Cylinder blowdown valves

[Peter Simpson 1Participant @petersimpson1]

[Peter Simpson 1Participant @petersimpson1]

Yesterday I was chatting to an old chap who was having his 5" gauge "Speedy" recertified. What was quite novel with his example was the fact that the four cylinder drains had been piped to allow the draining of the cylinders to be controlled through one valve. As I did not get the opportunity to see the piping arrangement, has anybody got experience of using one valve to drain the cylinders ?

[Bob YouldonParticipant @bobyouldon45599]

Good Evening Peter,

If you have access to back numbers of Model Engineer, back in the 50's Austin Walton described his locomotive "Twin Sisters" in it he had an excellent design for a single valve operation with a single discharge; defiantly worth a look.

Regards,

Bob Youldon

[MICHAEL WILLIAMSParticipant @michaelwilliams41215]

Hi Peter ,

Several people have described using what amounts to a four ported valve underneath the engine somewhere with pipes back to the cylinders and one drain .

A plate valve would easiest to design and make and would usually be the only thing that space can be found for .

Personally I’d use proper drain cocks .

Even though Speedy is an almost freelance design with only superficial similarity to a 1500 it would be nice to incorporate as many prototypical features as possible to make it look something like a real engine .

Regards ,

Michael Williams .

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