Garden Railway Forum

Is cpac water good enough to use for distilled. Or would laboratory grade distilled work ? I read on rh website that some distilled isnt really distilled.

Not sure what cpac water is, I use water out of a dehumidifier, as said it must be dehumidified and NOT deionized water, I also filter my water before use usingc offee filter paper.

It's "CPAP" water, (continuous positive airway pressure). I don't think there's much difference in the context of CPAP machines between de-ionized and distilled water. The thing is, there is a lot of misconception regarding the two, which I am too lazy to get into, and will only start a row anyway. Here is what I would do: use de-ionized water to your heart's content. Mix it with a tiny bit of regular tap-water to reduce its corrosive effect. It won't hurt the copper the Roundhouse boiler is made of, so the worst thing it can do is *maybe* weaken a solder joint over a very, very long time. But even then, it would probably take millennia to do so if you just empty your boiler when you're done playing with the engine and store it with the filler cap unscrewed so it can dry out in there.

If you'll pardon the expression, I think a lot of the hand-wringing over de-ionized water vs. distilled is picking fly-sh!t out of pepper.

What's everyone fuel of chocie for the burner in the states?

Not quite the states, but here in Canada we've basically two options:
1: The pure butane cannisters. I often find these from smaller, often Asian owned markets. They use a non-threaded fitting which makes finding an adapter to fit our locos a bit tricky, but they're out there. The cannister can fit directly to a Roundhouse gas tank, providing there's enough clearance around the filler on the loco to get the cannister in there:

https://www.amazon.com/GasOne-Butane-Fu ... th=1&psc=1

2: Mixed camping gas cannisters. Slightly more expensive, but more widely available, and a standard filler adapter will fit. The isobutane and mixed gasses are nice to have for those that run their locos in colder conditions:

https://www.mec.ca/en/product/4010-931/ ... lour=NOC02

vette wrote: ↑Thu Mar 17, 2022 3:28 am I just got a round house Jennie. Its shipping now cant wait for it. A few questions Frist do i need a pressure gauge? the instructoions say to load up a heavy car for the frist run since it like to jump on the frist runs. I was hoping to get a whistle from DJB engineering Will i need a second servo to activate this whistle? Besides throttle what else should i make rc? What track to they like brass rails?

Pressure Gauge - These are optional on the Basic Series locos to keep the entry level price down. On my Basic Series locos that have no pressure gauge I put a drop of steam oil on top of the safety valve. When that oil starts to bubble it is time to turn the gas down. Running before the safety valve blows is best. If you are fitting a DJB whistle they used to do a banjo fitting that allowed a pressure gauge to be fitted at the same time (photo shows my pre-owned Bertie with a manually operated DJB whistle & pressure gauge).


Priming - Unlike Classic Series locos (whose chassis' are run in on air first), the Basic Series locos are not run in so can be a bit lively on their first few runs. They do have to pull a load around the Roundhouse test track satisfactorily before they are shipped out. I ran my Jennie on blocks first and on track I leave the steam regulator cracked open so the water is cleared from the cylinders initially on raising steam pressure.

DJB Whistle - These can be manually controlled (like the one on my Bertie) or radio controlled.

Radio Control - Roundhouse do a Radio Control fittings kit (BRCK) for the Basic Series locos (not shown on their website). As they are slip eccentric the R/C is only on the steam regulator. The Jennie's tender has a cut out for a power switch & a hole in the chassis for feeding servo wires through from underneath.

Here's some recent running of two Jennie's double headed - mine is the black pilot loco & is doing most of the work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d69J2ARzMRw

Chris Cairns

I love it ran it on block on filtered rain water runs well. I use 30ml of water seems to run out of water before gas. Now I wish I had the pressure gauge. Also what the read sealant do I need when changing to rc

In this video they put in more water the directions say 30ml

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F8hYJFPnBQ

vette wrote: ↑Thu Mar 31, 2022 3:35 am In this video they put in more water the directions say 30ml

I think you may have mis-read the instructions. You should fill the boiler to the top and then REMOVE 30ml water to create a headspace.
This is an extract from the RH steaming instructions:

Thank I did miss read them. Hope I didn't hurt any thing. I was just to excited. Really enjoying live steam thank you

vette wrote: ↑Thu Mar 31, 2022 2:25 pm Really enjoying live steam

Me and many others in this forum too.
Maybe you can show a short video of your Jennie.
I would be very interested personally.

Greetings from Austria
Gerald

You mention LGB cars. The Roundhouse basic locos like Bertie and Jennie have a centre buffer that passes through a slot in the buffer beam and is held to the underside of the loco by a screw. This is actually designed to be compatible with LGB. Just unscrew the buffer and screw in an LGB loop.