Coarse Scale Live Steam

[Florence Locomotive Works]

A about a year ago, I was gifted for my a birthday a only fired once Bassett Lowke live steam Stanier Mogul, in BR lined black. Said engine has had its fair share of problems, but these should be fixed very soon. Then for Xmas I was gifted some BL BR Mk 1s, which I have been repainting. My dream is to construct a portable oval layout, with a few period accessories and a home for my small collection of dinky toys. Said layout will be able to be constructed either outdoors or in, depending on the weather. Hopefully some wagons will also be acquired in near future, however I am torn between nice shiny new Ace Trains products or Leeds Model Co wagons. 
 

The track is all by Lionel, so is fairly cheap and readily available, a luxury for me. As for accessories, I hope to get the Ace Trains repro Carette for Bassett Lowke water tower. I think I also might have a go at constructing a station or goods shed from wood, and maybe a signal bridge from Meccano. 

 

Your comments, suggestion, words of moral support (should they be required), and general thoughts are much appreciated. 

 

Douglas

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by Florence Locomotive Works

[GRASinBothell]

The Stationmasters Rooms have the water tower available, not to mention the Ace reproductions of the Hornby signal gantries.

https://thestationmastersrooms.co.uk/Ace-Trains-Other-Products

Gordon

 

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

I doubt that many remember this thread, as eventually it was duplicated in layout topics. However that thread had its own issues, and went down the no longer needed clockwork road.

 

Long story short, the mogul got fixed after a year long battle, and now needs a layout. So I ask of all yee, be it better to steam indoors or out? The main problem outside is the wind, the mortal enemy of the engine's "vaporizing spirit burner." I'm not sure its terribly affected whilst running, but when raising steam it is quite susceptible. A solution could be the making of a "steaming box", which would fit over the engine providing a wind-shield, with adequate holes for ventilation of course.

 

And then we have the challenge of rolling stock.

 

The Leeds Model Company and their products are the clear favorites for this class of race, (goods wagons), with Milbro being a close second. Bassett Lowke is the favorite in the coaches section. Place your bets.

 

Hopefully the wagon pictured below by LMC will be acquired soon, as a test piece. 

 

I think all the coaching stock neccasary has already been acquired, in the form of two Bassett Lowke ex LMS stanier full brake coaches. Maybe a full corridor will be acquired at some point though. A station also needs building or acquiring, designs can be submitted for approval by the board.

 

 

Douglas

[J. S. Bach]

Outdoors as the smoke/fumes will fill the room.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

39 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Outdoors as the smoke/fumes will fill the room.

As long as you don’t put yourself face in very close proximity to the engine, the vapor from the burner isn’t that bad. A few open windows help too. As for fumes from the exhaust/chimney it’s almost pure water vapor so just makes the room slightly humid. 

[Happy Hippo]

The only problem with running indoors is when the loco decides to derail at high speed and comes to a screeching halt on it's side with the meths tank dumping it's content all over the side of the loco and the floor.

 

It is only after you have saved the paintwork on the loco and any other piece of rolling stock in the blaze, that you suddenly realise that your mother's sitting room carpet is immolating itself.

Edited November 18, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[Florence Locomotive Works]

6 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

The only problem with running indoors is when the loco decides to derail at high speed and comes to a screeching halt on it's side with the meths tank dumping it's content all over the side of the loco and the floor.

 

It is only after you have saved the paintwork on the loco and any other piece of rolling stock in the blaze, that you suddenly realise that your mother's sitting room carpet is immolating itself.

I doubt running on a wood floor makes any difference, but any rugs near the railway were required by regulation to either be smaller than the inner diameter of the track or simply rolled up and moved somewhere. 

Edited November 18, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

I doubt running on a wood floor makes any difference, but any rugs near the railway were required by regulation to either be smaller than the inner diameter of the track or simply rolled up and moved somewhere. 

Even on a wooden floor a meths fire can cause some damage if not spotted quickly enough.

[Nearholmer]

Live steam locos fling oil everywhere too, quite a bit of it as tiny droplets suspended in the steam.

 

Personally, I would go either for outdoors or in a shed or garage where fewer domestic rules apply. A lot of runners of meths burners in the old days used to have a track that extended out from a shed, allowing steaming-up in the shelter, and a good trot round the garden once warm.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

One of the favored strategies is to back a car out of the garage and use that when needed. Problem is, I can’t drive, and it’s not terribly scenic. I suppose the washing machine could pass as a mountain at times.

