Ash from Chimney

[gardener69Participant @gardener69]

Any one got an ideal on how to stop ash from flying out the chimney of a Holmside, Hercules or Bridget style saddle tank engines.  I have looked at puting as ash collector on top of the chimney like the American locomotives have but it would look out of place.

Needs to look right. Currently driving a holmside and keep getting ash  coming back into my eyes after more than a couple of hours driving?  I clean out the pipes to remove ash after a couple of hours.  Using Collie Coal from Western Australia. Char is hard to get hold of and is expensive.

 

Gardener

[gardener69Participant @gardener69]

[gardener69Participant @gardener69]

ash collector also known as a spark arrester anyone have any ideas

gardener

[WearyParticipant @weary]

Model Engineer, Volume 182, issue number 4089, 12-25 March 1989, page 312 has a simple design; basically a stainless steel cone shaped mesh running between the outside edges of the blower ring and the petticoat pipe.

 

Model Engineer, Volume 186, issue number 4139, 9 February 2001, pages 122-124 inc., has a discussion on the desirable characteristics, design constraints, and manufacture of spark arrestors for locomotives in our sizes, together with a more exotic design which includes an oil separator, although this last item could be ignored if neither required nor desired.

The spark arrestor part is simply a tube (‘drum’) of expanded stainless steel mesh smaller than 10 gauge running from the outside edge of the blast pipe/blower nozzle to the outside edge of the petticoat pipe.  An example in the text is given of a 5″ gauge ‘Lion’ using 32 mesh gauge bronze wire, however this has been found to be too fine and clogged ‘after a few hours running’. 

 

Both these designs are visually unobtrusive as they are inside the smokebox and invisible when the smokebox door is closed.

 

Regards, etc. Phil

Edited By Weary on 02/05/2010 19:33:11

Edited By Weary on 02/05/2010 19:34:17

[OwenParticipant @owen]

We have an Little Engines Atlantic coal burner that we want to put a spark arrester on for fire prevention reasons and like you an external fitting would not look right. we are going to try an inverted cone inserted down into the chimney. you will not see it from the side but would be easily seen from the top. we want to be able to pull it out and give it a knock should it start to clog so we are putting a bar across the diameter at the top.

Edited By Owen Hanam on 03/05/2010 04:05:59

[gardener69Participant @gardener69]

many thanks to Weary and Owen Hanam I will look through a friends collection of Model Engineers to find both issues

 

Gardener

[Robert FosterParticipant @robertfoster47118]

I use stainless mesh sourced from Poly models for spark arresters and make a rough tubular shape around the peticoat pipe to the bottom of the smoke box enclosing the blower of course. The mesh is typicaly held together with strands of the stainless wire. You will have to make cut outs for pipes etc. I use this method on my simplex and find it very effective. The down side is that after every session of a couple of hours you have to remove the mesh and clean it otherwise the breathing will be affected.

Hope this helps

[Robert FosterParticipant @robertfoster47118]

I use stainless mesh sourced from Poly models for spark arresters and make a rough tubular shape around the peticoat pipe to the bottom of the smoke box enclosing the blower of course. The mesh is typicaly held together with strands of the stainless wire. You will have to make cut outs for pipes etc. I use this method on my simplex and find it very effective. The down side is that after every session of a couple of hours you have to remove the mesh and clean it otherwise the breathing will be affected.

Hope this helps

[Cyril BonnettParticipant @cyrilbonnett24790]

A look through these pics might give a few ideas!

 

http://www.aqpl43.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/chimney/chimney.htm

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