Okay, sorry for my little political rant. I want to get back on topic.
Even though my fantasy of building a loco is thousands of dollars and many years away, I too have been thinking of ways to make my loco easy to convert from coal to propane and back to coal again. The arrangement inside the firebox is still a mystery, but at least I got the tender part figures out, with lots of research and special guidance from the Backyard Railroading Facebook page and a study of gas grills at the Home Depot that I work at. I'll let the drawing (rather crude I know) do the talking...
And even though this is a centipede tender I am using for demonstration, if your tender is large enough, I don't see why it can't work.
Question: parts for a steamer
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Re: Question: parts for a steamer
Lots of interesting ways to incorporate propane bottles. One thing to consider for the tender -maybe the primary consideration - is where you sit while operating the loco. Quite often people place a propane tank in a vented car behind the tender and enjoy having a little extra leg room in the coal bin.
BTW, I believe this coming Saturday is opening day at Skykomish. If you wished to attend you could,get a look at several different locos -both coal and propane. I understand several love Steamers will be bringing their loco's.
Glenn
BTW, I believe this coming Saturday is opening day at Skykomish. If you wished to attend you could,get a look at several different locos -both coal and propane. I understand several love Steamers will be bringing their loco's.
Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum
Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge
Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge
Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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Re: Question: parts for a steamer
Regarding tender design and propane, I would vote for carrying the tank(s) in the first car behind the tender. The need for supplying external heat to assist in vaporization in the tank will depend on ambient temperature and how fast you are drawing propane from the tank. It has been my experience running my large Hudson that two grill tanks (20 pounders) manifolded together supplied sufficient fuel no matter how hard I was firing the loco.
Keep also in mind that if you are heating the tank and forget that the heat is on, you could possibly over pressurize the tank causing the relief valve to vent. I would not want the tank between my legs if that were to occur!
Keep also in mind that if you are heating the tank and forget that the heat is on, you could possibly over pressurize the tank causing the relief valve to vent. I would not want the tank between my legs if that were to occur!
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Re: Question: parts for a steamer
While I respect your wishes, Karl, as well as the wishes of others, the idea was to eliminate the extra unrealistically parasitic car. You never see a full-size steam engine with a freight car coupled behind the tender at all times, so why should a 1/8 scale engine have a freight car behind it at all times, even if it does burn propane? In any case it's still a work in progress. I believe I can compensate for that to some degree with some sort of thermostatic steam valve arrangement that interrupts the flow of steam thru the coil so the tank doesn't get too hot.Karl_Losely wrote:Regarding tender design and propane, I would vote for carrying the tank(s) in the first car behind the tender. The need for supplying external heat to assist in vaporization in the tank will depend on ambient temperature and how fast you are drawing propane from the tank. It has been my experience running my large Hudson that two grill tanks (20 pounders) manifolded together supplied sufficient fuel no matter how hard I was firing the loco.
Keep also in mind that if you are heating the tank and forget that the heat is on, you could possibly over pressurize the tank causing the relief valve to vent. I would not want the tank between my legs if that were to occur!
The point I am trying to make is that we need more innovators to break the mold and make our models operate more like the full-size thing...consider it "thinking outside the boxcar!"