Garden Railway Forum

Jackf88 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:58 am Next up is opening up the valve covers and re-setting all the valve timing, used a vice to press on the cranks and it has improved the running - still some movement but no horrible noises! However setting up the timing from all of it being off without opening up the valve covers proved unsuccessful

Also will be ordering the body kit soon, have seen a few LA's without the rear bunker which I quite like so may leave it off.
Still haven't decided on a colour.

Awaiting a name plate - brass on a black background 'Scafell Pike'.

And finaly at some point I need to pick up my chuffer from royal mail; who finds 'open 9-1' useful?!

Making good progress. I can't help with the valve timing, but it looks good so far.

Most of the Lady Annes without bunker I've seen are the coal fired versions. However it's your locomotive, so go with what you think best. For colour schemes, why not have a look at http://www.lightline16mm.com There are a lot of colour schemes there that might provide inspiration. I think I've chosen the colour and name for my next locomotive. Just have to decide which locomotive. I might order the nameplates though.

Ian

If you watch the end of this video my SL is being towed by a gas fired Lady Anne without the bunker (I like the look of it as well):

Yeah I like plain, and then put a brake vac bag on there, looks more prototypical to me? Like the back of an l&b loco etc. Maybe a set of fire irons.

No fireman wants 3 places to shovel from

IanC wrote: ↑Tue Jun 19, 2018 12:57 pm

Jackf88 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:58 am Next up is opening up the valve covers and re-setting all the valve timing, used a vice to press on the cranks and it has improved the running - still some movement but no horrible noises! However setting up the timing from all of it being off without opening up the valve covers proved unsuccessful

Also will be ordering the body kit soon, have seen a few LA's without the rear bunker which I quite like so may leave it off.
Still haven't decided on a colour.

Awaiting a name plate - brass on a black background 'Scafell Pike'.

And finaly at some point I need to pick up my chuffer from royal mail; who finds 'open 9-1' useful?!

Making good progress. I can't help with the valve timing, but it looks good so far.

Most of the Lady Annes without bunker I've seen are the coal fired versions. However it's your locomotive, so go with what you think best. For colour schemes, why not have a look at http://www.lightline16mm.com There are a lot of colour schemes there that might provide inspiration. I think I've chosen the colour and name for my next locomotive. Just have to decide which locomotive. I might order the nameplates though.

Ian

Thanks Ian, yeah I think I've seen that site, that's what makes me think I'd like a br lined black livery - so many options! I guess at the end of the day it's not a massive deal to change the colour!

FWLR wrote: ↑Tue Jun 19, 2018 8:13 am Love your paint work by the way…..

Thanks! Im not sure it'd stand up to closer inspection quite so well!

FWLR wrote: ↑Tue Jun 19, 2018 8:13 am Great name Jack….

Thanks- it has personal meaning as well as sounding appropriate as a loco name

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Tue Jun 19, 2018 1:22 pm If you watch the end of this video my SL is being towed by a gas fired Lady Anne without the bunker (I like the look of it as well):

Great video Tom..Love that line indeed. The water feature is very impressive.

Great scenes Tom and wonderful slow, smooth running. Lovely locos and stock.

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Wed Jun 20, 2018 10:41 am Great scenes Tom and wonderful slow, smooth running. Lovely locos and stock.

Yes,agreed, a pleasure to watch, it is soothing to see trains at real speeds. It is simply a joy to watch a steam loco move like it is a train.

Fairly minor update, got round to fitting my chuffer and also spent ages resetting the valve timing from base principals and it's much better again but not perfect. Might end up handing it over to someone who knows! Really please with the louder exhaust and less mess out of the chimney!

I'll be ordering the body soon but as I'm moving house pretty soon I think it may have to wait a couple of weeks!


Also; does anybody know the lead times on the slomo?

Jack

A chuffer is must for gas locos, as you say you can hear the loco work now.

Have a watch of Chris Bird's video regarding valve timing:



You are looking a couple of months for a Slomo but email Terry and check (I know he is on holiday in August).

The Slomo will also help out with your timing not being perfect although you should aim to getting the loco running properly before fitting:

http://smallsteamperformance.com.au/wear-issues/

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:05 am A chuffer is must for gas locos, as you say you can hear the loco work now.

Have a watch of Chris Bird's video regarding valve timing:



You are looking a couple of months for a Slomo but email Terry and check (I know he is on holiday in August).

The Slomo will also help out with your timing not being perfect although you should aim to getting the loco running properly before fitting:

http://smallsteamperformance.com.au/wear-issues/

Yeah cheers, I've seen that, the beat has a good rhythm to it now, I suspect if I could run it with a slow Mo like he has it'd sound similar, i guess the slow Mo allows you to do the fine tuning much easier as you can literally hear the invidual steam beats.

Id also like to get a pair of rolling roads so it's not just running in the air - I would imagine that in lieu of a looped running line this would be the best way of running it in?

Short running video:

https://youtu.be/LNkAm_nmbeA

Jackf88 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:17 am... i guess the slow Mo allows you to do the fine tuning much easier as you can literally hear the individual steam beats.

I can't imagine a more difficult way of setting valves than by adding in a Slomo. The device changes the running characteristics of the loco so much by adding drag and mechanical loading and by changing the acceleration and deceleration performance that I reckon it would be almost impossible to set the valves correctly. In my view too, the chuffer pipe doesn't help either as it creates back pressure in the exhaust and so affects the running again. Valve setting is something that needs to be done with the loco in uncorrupted condition and, once done, you can then add whatever trinkets you like to change its performance away from how it was designed to operate.

Jackf88 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:17 amI'd also like to get a pair of rolling roads so it's not just running in the air - I would imagine that in lieu of a looped running line this would be the best way of running it in?

Yes, a good plan. With the wheels dangling the axles are sitting in the bottom of their bearings, rather than being pushed in to the top as they would be when running on a track.

I agree with Tony.

Ah - makes sense! Just wondered as matey has a slomo in the video about timing!

The funny thing about that is that when he made that video, he hadn't released the "slomo" device yet... nor had he mentioned anything about it in any of his videos. I was building a "Billy" kit at the time, and apparently so was he, as he had a few videos of the unfinished loco on Youtube. I was astonished at how well it ran. He commented on having bushed the driving and connecting rods, and some other little improvements but never mentioned the "slomo". By the time his valve-timing video came out, some people were beginning to speculate that he must have some kind of flywheel contraption in there, but he still kept quiet, until the contraption was ready to go to market. In retrospect it was a pretty clever marketing strategy.

I had a difficult time with the timing on my engine, not a terrible time mind, but being a bit obsessive I spent a long time trying to get the exhaust beats right. It turns out I had almost microscopically bent one of the expansion links. I remembered doing this because it was slightly touching the lifting arm. I didn't think it would matter but it did. I readjusted the lifting arm and all was well. Seems silly in retrospect.

The other thing is, one needn't have the die-block all the way up or down in the expansion link. I found my engine ran smoothest with the die-block travel restricted to less than full travel. The reverse lever is set so "forward"and "reverse" are ever so slightly less than full travel.

Seems like you are experiencing a good time building your engine. I think having some engines available as kits is a great service to garden railway enthusiasts, definitely assmbling my own engine was the most rewarding activity and gave me confidence to later modify the locomotive the way I liked. I look forward to seeing yours when you are finished.