FIRST STEAM! Aug. 26, 2002

With the boiler filled to the top of the water glass (about 5 litres of water), and all three pokers burners running on 0.8 bar gas pressure (less than half of the 2 bar full power - I didn't dare to try that immediately), it took a little over 10 minutes to get to safety valve blow-off (left).

I was pleasantly surprised that the exhaust from the stack was rather cool (I could hold my hand over the stack for quite a while until it felt uncomfortable) - so obviously, the pokers delivered their heat into the flues and the water, and not through the stack.

Wearing glasses isn't the very best for a miniature loco engineer - you can't see much for the steam condensing on the lenses ! I had to look over the rims, and with my myopia I couldn't see much anyway - so any onlookers had better stay off the track!

The engine steamed very freely, but the 4% grade really evaporated some water!

Running until dark - best to shut down when you can't see the water gauge any more!

After this first afternoon of running, there appears to be some fiddling still to do, at least one cylinder drain cock doesn't close all the way, and the lubricators need to be looked over, some steam bubbling through. Also, the single crosshead pump isn't nearly enough when there is a 4% grade on one fourth of the lap - so, if I don't want to pump my arm sore, I may have to add an axle pump. (Later comment: see the next page!) Plus, there's a lot of cosmetic stuff still missing, steam domes, boiler cladding, dummy firebox sides, equalizers and dummy leaf springs, etc. etc...

But, all in all, today was an eventful day!


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