Спасибо Kirill for posting your Brunel photos.
Here are some of my Brunel loco.
I was supposed to get one from the original batch but Mamod would only use a courier service and as I was working away from home it was sent to a customer in Australia instead. Then we had the bad winter of 2010 where courier companies refused to take deliveries for Scotland, so I had to wait until March 2011 to get my Brunel loco.
I had 2 problems with the gas burner.
1st is the burner was too close to the edge of the circular cut-out in the chassis and was affecting the flame pattern with the flame being drawn under the chassis floor. Looking at the markings on the bottom of your chassis floor in your 2nd photo you probably have the same problem. I moved the burner on its mounting closer to the middle of the boiler to stop this flame creep problem.
2nd is the gas tank gets very warm from the chassis being heated up by the gas burner and so the gas starts to pulse causing a changing flame from the burner. I fitted a felt pad under the tank to try and reduce this heat transfer, and the pulsing has now gone.
To regulate the speed you need to mark the throttle wheel with a line then keep an eye on how far open you turn this wheel (and your wheel is metal whereas mine is the earlier plastic one which does slip with the heat). I also mark the wheel on the gas tank for the same reason.
Interesting to see your style of exhaust pipe. Is that how Mamod supplied it or have you made it out of the straight pipe that Mamod supplied?
When I received mine it came with no exhaust pipes and I had a lot of problems with the exhaust condensate washing away the lubrication on the drive shaft. When I asked Mamod they said it should have been supplied with exhaust pipes (which they sent out, although explained that a vertical pipe beside the chimney had not been recommended by the review that Garden Rail had conducted on this loco, but should be left up to individuals). They sent me out 2 exhaust pipes plus a try at a vertical pipe as well. I asked why the valve block had 2 exhaust ports (previous valve locos only had 1 exhaust port) and was told it was to improve lubrication. However I decided to block off 1 exhaust port by soldering in a screw, and experimenting with the 2 styles of exhaust pipe to see which works best.
Certainly the loco could do with being fitted with a condensate trap so the vertical steam does not affect the ceramic burner. My Brunel gets very oily during use.
Chris Cairns.
