first a few words how the Mayflower came to me.
Hutzel that's what it says on the name plate of the Merlin Mayflower, which I recently bought in an Austrian online sales platform for what I think was little money.
Hutzel, according to my research, means shriveled, dried pear in northern German dialects, sometimes unflattering for an older (dried up) lady.
The Mayflower was not wrinkled but oily, dirty, probably in operation for the last time in 2018, batteries between the frames were from this date of manufacture. The Loco probably built in the 80s.
Placed on a rolling road, filled with gas, water and oil. Lit the burner. After a few minutes, steam will develop. The safety valve remained quiet, as did the pressure gauge. A few half hearted turns of the wheels, but in slow motion.
Gas off and the locomotive dismantled.
The burner, built as a slot burner similar to earlier Regner burners, burned outside the tube, only on 2-3 slots.
My guess is he gets too much air at the nozzle, tinkered a cuff and pushed it over the air holes.
A fine wire mesh is bent into a small roll and pushed inside the burner.
Now more flames on the slots.
But a burner that is operated outside the burner tube shows a different flame pattern than inside the boiler, burner tube.
I also cleaned all bolts of the linkage from oil deposits, re-lubricated and screwed in again with a little screw locking, the bearing bores look quite good, no great wear.
The next time it is fired, the lubricating oil comes out of the top screw connections of the lubricator.
The old seal, probably a piece of rubber, had a crack, as did the plastic button for the gas regulator, probably a result of the thermal load.
A matching O-ring was added for the oiler filler plug and drainage screw.
Turned a new gas control knob out of plastic.
The boiler was also cleaned, the screw on the back wall of the boiler was inoperative and showed a suspicious oil film. Wash the boiler several times with a degreasing agent and hot water and also with vinegar against possible calcification.
Now the wheels were moving very cheerfully in the forward / reverse position of the valve.
The sleeve for the air holes turned out to be in vain, the burner ignites quite well even without it via the chimney.
I also removed the wire mesh in the burner again, it works fine even without these mods.
For the use of the blind screw in the back wall of the boiler, I considered between a water feed or a steam whistle. I chose a steam whistle.
A small fitting for the Regner pipe valve was soldered with silver solder, a servo installed.
Regner's whistle did not emit many tones apart from bubbling water, exchanged for one from a Chinese dealer, this sounds better now, see video.
Otherwise I have replaced pretty much everything that was worn or defective over the years by the operation of the - how many? - previous owners.
Unfortunately there are a lot of small blue paint splatters all over the locomotive, as if a paint spray can had exploded nearby, these are very stubborn and I also removed some with paint thinner. But it would be a tedious task to remove them all. You can see them in the pictures, some are on the sheet under the boiler, so only for ants to see.
I leave it that way, I've polished all tarnished brass parts, I don't attach great importance to the fact that a machine corresponds to the model - whichever model - right down to the last rivet. It should work technically and it does now.
A current video from this morning or afternoon would not have been possible on the terrace of my house, we currently have a good weather phase, sunshine every day and temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, even with sun protection it is no longer bearable in the afternoon.
Of course I cheated a bit, the nice exhaust blow comes from a Summerland Chuffer, the slow speed from a self-built Momentum Van - two Z-cars - built in.
2 Z-Cars, maybe a little too much, it's very loud. But it works.
Last weekend - after a long time - there was another meeting of people who build and operate steam models, on a large layout -45mm- I set them to this gauge, I could run several gas fillings, no particular problems, for a Merlin from the 80s .
There is still a few work to be done, some rivets for the front and rear buffer beam, other couplings, the Merlin couplings are simple sheet metal brackets and are not attached at the right height.
Oh yes, my questions as I mentioned at the beginning. In this forum I read that the threads of the many banjo screws are M5 x 0.5, that's true. The slot of the drain plug on the oiler was very - how should I put it - destroyed. I turned a new screw. The rest of the screws used give me some puzzles, which -british- threads were used here?
If someone knows this, I would be very grateful for any hints.
The thread of the safety valve is also such a thing, was able to speak to a very experienced model maker at the steam meeting when I showed him the valve, we measured a diameter of the thread of approx. 5.88 mm and, according to a Witworth thread gauge, a thread gauge Thread 24G 3/16 “, but that can't go together like that, was it a mystery even for this experienced model maker?
If you are interested, I will continue to report here about the progress and modifications to my Merlin.
Greetings from Austria, Gerald
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