Re: rivets
Harry, Try Grant Line at; http://www.enginetender.com/300m.htm They list Rivets brs .063rnd hd30/ 300-81156 O $5.85 Rivets brs .063con hd30/ 300-81157 O $5.85 Regards, Tom Burns
Re: Australian Boiler codes
Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've heard of sssteamers in the US having to boiler test take out insurance for 'mall' exhibitions. My 2 cents worth. 1. Gauge 1 live steam is considered by most as a part of the model railroading hobby which is percieved as minimal to no risk when operating. Same as craft and sewing shows. Where do you cross the practical line? When you ride the train, you then are operating a miniture railroad. Big difference in terms of risk. 2. Any presumed risk in ssls has not been substantiated by related serious accident history. Until such an accident or series of accidents occur, ssls will likely remain within the model railroading hobby. I also fly model airplanes where insurance coverage is manditory for group functions. On the other hand, this hobby has a long history of serious accidents and fatalities (1 fatality a couple months back at my club in Houston when a man was hit by a model airplane). Anybody even know of a serious injury operating ssls requiring significant medical treatment? Building ssls (operating Dremel tools or powered machinery) is another risk topic all together. 3. Operating ssls at the minature live steam parks (ride on gauges) does make this nice picture a little fuzzy as it does attempt to combine 2 totally different hobbies and associated risks. Either way, obtaining insurance today on anything that does not have a proven risk history is next to impossible thanks to a couple of jets being flown into the WTC. We still have several more years before the insurance industry gets rational. If being underwritten for $1,000,000 is really required in Austrailia for a couple of people to boil some water in a pressure cooker, I wish you luck. Until a hobby is proven to be hazardous to the general public, don't try to regulate it. Regards, Tom Burns
Looking for Scale Drawings
Bob, As indicated by Vance, the set in Model Railroad is excellent. You might also try some of the drawings in the John Maxwell collection at www.colong.com. I just checked and there are a number of detail drawings for the K-27 but I have not seen them and can not comment on how useful they might be. Regards, Tom Burns
Re: Scale/4-4-0 - PS
Ray, Assuming you are considering Gauge 1 (45mm gauge), you have a large selection of scale gauge/scale options and a few non-scale gauge/scale options. There is a long history of why so much variety in scale sizes exist running on Gauge 1 track but won't go into detail. There is RTR Gauge 1 rolling stock commercially available in the following following scales 1:32 (scale standard gauge) 1:29 (non-scale enlarged standard gauge) 1:24 (non-scale 3' narrow gauge) 1:22.5 (non-scale 3' narrow gauge, scale 1m narrow gauge) 1:20.3 (scale 3' narrow gauge) There are some rolling stock kits and parts produced in the following larger scales 1:16.9 (scale 30 narrow gauge) 1:13.5 (scale 2' narrow gauge) As the 4-4-0 design prototypically existed in all of the above gauges, the choice is your. The majority of live steam for Gauge 1 is done today in 1:20 and 1:32 however examples exists in all the above gauges and even a couple not mentioned such as 1:19. Although many may argue, I agree the larger scales have benefits due to the larger size. If nothing else, the closer in scale the model is to the prototype, the more realistically it will perform. I think the best advice is to pick an actual prototype you really, really, really, really like and is otherwise not available. You are about to start a project that will take more man hours than we like to discuss and building something you really like is probably the biggest issue in actually completing the project. Keep up posted. Regards, Tom Burns Sugar Land, TX
3mm Metric Tube Fittings
My trusty search engines have failed me. I have thus far been unable to locate via the Internet, 3mm metric tube fittings that are used by Accucraft. I would preferably like to locate a source within the US. Anybody have an idea where to look other than direct from Accucraft? Regards, Tom Burns Sugar Land, TX
Re; Boiler test
Royce, Why not take advantage of your overdesigned and now tested boiler with a 60psi relief valve? At minimum you could still operate at 40psi without waisting anything out the popoff. I am still scratching my head on this next part and throw it out to the group for comments. Assuming you have sufficiant gas for the additional energy required and operate at the same speed, would you not get longer runs from a given amount of water operating at 60psi versus 40psi? As this is presumably a geared loco, I would assume you would not need the extra torque available from the higher pressure. At a first glance it seems logical as each cc. of water would have that much more energy when converted to steam. I am having difficulty understanding if this additional energy is simply lost across the pressure drop at the throttle or if it does make it to the piston. It has been too many years since I have studied steam tables to draw a conclusion. Regards, Tom Burns
