Experiences from the first week of running with steam

Spending my last summer holiday week in Hango, I worked hard welding an additional 30 meters or so of track, and put up the all the trackage (some 400 kilograms, over 100 meters/300 ft.) in a new configuration, and made a few last-minute adjustments to the loco.

I had a few friends with their kids invited for a steam party this weekend (our summer's last), even though the loco wasn't completely finished. To get it to look a little better, I quickly made a temporary boiler cladding in the following way:

Using heat-resistant silicone gasket paste, I glued strips cut from waterproof plywood to the boiler shell. These strips form a lagging (with airspaces), and form the foundation onto which I silicone-glued the cover sheet - made from an old aluminum offset printing plate, painted a metallic blue-green.

I also provisionally repaired the smoke stack - I had thought the soft-soldered stack would stand the temperature of the flue gases, since it had an inner, silver soldered tube - and so it did, for a few days, but at one time the ignition of one of the pokers caused the flame to burn inside the smokebox instead of in the poker (obviously dependent of the gas pressure - I have a lot of operating details to learn, yet!), and the lower joins of the stack melted. I will make a completely new stack of silver soldered brass in due time...

I added the unfinished sand and front steam domes on top, and stuffed some insulating wool between the smokebox and boiler lagging, so that the hot gases in the smokebox wouldn't char the plywood. A few brass strips improved the looks enormously.

Here I'm preparing the loco for the first run in front of the guests...

My girfriend's countenance may reflect a bit of apprehension prior to her very first ride...

One of the three "dubious" friends of mine who "procured" this reflecting RR X-ing sign for my 50th birthday last summer, takes the last train of the evening - with the family's pet hamster! Dubious, indeed...

A tired, but happy engineer, ready for the sack - just as the loco...

The following day, I coupled the low-sided car to the train, and all the kids could ride as much as they liked - that was quite a few laps!

Here's a QuickTime Video (1.6 Mb) composed of several snippets my friends shot when I was taking their kids on a steam train ride. The low, wooshing sound you can hear in the very first shot, before starting, when no other sounds overwhelm it, is the sound of the propane pokers burning.

With some tutoring (and trepidation) by the loco's builder, even the guests could run the engine...

Later in the evening, after a glass of wine or two, even the grown-ups enjoyed a ride... I had to get a tiny flaslight to see the controls and gauges in the cab!

Tracks of tracks... I removed all the rails from the lawn and walks and put them in storage - I don't know if I'll be able to run the entire loop anymore this year. The autumn storms are approaching, the lawn will be soggy and soft, and the air outside is corrosive with salt spray from the Gulf of Finland, only a couple of hundred meters away...

But - I've run the loco for a whole week now, dozens of 100-meter laps round the house each day, with no major breakdowns (yet, knock wood...)

The problem I had not getting enough water was due to a leaking gland in the crosshead pump - not being able to see the pump while running, I finally figured it out from the right-hand rail always being wet after a run! Tightening up the gland, I could run almost indefinitely without pumping, if I was careful with the throttle, and notched up the reverser immediately after starting, to about 50% cut-off or so...

Once, the first day, I thought I had some problem with both the crosshead and manual pumps - the water level dropped and dropped... Starting to debug the problem, I saw air bubbles in the water hose from tender to loco... Strange, I thought, is the hose leaking? No, not at all - in my excitement, I had run the tender dry - almost 10 liters! The loco uses quite a bit of water if you're not careful with the throttle. I have so far, during this week, used less than 2 bottlefuls, or 10 kilograms (approx. 20 pounds), of propane, so I consider the poker burners having proven their worth!

With some 18 kilograms of added weight in the space of the prototype's firebox, the adhesion was improved so much that the loco could pull driver and three kids, or driver plus one adult, up the 4% grade with ease, but that did consume a bit more steam, and thus water, necessitating hand pumping for a minute or two after each lap.

The track will need better attention and adjustments next time I put it up - on a soft spot on the lawn, the track sank into the ground, flexing the rails so much that the 2-axled cars juped off the track if I ran with anything but creeping speed.

Removing the spring-loaded check valves from the lubricators, they now work as intended - but, as with the original 3003, you have to be careful not to open the lubricator cup valves when there's steam pressure in the steam chests, or you will be squirted with oil!



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