Ianmac. If I could sugest a couple of other things.

As Michael Williams suggests the injector must be kept cool – up to a point. The logic is that the presure drop in an injector is very great, which means that warm injectors will cause boiling. Or more precisely warm water will boil  in hte injector, to the detriment of all!

I'm less convinced about keeping the injector rather than the feed cool. My experience (not great ) is that if you have a decent water supply, then it doesn't matter if you start steam first or water first. (ie with a red hot injector) mostly on the TE I actually open the steam valve first – less mess. The suction draws the water, and bang , she lights first time. The point being that steam first establishes a decent suction jet. People will argue., but thats how mine work. Anyway, heat is a point to watch. Small heat shield if necessary?

Pipes – a pipe is only as big as its smallest dia, so I am careful about fittings olives and bends.

You need a filter in the line. Being a tender loco I imagine you have one, but if not, it might be wise to fit one.(of sufficient capacity)

DAGs book is I think very good. If it has a weakness, he is less positive on the need for a good steam supply. If you look at the flow factors for various fittings, its horrendous the equivalent line size drop they create. One is losing pressure all the time. Good smooth run, and I wouldn't ever use a globe valve for a steam control again. The injector ones impose far less restriction.

all the best.

Edited By mgj on 17/04/2012 19:10:01

Nothing to do with original posting but Ianmac's mention of a protection plate for his injector reminded me of this :

In Swansea where I live there were once several major railway stations . One of these was the LNWR Swansea Victoria station . The line out of Victoria went out on a causeway right along the seafront , parallel to the Mumbles train for the first part , and then turned inland to Pontardulais where it joined the LNWR/GWR joint Central Wales line to Shrewsbury .

There was a suburban service worked for a long time by LNWR Coal Tank 0-6-2 's . The causeway carrying the track was completely exposed to sea and large quantities of sea and sand got washed over the line , engines and train almost all the time .

The poor Coal Tanks had to work in this and experienced very bad wear of working parts and sand in the feed water causing all sorts of problems . Apparantly local shed officials had several times approached Crewe for some protection devices to be fitted on the allocation of engines for Swansea but had they been turned down flat . It seemed Crewe thought it more important to keep all engines standard rather than do something to stop them wearing out .

The problem was finally addressed (very) unofficially by the shed staff . Over a period of time the engines acquired an almost complete underpan , sand guards all over the place , water filters on everything , side screens to cab and specially made bungs to stopper all hoses not connected up to trains . All made out of scrounged material and rubbish . Problem solved .

After numerous years the engines got sent back went back to Crewe for major overhaul . You can guess what happened next – Crewe stripped off all the protection gear , scrapped it and sent the engines back in nice shiny paint in completely standard condition .

Apparently the shed staff at Victoria were a bit cross .

All this was before my time and I doubt whether it appears in official records but the tale was told to me by a retired driver and is almost certainly true .

Edited By MICHAEL WILLIAMS on 18/04/2012 10:51:50

(1) If boiler clack is faulty it may be in one of two ways :

(a) Constricted so that high input pressure needed to force water in .

(b) Leaking so that steam bleeds back to injector .

(2) Test the clack 'as is' .

(a) Connect up a small handpump with pressure gauge and just see how difficult it is to pump water in against boiler pressure and how high the pump delivery pressure has to be before water enters boiler .

(b) See if pump feels spongy , gets warm or if bubbles form in feed tank . These indicate steam leaking back .

(3) Just possibly a fault exists somewhere else . A common one is that the steam valve supplying injector is blocked or inadequate size .