Merryweather Steam Fire King self propelled

[Werner SchleidtParticipant @wernerschleidt45161]

Hello all ,

here is an update of our activities at our club parking lot. The audience was so kind to park a few steps away to hold free the parking lot.

The Sentinel Elephant was in better condition ,but it want not to burn anthrazit coal ,but a mix with smoky coal it burns much better.

I had problems with my oil pump again. That is at the moment the only thing to improve.

For the automatic blower valve I made a stainless steel spring .It was wounded in my lathe and the material was adapted from a broken spoke of a bicycle wheel. Never throw away something useful!

 

 

I hope you can enjoy the video

 

Werner

Edited By Werner Schleidt on 29/05/2018 19:41:24

[Werner SchleidtParticipant @wernerschleidt45161]

Hello all,

on the last weekend in my hometown was an vintage car and tractor event. I joined with my Fireking for Saturday and Sunday. On both days i drove about 8 km amd never before I had so long the fire burning.

There were many interested people and I had some nice conversations.

My oil pump was in function,but I think the piston is too small. At my locomotives I had much more oil in the cylnder and at the top of the chimney. Here at the fireking the chimney top is nearly dry and without oil. I have a cylinder bore of 42 mm and a 2,3 mm piston .In the locos I have a 40 mm bore and a 3mm oil piston.

Is there some kind of rule of thumb or choosen by try and error?

Here is the video I made.

best regards

Werner

[Werner SchleidtParticipant @wernerschleidt45161]

Hello,

I want to add some new experiences . For the reason of flying sparks I added this year a spark arrestor made of a tea ball. At the Mannheim steam event I added in the bigger middle tube a turbulator to get better fire results.

I measured a decrease of 50 °C less temperature ,but from my feeling the boiler effience was not as before.

On sunday i decided to drive without spark arrestor and turbulator and found that the fire burns much better. In the exhaust less changes have more effect that i imagine. These two days brought lot of fun to give you an impression please take a look to the video.

best regards

Werner

 

 

 

 

Edited By Werner Schleidt on 22/09/2018 19:30:56

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Thanks Werner for your contribution to the forum Thought the video was great. What machinery do you have to build and machine your models on?

David

[Werner SchleidtParticipant @wernerschleidt45161]

Hallo David,

I have a small lathe ,hobbymat, and a similar lathe to the emco compact 8. The most of the parts I built on the smaler one . Only the parts where I have problems or it is not possible I took the larger compact 8.

Both are precise but I like more to work with the small lathe. My milling machine is a BFE from the same manufacturer as the hobbymat. In the first build videos there are some pictures of the machinery . Then I have a bore milling machine and a self build hack sawing machine where i can use hand sawing blades as a replacement that is very cheap in comparison to band saw blades.

With a part of this equipment I started my steam career by building 45 mm steam locos.From this time I learned a lot. I have build 5 45mm locos and 4 5 inch steam locos. The last one in compound action.

By chance i found by ebay uk a boiler of a tea pot quarry locomotive. With some thoughts the fire king project starts all build after old pictures I found in the web.

Making the wheels was very tricky and i milled them round with much of improvisation.

I hope that answers your questions.

Werner

[Ron LadenParticipant @ronladen17547]

Thanks Werner for sharing the videos, I enjoyed them. I think your Fire King is very good indeed, you have done a great job with it and it is something a bit different…very nice.

Ron

[Werner SchleidtParticipant @wernerschleidt45161]

Hello , there is an update of my activities.

In a german steam forum there was an advice to use  a turbulator ,if you do not have installed a overheater pipe in the boiler. The turbulator give some friction for the heated air stream and a better heat transfer to the boiler pipe.

And a basic effect is to equal the heat over all available pipes. So the boiler effiency is better. That is the theory behind. In the first step i made one 20 mm wide steel stripe and twisted it as possible. That was not very good makeable. So I cut some fins out and twist them.

With this setup I drove with my friends in September at our Club track at the DBC Rhine Main.

There was a subjective impression that there is a slight improvement in steaming. The tests were made in the range of 18°C .

 

 

 

Please look from start or from 7.20 for road steam

 

After this impression i made a new setup like this

 

 

This four metal stripes are hanging in the overheater pipe. They work as spark arrestors and the function is as described in the beginning.

