Member postings for Bob Youldon

Hello Ron,

I've remembered common soda in a hot water solution was used in my friends loco, don't use anything that contains volatiles etc.

The hydrostatic lubricators can be a bit of a nuisance if you forget to turn off the steam feed at the end of a running session; ideally some form of "snifting " valve incorporated into the steam feed may be useful if only to break the vacuum when the boiler cools.

Regards,

Bob

Good morning Ron,

To free up the hand pump, pour a kettle of boiling water over it, generally it'll wake the ball up and free it off it's seat. As to the problem of oil, if it's oil inside the boiler then that is a more difficult issue, the injector is easy, take it off and pop into a sauce pan of boiling hot water with a table spoon of washing powder in it, boil it for a while and it'll remove any oil residues. A friend acquired a loco and it had oil in the boiler; no doubt from the hydrostatic lubricator system when the loco had cooled down and that took several wash outs with boiling water / washing powder solution before it was clean enough.

Regards,

Bob

Good afternoon Ron,

I have been following your travails with the boiler with interest. One thing, check the current situation with LYNX as a little bird has said that they may well have gone into administration.

Regards,

Bob

Good evening Paul,

Send them a box of ready primed rat traps, or a couple of adders, that'll keep them occupied! If anyone then complains, then it's oops, so that's were that box went!

There're loads of bandits out there and they'll try anything.

Regards

Bob

Good evening Andrew,

It seems as if you have done most things nearly right but I'd comment as follows:-

!, "The silver solder and flux are old", that 's not the problem, I'm old but I can still silver solder alright!

2 Heat, it could well be a lack of heat where it matters most, a job like the one you describe needs to be well surrounded with reflective refractory material to concentrate the heat on the job.

3, .004" is getting to be a fairly large gap but with the correct grade of silver brazing filler rod it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

4, Your flux gave up the ghost long before the job had attained the correct temperature, you will need a flux capable of prolonged heating and when conditions are right, warm the end of the filler rod, dip it in your normal flux and the silver solder will run easily.

To clean off flux residues on steel fabrications, let the job cool right down and pop it into a bucket of clean water, leave it in there for a couple of hours, when you fish it out the residues will just wipe off leaving a nice grey finish to the steel.

Both CUP alloys and JM metals web site are excellent for the selection of fillers and fluxes for particular jobs.

Anyway, best of luck in your endeavors.

Regards,

Bob Youldon

Good morning folks,

I suppose at first £40 seems a lot, but when you consider todays price for the vice its probably in the right area, but considering the manufacturing costs etc and if you set out to make replacements charging your time and materials at a not unreasonable rate you'd have to complete the task in little over an hour, It'll take me that time to find the material in my workshop, let alone the hardening and tempering of the repacements!

I've had the same Record number 3 vice for more than fifty years and have always used sacrificial soft vice clams having never had the need for those hardened serrated jaws. I was taught in my school metal work class to use soft clams to protect the work. I make my clams from off cuts of ordinary plumbing grade 22mm copper tube that would normally go into the scrap and when they are finally only suitable for the bin, into the copper scrap they go so nothing is wasted.

Regards,

Bob

Hi Neil

I could do with a couple of off cuts from that for a smokebox, I like a litte extra thickness as a rust allowance!

Regards,

Bob

Hello Nick

I'd suggest you make the rod and strap in steel and in one piece, make the eccentric from a piece of cast iron or drawn bronze and if you get a good finish on the running surfaces, with a drop of oil it'll go on for years.

Regards,

Bob Youldon

Good evening Ricky,

The Manor like the 51XX and many other GWR designs were fitted with the standard 30" diameter vacuum cylinders, so the Trevor Shortland designed 51XX cylinder castings are the correct ones to use. The late Keith Wilson shows on his Bulldog and for that matter his Dukedog designs, the vacuum brake cylinder, which unless one was to build an example of the final lot of Bulldogs, the Birds, which were in fact fitted with a pair of much smaller vacuum brake cylinders, thus the vacuum brake cylinders on the majority of both classes is incorrect for the locomotives as drawn by Keith, both classes being fitted with a pair of steam brake cylinders mounted behind the rear steps. I would suggest the 51XX design is followed and a section of tube or a short section of cored gunmetal is used to form the cylinder portion of the brake cylinder. The GWR 3500 and 3000 gallon tenders were each fitted with a single smaller diameter vacuum brake cylinder.

I hope this somewhat clarifies the situation.

Regards,

Bob Youldon

Good morning all,

One of the best descriptions of a metre I ever heard came from one of our elderly members who in his best Sussex accent when asked, replied "simple boy, it's a yard n the thickness of a brick n a tile! In fact, not far adrift, 36" plus 21/2" for a brick and 1/2" for a tile; but If you want to confuse the lad in the builders merchants, go in there and ask for a bushel of sand!

Regards,

Bob Youldon

Hello Stewart,

A number of LMS Crabs have been built in 5" gauge to the Don Young drawings, all of which would appear to have been relatively successful, there may be issues with limited track curvature; whilst not a simple item to design and construct the finished swing link pony truck will, if designed and built correctly not only carry part of the locomotive weight but control the locomotives progression into and around track curvature, through points and crossings etc very effectively. The swing link pony truck method of side control was popular with a number of locomotive designers in the first half of the last century before the advent of the more common sprung side control arrangement.

Regards,

Bob Youldon

Hello Jens,

I suspect the material being used is some form of flax yarn simply impregnated with graphite grease and is breaking up in use or compressing far too much and leaching out the grease, also check the clearances of the glands and stuffing boxes; a quality graphite packing yarn will generally not give up too easily, some of the cheaper yarn is only suitable for limited use and movement, stop valve spindles being an example. Original graphite string gland packing had a considerable amount of free graphite within the body of the packing which was generally an asbestos based material with a certain amount of graphite grease, but sadly some of these so called modern alternatives sometimes do not come up to scratch. I'd advise a good modern alterative, the PTFE packing yarn, carefully fitted it will seal easily and has the advantage of an almost friction free seal; take a look on the popular model engineering suppliers web sites and they will generally have a suitable PTFE alternative available.

