too fast!

Pretoria - I would trim the wicks down (they were very high for the pictures of the flames above the boiler, and I did pull them out slightly more than normal for some pictures ) but if I do, the loco won't actually steam! We tried it with Dan's Vaporising burner and his normal meths burner, but it just doesn't produce anywhere near the same amount of steam to run! It literally needs to have a high wick for it to steam

Very nice pictures. Good to see evidence of the flaming Britomart. I thought it was just a vicious rumour. Can you tell me what make the red coaches being pulled by falcon are please.

Barry
www.5inchrail.com

Only 4 photos from me, new camera and all.

Running over the bridge




I wonder what was going on here


Oooo pretty fire....

Sound like the boiler is insulated.The boiler needs a good wash out.

All my locos are really coming up for a washout, however I'd be rather worried if the boiler is completely scaled up, as it's been over this side of the country only a month or two at most! and I've not run it that much to be honest, do boiler's scale up that quickly?

As well as the inside of boiler the outside of boiler could do with a clean to.

I guess they can scale up rather quickly it depends on how hard or soft the water is... A good indication would be a kettle? clean it out and then just leave it to see how quickly it scales up?

Or go full size or miniature practice and look at possibly putting in some water treatment? you'd need less than a thimble for a mamod I'm guessing or it'll be constantly boiling over... a weak tea colour is what we want in 15" gauge and 7.25" locos... I've not heard of it being used in 16mm locos before though...

laurence703:64706 wrote:Or go full size or miniature practice and look at possibly putting in some water treatment? you'd need less than a thimble for a mamod I'm guessing or it'll be constantly boiling over... a weak tea colour is what we want in 15" gauge and 7.25" locos... I've not heard of it being used in 16mm locos before though...

Two things -- yes I would say it is good practice. Although corrosion is not an issue, build up of scale reduces heat transfer significantly and can cause local overheating of the furnace -- not going to be a problem for meths burners, but need to be aware for gas burners.

Secondly, boiler treatment should not cause boiling over or "priming" in a clean boiler. If it is priming, it is evidence of the treatment doing its job in dissolving the scale. It would be recommended to properly descale the boiler first, and then use treatment to stop it reforming. However, the treatment works by turning the "scale" into insoluble chemicals which forms a sludge in the boiler -- this will need to be regularly washed out or it will cause more prolems than the scale eventually !!

DolwyddelanLightRail:64675 wrote: I'd be rather worried if the boiler is completely scaled up, as it's been over this side of the country only a month or two at most! and I've not run it that much to be honest, do boiler's scale up that quickly?

This side of the big 'ills, they certainly do. Anywhere that's on limestone or chalk (or gets tap-water from reservoirs that are) will tend do produce incredible amounts of scale and other Charlie Romeo Alpha Papa. Haven't you been given a cup of crunchy tea yet? I wish I was joking. Seriously, you may be able to get away with tap-water at home (and beautiful stuff it is too- took me a fortnight to get used to ours after we came home from our holiday in Wales this year) but round our way it's a BAD idea, even just occasionally or in emergency. Make friends with locals who own water-butts or dehumidifiers, or bring an armful of 5-litre bottles from home.

TD
The LJR (maybe 25 miles from the DLR as the crow flies)

In Suffolk even the rain water is scaley. We get our tap water mainly from boreholes rather than reservation and there is alot of sedimentary rocks such as red crag.

You have to break the top of cup of tea in much the same way as a creme brulee...

  Sounds like scale inhibitors are a must -- but remember to wash out the Charlie Romeo Alpha Papa !  

Pretoria:64712 wrote:

laurence703:64706 wrote:Or go full size or miniature practice and look at possibly putting in some water treatment? you'd need less than a thimble for a mamod I'm guessing or it'll be constantly boiling over... a weak tea colour is what we want in 15" gauge and 7.25" locos... I've not heard of it being used in 16mm locos before though...

Two things -- yes I would say it is good practice.  Although corrosion is not an issue, build up of scale reduces heat transfer significantly and can cause local overheating of the furnace -- not going to be a problem for meths burners, but need to be aware for gas burners.

Secondly, boiler treatment should not cause boiling over or "priming" in a clean boiler.  If it is priming, it is evidence of the treatment doing its job in dissolving the scale.  It would be recommended to properly descale the boiler first, and then use treatment to stop it reforming.  However, the treatment works by turning the "scale" into insoluble chemicals which forms a sludge in the boiler  --  this will need to be regularly washed out or it will cause more prolems than the scale eventually !!

Ahh! that would explain a lot... I can see a certain 7.25" Romulus requiring a new boiler (again) in the future... it tended to prime a bit if you put a tad too much water treatment in... but it is washed out every so often but even then its a club loco and club locos tend not to get the love and care a privately owned loco does :/

Its not hard to wash out a standard mamod boiler from what I've seen just take the fittings off and the sight glass and leave to soak in vinegar or de-scaler for a week! well thats my plan when it requires it...

Kettle descaler is as good as anything -- reasonably cheap, and readily available (Morrisons/Tesco/Asda; W5 products from Lidl I have found to be the best by far). Vinegar is not good around brass as it will react with the zinc and damage it permanently. Certainly I would not recommend a week in vinegar !!