 

On our last steaming day in this year, I made a test with this setup. It was cold 6 to 7 degrees and very windy. It takes a long time to get steam , but then I was surprised. During driving I had a lot of steam .In many cases the safety valve was constant blowing and only by water pumping the pressure came down. All drivers had the feeling with the cold temperatures the need a lot more water. The performance was better then in conditions over 20°C. I was able to hold the pressure during full speed and water pumping. The only thing the pressure came down , I was not able to put coal in during fast driving.

 

To give you an impression please look the video.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For next year I have to add air doors at my ashpan and grate area.

If there is someone who have experience please share some thoughts.

 

Best regards

 

Werner

 

 

Edited By Werner Schleidt on 31/10/2018 17:41:16

Edited By Werner Schleidt on 31/10/2018 17:42:08

Edited By Werner Schleidt on 31/10/2018 17:45:10

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Nice video Werner, I love the sound your engine makes.

Neil

[JC54Participant @jc54]

Werner,

What a superb model and engineering. Many thanks for sharing this build with us. John

[Werner SchleidtParticipant @wernerschleidt45161]

During winter time I made some cleaning activities and I had to rework and improve the joint to my crankshaft.

The forces from the cylinder to the crankshaft I had underated. The oscillating force lead to a weak conection.

The fireking was running in two years 80 km .

On the last ride last year I had such a good fire after installing the turbulator device I decided to test fire damper doors for better controlling the fire with less blow off from the safety valves.

Here are picture s open and closed . I hope that work as it is intended.

I will try to measure the difference with a thermo probe and I hope the effect is as I wanted it.

Here is a collection of video scenes from 2018 to give some pre enjoyment for the new steam season 2019.

Werner

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Werner, I've enjoyed reading your posts, nice to see something different from endless locos. Do you have any drawings of your automatic blower valve, something I've always fancied having a go at.

[Werner SchleidtParticipant @wernerschleidt45161]

Hallo Duncan,

I am lazy with drawings normaly I made the most on the fly out of my brain. I send you an article from a german

publication by PM.

Werner

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Werner,

A splendid account of the work that you have done, and the problems that you have overcome, to make such a marvellous model.

We enjoy reading your reports and seeing the videos.

I am in awe of you!

Howard.

[Werner SchleidtParticipant @wernerschleidt45161]

Hello all ,

many thanks for your comments.

The last thing I add after the winter season is a new name plate. On an old photo it is visible that the fire king was christening to the name Dreadnought.

So I add this for the new steam season.

The firemen and I are waiting eagerly to come out of the basement to be in the new steam season.

Werner

[Werner SchleidtParticipant @wernerschleidt45161]

Hello all ,

on a nice easter sunday I made a test ride with my fire king to see how the turbulator work.

Last year in october I saw the performance and made the subjectiv rating that it is a remarkable improvement.

The added turbulator in the center flue tube.

This time I added measurement equipment to see the exhaust temperature, the pulling force and the speed.

I recorded this by my own software via bluetooth with a smartphone.

The colours are green the pulling force max 200 N, red the sppeed max 8 Km/h, violet the exhaust emperaturemax 350 °C, the calculatet distance in grey max 1500 m and blue the calculated power max 100 W

To show the measurement more in detail I devided it in parts. And marked the parts in a road map.

The fllowing diagrams are related to the parts marked in the map.

The ride over the pedestrian way into the street there was a peak force of 180 N . In 2 the journey starts.

The violet down peaks are related to the cold steam engine and a high waterlevel.

At Position 2 I filled the grate with coal nearly to the fire door. And then I start driving. In 3 I had to look to traffic and slow down a little. And then I was in full motion the boiler had lots of power an nearly constant 330 °C exhaust temperature and I was able to hold the speed legal speed of 6 km/h.

The same I made at position 2 I filled the boiler grate with coal and looked to the oil pump.

In 3 on my way back home I had to wait and made a traffic related stop. On my way the safety valve blew very often and I tried to pump water to come down with the pressure. I drove the round as fast as possible to see what happens.

With this fast driving there is not much unbourned coal int the smokebox. With a vaccum cleaner it was an easy job to clean.

For me it was a great success to see how the fire king performs now. There were some little drawbacks . I forgot to weight the coal ,it was about 3 Kg and 14 liter water. The powersupply of my measurement equipment was only good for one round. The wiring of the sensors to the recorder have to be improved.

best regards

Werner

[Werner SchleidtParticipant @wernerschleidt45161]

Hello all,

thanks for more then 10000 views on my disriptions here. I had never thought that there is so much interest.

