Garden Railway Forum

I haven’t bothered posting this up until now as it seemed like there was plenty of Ellie builds on the go, but now it’s reached an interesting stage I thought I’d share it. The other half bought me the Ellie build book for my birthday. I started off by building the motor, pretty much as designed using the laser cut bits from Camden.



It worked but I didn’t like the idea of it not being self starting or easily reversible as the plan is to run it rc in the end. So I started working on a doubling acting twin cylinder motor, based on the single one but doubled up essentially, with inspiration drawn from some internet searching. The chassis is standard jackshaft ellie but with sealed bearings instead of bushes. I did have some issues with clearance on the gears and motor mounts but ended up soldering on a piece of threaded hex and loctiteing studding in to mount the motor on, this also allows for fine adjustment of the gear mesh which is handy.


Quite surprised with how well it runs if I’m honest! Next to tackle is the burner and boiler, thinking I may stick to the standard meths design with some minor modifications, but gas is also tempting…

Everybody's "Ellie" is going to be different. I love them. Tony Bird's is really good, and this one has some interesting different features. I really like your steam motor and the mechanism.

It runs very nicely, and I think self starting is important - unless you just want it to run round and round in circles. So nicely modified.

I am interested in the modifications to the steam motor. You mention wanting it to be reversible, but I can't see how it reverses. Is it going to have a remote reversing valve - of the type it was designed to have?

Trevor

It’s a nice design that lends itself to modifications, be interesting to see how they all turn out. Trevor, I did think about trying to build a reversing valve into the port block, but I’m a bit limited on tooling so decided to have it separate and will most likely be off the shelf to save a bit of time. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Reversible-c ... 635-2958-0 - this is what I had in mind.

Got the burner/meths tank made up and painted with vht the other day. Pretty much as per the book but with slightly bigger tubing and a threaded insert to retain it in the chassis as I didn’t like the idea of trying to wiggle a pin in there.

Garethh wrote: ↑Sat Jan 08, 2022 12:12 pm It’s a nice design that lends itself to modifications, be interesting to see how they all turn out. Trevor, I did think about trying to build a reversing valve into the port block, but I’m a bit limited on tooling so decided to have it separate and will most likely be off the shelf to save a bit of time. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Reversible-c ... 635-2958-0 - this is what I had in mind.

It looks quite a nice reverser - and I am sure that it will work fine. You cant buy every tool at once - and I am sure you will make your own reversers soon enough!

Trevor

Managed to get the boiler finished up yesterday, it’s a standard Ellie boiler with the addition of some heat exchange pins as advocated by tony bird. I also changed some of the bush threads to allow me to fit a water top up valve and wee bee safety without the need for an adaptor.
Just needs a hydro check and fingers crossed will be good to go

Runs quite sweetly, that. Love the screw-adjustment for the gear meshing.

So, things suddenly progressed quite quickly with this due to some enforced time at home due to that pesky virus that’s doing the rounds. Luckily I managed to get the boiler tested before going down with it.
Then over the last 2 days made up the firebox and sorted all the plumbing.
And then it was ready for a steam test. First attempt didn’t go so well as the springs on the motor weren’t strong enough to make a good deal, so I swapped them out for some stronger ones and now she seems to go fairly well.



The side exit exhaust was supposed to be temporary but I kind of like it in a strange way…

Been chipping away at the Elle and got the bodywork and rc install done. It works but not 100% happy, it’s a bit reluctant to get started, as you can see in the video there’s exhaust up the chimney before it starts moving, I’m thinking the tolerances in the Chinese reversing valve may not be up to scratch and it’s letting steam past. Also it runs out of pressure fairly quickly, I’m hoping this can be solved by some wick adjustments but it could be a by product of trying to run 2 double acting cylinders off of a boiler designed with 1 single in mind.

That's a lovely model, shame about that Chinese reversing valve.

I wonder if it'd be better off with a lower gear ratio so the engine runs slower and presumably uses less steam. With it being a more powerful twin cylinder double acting unit it shouldn't need as aggressive gearing down as the original design?

I want to start on an Ellie too, with significant grades on our line it would have to be self-starting and RC, so it has been useful and inspiring looking at your build.

You may be right about the gearing, but now the cranks are drilled and pinned it’s a pain to change it unfortunately. I deliberately geared it low as my little line has some nasty gradients on it. I’m hoping as it runs in and loosens up it’ll be a bit more efficient, and hopefully some burner tweaks will get it producing a bit more steam.

Not to sure what I can do about the reversing valve so any suggestions are welcome!

One thing I’ll mention is that if you’re looking at the jackshaft version, the original lubricator design fouls the jackshaft crank, which is why I moved it to the ‘drivers’ area.

First proper running session on a visit to a mates line, definitely improving with use. Keeping trains light for now but feels like it’d pull a fair bit more.

Sounds very powerful! Are you going to see how much it'll pull once run in?

It goes better than expected, it’ll definitely get worked a bit harder once it’s run in a bit! Still looking at ways to get it producing a bit more steam though, think a burner redesign may be on the cards