peach james

Derek, I got chills just sitting here, between your text & Jeff's photos...just burr, cold, cold...perfect for what I know that the fells can feel like . More like mid May than early June, but the image of sleet & rain, with that special sort of gray that is impossible to copy, but that the mind can see so clearly. Jeff, I'd kind of agree on a footpath along one side. I'm fairly sure most of the beck's have footpaths running alongside of them. The other side, if you use the static grass & paint carefully, I think it will hide easy enough. I'd imagine that the section won't come out all that often, but that it has to be removable to get to the viaduct. Otherwise, I can predict the requirement of a skyhook to extract the inevitable derailment. James

Good luck with the show, James. I'm sure it'll all work out fine. And if it doesn't, smile and get on with life! You really do some travelling, don't you? I guess it's a consequence of living in such a huge country. Midnight Oil - haven't they been around since the 80s? Hope your lad's ok after his medical tests. Jeff Vancouver is the nearest larger center than Victoria, with >3 million in the city(s) which make it up. So, traveling there to see bands is not all that unexpected- with only ~300 000 in the Victoria area, we don't always get even Canadian bands playing. It doesn't help that the ferry cost is about 500 quid for a 44 ton lorry each way, so if you are traveling a show, it adds up quickly. The Oils have been around longer than that- well before I was born, starting in 1973 ( ! ). They took a 10 year break, as the lead singer, Peter Garret, was elected to the Australian Federal Parliament, and then chosen to be Environment Minister. I understand he is a lawyer, which is an interesting reflection of musicians- I can think of a commercial pilot's licence holder, a Dr of Microbiology (in a band you'd not expect !), and a fair # of elected officals. The little lad is going back in early July for the Echo Cardiogram, so I don't think the Dr. felt it is urgent, but that it needs to be checked over. I'd not like to moan on here about a lad who runs 2k races & finishes middle of the pack, when we consider people like David (Tetley's) Shakespeare, and Jock. If he was worse, then I'd said something, but I tend to suspect this will end up being not much of anything, in the grand scheme of sick kids. One of the kids who has been out here to see & play with the lego was the poster child for BC Children's Hospital fundraising here on the island. It really does make me feel honoured to get to let her try and be a regular child. (3x bouts so far of cancer...) It might not seem like a huge thing, but it is the sort of thing that _everyone_ involved in can look at as a little positive when the next rough patch happens. I was going to post last night, Jeff, but then the hydro went out...so the WiFi goes out...and the cable modem... The club were here today, only 7 of us this time, rather than the 13 at the last meeting. I'd like to extend an invite to anyone who makes it to Southern Vancouver Island, feel free to message me, I'm usually around to host people...even if it is not a formal meeting. Trains did run. Both up and down. Down is...well, there appears to be a lot of missing programming- more than I thought there was. (I had thought I started with down, but I guess I was backwards). The good news is that the trains were fairly reliable, not as good as Tony W's, but if you fault find every problem, then eventually they won't be problems. I guess next on my list of fault finding is the 3F, which has serious pickup issues. James

Well, what did I go and do? We (one lad at a time) and I went off to the Victoria (BC) train show last weekend, https://flic.kr/s/aHskW1AwTm is the resulting folder of images. Now, after 4 days of reconstruction, I am off to Vancouver to see Midnight Oil. On Sunday, I have the club coming out, so I am expecting every possible bug/problem to rear its head starting at noon on Sunday. I need to clean track again, and do a bit more tidying up, as well as putting the table away where the club layout is going to get plopped. It's a 2'x12' (16' with the fiddle yard) design, currently at the tracklaying stage. I will post again on Monday, James

Mike, I didn't know you were coming to the meeting at my place (in Shirley) on Sunday...I mean, you are welcome to, but it's a bit of a trek from the UK. ! James (who lives in Shirley, BC, Canada)

I would certainly agree about Tich - you are far better to build a Juliette or Rob Roy in 3.5" (or Raritan, if North American is your thing), as the key limit is firebox size. Anything much smaller than about 10" of grate will cause you far more aggro than engines of around that size. While 5"/passenger seems about right to my mind, the first hump is about 10" to make an engine that is relatively easy to fire. Otherwise, you will end up with an engine that needs firing on the run, on anything other than a circle of 30' radius. (again, these are my opinions, but I have driven a few different engines) James