I had many projects ongoing this year. One Item was the poor behavior of my donkey pump. In connection with the displacement oiler the pump has to less or to much oil. And so was the behaviour of the pump. I decided to build a mechanical pump. It was very tricky to put it in function ,but now after 3 Steps the system work fine.

In September we had our club steam days with insider and the public. It was two days of fun. I made a Video for documentation.

I hope you can enjoy it.

best regards

Werner

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

Thank you Werner, very interesting.

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

Thank you Werner, very interesting.

[Werner SchleidtParticipant @wernerschleidt45161]

Hello all,

there is a video of our steam off at our club area end of october.

It was cold and rainy ,but we had lot of fun.

 

 

with christmas greetings

 

Werner

 

 

The Fireking has now a cleaning session and get some small repairs and polishing of all brass parts.

And some repair paint on small points.

Edited By Werner Schleidt on 25/12/2019 13:37:56

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

That looks very good fun and your Merryweather engine runs well and sounds really nice.

Thanks for keeping us updated.

Merry Christmas.

[Werner SchleidtParticipant @wernerschleidt45161]

In this difficult times we had a big delay to our first steam up.

After they softened the restrictions in Germany for meetings with the allowance of two different persons of different households, my friend and I decided to make a steam rally for two.

We had a lot of fun . We made both some optimisations. I made a new widended up blast nozzle. The engine runs now more freely at higher speeds and the fire and pressure behaviour is good.

I hope you can enjoy the video.

best regards

Werner

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Hi Werner nice to see you still safe and your magical engine still working.

David

[Werner SchleidtParticipant @wernerschleidt45161]

Hi folks,

i have an update .

I had a dream to make in our area a longer trip to our next town on field and bicycle roads . On Pentecoste Monday there was good wheather and the forecast for the end of the week getting worst.

So I decided that my dream have to come true. To have a clear unterstanding of the road conditions I drove the ways at first by bicycle. For a backup I drove my car to the next town and with bike back.

Then the steam rally for one had a go. It was the longest trip I ever made with the fire king. I had on a second car coal and water and equipment to start the fire again with me. I gave it a start and drove on field and bicycle roads to the next town about 4.8 Km . There were some steep parts over some dams of the river rhine. After the first one I remember that i have first and second gear. To get water in the boiler was no problem ,but under full speed driving i was so enthusiastic that I forgot sometimes to add coal to the fire. So I had some passages to drive whith low pressure of 3 bar. The scenerie was nice and the fire king run to Ginsheim like a swiss watch.

My dream was to have an ice was canceled as I see the long waiting line. By chance I met some friends from our club and had some small talk. Then I drove at bicycle roads back to home. Under driving i saw that some water came out of the stuffing nut of the water pump. I had twice times to tighten it under my way. All systems were in good condition.The last 300 m to home I had problems with the fire I was only able to hold 3 bar. The driver was hungry and thursty at home. It was a great tour and I drove in total 11 Km. The trip lasted 4 hour. My knowledge before was 2.3 and 3.5 km at our club area what a difference

On the whole trip I need 4,3 Kg of coal and 50 L of water i had with the pause with small talk an average speed of 2,75 Km/h top speed was 6.3- 6.5 km/h. I made a video of this trip.

I have now the joy to clean all parts. I changed over the winter the blastnozzle to get less back pressure and less fire draught. The result was very good only particles like sand are in the smoke box. At the grate I had some clinker, I think they came from not continous coal adding.

I hope you can enjoy the video as I .

Werner

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Absolutely magic. It shows what a well made scale model can do.

David

[Werner SchleidtParticipant @wernerschleidt45161]

After cleaning and serviceing the water pump of the right side had a complete worn in stuff box material.

I had to repack it, that was the only service and cleaning I had to do.

I made a picture of the smoke box area. There was very less material after this long run. It was like grey and black sand.

The widen up of the nozzle as it was  identifyed in my measurements last year, was the right decision!

the grate

The grate had some clinker as rocks and some other loose material.

My questions is , if I was able to fire more constant , was it possible to avoid this?

Or is it normal after such a run of that lenght of driving ?

Thanks to all who are interestet in my work.

Werner

Edited By Werner Schleidt on 06/06/2020 14:13:49

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