The Steamlines Shay delivers a huge plume.I'd like a refresher on how the Steamlines smoke generator works, too.
Vance and all:
I built my Steamlines Shay from a kit that I bought from Al Cramer during the 1991 Queen Mary Show in Long Beach CA. I had seen a Steamlines Shay John Wieland was running out front and he pointed me toward Al Cramer's San Val Trains booth.
The smoke generation system consists of a oil tank (located in the bunker) with two needle valves, two brass mixing pots (really 1/2 diam. brass tubes 1 inch tall) which served to mix the oil with exhaust steam, a stainless steel tube (1/8") passing through the length of the center line flue area which terminated at the base of the base of the model smoke stack and the silicon rubber connecting tubing.
Operation was pretty easy once you figured out how much to open the needle valves.
First you sucked out condensed water from the oil tank and filled it with oil. I used 30w motor oil. You serviced the engine by oiling moving parts, filling with water and butane gas. You then lit the burner by applying the flame to the bottom of the smoke box.
What most people don't realize is that the flue gases vented out the bottom of the smoke box or from behind a false smoke box door. They did not exit the smoke stack. The smoke stack was sealed at the bottom. Only the engine exhaust steam and oil/steam mix went up the stack.
Steam to the osmotor engine came off the backhead, through the steam oil displacement lubricator, and on to the throttle which is located at the osmotor engine.
After raising steam and running a few laps you could then slowly open the needle valve which admitted live steam to the bottom of the oil tank. I found that about 1/8 turn was enough. Then you would open the oil needle valve which was connected to the top of the oil tank and the smoke plume was generated.
The stainless steel line going down the center flue and the bottom 2 inches of the smoke stack was heated to cherry red in the flue gases. This stainless steel line is not a super heater. It only serves to vaporize the exhaust steam/oil mixture.
As the engine trundles around the track huge volumes of white oil fumes are emitted from the stack. Once I was demonstrating the smoke system while at Diamondhead and it filled the steamup room with smoke in just one lap around the track. I quickly shut it off. It could run you out of the backyard if left on. Eventually I found that about 1/8 turn on both valves was about right.
I never liked the odor of the 30w motor oil and I tended to not use the smoke system except as a one or two lap demonstration. I sold the engine to Dr. Carol Hormuth several years ago. He had one without the smoke system and bought mine so he could have one with a smoke system.
I no longer have any plans as I gave them to Dr. Hormuth when I sold the engine.
The main thing to remember is that the smoke stack is sealed from the flue gases and only the engine exhaust (and steam/oily mixture) goes up the stack.
Cheers Clark ============================================ Clark B Lord - Las Vegas, Nevada USA Las Vegas Live Steamers - Gauge 1 live steam
