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The Night Mail


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Well all,

 

I believe success has been had.

 

Repeated laps with coaches were had this afternoon. It still can’t run continuously with them, but it’s a huge improvement. 
 

As @Happy Hippo suggested, the safety valve was rebuilt. Some scoring was found on the sealing surface and removed. A better measurement of the new oil was also added, and there was no massive priming, nor have the lubricators contents arrived on the top of the front bogie, as often happens. 
 

 

In the video is also included a photo of the gauges at pressure, while stationary. Apologies for my shouting in the video, I was calling dads attention to the run. 

BF2F2C7A-BBD2-47E3-9E52-C097D24C054C.jpeg.7dce837952f023050f0050fb6c59c6bf.jpeg


Thank you all for the help,

 

Douglas

 

(videos from the rally are coming soon)

 

 

Edited by Florence Locomotive Works
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Douglas, well done for persevering with the mogul.

 

Good things come to those that wait!

 

If you can just tweak the SV so that it blows off between 20-25psi, I reckon you'll get continuous running.

 

 

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1 minute ago, Happy Hippo said:

Douglas, well done for persevering with the mogul.

 

Good things come to those that wait!

 

If you can just tweak the SV so that it blows off between 20-25psi, I reckon you'll get continuous running.

 

 

Thank you Richard,

 

I would need a new spring for that, it’s already tightened down as far as possible, allowing for pressure release.

 

Douglas

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7 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

As Neil states, it really could be a number of things that are are having an adverse effect on Douglas's B/L Mogul.

 

I know we did quite a bit of resolution with the vapourizing burner unit, so I suspect that this part is as good as it's going to get unless you take it out and replace it with a 'Queen Mary' burner (3 stack). All this would do is increase the rate at which steam is generated, but some of that improvement is lost due to the design (or lack of) firebox shrouding.

 

Unfortunately, once the steam leaves the boiler there are a few places where you can lose power, and if you are not making enough steam in the first place...

 

So, in order:

 

Do we know what the working pressure of the boiler is?

 

Without a pressure gauge, we don't so fitting one to the boiler, via the whistle plug, and a banjo union would give us a rough idea of what the real working pressure of the loco currently is.

 

I don't know what these are supposed to work at, but I'd suggest around 30 psi would be about the maximum.  If the loco is not making that and the safety valve is lifting early then you can adjust it to increase the pressure.  You might find that the SV is leaking, so you are wasting steam to atmosphere.  Because of the heat coming up from the burners, the loss of steam might not be easily visible.

 

Further down the  steam line you still need to check to see if anything is leaking:  I know we have already been down this route and we found a leak in the lubricator area. Removing the boiler and connecting the steam line that enters the cylinder block to an air source, and putting the chassis into a bucket/bowl of water will soon highlight any leaks.

 

If you can remove the cylinders individually from the loco, then you can give them a 'snap test'. 

 

Remove the valve, push the piston rod all the way into the block and plug all the other orifices in the block (tape with duct tape?)

 

Now pull the piston rod back, and when you release it,  the vacuum created inside the bore will snap the piston back into it's original position.

 

If it doesn't then you have  leaking pistons.... which will gobble up power faster than a rat running up a gutter.

 

Returning to the pipework, and lubrication... If you have been using motor oil as a lubricant it may have carbonised in the pipework and will be strangling the steam supply.  This will give you the odd symptom of the loco blowing off but little getting into the cylinders.

 

As Neil has also pointed out, these locos are not the best runners and once they are old and worn, any of these factors or a combination of them, will render the loco powerless.

 

You have to be systematic in your approach to sorting out the steaming issues:

 

Start at one end of the operating cycle and work through from burner to exhaust.

 

At each stage check for leakage.

 

 

And here I thought that MTH's DCS control system was finicky!  :biggrin_mini:

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4 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

 ...snip...

Above is the main bearing on the dynamo side of the Corliss.

 ...snip...

Douglas

 

Somewhere I have a builders plate from a Corliss. :good_mini:

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12 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Thank you Richard,

 

I would need a new spring for that, it’s already tightened down as far as possible, allowing for pressure release.

 

Douglas

The next video in the series:

 

'Douglas learns to wind his own spring.'

 

(I'm sorry if that sounds like a euphemism.)

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Regarding my previous, it has just occurred that my suggestion would only be correct if the spring was wound clockwise.

 

I do realise that I should get out more......

 

Dave

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Typical Telfland weather this morning.

 

I was out in the garden and it was brilliant sunshine.

