Re: Gauge One steam cylinder drain cocks
I scanned the photos/sketch that Kevin cited. It can be found at: www.panyo.com/drop/Crow.gif Mike
Re: O.T. - Barrels and platforms on trestles, and covered bridges
Hi Trent, All. I am still here, but busy and also having had computer problems (semi-sorted by getting a second machine). This hasn't helped as I do most of my drawings with a CAD program on my computer. My projects are progressing, although slowly. I keep finding that I just need another widget before I can do some simple machining activity or other (*sigh*). As I am new to machining I am still scrambling up the precipitous learning curve (cliff?). Also in this hot weather my attic workshop (no windows) has been too hot to stay in for more than a few minutes. One of the things I have been working on is a new boiler design that could be very applicable to our small steamers with hopefully more efficient heat transfer for evaporation. It's still at the back of envelope stage, but I am hoping to be building a prototype soon (just need to buy some appropriate diameter copper tubes - and a brazing torch!). As to fires, etc. I know that a steam fed hose was used by firemen to wash down the coal dirt in the cab - a somewhat hazardous task I would have thought for both the fireman and the driver. Best wishes, Susan. Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2001 19:28:54 -0500 From: Trent Dowler [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: O.T. - Barrels and platforms on trestles, and covered bridges Hello Everyone, Thanks for all the information. Those were just a few things that I had wondered about for some now and decided that if the people on this list didn't know, nobody would. What a great source of information you guys and gals are! Later, Trent P.S. - Speaking of gals, has anyone heard from Susan Parker recently? I'd be interested in hearing how she is fairing with her project(s).
Re: Gauge One steam cylinder drain cocks
Hi Michael et al. Thanks for posting the pics. These drain cocks look GREAT ! Don't seem a bit out of proportion. And the diagrams are clear as to how to install. However, it's those needle valves that I would like to see detailed. Any chance there'll be any of these at the National Summer Steamup? (just made my reservation yesterday). royce (w) Michael Martin wrote: I scanned the photos/sketch that Kevin cited. It can be found at: www.panyo.com/drop/Crow.gif Mike
Re: Gauge One steam cylinder drain cocks
At 9:59 AM -0700 7/9/01, M. Paterson wrote: Mike, Dave, I accidently blew the address for Mike's gif file. Please repeat, Mike Paterson At 11:22 PM -0700 7/8/01, Michael Martin wrote: I scanned the photos/sketch that Kevin cited. It can be found at: www.panyo.com/drop/Crow.gif Mike if you're typing it in by hand (rather than cutting-and-pasting), make certain that you make the c in Crow.gif a capital letter ... mike seems to have uploaded the picture to a eunuch's system ;-) ... \dmc -- ^^^ Dave Cole Gen'l Sup't: Grand Teton Everglades Steam Excursion Co. Pacifica, Calif. USA http://45mm.com/ mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] List Mom: sslivesteam, the list of small-scale live steamers mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Editor: TRELLIS TRESTLE, the newsletter of the Bay Area Garden Railway Society http://www.bagrs.org/ mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Webconductor: Pacific Coast Live Steamers http://p-c-l-s.com/ mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ^^^
Man oh man! Rusk, TX... LONG.
What can I say... I spent two whole days last week in hog heaven and am
just now getting the time to make a note about it.
Some readers may remember my mentioning that I could not attend a recent
steamup due to being at Rusk the day prior to the event. Well, I ended up
spending two hot sweaty days climbing all over three running steam
locomotives. On the second day I went out with one of the brakemen and
learned quite a lot about switching and train care, not to mention the
hand signals used to comunicate with the engineer. =)
The first day I arived at about 7:40, 20 minutes earlier than expected to
find that the man I was to meet for job duties was not there yet.
However, one of the crew in the break room informed me that todays loco
was being brought up to steam and I could feel free to walk back and check
it out if I so wished. Well what would you have done?! There, sitting
just beyond the shop door was #300, a 1917 Baldwin Consolidation with a
faint stream of smoke coming from her stack and the roar of an oil fire
coming from her belly. It wasn't long before I found myself up in the cab
pooring over the varion handles and levers seeing which ones I could
remember the functions of and asking questions about the ones I couldn't.
Having never been in an oil burner this was interesting and I still find
myself amazed by the simple opperation of the system. All the locos on
the TX state Railroad burn diesel for fuel so there isn't any need for the
tank heaters during summer and the whole thing runs on a gravity feed with
steam atomization.
I soon found out, once Blair (the boss) arrived, that I would likely be
assisting with the diagnosis of a leaning coach car. Once this was
determined everyone set out to do something completely different and I
signed a waiver of liability before going to watch the rest of the
goings-on. Turns out they were planning to set one of the safeties (it
had just been rebuilt) on #500, a big (137 tons) Baldwin Pacific. When I
re-emerged from the shops they had their RS2 coupled up to the loco and
were draging it toward the servicing facility. The loco was completely
cold so I was able to witness the bringing online of a loco from nothing.
