First steam test of 3 1/2″ William

[Tony MartyrParticipant @tonymartyr14488]

Got the loco’s boiler fired up for the first time today. Re-learnt several things:
1. Fires with forced draught get very hot and it is best not to use fingers to load charcoal etc through the fire-box.
2. Steam leaks are not easy to find until you have steam, then they are very easy to find but aren’t comfortable to fix
3. putting super-heated steam into a cold engine creates lots of condensate, which has to be drained and is also very hot.
4. passing pedestrians who see a smoking / steaming model loco in the house drive complete with a ‘driver’ with burn fingers, stop and ask questions which is neither sensible, safe or convenient.
Test number 2 will be conducted wearing leather gloves and in secret.

Oh! and the ball in a snifting valves need to seat properly.

[Tony MartyrParticipant @tonymartyr14488]

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Sounds like you have had some good fun there!

 

Neil

[mgjParticipant @mgj]

You could have pressurised on an air compressor (or even off an old tyre) and gone round each joint with detergent in water. Its not perfect, but it will find most leaks.

 

Easier on the fingers too!

[David Paterson 4Participant @davidpaterson4]

Ah,

 

but the lessons are all part of the fun. Why spoil that with a bucket of cold water?

 

great milestone.

[Tony MartyrParticipant @tonymartyr14488]

You know David, it was a great milestone. I have enjoyed making the loco over 3 years and have had to practice skills un-used since the days of my apprenticeship in the early 1960s but I’ve also learnt new skills the hard way. Brass-plate work has become my least favourate occupation, just ahead of painting but they had to be mastered (perhaps not mastered). I thought I would be quite happy to give the finished article to a family member and get stuck into my next (triple expansion) project but firing it up was quite an experience. After remaking the snifting valve I will have another go.

Last year I was given a wrecked ‘Gents’ Waiting-train tower clock (face, hands, shafts and mechanism) which I carefully restored and, using a solid state ‘master-clock’ signal, I got working. It was the strangest experience as these cold bits of metal and coils came to life and developed a rhythm of their own that I had no idea existed and started counting my own time span. The loco firing was almost as good because the heat flow brings what was a cold and attractive but ‘dead,’ metal lump to life. But there are no plans for a garden layout!

Tony

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