Member postings for Bob Clare 1

Never used the "social media so the advice on video transfer is lost on me.

John, essentially you are quite correct. The only "oscillation" occurs when the reversing gear in the cab is used; this rotates the discs so "oscillating " was the wrong term to use. Sorry about that but I'm only a simple microbiologist.

If you look and the coloured image in my 1st. May posting you can see the external part of the mechanism first with the fixed face in the block with the rotating disc removed and second with it in place. I failed to take appropriate shots of this and I've now reassembled the steam chest complete with pistons, valves etc. In the black & white shot the valves can be seen and these are recessed to take an inner circular component which is spring loaded from beneath to keep the face in contact with the disc.

This system avoids all the set-up problems and engineering requirements of Walschaerts, Baker etc. systems. It works OK on air but under steam? I don't yet know.

If I have to strip the steam chest again, I'll make sure I take the right photos!

Bob

Ian I'll need to mount the engine upside down in some sort of cradle to take the photos you suggest. I'll have a go tomorrow. In the meantime here's a shot of the dismantled steam chest with the valves beneath in place which might help a bit. Do you know whether one can upload video shots onto the forum? I've got some action clips of the early trials to see if the wheels would turn at all. They did under 40psi air both forwards and backwards.

Phil - yes I'm aware of the use of this valve design principal on Victorian mill engines etc. but none of the experts I've talked to (SMEE, York, Science Museum etc.) have come across either model or full scale steam locomotives using this design principle.

Here are 2 shots of the disc valve components (I hope!).

First attempt to add photo to posting. Did it work? if so I'll try sending the others i.s. the oscillating disc valve set up.

This forum system has beaten me - how do you paste a Word page containing photos?

Bob

I inherited a box full of dismantled remains some years ago and having finished rebuilding a Hielan Lassie, I dragged it out last year. I contacted several venerable sources York, Science Museum, SMEE etc. about this valve system and its use on locomotives. The universal answer was "never heard of this use for oscillating valves".

So my opening question for readers is:

Has anyone ever seen or heard of such a locomotive or model? If so, any info will help with the rebuild and if not then I may have a rare relic here.

Bob