 

Douglas

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Hello all,

 

 

It's been a while since I posted here, mostly due to the mogul being put out of action for 4 months owing to a fairly major boiler problem. I have now managed to rectify this, so the "layout" needs making.

 

It was decided that the best place for the engine was on the floor of the spare room, atop some moving blankets to protect the floor. To do this a large and very heavy chest had to be moved into the bathroom, which at the time did not have any objections. But now the chest must remain in its original place outside of the bathroom, leaving very little room for the layout. 

 

Below is what the layout used to look like.

 

 

The chest would go up against the wall. Currently its been moved to the right by some margin to allow the layout to fit.

 

 

 

 

 

But that is not the main point of this thread. Said point being a place where stuff will be posted about my adventures with coarse scale live steam. Some adventures have been had in recent past. This mostly includes the first successful run of the engine, after 14 months of struggle. A video is linked below. So following this milestone, I realised that some more wagons need procuring. This will hopefully happen fairly soon, as there is a fair amount of Leeds model company stock for sale in the USA. I suppose I have now ventured into the realm of plans for the future. This includes, acquisition of more wagons, the building of some station platforms, the acquisition of a wider Lionel point unit so the engine can get to the station, and improvements to the steaming bay.

 

Currently the steaming bay is a 18 inch long piece of fairly heavy steel plate, which while is serves its purpose of keep most of the priming off the blankets, isn't very helpful for raising steam on. These engines have many plugs that need to be taken out and placed somewhere safe whilst the oiler and such is being filled, and these often roll of the plate. Several syringes are also need for operation. So what I would like to do is make a wooden block with an oval caved in the top for the small items. A large hole would be drilled in it for the syringes this assembly will then be screwed to the steel plate. I have also thought of maybe covering it in brick paper to make it look something like a water tower, with square water tower paper for the top 2 inches. The other option would be to stain and varnish it.

 

Anyways, here's the video link and a shot of the engine in the garden on a test run. this was done outside incase anything bad happened.

 

 

 

Douglas

 

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by Florence Locomotive Works

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Here's a thought for a garden line.

 

 

Would a "steam raising box" work? The idea being that all the fuel, oil, and water is loaded into the engine, the burner lit, and then a box put over the engine whilst it comes up the pressure. The box would be wood, and fit only the engine, as the tender can be kept outside it.

 

 

Would this work, or would some dangerous gas cloud form within the box resulting in an explosion? I have been thinking of this for some time, but never bothered to post about it.

 

 

Douglas

[34006]

I doubt you would get any explosive gases from burning meths,probably some carbon monoxide,which is heavier than air and in a sealed box would ,I guess' put out the fire,(if a lack of oxygen didn't do it first),and a load of water vapour.

Maybe an open topped box with the floor at rail level,and a removable end, raise steam in the box,push the loco out onto the track via the removable end,remove box then add tender and train and off you go.

 

atb

Phil

Edited April 30, 2021 by 34006
Grammer!

[Nearholmer]

What purpose would the box serve? Would it be to prevent the wind making steam-raising ‘take forever’? If so, I’d suggest it need be no more than four sides, unless you are overly worried about oil dribbles in the garden.

 

How do you find this loco outdoors in cool and/or blustery weather? I’ve heard that they don’t do fantastically well in those conditions (which is 97.32% of the year here!).

 

 

Edited April 30, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Florence Locomotive Works]

On 30/04/2021 at 15:18, Nearholmer said:

What purpose would the box serve? Would it be to prevent the wind making steam-raising ‘take forever’? If so, I’d suggest it need be no more than four sides, unless you are overly worried about oil dribbles in the garden.

 

How do you find this loco outdoors in cool and/or blustery weather? I’ve heard that they don’t do fantastically well in those conditions (which is 97.32% of the year here!).

 

 

Yes the purpose is to stop the wind blowing the flame out. I'm not sure about it needing a roof myself, it seems to have good and bad facets.

 

Outside if there is any wind raising steam is quite hard, in the cold with no wind it just takes slightly longer to raise steam than indoors. Once its running it seems fine though. There's a chap in Canada who has a video of his 1926 LNER mogul running very well whilst its snowing, but his layout has a covered area for raising steam. 

 

 

 

Douglas

[sncf231e]

With a fire that is not enclosed, like in the BL Mogul, you do not want wind when raising steam, but also not when running! If the wind is bad enough to prevent raising steam you better not run.

 

Outside temperature is much less of a problem:

 

Regards

Fred