The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by FWLR » Mon Dec 21, 2020 9:44 am

She sure is a very nice looking loco... :thumbright:

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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by big-ted » Sun Dec 27, 2020 8:12 am

Merry Christmas all!

Two steps forward, one step back, or something like that...

Frames etch primed and painted in Dupli-color black engine enamel:
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Cranks quartered and pinned. This was a daunting process. I've so far avoided drilling and pinning the return cranks on my Lady Anne, and the timing has never slipped. However, Dylan has the early round axles and cast cranks, all of which are pinned together once the quartering is set. Once I found the right size drill and punch it wasn't too bad. The roundhouse instructions suggest ultimate accuracy is unnecessary and if they look quartered by eye it's good enough. I guess I was slightly off since I had to file out the connecting rods slightly to get it to run without binding, but we got there, and I suspect I could manage my Lady Anne now too.

Next up, repairing the exhaust outlet on the cylinders. I went with a silver-bearing plumbers solder, as silver soldering seemed unnecessary. Not the tidiest job but functional:
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And now, I've hit a snag. Seems the 6BA x 1/2" screws needed to mount the cylinders to the frames have gone missing from my kit. There is zero chance of me being able to source these in Canada. (I've previously asked friends who are both machinists and mechanical engineers if they know where I can source BA hardware, and they've all looked at me blankly.) So, my options are:

1. Hope that Roundhouse carry them. The modern kits use M3 allen screws, presumably the allen key allows for better access between the frames. Not sure Roundhouse will have 6BA Allen screws. I have some other bits to order from Roundhouse in the new year...

2. Order from Another UK supplier. EKP Supplies seem to offer 6BA threaded steel allen screws.

3. Drill and tap the frames and cylinders to M3. This would require me to undo my exhaust repair, and drill through my freshly painted and assembled frames, but would allow me to use the stock of M3 allen fasteners I have on hand, and not wait for the new year and the post...


Needless to say, my patience is going to be tried to the limits....!!

In the mean time, I guess I'll start on the burner and the bodywork. I've figured out which pieces go where, although the smokebox vexes me as I can't see how I'm going to solder the front and wrapper together without leaving unsightly gaps...
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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by philipy » Sun Dec 27, 2020 8:34 am

A quick ebay search for 6BA x 1/2" steel allen screws brought up cap head and countersunk versions. Admittedly they are UK suppliers but a quick search of Ebay Canada brings up the same results and appears to suggest they would post to you .


https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from ... len+screws

https://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... len+screws
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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by invicta280 » Sun Dec 27, 2020 4:38 pm

I asked a clockmaker friend if he had any small nuts and bolts. He said 'How small? 'I said 'Ooh, 6BA? He replied 'That's enormous!'
Nevertheless, he found some for me. Know any clock repair people?

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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by big-ted » Sun Dec 27, 2020 5:38 pm

philipy wrote: ↑Sun Dec 27, 2020 8:34 am A quick ebay search for 6BA x 1/2" steel allen screws brought up cap head and countersunk versions. Admittedly they are UK suppliers but a quick search of Ebay Canada brings up the same results and appears to suggest they would post to you .


https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from ... len+screws

https://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... len+screws
Good suggestions, thanks. Yes, there's a few places in the UK that I'm sure will ship to me. Rather than pay the eBay fees though I'm leaning towards ordering from these guys:

https://www.ekpsupplies.com/

They also carry brass 6BA hex head screws to replace all the buffer beam cheese-head screws, so I can justify some cosmetic upgrades on the basis of splitting the postage... ;)

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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by Old Man Aaron » Thu Dec 31, 2020 2:11 am

G**damn we have it easy with today's RH kits. But you're taking this one all in stride, hat's off to you. That Duplicolor eng. enamel is good stuff, I use it on my locos and Mamod stationaries too.
Regards,
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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by big-ted » Tue Jan 05, 2021 9:05 pm

Overdue update on account of temporarily killing my laptop over the holidays... :oops:

I decided to bite the bullet and get to soldering the bodywork. The cab and side tanks were basically the same as my Lady Anne, so no surprises there. The smokebox and saddle tanks took some creative setups to clamp everything in place whilst I soldered everything, but it wasn't too difficult:
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Roundhouse don't have the instructions for these older models anymore, but I'm muddling through. It looks to me like the rear lamp brackets are intended to be fixed on using these 'rivets.' The only way I can think of fixing these is by hitting the shaft of the rivet from the backside in order to round it over though?
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The other mystery is what I believe is the battery box. I think it goes on the underside of the cab roof as on my Lady Anne, but it's a very different shape, and I'm not sure how it accommodates the likely 4 AAA batteries...?
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I did have the realisation that, in with all the screws are what I thought were 2 1" 6BA hex head screws. In fact, these are two lengths of 6BA threaded rod with nuts on the end. I guess either Roundhouse's or the previous owner's intention was that these each be cut in two 1/2" lengths for mounting of the cylinders. However, the limited space between the frames makes me a bit nervous about this approach as there isn't room to get pliers or other tools in there should I need to extract something, so I'm inclined to be patient and wait for the right screws. BA screws have been procured and should be with me in a couple of weeks. Might tackle some painting in the meantime...