Regards,

Bob Youldon

Hello John,

I suspect the 31/2" gauge electric is not too far off with the technology thats available today, although I can understand the workings of a steam locomotive but not modern electronics.

Two 31/2" gauge locomotives of many years ago that were much admired was the little 1831 of Phil Haines, what a little gem that was and the Hymec of Les Purple, complete with a 4 cylinder Sealion power plant.

Now with modern batteries, motors and control systems together with excellent sound cards the world has opened up to some exciting developments; it may even induce some of those younger souls who as railway modelers would like to become involved in the larger scales where the modern image suits their taste more than those grubby steam things; further, a 31/2" gauge electric/ diesel outline locomotive is fairly easily carried, more so than their 5" gauge brethren, also is easily transported in the smaller family car. I for one, certainly look forward to those possibilities.

Meanwhile back to the workshop.

Regards,

Bob Youldon

Hello Neil,

Best design for the beginner? I'm of the opinion that you pick on something you really fancy and don't pick on something that'll turn out too small however tempting, also have a chat with members of your local club for various ideas; what is easier, is to list those I wouldn't suggest! Try to pick on a design that's been described in the model press, it'll give the beginner a fair description of the build process. My best advice would be Maisie by LBSC for the eastern fans, always a good performer; St Christopher by Don Young for those of a western disposition; Nick Feast's Q1 for the southern chaps and Martin Evans LMS Ivatt mogul or his 2-6-4t "Jubilee" design, all of which have been described or available in book form, each are reasonably straight forward and give a fair representation of the full size locomotive. Castings for all those designs are also readily available. Obtain the "words and music" read it thoroughly and keep reading it, it'll make construction so much simpler and join your local club. I'm loath to advise on designs such as Tich, or even Rob Roy as there is almost as much work in one of those as there is in any of the foregoing, also at best their performance is not wonderful except those in the hands of an exceptionally skilled driver.

Food for thought,

Regards,

Bob Youldon

Hello all,

I forgot to mention, have a look in my photos, there are a number of photographs of the last pair of LMS 4Fs I built several years ago; also have a look on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfPSkjXUufY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0IF7eF6xWg both show a LMS 4F in operation.

Regards,

Bob Youldon

Good afternoon everyone,

Well done Neil for kicking the idea into play. As you mentioned the idea of a group, association, forum etc fell by the wayside but I suspect if the idea of a 31/2" discussion group starts to move forward there may be a bit more enthusiasm for the formation of a formal association. I for one would wholeheartedly support. Looking at the two major model engineering federations there are a couple of 31/2" gauge rallys planned for this year, 13th June at the Sale area Model engineers Walton Park track and on 1st August at Southampton Society of Model engineers at the Riverside park track.

I have in the past built a number of 31/2" gauge locomotives including my first attempt, a Juliet, a GWR County, three LMS 4Fs (don't ask) all of which have been successful passenger haulers. I've had at least a couple of Maisies both of which went like the wind. I still hanker after building another 31/2" gauge locomotive, I think they are easily suited to my workshop and whilst I'm getting a bit older, they are that much easier to man handle and transport etc.

There are numerous designs in the market place, so much choice available and with todays budget constraints they allow entry into the model engineering world for a reasonable outlay and bringing a bit of fun to running.

Regards,

Bob Youldon

Good morning all,

A good friend of mine was one of the Hoares of Portsmouth, his house was full of Hoares and they all lived next to the Bishops!

Turpin was a prolific writer and contributor to the Model Engineer; locally one of our members has his locomotive Hybrid, still going strong after many years and displays some beautiful craftsmanship and many novel ideas.

Regards,

Bob Youldon

Hello Exmoor,

The answer really revolves around several parameters, what skill do you have, you don't need to be a time served engineer, would it be your first project, what machinery, lathe, drill, mill etc; I've always built steam locomotives and if you fancy something like that, that isn't too taxing and will give years of pleasure then I'd suggest LBSC's Maisie, fairly straightforward, hundreds built, castings and materials readily available not to mention drawings and importantly a build manual, everything you would wish for and when completed they are easily driven and fired and on the track it will keep up with the big boys, they're a game little locomotive and will do all and a bit more on the track. I'd suggest you have a look on the Internet and youtube for LBSC's Maisie and you'll see a good number of examples. I would also suggest if you aren't already, join your local ME society, a very valuable resource and not to mention, a good supply of tea!

Regards,

Bob Youldon

Hello Exmore

I didn't think there was much difference, Northumbrian was described in ME a few years ago and probably most of the errors in the Rainhill design were engineered out and renamed. We had a Rainhill at Beechhurst which would occasionally thrash round with one up, but frankly I'd pop the castings in the sales section or the evil fleabay; you'd do a lot of work for little gain.

Regards,

Bob Youldon

Hello Chris,

The Myford motor noise is in all probability from the centrifugal switch not throwing out fully, Switch off everything and give it a good blow out with an air line, they seem to accumulate a lot of fluff etc in there and when mixed with the inevitable oil it will form into a sticky mess not allowing the switch to release correctly. which in turn may lead to odd noises.

As someone has mentioned previously, a bearing, if it is a race may be breaking up, but generally the motors are fitted with sleeve bearings and not apt to make odd noises.

If all else fails, turn the radio up!

As for the Harrison, I cannot comment except to advise an examination by an electric motor specialist.

Regards,

Bob Youldon