Member postings for phil Smith 3

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful and helpful responses. I really appreciate the heads up on the asbestos.

I live in Ontario, about 75 km north east of Toronto. There is a live steam club about 20 km away called the Richmond Hill Live Steamers. I have reached out to them. I don't believe they have a 5" track so I may have some difficulty running Butch but I'm getting way ahead of myself!

I have the original prints so I should be good for the design.

A couple of questions - one response says pressure test the boiler to 1.5X working pressure, another response says 2X. I assume there is a standard? Also a question about testing the chassis on compressed air - is there a need for lubrication? Or is that just for sustained operation?

Thanks again,

Phil

Thanks for your note Brian,

I will continue this conversation in the other thread. I do have workshop space but limited equipment.

Thanks a lot for your helpful comments and suggestions.

It sounds like the next step is to start stripping Butch down and cleaning her up. My thoughts are: go slow, use the right tools, take lots of pictures, label and carefully stope everything and do no harm!

Is there anything else I should know before starting? Any special tools, techniques etc that I should be aware of?

Hi, I just joined the community - thanks for letting me in!

I also created a new thread in the beginner's section about a 5" gauge Butch that was built by my uncle and his father. I have posted some photos and I'm looking for any advice on how I might proceed with improving Butch's current rather sad state!

BTW I live in Canada where 4 3/4"seems to be a more standard gauge for engines the size of Butch.

I inherited Butch years ago from my uncle - who built it with his father in Kent. I shipped it to Canada and have brought it with me through several moves but I have never done anything with it.

It has obviously been fired in the past (there is soot in the smoke stack and ash in the pan etc) but not for at least 40 years and probably closer to 50!

I am a professional mechanical engineer, but a complete newbie at model engineering with no tools or equipment other than a decent work bench with standard tools. Is it possible to clean Butch up and bring it (him?) back to life? Am I crazy to even contemplate this as a project I could undertake? I do understand that a pressure test of the boiler and confirmation of the safety valve reliability and settings would be a pre-requisite to actually lighting a flame!

Any thoughts, advice or other comments will be gratefully received. Thanks, Phil