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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by big-ted » Fri Jan 22, 2021 5:38 am

Another overdue update...



A care package arrived with some 6BA bolts courtesy of my Dad, so the cylinders were mounted. Upon mounting the motion bracket these fouled the front cranks, so some material was filed away for clearance. This has been one of the biggest differences between building this and my modern Lady Anne. Roundhouse were clearly more of a cottage industry at the time, with everything being handmade with quite a bit of variation. Nothing the file couldn't fix.
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Edit: Having trouble adding more than two images, despite compressing them down thoroughly. Will split post instead...

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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by big-ted » Fri Jan 22, 2021 5:44 am

Another overdue update...

My kit was missing one firebox end. Simon at Anything Narrow Gauge had warned me of this. The front and rear ends are similar, but differ slightly to clear the inside valve gear. Still, it was pretty easy to figure out the necessary shape of the missing rear end from the front. Now, sure, I COULD have cut one by hand, but where's the fun in that? Instead, I took the excuse to learn to use the laser engraver at work. You have to slow it down to cut through the 0.4mm brass sheet I'm using, but you get an incredibly accurate part out at the end...
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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by big-ted » Fri Jan 22, 2021 5:46 am

With the cylinders mounted, I could now set the valve movement and timing via the eccentrics. I confess, this is probably my favourite part of building a loco as it's very satisfying once you get an understanding of what's going on and therefore how to adjust things to optimise performance. With a few tweaks, and liberal oiling, I was able to get the chassis to run on air remarkably smoothly in both forwards and reverse using the old bicycle pump method.
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Whilst pleased, this actually surprised me as the chassis still feels very stiff when trying to roll it by hand. So much so that one of the wheels came unglued from it's axle when I tried to reverse the direction of the eccentrics. $#^#$%^!!!

So I had to buy some penetrating Loctite after-all. Permatex is a more common brand over here. The equivalent to Loctite 603 is a sleeve retainer 64050. There are two products, both called sleeve retainer, with 64050 being much less viscous, and therefore more suitable. With this fixed, and a bit more effort, here's where I'm at as I type:
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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by big-ted » Fri Jan 22, 2021 5:52 am

Next, onto setting the wicks in the burner. I decided to discard the original asbestos string wicks in favor of a modern equivalent. The included "Roundhouse Guide to Spirit Firing "was very helpful here. One thing I found helpful was to actually let the burner run dry once or twice before the final setting of the wicks, as the ends of the straggly bits of wick tend to get burned off, which calms the flame down considerably.
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So, at this point, I'm ready for a steam test! I will leave this for the weekend however when I have more time and daylight.

I've still a few unsolved problems on the bodywork. I still need to figure out the battery box and rear lamp irons. I also need to figure out my servo mounting. Since the servo sits slap bang in the middle of the cab doorway, I'd like to hide it somewhat. I've bought a HiTec HS-82MG, which is the metal gear equivalent of the HS-81 of what I'm reliably told is the servo Roundhouse use in their factory R/C installations. However, it's a micro servo. My Lady Anne definitely used a full-size servo, so something doesn't add up here? Still, I'm going to try and use the micro servo. I think I'm going to install the servo mount as intended in case I want to fit a standard servo later, but then build a box/adapter to fit my micro servo and a receiver inside. We'll see how that goes!

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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by FWLR » Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:08 am

You really have done a superb job with the laser engraver/cutter Ted. You persistence will have its rewards with a very fine and excellent loco when you have finished it. :salute:

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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by Old Man Aaron » Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:35 pm

Looks great. A nice job you've made of setting the wicks, too.
Regards,
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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by big-ted » Sat Jan 23, 2021 4:22 am

Old Man Aaron wrote: ↑Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:35 pm Looks great. A nice job you've made of setting the wicks, too.
Appreciate this. My only experience of meths firing to date is with the old mamod trays, so setting wicks was new to me. My wicks actually sit slightly below the tops of the tubes, but the Roundhouse instructions say they shouldn't be "more than 1/8 above" the tops, so I guess I'm ok? Sort of? Certainly seems the flames are giving the appropriate size & color...

There's also a lot of debate about what fuel I should be using, as nobody sells "methylated spirits" or "denatured alcohol" here. Best I could find was "methyl hydrate" which sounds like it has a much higher methanol content than stuff used in the UK. Again, we'll see how it goes!
Last edited by big-ted on Sun Jan 31, 2021 4:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by GTB » Sat Jan 23, 2021 12:12 pm

big-ted wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 4:22 am There's also a lot of debate about what fuel I should be using, as nobody sells "methylated spirits" or "denatured alcohol" here. Best I could find was "methyl hydrate" which send like it has a much higher methanol content than stuff used in the UK. Again, we'll see how it goes!
Methyl hydrate is one of the older names for Methanol. Also known as wood alcohol and methyl alcohol, among numerous other names. Methanol is the correct chemical name though.

