wheel on top of Bulleid Pacific

[Rich986]

Does anyone know what this wheel does? 

 

[Sabato]

I believe it's the main valve for the steam manifold. You can just see the delivery pipe to the cab on the top of the firebox. The manifold, usually across the top of the back plate, supplied steam to any bit that required steam to operate, such as brake ejector, injectors, steam operated firebox doors and so on. The manifold has separate valves for each item supplied.

[Rich986]

Thank you - never seen this on other loco designs. The puzzle is solved!

[Bucoops]

It's the steering wheel, duh

[rodent279]

But why put it there, not in the cab?

[Rich986]

It is a strange location, hence the question. I don't recall seeing anything like it, but I'm prepared to be surprised!

[Zomboid]

6 hours ago, rodent279 said:

But why put it there, not in the cab?

Because Bulleid wanted to inject a frisson of excitement into the crews lives when it needs to be adjusted at 80mph? (Unless it was moved there as part of the rebuild).

 

Presumably that's one control that barely ever needs to be used, and certainly not when the loco is in motion.

[rodent279]

Or could it be the flux capacitor control?

[Steamport Southport]

"Where's the key?"

 

 

As Stanier quipped when seeing the Q1 for the first time....

 

 

 

Jason

[Bucoops]

Wild a*sed guess - if it's to do with the manifold, the only real reason for shutting it off is if a pipe fails resulting in high pressure steam escaping and that's likely to be in the cab so having the shut off outside that area would be a wise thing to do?

[Blandford1969]

2 hours ago, Zomboid said:

Because Bulleid wanted to inject a frisson of excitement into the crews lives when it needs to be adjusted at 80mph? (Unless it was moved there as part of the rebuild).

 

Presumably that's one control that barely ever needs to be used, and certainly not when the loco is in motion.

It does not need to be adjusted as it shuts off everything off on the manifold in the cab, injectors, brakes etc. Can't comment on the past but its not something that tends to be turned on and off normally, unlike LMS manifolds whose shut offs tend to be used daily. 

 

I can't remember why it was put there though. 

[5944]

https://www.bulleidsociety.org/News/Old_News/2015_News.html

 

Scroll down to 15th May 2015. It's called a Klinger valve. It's in the same place on all Bulleid pacific boilers. Easy to access on a rebuilt, not so easy on a Spamcan with the casing covering it up. 

[Graham_Muz]

16 hours ago, 5944 said:

https://www.bulleidsociety.org/News/Old_News/2015_News.html

 

Scroll down to 15th May 2015. It's called a Klinger valve. It's in the same place on all Bulleid pacific boilers. Easy to access on a rebuilt, not so easy on a Spamcan with the casing covering it up. 

 

Indeed it is the main steam isolation valve to the main backhead manifold and only really used during maintenance, hence not needing to be readily accessible. It is in the same position on the rebuilds as it was on the originals. The term 'Klinger' refers to the valve manufacturer.

 

[PhilH]

On 11/11/2021 at 14:48, Bucoops said:

Wild a*sed guess - if it's to do with the manifold, the only real reason for shutting it off is if a pipe fails resulting in high pressure steam escaping and that's likely to be in the cab so having the shut off outside that area would be a wise thing to do?

Wot ‘ee said…