If the valve gear isn't designed right, then yes, it can give interesting effects. If you take a look at Dockstader's valve gear program, then you can see what properly designed valve gear does, and how little wear limits there really are in it. ( http://jf2.com/bcwrr/Dockstader-Valve-Gear.html ) I have the info for LBSC's Britannia on the computer here- I'd have thought it would have been a .txt file, but it isn't. My brit has >1000 km of running, and I'm not known for hanging around the station platform. Lots of wide open throttle, run on the reverser type running. It will quite happily run at 7 turns back (of 13 forward-reverse), so the valve gear events must be fairly well right. BritVime98 by Peach James, on Flickr ( note, the LBSC version in 3.5" most likely had unofficial help from BR in the design, as Riddles was a friend of LBSC) Suffice to say, that there are many ways to make valve gear that is not quite right, and does something a bit interesting when you start changing it from it's setpoint. On Traction Talk right now, there are comments about Sentinel waggons as to valve setting to .002" or better accuracy. Dad said that (Sentinel tractor) 7529 had a badly worn camshaft when they owned it (59-62), and that it went much better in reverse than forward, which isn't normally the case. That is with machine ground cams that are effectively non adjustable, like any other poppet valved engine of the time. Now, I suppose, some wag would make it with VVIT. Its not a simple nut to crack,as you need quite an amount of force to open & close the valves. When you introduce more pins (*), which every valve gear has, then you are introducing ever more probability of there being creeping errors which affect valve timing. That's not to say that variable valve timing isn't important, because it is far more important to efficient fast running than most other things which are designed into a steam engine. (*) pins in this case meaning as per mechanics, a free to rotate joint) I'd reccomend Ing. Porta's papers that Camden republished as a good jumping off point, along with "The Red Devil", as being a really good look at the (re) design process for steam. The book is incredibly dense in information, as to how David Wardale came up with the plans for "The Red Devil" and the test data to back it up. Just consider that it was a 3'6" gauge engine with a higher HP than any UK mainline engine...(mind, the cape loading gauge is about equal, it's the track gauge that is narrow...) The trick with all of this is to design a valve gear that gives variable cut-offs that remain consistent, from at least 70% to under 7% cut off. The majority of the running should be done at less than 15% cut off, or elsewise, you should be thinking seriously about compounding. The mechanical complexities of the system need to be looked at as well, with fuel cost being one portion of the cost of ownership. I think the best review of this was published very late in the day, and is referenced in "The Red Devil" very briefly, but it had to do with costing diesel's (first and 2nd generation) vs steam, and how fraudulent the whole process of dieselization was. James Powell

Daft question- wouldt the road side likely have gaps to allow traders to get their wares in ? Possibly with a chain to stop pedestrians from getting in during the day ? I've been following this, and your work is outstanding, James

& the drivers who didn't run regulator wide open, driving on the reverser, were wasting coal... David Wardale had the notches ground out of The Red Devil in the rebuild process- leaving 2- fully open and fully closed. Anywhere else, you had to hold the throttle, which is a good incentive to wind the reverser back and the throttle wide open. On the ship. we had 7 nozzle throttles- HP Turbine Throttle Box 2 by Peach James, on Flickr for similar reasons. Now, the 2 vs 3 vs 4 debate: a lot comes down to hammer blow, the other portion in the UK comes down to loading gauge. As has been posted above, it is hard to get above 20" diameter on outside cylinders, and the same limit applies to inside cylinders. So, in order to get 8P power, you are basically limited to 3+ cylinder designs based on starting TE. (or smaller wheels...but the extreme with that is a 9F being used at 90+ MPH...) So, as is usual, the outermost examples of power dense engines are not all that efficient, not of necessity all that effective from a $ prospective, but boy do they look good ! (thinking of a Coronation here...) James

Ok, if it is going to be your first engine, then I would, to some extent, agree that a well proven design is the one to go with. That being said, the Don Young designs appear to have been better designed than some. If I was going to start any engine, I would get the castings fairly early on in the process, and bore cylinders early on too, because as far as castings go, they are likely the hardest part. If you are going to make your own boiler, then it doesn't matter what the supply is like. If you are going to buy in a completed boiler, then expect a 18 month wait or so. So plan that into your build schedule. Again, dad and I agree, if you are new to model engineering, make a 3/4 x3/4 stationary engine first, then start onto the engine. James

Well, the sets of video have gone smashingly ! As anyone with a layout knows, the gremlins come out as soon as a camera is aimed at it, or you have a visitor. So, to date I have managed to have a rear end collision, several fail to starts, and a couple of me caused derailments. The worst of them so far has reduced the #of shock fit vans I can get at by one...because there is now one stuck in the wall... We are off to go swimming, so more tries tonight. I'm not sure what will go wrong, just that something will ! James

I haven't shot any video, but the up trains are starting to get to be almost boring in their regularity, they go though just fine !. (1-2-2, 5, 4-1, 3-1-3 or 4 !). I will shoot a bit of video, but they are really acting fairly reliable. Next is a bit more work on the down trains, as I have only run one through down so far. I'm hoping that there are no big glaring errors in the down portions, at least not beyond trying to use the up train identifiers. Allen went for his cardiologist, he has a heart murmur, next step is a ultrasound to see what they can see. No restrictions on him though, so currently he's playing with Daniel on the floor, or somewhere around !. James

