Hello Bob,

In a word, no. You need steam so that it is able to condense and liberate energy which is transferred to the water. So compressed air will not work.

Best to find someone local with a boiler who would be willing to help.

Andrew.

You need a test boiler and an injector test rig. There have been a number of constructional series on small test boilers but they are an essential piece of equipment for the locomotive builder if your are making any small fittings for a steam engine.

The injector test rig comes from an article by Bill Carter in ME Volume 141, Issue 3519, page 818. I made a test rig in line with the article and it has been very useful. A colleague in the Cambridge & District Model Engineering Society complained recently he had a box of injectors and no way of knowing if they worked. We had a testing session and weeded out the one's that did ! One of the advantages of the tester is you can measure the delivery of the injector and test its ability to pick up under varying conditions. As you can see ( Summer of last year before Corona Virus) , the injector under test was working and although you can't see the pressures being registered on the gauges, the interesting fact that the delivery pressure is actually higher than the test boiler pressure! If you need any further help with designs for a test boiler or making the test rig I should be pleased to help.

I could not recommend one of the CO2 bottles even if it is only for your use.. I think there was a design published for a small boiler in ME not too long ago. Kennions do a kit of parts for a nice vertical boiler in copper very similar to mine with prices starting at £154 + VAT. It is worth spending a bit of time to put something like this together as I suggested already , it will come in handy for testing all the other fittings that Speedy will need.

Best Wishes for the build.

Attention The ME Administrators.

The injector test rig comes from an article by Bill Carter in ME Volume 141 would be of interest to a lot of readers who have an interest in model steam engines but the ME archives do not go back that far.

Is it possible to re publish this article.

Paul.

A very similar test rig is described in the excellent book by D.A.G Brown, Miniature injectors inside and out.

I have copied the Bill Carter article. Hope this is useful .

D A G Brown wrote a book on Injectors, relating to the theory of their operation and their construction.

"Miniature Injectors, Inside and Out", published by TEE publishing..

Howard