Small Locomotive & Boiler (ME Northumbrian)

Home Model Engine Machinist Forum

Help Support Home Model Engine Machinist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Looks fab Pete, I bet you are itching to get it on the track. It will be interesting to see how it grips as there is not that much weight over the driven axle.

J
 
The Northumbrian looks great with the completed tender in tow Pete :bow: :bow:

Well Done !

Kind regards, Arnold
 
Jason/ Arnold

Thanks to you both

The club raised track re-build is still work in progress so I've nowhere to run it right now. The first batch of track sections are off to be galvanized tomorrow, so its happening.

On the adhesion, there is a lump of steel under the smokebox but not a big as the lump under Dons Rainhill

(Don's broken link to Photobucket)

Picture007.jpg


Your question about adhesion got me do do something I've been meaning to do and calculate the drawbar pull. It's a puny 10.7 lbs when running at 80 psi. I'm 200lbs so its going to struggle on even the slightest gradient. We'll see.

regards

Pete
 
She is looking real good Pete,Ill be honest with you ,we have never had ours on the track,but did steam it once on rollers and found the blast pipe would not create enough draft,so altered that.
Don
 
Marvellous Job Pete.

:bow: :bow: :bow:

Just wish my last weekend had been as successful :(

Pete
 
Don

I've had mine on the rollers and the blower works pretty well. The problem I did have was the burner not working as well as I expected and running rich (orange flame). I played with that over the weekend I was using a #10 jet and it would flash over if I tried more gas pressure. When I put that jet in the Rob Roy burner it also ran rich and also flashed over when the pressure was increased. So I used the #15 jet from the Rob Roy which worked fine and allowed the gas pressure to be raised so the burner was running with a roar and no flash over. I've done a few different burners now and have been trying to understand the relationships between combination's of burner, jets, primary and secondary air flow, gas type and pressure and haven't managed to get it to the point of predictability. It either works or it doesn't.

Pete

Now you are out of summer time does that mean cooler over there, and more time in the workshop? Or is just a case of the difference between hot and damned hot?

Pete
 
Hi Pete,

Now that it has cooled off it means much more shed time - until it gets too risky treading the dogs 'minefield' coming back into the house (unlit back yard!) or too wet.

 
Would investment in a good torch help?
 
LOL!

I have quite a few actually :) The rogaining means having a good head torch as half the course time (roughly) is night. Must admit tonight it was more because it was dark before I had finished tea and couldn't be bothered.

I am planning in having a few good sessions during the Easter break - Everyone can have some chocolate eggs on my Birthday :big:
 
I spent the Easter weekend sorting out a few things and installing fittings and ensuring everything was not leaking.

I had some work to do on the burner and got that going fine. I'm using a #5 jet and 30 psi of gas pressure, #5 jet and 30psi is about 4.5Btu's/hour. I think #10 or #15 would be a better choice for running under load but #5 is proving reliable, even if I forget the blower, no blowouts or blowbacks.

I think it was Jason who was questioning my lack of a second clack in the lubricator. I've managed to squeeze that in now.

The blow down valve just doesn't fit directly into the boiler with the front footplate cross beam in place so I've put that on the rear stretcher and piped it in. Now it can be used, putting it in the boiler it would never have been accessible.

xwfxjstsfpa2lks4g.jpg



Its all getting a bit tight in there in a space that's barely 3" x 4", that's a 1" square lubricator. The blowdown pipework isn't that flash and will be on the re-do list once I've made myself a small pipe bender. I did say previously that once it got running it wouldn't look that pretty again.

I got it all back together and then did about 1.5 hours on air with plenty of oil to free everything up

So does it run on steam? First run with the tender in place and the axle pump working to keep it topped up.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r04HlYEFQII[/ame]​

The noise is the uneven rollers as they are just stock 19mm ally rod and have not been turned true. You can see the loco bouncing around, it does help to exercise the suspension. Later in the video I lift the wheels off the rollers and you'll see how smooth and quiet it runs.

7.5mins is the limit of my camera memory, I did three runs today, all exceeding 12 mins without any major problems. Now I just need that track finished......

Pete
 
Thats running very sweetly, should sound even better once its working against a bit of a load.

J
 
Thanks Jason

Like you, I'm not convinced its going to pull much, there's not a lot of adhesive weight there to get any grip. You'll notice a couple of cables coming off the front coupling. I had tried a 3kg weight hanging off them pulling the front down harder. It ran OK but was even noisier, bouncing around. The rollers are currently mounted on a piece of 1/2" ply which acts like a sound board. I've really just built it as a bit of a novelty and training exercise for myself.

We'll see what happens when the track is available. Radio control has crossed my mind as an option.

Pete

 
It runs great Pete Thm:

I bet you can't wait to see it on the track - It should be very interesting to see how it copes with traction.

Kind regards, Arnold
 
Arnold/kvom

I am considering the adhesive weight problems I do have some lead available to cast a lump to hang underneath, much like Don's. Unfortunately the scale is so small I don't think cladding in lead would be viable, of course if I were to clad the boiler in lead I could go nuclear, except NZ is a nuclear free zone. ;D.

Pete
 
Running great there Pete, How much water did you use during the run?

Pete
 



AAAAH, Now I've had my fix! A vid of it running!

Very nice. Congratulations. :bow: :bow: :bow:

Ron
 
doubletop said:
Thanks Jason

Like you, I'm not convinced its going to pull much, there's not a lot of adhesive weight there to get any grip. You'll notice a couple of cables coming off the front coupling. I had tried a 3kg weight hanging off them pulling the front down harder. It ran OK but was even noisier, bouncing around. The rollers are currently mounted on a piece of 1/2" ply which acts like a sound board. I've really just built it as a bit of a novelty and training exercise for myself.

We'll see what happens when the track is available. Radio control has crossed my mind as an option.

Pete
We knew someone who built a Rainhill and it managed to pull him around the track OK,so you have every chance.
Don
 
Pete,

I've followed this since the word go and have thoroughly enjoyed it and been amazed by your craftmanship. Thank you for sharing.
Just the one question for you. Can you say what speed this would/might be cabable of in both true speed and scale speed if that's possible please?

Kind regards,

Ron.
 
Many thanks everybody

Pete

Not much really which attests to the sort of load it didn’t have. The boiler takes just over a ½ litre and the tender about ¾ litre. I would say it used about half a tender on a 12 minute run.

Ron

There will be more to come. I have a length of the old club track the plan this weekend is to do some traction tests. Tether the loco, tender etc with a spring balance or pulley and weights. We’ll see whether it can do the theoretical 11lbs. As for adhesive weight I have some lead so may end up making a mould and casting a lump to go under the smokebox, in the meantime I may just hang some weights over the smokebox.

Don

This week I’m in the process of building the gas tank wagon for free running, but I’m building it so I can also connect my riding trolley in its place. When the club track is finished I’ll be down there seeing if it really can pull me. (I may even be down there before the track is finished as the main straight should be installed by now.)

Ron

The club speed limit is 10km/hr or 6mph and my Rob Roy can easily exceed that in places. This free runs well enough to indicate it could do that speed as well. So scale speed of 160km/hr or 100mph yeh right! The real problem is getting the load moving, and then it’s just a case of providing enough power to overcome the friction, air resistance losses and the effects of gravity on any inclines.

Pete
 

Latest posts

Back
Top