I would imagine methylated spirits/denatured alcohol supplies have dried up with the ethanol being diverted into making hand sanitiser. That said, here in Oz you can still buy methylated spirits from the local supermarkets and hardware stores.

I've read about methanol being used in small steam locos, but it wouldn't be my first choice of fuel.

1. - it's very toxic. A fatal adult dose can be as low as 10ml and only 5ml can cause blindness. It can be absorbed through the skin as well.

2. - it has a lower heat of combustion than ethanol. What that means in English is that, relative to ethanol, you will need to burn a third more methanol by volume to boil a given amount of water.

I guess that the burner would need to be set up specifically to use methanol. Maybe by packing the wicks less tightly, so the methanol burns faster.

Regards,
Graeme

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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by big-ted » Sat Jan 23, 2021 5:43 pm

Hmm. Very interesting. Thanks Graeme. Yes, I was aware that it had at least a much higher methanol content. I suppose it makes sense that methanol is more readily absorbed through the skin than ethanol given its a shorter molecule.

My other options seem to include a naptha (petroleum) based stove fuel, lacquer thinner(!) or I did find this stuff:

https://www.staples.ca/products/2980779 ... kcQAvD_BwE

It claims to be 80% ethyl alcohol, but it also claims to be moisturising. & It's eye-wateringly expensive...

Needless to say, none of these options seem appealing!

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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by GTB » Sun Jan 24, 2021 11:58 am

big-ted wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 5:43 pm
It claims to be 80% ethyl alcohol, but it also claims to be moisturising. & It's eye-wateringly expensive...
Methylated spirits/denatured alcohol is about 95% total alcohol. Apart from the stratospheric price of hand sanitisers, they don't have enough alcohol to make a decent fuel.....

Some campers/bushwalkers still prefer to use spirit stoves, instead of gas. Check the local camping/outdoor shops to see what fuels they have available. From a few things I've read, I suspect that in North America spirit stoves are set-up to burn methanol, as it's difficult to get suitable ethanol based fuels.

The way forward is probably to set your burner up to use methanol. Petroleum fuels like naptha, kerosene, etc. don't burn cleanly in a burner designed for alcohol.

......unless the local moonshiners can supply 190 proof white lightning. 8)

Regards,
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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by big-ted » Mon Jan 25, 2021 3:40 am

Well, the first steam test was....


A total failure.

It gets up to pressure, but opening the regulator just sends jets of steam out the exhaust pipes & the wheels show only mild inclings to turn over.

On the one hand, I'm not surprised, as the chassis feels very stiff. To the point where one has to press down on it to generate enough friction at the wheels when pushing it along a block of wood. This is in stark contrast to my Lady Anne which positively glides along. There's also a few obvious steam leaks around the valve chests. Again, not surprising given the seals have sat dry for 20+ years. I have a cylinder rebuild kit ready. But it runs so well on air?! Granted, the gauge on my bike pump isn't super accurate but past experience suggests it over reads, & everything turns over smoothly at 20psi?!


Also the matt black paint I used on the firebox (Tremclad high heat) is garbage & wiped off as soon as I wiped off the first drops of hot oil with a cloth...

So... I think I'll strip off the boiler & see if I can free things up a bit, rebuild the cylinders, then try again. Next weekend...! :D

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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by Jimmyb » Mon Jan 25, 2021 8:57 am

Sad when the first test fails, but then, sometimes the joy of the hobby is the investigation, solution and final fix. Failures (for me) always provide learning curves in a new area of the hobby.

So, good luck, and I am sure you will find the solution.

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Re: The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

Post by big-ted » Sun Jan 31, 2021 4:38 am

Minor update: turns out my cylinder rebuild kit doesn't fit. My Dylan has the smaller (1/2”?) cylinders. I didn't even think to check. I'm a bit surprised, to be honest, as Roundhouse's museum section says the modular kits were introduced in 1987, but they switched to the 9/16” cylinders in 1984. So now there's a question of how old my kit actually is?!

The stiffness seems to be in the eccentrics. I basically 'lubricated' it with a mild abrasive & gave it a few air pumps to try & loosen it a bit. It seems to have worked moderately, as I did have a slightly more successful steaming attempt in the week, where it ran for about 20 seconds under its own steam before running out of puff. There's a few steam leaks from the old hard gaskets & fiber washers. I'll cut some new paper gaskets on the laser at work next week & see if I have some replacement washers for the safety valve & boiler plug.

I'm still hoping that, once I can get it to run under steam the stiffness will subside as it breaks in.

We keep plugging away...

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