Kombrink's American

[FLSTEAM]

may become a project for when I have nothing else going on in the shop...

Is that ever possible?

John B

[Pipescs]

Fender called and we had a discussion on the injector. Obviously the Super Scale is too large. Is there a smaller one out there that will run on 100 PSI or lower?

[Pipescs]

Tonight I worked on the ergonomics of fitting me to the American. Oh boy is this thing smaller than I remembered. I am now on a diet and tomorrow I start at the gym on my belly size.

I will have to run it with the roof off the cab to be able to reach everything and see the water glass.

[Glenn Brooks]

Charlie, I looked at an Ottoway over this weekend. It has an overhanging cab which makes it difficult to see some of the boiler fittings. There is a small hood, or hatch, built into the top,of the cab roof. The engineer can lift up the hatch (it's hinged) when need be to see the upper part of the boiler.

Also, I've seen some loco,s where the entire roof bit is hinged and lifts up as needed...

Just a thought.

Then again, with modern technology, you could easily install wifi in the tender, robotics on the gauges, and a couple of miniature cameras under the cab, and operate everything sitting on the tender with an iPad.

[Pipescs]

I am going to go the full roof hinge method. There is a lot of rear overhang. This of course being a winter project. This weekend I will try to run it with the roof off.

[Pipescs]

Well the American ran at MSLS yesterday.

Scott Reedy allowed me to come up to his shop where we were able to address some of the last issues.

We ended up at MSLS around noon just as the rain was getting there. Due to this I did not even try the elevated area of the track. The rain on the lower loop did give me some slippage issues as you would think.

It fired up nicely. (Larry had always maintained that it fired poorly until he put in the arch).

We fired up with wood blocks switching to coal.

I am still chasing O-rings on the steam pump so it was run with the hand pump in the tender and the cross head pumps. While the hand pump worked, I would not want to depend on it for much in a hurry. Once moving the crosshead pumps worked quickly anytime I needed water. It was very easy to maintain the water in the glass with it.

So three laps in the rain with the final halt being caused by a failed fitting on the piping between the crosshead pumps and the boiler. When it let go there was quite a bang and a noticeable jump on the engine when the pressure came off the rods.

This is also the piping for the hand pump so it was at that point I headed to the barn while I still had water.

And to be honest, I don't think Scott and I could have ridden much more on it. The Ergonomics of the LE American were not meant for 200 pound plus operators.

Overall I had a great time and both Scott and I considered the day a success. Of course, we looked like drowned rats at the end of the day as we ran his in the rain also.

[Pontiacguy1]

I was glad that I could be a part of it.

Good to see that thing run so well, considering it is the first time it has had a fire in it since 1989!

[PSeyfrit]

Congratulations on having a running engine, I know you have been waiting for one for sometime.

[Pipescs]

This was a short clip from last Saturday. Pontiacguy caught me coming down the hill in the rain. This was the first of three laps and I learned all about stopping an engine with no brakes on wet track coming down a hill.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-HXml9gUQo



Tonight I worked on the Steam Pump and purchased the items I need for safety chains.

[Cary Stewart]

A few more stops like that and you will definitely get a pencil under the back of your heal. My experience was Army not Marines. You are absolutely not the first guy to learn the "heals in the dirt" braking system for small locos. Cary

[Pipescs]

It's been forty years since I went off to MCRD San Diego but I remember we were only allowed two nickels under the heel before we had to get a new pair.

Overall with it being too small for me really, I did have a good time running it after all these years.

[Pipescs]

With the continuing problems with the soldered connections around the piping I ordered new parts for Loco Part. They came today, actually, a day ahead of schedule. Nice people to work with.