 

After some time I was in my shirt sleeves and really enjoying it.

 

So I got the chop saw out onto the drive and set up a bench to do some timber work.

 

Then, from brilliant sunshine to hard rain in about 90 seconds.

 

Still, the muddy hollow is looking less parched after this and the other rain over the weekend.

 

Of course, now I've put everything away, the sun is back out.....

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5 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

The next video in the series:

 

'Douglas learns to wind his own spring.'

 

(I'm sorry if that sounds like a euphemism.)

Well, the SV spring tensioning nut is on the rod of the plunger, which isn't threaded all the way. So if I wanted to I could add the a wee but more thread to it, as it still has plenty of room to lift up.  Mind you, I think that would classify as tampering with a safety valve!

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1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Well, the SV spring tensioning nut is on the rod of the plunger, which isn't threaded all the way. So if I wanted to I could add the a wee but more thread to it, as it still has plenty of room to lift up.  Mind you, I think that would classify as tampering with a safety valve!

The other way to do it is to add a couple of thin brass washers between the spring and the retaining nut.

 

Failing that you could use a short length of brass tube that was a sliding fit.

 

This would allow you to increase the spring compression without having to increase the length of the thread on the spindle.

 

The spindle has only got to lift a very small amount from closed to fully open.

 

Edited by Happy Hippo
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21 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Somewhere I have a builders plate from a Corliss. :good_mini:

Here is the Corliss plate that it was purchased in an antique shop somewhere near Savannah, GA. Oddly, there are no numbers on it, there must have been another data plate:

1610726456_Corlissbuildersplate-01.JPG.3cf4d19138f2bc883a191ee107e04b76.JPG

 

Note that it was right where I thought it was in one of my sheds, under that window:

IMG_2483.JPG.5ac0804e8e28b3d43457242ef9e410e2.JPG

 

 

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1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Failing that you could use a short length of brass tube that was a sliding fit

I needed to cut some short pieces of brass tube and I am now the possessor of a tiny brass tube cutter. I was thinking it was a pity there wasn’t a mini version of my one for plumbing and it was nice to find there was. 

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7 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I needed to cut some short pieces of brass tube and I am now the possessor of a tiny brass tube cutter. I was thinking it was a pity there wasn’t a mini version of my one for plumbing and it was nice to find there was. 

I never thought of looking for a tube cutter that small.

 

I use a jewellers saw and an emery board to clean up the sawn end.

 

If I'm being fussy, and need everything exactly squared off, I cut it slightly oversize and then face it off in the lathe.

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19 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I never thought of looking for a tube cutter that small.

 

I use a jewellers saw and an emery board to clean up the sawn end.

 

If I'm being fussy, and need everything exactly squared off, I cut it slightly oversize and then face it off in the lathe.

Out of interest HH what lathe do you have?

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1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

Here is the Corliss plate that it was purchased in an antique shop somewhere near Savannah, GA. Oddly, there are no numbers on it, there must have been another data plate:

1610726456_Corlissbuildersplate-01.JPG.3cf4d19138f2bc883a191ee107e04b76.JPG

 

Note that it was right where I thought it was in one of my sheds, under that window:

IMG_2483.JPG.5ac0804e8e28b3d43457242ef9e410e2.JPG

 

 

Hmmmm,

 

Hewes & Phillips, I think I’ve heard the Phillips bit, they may have gone off into making their own engines. I’ll do some research later. 

Edited by Florence Locomotive Works
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2 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Out of interest HH what lathe do you have?

I've got three:

 

A  Peatol (Taig in the USA),  A Sieg C0 mini lathe and a Chester Conquest (which is the equivalent of a Sieg C3).

 

On the milling side I've got the Sieg X0 micro mill and the X2 mill/drill.

 

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I needed to cut some short pieces of brass tube and I am now the possessor of a tiny brass tube cutter. I was thinking it was a pity there wasn’t a mini version of my one for plumbing and it was nice to find there was. 

 

Tony, any chance of more details such as make, size range of tubes it will cut, availability etc?

 

Dave

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Some breaking news Chez Hunt. The water heater in the kitchen just made a sort of groaning noise followed by a loud pop and the ring main CB tripped. There is also a strong smell of burning plastic. I suspect that it has become an ex water heater. 

 

Bu**er.

 

Dave

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Always happens at the worst possible time Dave 

 

I have a couple of Rothenburger tube cutters left behind by plumbers when we first bought the house they do go to a fairly small bore of tube. I believe they are widely available at the likes of Wickes Toolstation and the like 

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