cylinder cock design from latest live steam mag...

[Bill Wilkins]

Yea I know what you mean about the delicate plumbing. I thought about all of that and did put the valve back under the cylinder instead of sticking out where even a pant leg could catch it.

The front step of the cow catcher is 3/16". I am going to put a 3/16" rod brace from the step up to the pilot frame. That should help a little if things jump the track.

I plan to run very conservative especially thru switches & frogs at first. Kinda like test flying a new airplane you just built. (did that in '88)

I just last night hooked up the cyl lubricator, that was the last thing to do. Engine 569 is ready to run.

I'll post a picture of engine & tender as soon as I get a good picture.

Bill W.

[10 Wheeler Rob]

You may laugh, but a guy I used to work with had one of his junior egineers about 50 years ago get a a half dozen different size steel rulers made form like 3" to 2 foot long that all looked like a 1 foot rulers.

He was asked to get pictures of componets for proposals and never had the right size sample heat eachangers and such to photograph, and got tired of being horanged about it by the contract proposal guys, so got the out of scale rulers so he could get any scale photo they wanted. This was long before the majic of digital photography, or even zerox.

The engineer showed up at this retirement party with one of the rulers for a momento.

If you want a minature penney, the American Girl Dolls used to come with some that are like 1/3 or 1/2 half size.

Rob

[Jacob's dad]

Here is a very rough drawing of what I have used many times. It is not only a drain, but a relief valve in case the cylinder fills up with water.

Excuse the crappy spring drawing, but you get the idea.



A = valve ball
B = ramp ball
C = spring
D = Pin to hold it all together. I just slid in a brass escutcheon pin and bent the end over slightly so it wouldn't fall out. Not very high tech, but functional.

The main body can be as small as 1/4" diameter.

The 'rod' with the ramp is 1/8" thick x .093 high in this example, but that is not a critical size either.

The only fiddly thing is the spring. I used a bronze spring from a ball point pen in my Hudson (30 years ago), and they are still there. I adjusted the 'ramp' angle and height to make the spring I had work.

I have, on occasion made them for people without the bottom ball and just had the spring ride up / down on the 'ramp'. It seems to work OK that way also.

You can activate the rod either from one end or from the center, depending on your circumstances.

I see that I forgot to label the 'discharge hole' seen on the right hand sketch, just above the ramp ball. This blows the steam / water out to the side, rather than digging up the ballast and making a mess of things.

Be creative, this idea isn't new - I have seen dozens of variants, all of which worked just fine.

Back to work now...

Can you repost the picture for this style valve please?

Thank you,

Jeff Smith
Florida

[Sawyer-Massey]

Here you go...

[Bill Shields]

Seems that we can no longer 'host' photos from photobucket without paying them $$$...so I am going to move somewhere else.

[Bill Shields]

Let's try this - no image but a link

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipN ... RwZul3zZf1

brain dead, simple to build. what you are looking at is on a 50 year old running loco.

Stainless rod sits in a nice sliding fit bearing (hence the need for the clevii on the ends.)

Slide rod so that hole aligns and allows steam out.

Not my idea but have every intent to copy it on my current model.

If someone can tell me how to get an IMG link from GOOGLE PHOTOS, I am welcome to help.

Or another photo site???

[Harold_V]

The Google link provided, for me, does not work. It takes one to a sign-in page.

H

[Bill Shields]

crap.....ok...will find another way....going to need some help here from someone that is using one of these services that provides what the BBS needs (img data)...without paying $50 / month

[Bill Shields]

OK...this works on flickr

[Fred_V]

How about this one?

[Bill Shields]

that's it in double form...

different attachment mechanism but functionally the same.

interesting that it appears to have place for packing (?) on one end and is open to the atmosphere on the other.

[Fred_V]

Right, what's the point of that?