Garden Railway Forum

I've just had some of the plastic tubing in my water filler valve deteriorate and go pop failing the engine. I was planing to take it to a steam up tomorrow - anyone know what I should use to replace it. Tried some plastic tubing from the shed to no avail - it also went pop after a bit.

Mr. Bond of the DVLR:104408 wrote:I've just had some of the plastic tubing in my water filler valve deteriorate and go pop failing the engine. I was planing to take it to a steam up tomorrow - anyone know what I should use to replace it. Tried some plastic tubing from the shed to no avail - it also went pop after a bit.

Which loco?

River Butley - Accucraft excelsior. No idea what sort of valve it is. I've had to bodge something up from some tube from a bottle of liquid soap found in the bathroom. We'll see how it goes tomorrow which brings me to my next question - where is the best place to get a good bit of proper designed for purpose plastic tube for filler valves?

I would have thought it is silicone tubing, for a possible quick fix find a Halfords open tomorrow and try the tube that is sold for car windscreen washers.

Mr. Bond of the DVLR:104418 wrote: where is the best place to get a good bit of proper designed for purpose plastic tube for filler valves?

If you have a r/c hobby shop in the general vicinity, they sell silicone rubber tubing by the foot, as it is used for ic engine fuel lines.

If you are lucky they will have a range of sizes, but take the filler plug with you to make sure the tubing fits properly.

Also make sure you get silicone rubber, As the local shop also has PVC tubing and that won't work in a boiler filler valve.

Graeme

Thank you for the replies. I took the loco to a steam up today. Half a lap round and the pipe I used failed. We limped into the station just and put the loco in a siding to cool down. David Mees is sending me a transmitter by post and he has put some proper tubing in there for me.

The secret is finding the right depth walled silicone tubing (thin) so you can fit the goodall valve into the boiler insert. I've found on the Mamod/IP Eng/PPS Steam/Cheddar Models goodall valves I have fitted that the generally available fuel tubing used in Radio Control models is too thick - you need the thin walled version which is generally used as the clunk line inside the fuel tanks. Another source for this silicon tubing is Aquarium supplies.

I always polish up the part of the fitting where this silicon tubing is fitted prior to replacement, and in particular checking to see there is no burr remaining from manufacturing the horizontal hole (I've had to file down some burr on a couple of valves to stop it cutting into the silicon tubing). I always cut the tubing just shorter than the length of the fitting so it is free to slide up & down.

Chris Cairns