It was the death of a herd of sheep that was the end of the us offensive CW program, with something on the order of 2-3 thousand who got vx'd. There are sheep about here, Mitchosin is known for them on Vancouver Island. James

Peter, by proper what do you mean? As I posted above, most of this ground has been covered by Jason in the various Rapido newsletters, including the #s that they define as being profitable to make. I think the current Rapids issue is mid car budd dome cars, which they would like to make more, but the market isn't big enough yet for them to retool the model they previously made. Rapido quote that they are looking at run sizes from 500 to 10 000 pieces, which makes sense. (And if I had a spare $100 000, I know what wagon I would order...). Jason has also covered a bit of the finances about making less detailed models (prime movers by Rapido), and how from the company's prospective, they don't make sense. They may from a modellers, but not from a company. James

Bug squashing. I've been running lots of trains up through Long Marton, squishing programming bugs as I go. The latest was just adding a pair of macros to Firth of Clyde, which was missing the designation as a passenger engine for the signal box codes. Tonight's great fun is why D5718 (yes, a class 28...) all of a sudden doesn't want to stay coupled to the CONDOR, ( or at least, the easy one, not the proper one that I have to make from the scratch aids I have). First I had to go digging to fix the 2nd smoke unit in it, then it didn't want to stay attached. Tomorrow is off to play with lego, then taking the little lad to a cardiologist on Tuesday (his GP thinks he may have a heart murmur, so not that serious yet...). Hopefully back at running trains by Tuesday evening. Next week is boxing of Lego, and finishing the design for our train show here in Victoria, on the 28th at JdF in the curling rink. James

The best advice I would have is go read through the Rapido newsletters, because Jason is far more open about this than his competition seem to be... James

Untitled Untitled ( I thought I'd add, the photo is from my dad's collection, and shows 8122/ OF, the last road steam in the UK in commercial use. It is an older photo, as it has the small tar tank on it. I think everyone in the photo is now dead, unfortunately- dad is the camera man, so isn't in the photo ) Untitled I need MRJ 65, and a few others- thanks to members of Top Link, I have a nearly complete set from 0-230 or so, and then it gets a bit spottier, as the distro into Canada has gotten a bit more difficult MRC's on the top, the 80's ones. Pre 1980 went to another member, and that gains me a free pile of magazines at some point in the future. And lego- the overhead has my Simpson's Mini-Mart just showing. Untitled Untitled Sur-forming a bit of land to flatten it out Untitled This bit needed a wood reinforcement for the clamping surface. The outside really could do with one too, and the paper arch should be put into place ! It started working a bit better today, as I cleaned track, and tracked down a few of the interesting things going on. I'm fairly sure I had deliberately changed one block to show full time occupied in order to avoid the turnout issue (referenced above). The last trains of the day ended up in a pile up, but that's fairly normal...followed by traveling to help glue down some cork and track on the new club layout. (12x2'). Tonight I have been mucking around with a few other changes, fixed a locking issue, and changed a little niggle with the software. James

It hasn't evolved at all scenic wise. Well, at least not much- I have been mauling some of the cross board hills so that they should be even instead of 6' or more fault lines ! I did a bit of troubleshooting today, trying to get the auto to work. I have one block still showing occupied, when it is not, that I have to still look at. The other one I tracked down and found the issue- I'd bent over a pin when I was replacing the DS44 (turnout controller) mentioned above. So, the state tonight is trains back in the storage yard, having run through one lot of filling and then emptying. I'm going to try again tomorrow AM, and then tomorrow PM it's off to go work on our club layout, with some cork laying. In news relating to that, the 30 9G servos I ordered in December showed up- I was fairly sure I was going to have to reorder them. I suspect they have made 2 trips to Canada, one on a Harjin ship & one by air. The intent is to use them on the club layout for switching Peco turnouts, and possibly Ratio signals. James

