Evening all. On this changeable Friday evening I had plucked up the courage to steam my five inch gauge tank engine at home after some recent running repairs, as documented in "Achilles" post No81. Steaming at home is a total pain if I'm honest. The worst part about it is the mess, not to mention the aftermath of dropping the fire and blowing down. At the track you have facilities at hand that are designed with steam engine use in mind, unlike my garden! Nevertheless, not wanting to be embarrassed by a potential failure at the track, I popped "Achilles" onto its rollers on the tool trolley and took her outside in preparation for steaming up...
The first job was to fill the engine with water, which I decided to do via the recently serviced hand pump in the LH water tank. It filled the boiler at a fair rate for a short travel pump and I was happy with it so far. With water in the boiler I rigged up the electric blower to a battery from an impact driver and lit the fire...
She took a fair while to come round this evening, mainly due to the slow running blower which was suffering from low charge in the battery. Eventually she did raise enough steam to change onto the loco blower and from then on we had no issues...
For the next hour or so "Achilles" ticked over on the rollers whilst I went around checking that all was well. I was impressed with the serviced hand pump which worked well even at full boiler pressure, proving that I'd thankfully done something right with it! The new gauge glass had also bedded in fairly well, although I did need to nip it up once in steam. Apart from a tiny wisp from the threads on the top nut, I managed to seal the gauge glass on the whole. I'll see how it goes on the next run. The whistle and its shortened pipe produced a fairly clear, much louder note when blown so that was another win. I quickly snapped this shot whilst checking the tubes on the engine (a luxury only afforded when in steam whilst the cab is off)...
In the video below, "Achilles" ticks over on the rollers. Notice how the middle one had been removed since I steamed up as for some reason one of the bearings on it seized. There's always something, whether it's the engine or the kit!...
After a satisfying hour or so steaming the engine, I moved her onto the old Workmate I have ready to blow her down. The grate was dropped, the tank drained and the blowdown tap opened. The engine was soon an ashy, sweaty mess...
So, that was that. The engine was allowed to cool before being put away and she now awaits a good clean down and the refitting of the cab/bunker. Once that is done we can try to plan in another outing to the track, now that she's confirmed herself to be fit for traffic. Thanks to a joint effort from myself and several mates over the years, "Achilles" is now probably in the best condition she's ever been in since I've had her. I was trying to put together a list of all of the things that have been overhauled or replaced since I've had the engine but it became quite extensive quite quickly! There was nothing wrong with the way that the engine was built the first time around, she'd just done 25 years hard work by the time she became mine. 12 years later, we're at a point where she is in pretty good nick for an engine of 1986 vintage. I hope that Ken is looking down and is pleased with what we've achieved. Cheers all, Sam...
No comments:
Post a Comment