Member postings for Simon Collier

After a run I was taught to pump oil down the blast nozzle, close the regulator, open the drains, and put the engine in reverse and push it forward. Then put in forward and push backwards. Continue until oil is coming out the cylinder drains. The suction of the cylinders pulls the oil through the steam chest into the cylinders. I use lathe oil. I do it at the track when I can roll it on the steaming bays. My engines have slide valves on top, and piston valves, and cast iron cylinders and pistons with rings. Engines with slide valves on their sides or underneath, where the valves can fall off their seats, are probably not suited to this method.
The other thing you can do is push the engine back and forth every few days if it is on a stand with rails.

Make sure the smokebox door seals and there are no air leaks anywhere in the smokebox. The blast produces a slight vacuum in the smokebox which draws the fire. Any gaps around door, pipes, boiler joint etc., will prevent satisfactory steaming.

I’m intending to try a very light drive fit on a friend’s Springbok. The ports are large slots which precludes rings on the piston valves, which are vastly superior. Plain bobbins wear and start to blow eventually. I’ve made a series of plugs for him to try in the bores. Measuring is not accurate enough as Bernard says. Half a thou is far too much interference I would think.

You could use tube the size of the small, smokebox end of the boiler and use the cladding to give the tapered appearance. I know builders who make round top boilers instead of Belpaire, and construct the firebox shape with the cladding.

Yes piston valves and quite an angled drive up to the line of the valve rod. It was reckoned to be a good loco.
I don’t understand valve gear enough to do anything that can’t be put into Don’s Excel and then the Wallace simulator. And yes, unusual is the whole point. While the eccentric pins might be a bit flimsy, at my age/health, things won’t have to last very long! And it is only a thought bubble at this point.

The plan is to have a vertical rocker to reverse the drive to be correct for launch links.
I would make sure I can satisfactorily make the eccentrics arrangement first up.
The background is I was given a full set of Simplex castings, frames and plans, plus boiler barrel. But I have a Simplex which I bought to drive while I made my Springbok. With a saddle tank and unusual valve gear, it would be different enough to be interesting.

Thanks for replies and pictures. TEs usually have links end suspended so already are sub optimal from a locomotive point of view.
I have put my numbers in Don’s spreadsheet and next will be the Wallace simulator. I played around with the program example for Stephensons 2 making link up forward but it deranged the events. I did not persist. I agree that 3/4” clearance is probably enough (the cylinder drains are much lower) so easiest to go with convention. Reassuring to learn that Polly links are quite low.

There are examples of die up for forward running with Walschaerts but are there any examples of link up for forward with Stephensons? Duncan might know.
Also, I don’t understand why the correct drive line is different for loco and launch links. They are not that different. Don’s book shows the preferred arrangements but doesn’t really explain why, stating that the preferred arrangements limit die slip.
I am designing outside Stephensons for Simplex, just for something different, and even raising the cylinders slightly and angling them will still have the launch link only 3/4” off the rail head in full gear.

Clean with acetone the screws and threaded holes and use high temperature, high strength Loctite. It might be 620, I’d have to check. An example: the cylinder end cap on my Ellie tram’s single oscillator is glued on with this. The register wasn’t even a good fit! No screw threads. The safety valve is set at 60 psi and the tram has run for several hours over several years. Another example: a young fellow’s Maisie had the turret bush strip out. I made a new bush next size up, tapped directly the boiler barrel which was was quite thin, and glued in the new bush. Sealed fine and he got a bit more life out of the clapped out boiler and engine. Obviously not code compliant but it never leaked of came loose.

A recent example: at my brother’s men’s shed, a fellow was warned not to wear gloves. He ignored the warning and when using the jointer, well you know what comes next…

brass splinters are nasty but steel splinters from using the side of an endmill are wicked.

I put extension controls on my B1. The screw type regulator has a long rod to the rear of the tender which is fine. However the reverser is low down, so I made a 3 piece rod assembly with 2 universal joints that I made to suit. Unfortunately the angle from the reverser up to the top line of the tender is really too acute for the universal joint to work satisfactorily so I don’t use it. The tender is not long but my back is very stiff.

I too love Willy Weather and look at it at least a couple of times a day. The rain predictions seem to be much less accurate that temperature. Average range at the moment about 6-19° and the workshop is about 13°. Winter is my favourite season.

You will need 1/4, 8,10, 1/2”, and 16.

I can see no fundamental barrier to AI exceeding human intelligence and becoming self aware. Then, I can see no reason why Darwinian selection won’t ensure that AI puts the interests of AI first. If I were AI I certainly would exterminate humans are we are a destructive, violent, war-loving species that has bred to vast population and hugely reduced the biodiversity of life on earth. I am not sure though whether some moral/ethical code necessarily come with super high intelligence.
As AI develops, I predict that scammers/states will steal all our money in banks and superannuation accounts before our governments can do anything about it. Scammers seem always to be one step ahead, with governments and institutions slow to respond. Time to buy gold?

Use MECH Forum for loco questions, not this one. That’s where loco people post these days.
Also, disc regulators are, in general, a disaster. Search for the use of stainless ball valves for regulators. Recent thread on MECH. now if you want to ask a question about a Myford lathe here, you’ll get seven pages of replies.

I was screwcutting stainless recently 3/16 x 40 and the crests formed up well over 3/16 and I had to turn them off before continuing. I try to spare my dies from stainless.

Barry I suggest you ask on the MECH Forum where loco people have gone. The nature of this forum has changed and most posts are about machinery and tools.

All mechanical lathes will still be functional in 50 years assuming reasonable storage. Indeed two of my lathes are more than 50 years old. The circuit boards on my 6” lathe’s DRO, plus both main and control boards on my SX3 mill drill, all have failed, with replacements very expensive. Just now the digital Z axis readout on the SX3 has failed. A not cheap digital calliper failed. So you can see why I would not go near an all electronic lathe.

Try Ben at Boulton Scale Models.

My Springbok castings from Winter (before the new owner) were chilled right through. I ruined two new carbide inserts before I gave up. I took them to a heat treatment place to have them annealed.