Glup. OK, so oil fired steam at sea. We fired 7050 lb/hr x2 into the boilers at full power. (That's F-76, or MGO, depending on who you are...), post conversion. The rated plant output was 21 000 shaft HP, plus 2 MW(e) at that. We could make fairly close to that HP while generating 1.5 MW(e) and dumping ~10 000 lb/hr of saturated steam into the evaporators. Overall plant n of about 33%, from a mobile plant. Parasitic losses: Well, we were running steam feed pumps (Cofflin CG's, same as on Red Devil) which were rated at 6000 lb/hr of steam in the setup we were using. Meaning that desup steam was about 18000 lb/hr, and rated was 176 000 lb/hr of s/h steam. Fuel flow was the only real measured value, as steam flow was set based on one boiler operation at max fuel flow. At any rate, we could get steam up with 500 kw, and the total plant load was under 1 MW(e), for electric forced draft fans, electric fuel oil pump, steam lube oil pump, electric hotwell (extraction) pump, electric feed boost pump, electric feed transfer pump. Everything should have been able to be single except the fd fans, which were usually operated as a pair, and there was no real savings singling them. (you ran out of air before fuel, making your own cloud to hide your shame in). Parasitic losses of 8 MW...my mind boggles...I don't doubt it, but it still boggles. jjb, I don't doubt the boilers were rated as 150 MW, but that would likely be MW(t), which is a basically useless number from the real world side. The n of the boilers would probably be somewhere around 85% at rated (probably a bit higher, possibly as high as 92 or 93), but I would suspect that the "nameplate" was how much heat was going into them. I'd also suspect, that if the plant n was as low as 35%, that it was a subcritical plant, and that the cooling was being provided by air based exchangers. (which would add to the losses...) Even sailing in the IO and PG, with seawater temps of 96F or hotter, we still could pull down to 28.3" or better for vacuum, which is really quite important for n. I would have expected better performance from a fixed installation, and especially from a "green" powerplant. Someone, somewhere, was fiddling the $ to get this dog off the ground. 16% parasitic losses, 35% fuel:hydro, meaning an actual n of 28%. All of a sudden, Buster Keaton seems to be more environmentally friendly than I thought ! James Powell, BC 3rd Class Power Engineer (& tanker EOOW)

So, since the club is coming to visit, the layout has decided to slightly malfunction. It looks like one of the ds44's used in the staging has died. Next fun task: remove only two boards to get at it. That might be Thursday, as tomorrow I am off to start laying track on the new club layout. It's going to be a 16x2 terminus station, with the future option of running through. (The ds44 is a stationary decoder used to run single torti mostly in the staging yard)

Jeff had kindly asked for this area. I'm going to move new discussion about Long Marton here. Some background: The real thing- well, it's a small community, to the north of Appleby. The station lost its service in the great culls, and has not regained it. Buildings still mostly exist. The station is now a B&B, and the goods yard is in use by a hauler (or was, in 2006, when I last visited). The model: I'm on version 3 of Long Marton, making it unlikely that I will ever make a different model. It is a sectional layout, designed to be movable. It _might_ be possible to exhibit it, but it is not designed as an exhibition layout. The scenic portion is 3' x30, consisting of 5 sections. (Trout Beck Viaduct, Bridge 253, Goods Yard, Bridge 254, Station). It is currently laid in Peco code 100 track, although there is a plan (!) to relay it in SMP/Marcway. The layout is far from conventional in an electrical sense- it was built from the start as a DCC layout. The scenic side hardly describes what else there is. The storage yard is a 15 track set of 18' long loops, capable of holding up to about 60 SWU's, There is also a staging yard, which is a bit shorter at 40 SWU and 6 tracks. (one of which is needed for running through, usually). These are set up to feed onto UP (for the storage loops) and Down (Staging). Both of these are connected via a pair of triangle loops, so that trains are always facing out of the storage yard. The whole layout is wired for track circuits, with something over 140 individual blocks. Railroad & Co v5.0.c is used to run a automatic sequence, based on the operation of the mechanical lever frame and block instruments. (it's so much easier to write that than it was to program what I have gotten to...) I have been working on this version since 2006, when I ripped out the temporary baseboards from the previous version and started to get a bit more serious about building a DCC computer aided version. The previous version was going to be DC, with rather buried hidden loops that caused me no end of distress. (lesson learned- make the loops at least somewhat accessible...) I have two assistants, in the form of my lads Daniel and Allen. I'm semi retired, having served 20 years in the Royal Canadian Navy as a Marine Engineer, finishing as an Artificer with EOOW qualification for HMCS Protecteur, the 2nd last of the RCN steam turbine ships. (Preserver went to sea after PRO's fire...sort of...) If anyone finds themselves on Vancouver Island, you are welcome to come visit. James

Station Road Steam do one for those of us in the bigger sizes too...

Pearson (Toronto) was a total mess yesterday too, and apparently is again today. I understand there was a bomb scare yesterday AM, then they were onto flow control for most of the day (they are down a runway for repairs), and I would assume flow control again today. I've been following my sisters flights to/from, and I think she was up to 6 hrs delay yesterday from Thunder Bay to Toronto on AC. (not her usual airline, Ornge, who she was going to do clinical practice for...). It all will take time to discombobulate air traffic, because of the margins being low, so extra crew can't be justified. That reminds me of something...I think UK railways related... James

What about getting either Kato or one of the equal settrack with ballast built in HO track systems? I would imagine that they would be easier than setting up foam then settrack ?

Lots of NPU and SNOT in that ! James

HB Britannia 1984 by Peach James, on Flickr The next photo will have - A blue engine