I helped with filling the tender's water tank, filling and connection of
the diesel air compressor (for atomizer and forced draft) and finally
climbed up in the cab to watch the lighting. A pre-soaked rag was brought
up and the firebox hatch was opened. Once the rag was burning it was
lofted into the box about a foot away from the burner nozzle. The hatch
was closed except for a ~4 viewport, the atomizer was opened slightly and
the fuel slowly turned up. Before long there was life in the box and
smoke out the stack. About this point I started asking questions again
and learned that there is a valve on the whistle turret that gets opened
during this phase of the warming up process. This valve opens into a
short run of 1.5 pipe that points straight up. When there is steam
coming from the pipe the valve is closed and they know that there be steam
in that boiler. From that point on it was sit and wait, adjust the blower
and atomizer, and make sure the firebox doesn't start 'drumming' (at one
point I saw 6 flames puffing out of the viewport due to 'drumming'.)
Remember the leaning coach? Turns out it was sitting in a string of cars
behind the pass train that was waiting for it's time to pull off toward
the station. Before the gauge on #500 reached 10 PSI the Rusk train was
departing for the depot and those cars were ripe for the switching. The
fireman I had been assisting found a watcher for #500 then we and an
engineer hopped on the RS2 and started for the three recently exposed
coaches sitting down on a siding. The fireman acted as brakeman while I
tryed to feel usefull running back and forth in the RS2's cab giving the
engineer signals when he couldn't see the fireman. All in all it was very
exciting and you'd be suprised just how fast 20 MPH can feel when you're
in the cab or on the footboards of a switcher! Long story short, we
didn't do much other than crawling all over that coach looking at spring
levels and making guesses. They still aren't sure why it's leaning even
after replacing the most-compressed spring.
Next on the list was lunch at a small buffet-style place in downtown Rusk.
This place reminds me of where I spent the first 8 years of my life in
back-woods TN. It just helped make the whole week that much more surreal.
{;]
Back at the shop the afternoon train had come in and #400 was sitting by
the fueling tower (you know, the big pipe that sticks up out of the
ground? I can't recall what it's called.) 400 is a decently small Mikado
that resides at Palestine most of the time and starts the day from that
end of the line. I have to say that this was my favorite of the engines
I saw there, mainly because it seems like the smallest. It has the
smallest drivers of the bunch and runs a Vandy-style tender.
Re: Man oh man! Rusk, TX... LONG.
At 04:49 PM 7/9/01 -0400, you wrote: What can I say... I spent two whole days last week in hog heaven Trot I only have one question . . . do they use a #74 hole in their lubricator steam line or do they go a little larger?
Re: Man oh man! Rusk, TX... LONG.
It's just a tad larger. I think it has something to do with that arm that runs to the reversing link though... Trot, the oblivious, fox... On Mon, 9 Jul 2001, Harry Wade wrote: At 04:49 PM 7/9/01 -0400, you wrote: What can I say... I spent two whole days last week in hog heaven Trot I only have one question . . . do they use a #74 hole in their lubricator steam line or do they go a little larger? /\_/\TrotFox\ Always remember, ( o o ) AKA Landon Solomon \ There is a \./ [EMAIL PROTECTED] \ third alternative.
Cylinder drains, butane, and Gaz
I have been overwhelmed with requests for photos of the various steam cylinder drains that I have on my locomotives. What I intend to do is to take better photos than I have and post them on the Notes From Unit Shop portion of Jim Pitts website southernsteamtrains.com. I will also do a write-up about making them on your desktop lathe. This way the information will be there for anyone to check out. but please have patience as I am in the third to last week of putting the PCLS Summer Steamup on, and I have much yet to do. A good source for isobutane is: Athena International, Inc. 1100 Mark Circle PO Box 398 Gardnerville, NV 89410 (800) 272-8603 www.athenainternational.com They sell it 12 to a case and will ship any where in the continental US. This is the isobutane that you see at most large steamups. I just received 15 cases for the PCLS Summer Steamup. Gaz is a 20% propane and 80% butane gas mixture that gives, on average, a 10% higher vapor pressure per unit of temperature than does neat butane. If you are interested in a complete discussion of liquid gas fuels for use in small scale live steam locomotives please look for an article that I wrote for Steam in the Garden about three years ago entitled What is the best fuel for gas fired locomotives. Call Ron Brown at SitG for back issues. By the way, butane is not isobutane, and isobutane is not Gaz, and Gaz is not Primus: they are all somewhat and very different fuels with differing characteristics. It's all covered in the article. Best regards, Kevin