Thirsty K-27
I want to keep my K-27 under steam for an extended period of time. I am looking for a simple method of filling the boiler under pressure. A Goodall valve with a finger bottle pump works but my finger gives out long before the water is at the top of the sight glass due to the high volume. Anybody know where I can find an electric pump to replace to manual pump bottle. Due to the boiler pressure, the pump would need good for 100 psi and pump at least 250cc/minute. Regards, Tom Burns
Thirsty K-27
I guess I need to explane more. Even with an hour to work (OK play), I find myself at the bottom of the site glass and still have not finished the work I wanted to do such as switching. It is a real pain to blow down the boiler, let things cool off, fill the boiler, get both burners burning, build steam, and then finish the job (takes 30 minutes to turn the engine around). I want to keep things very simple and want to stay away from tender type pumps. With a boiler this size, no real need to keep a constant boiler level. The pump bottle with a Goodall valve is exactly what I need and works fine except it takes a very long time to pump 500cc with the squirt bottle I have and my finger gets worn out. I just want to find an electric version of the hand pump. Every hour, I just need to be able to inject 500cc at pressure and keep on going (OK, I still have to shut down to refuel and add oil). If I refill the boiler every 1/2 hour, I probably will have minimum heating time to rebuild pressure. I came up with 250cc/minute as a couple of minutes to fill the boiler sounded reasonable. I just have yet to think of an application or sorce of a suitably sized commercially available electric pump. I could build one but I am sure there is probably a cheep one available that does what I want. My alternative plan is to use a presurized water bottle connected to an air compressor in the garage. Don't tell me this is something new? Regards, Tom Burns
Re: Size of Accucraft K-27?
Gary, I don't have a clue why Accucraft is still not advertising the K-27. There is a web page on the K-27 live steam located at; http://www.accucraft.com/pg-87140.htm It is interesting there is still no link to this page on their site. Perhaps they are trying reverse logic thinking more mistery will increase demand. You can order direct or through a limited number of dealers for the same price of $3,995.00 Accucraft is not allowing dealers to discount. Great engine but it is big. Regards Tom Burns Sugar Land, TX RGS in Live Steam
Re: Whistle while you work, well almost.
Sorry to those who got my first message scrambled. No idea why this happened as no attachments or pictures were included. Like Chad, I will try and record my whistle this week. I did get whistle #2 to sing this weekend but only on the 1st harmonic. I tried several of the various sizes internal tubes that are suppose to lower the tone but could not get a good whistle. I could just hear the tone it was suppose to be with just a little steam but with any more steam all I got was steam venting white noise. Both whistle #1 (in the trash) and whistle #2 are the smaller version made to Larry Bingham plans published in SitG Vol 42. I'll continue to play with it. The requested details on the headlight are easy. Whenever I am in a Home Depot I always visit the flash lights and look for good minature lenses. Several months back I found a flashlight lense that was perfect diameter for the Accucraft old style headlight. I was stupid and only bought 2. Since then I have not seen this exact flashlight again. My first lense got too close to my micro torch flame and got all wrinkled up so I have only 1 left. Anyway, I used the lense and bulb from the flashlight and got a microswitch and 2 N sized batteries at Radio Shack. Everything was soldered together in series and there is just enough space in the headlight to squeeze to 2 batteries behind the lense. The switch is mounted on the bottom of the headlight. I made the top of the headlight removable and is held by 2 ea 2mm flush mounted screws in the back of the headlamp. By far the thing that took the most time was making a new slanted front face and number board out of brass as per RGS #17 prototype. All in, the headlight took a couple of weeks and I have played with the whistle for a couple of weeks. I scratched built a wide peaked roof cab that took about 5 weeks of time. I would highly recommend Vances new round roof kit as it is not an easy project to scratch. As the RGS did not have a C-16 with an original short unmodified tender combined with a round roof cab post 1903 with automatic couplers, I chose to scratch the peaked roof cab and build RGS 17 instead of attempting to modify the tender. RGS #17 is one of the few engines post coupler that retained the original short tender dimensions. All the other tenders at that time were modified and were much taller. If I had to do over again, I would have started with an Accucraft DRGW #278 as the tender would have been suitable for several C-16 RGS engines post 1903. Regards Tom Burns Sugar Land, Texas
