Garden Railway Forum

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.