Well another week is slowly dragging past like someone with broken legs trying to reach some form of medical attention, This week has been all about boiler interals, regulators, feed pipes and linkages. But finally the end is neigh!
This started out as a simple job to sort a few minor issues. One being the horrible mess that is the regulator. So first things first I sorted a new valve, then set about getting all the sundries back inside the boiler, no easy task! Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all doom and gloom! The steam feed pipe to the steam T was a fiddle but went in without too much pain, and then it was a case of sorting the regulator, I had come to the conclusion a while ago (so had a few others) that the old regulator handle stuck out far too far from the back head,
So with some time-laps photography, bingo!
Shortened by 15 odd mm, new bush in the back head, new stuffing gland, new regulator nut to save the embarrassing moment web the regulaor handle falls off! All in all it looks a lot better, with all the bits stuck back together with some kind of gasket compounds and Steam testing phase 2.3 was intiated to see what leaks!
Most of it went well, few minor issues to get round but with some fiddling all seemed good, until isome un-controllable priming, water was been taken over the regulator, down the steam feed to the take off and all sort of bad places, at first me and the old man were completely foxed! We had water out the injector overflow that looked something like the results of putting fairy liguid and water in a blender! Haveing poked, prodded and played we changed injectors, twice! All had the same issues, after much head scratching and talking the only thing we could consider was the water, as it turns out we were using rain water.. Fresh, clean, not full of scale and all that, an it hated it!!!! Changed over to tap water and within minutes everything was back to normal, priming gone, injector stopped foaming like a rabid dog, so back to square one! The axle pump seemed to be "working" as far as that goes but as it stands it's woefully inneficant, I need to have a fiddle with the boiler clack, see if that makes it easier to get water in, and make the pump a little more meaningfull, if
After steaming a little examination showed a nice ammount of ash in the smokebox, and a hole, where there wasn't ....seems to be the steam feed from the regulator is leaking, so I'll add that to the job list too, also when it had its priming issues it not onlly took all the water it can get its grubby mits on over the regulator, it filled the cylinders and washed out all the oil and back fed a large ammount into the oiler, so that needs a clean out,
Since then I've been back on plate work, now the cab is actually screwed on!!! The slide way covers have been modified to fit so they will go back on, and there is a temporary mark 1 coal chute. Its not pretty, or well made, but it's the idea more than the look, if it works and is easy to use ill make a proper one, thats all shiny and tidy!!
