new West Valley baby consolidation now in steam

[Harlock]

Friend Eber West conducted the first steam trial of his West Valley Consolidation this past Sunday at the Sagebrush Short Line Railroad. The West Valley Consolidation was a group build project started around 1981 featuring a very small 2-8-0 with Baker valve gear. This one sat as a pile of parts for 30 years before Eber got his hands on it.

In two weeks at Sacramento there will be a mini-West Valley Consolidation reunion with as many of our friends that own them as possible bringing them to run.

More Photos: http://mikemassee.com/gallery/v/liveste ... /eber_wvc/

hi-def video:



The engine has some timing, piston valve blow by, fire and other issues but overall the first test run was a success. Some of the hoppers he is pulling are full of sand and are quite heavy.

There are a lot of valves and plumbing that are temporary because Barry is out of stock on a number of items, so while we wait for those to come in, stuff was looted off of other engines and donated from parts bins. The safeties came off my MEG.

Note that the "Mesa Grande Western" lettering on the tender does pay homage to the 9" gauge railroad that Eber and I operate, but this locomotive is 7.5" gauge.

Cheers,

--Mike

[Pontiacguy1]

Looks like that locomotive uses Chloe drive wheels. It is similar to a group of these that was built by some guys down in Florida back in the early 1990s. They built four locomotives as small 2-8-0s, using the Chloe wheels and I think Mercer 0-4-0 cylinders. I'm not sure about the cylinders, but I don't think that these had piston valves. I do believe that they had Walschaert's gear on them. There were three guys that would work together, each of them taking a part of the locomotive to build. They would build four locomotives. They each kept one and then they would sell the fourth one to pay for their materials. I believe that they did that a couple of times on locomotive projects.

I can't remember any of their names. I do remember one of the locomotives was painted a dark red color and had Homosassa Sugar Company on the side of the tender.

Seems like very similar projects. Very nice. I remember that the ones that I saw were good runners. I also remember them saying that they increased the stroke to 2 1/2" instead of the chloe's 2 1/4", and they used a really fat piston in the cylinders to take up the remainder. I think that they had about a 7" boiler on them.

I'm trying to remember this from probably 20 years ago. Fred V. will probably know who they are and whatever happened to those locomotives.

[sabin]

Eber looks pretty serious and then, all of a sudden, there is that first run smile. A felling you can't explain when you pull the throttle for the first time. Nice work Eber.

Jim

[Harlock]

Pontiac: Yes there was a Florida project that was similar in that they were small 2-8-0s, but the resemblance stopped there. The West Valley project did not use existing castings from anyone. They are unique to the project. And baker valve gear, and piston valves.

The West Valley Consolidation drivers actually have a smaller wheel diameter than the Chloe. The two middle driver sets are blind. They almost touch each other!

The West Valley project started with about 18 locomotives, about half are currently finished and operating. Eber's locomotive was originally started by Jaques Littlefield, the now deceased proprietor of the Portola Valley & Alpine and collector of tanks.

Most of them are still located in California and Nevada, however we just had someone email us yesterday from back east, they picked one up on Ebay from some guy in Oregon. They're making their way around!

Cheers,

-Mike

[KandCRy]

That's a really cute little consolidation!
Are there plans for it availible?

[Harlock]

That's a really cute little consolidation!
Are there plans for it availible?

The only surviving plans as far as we know is the valve gear drawings which we have in our possession.

However, it would not be difficult to measure off an existing one. And the gear is really the most critical part of that.

-Mike

[SilverSanJuan]

Congrats to Eber! And, thanks for sharing another of your excellent videos.

One question... Is the buzzing/popping sound normal for an oil burner? Or, is that due to water drops coming through the atomizer?

Todd

[Harlock]

Yes basically what is happening as far as I can tell is that it's an artifact of non-continuous ignition due to not quite enough air intake...the fuel drips out and hits the atomizer stream and ignites, using up all the air in the firebox, then more air is drawn in and it re-ignites. Many times per second.

The way I figured out that it's an air constriction issue more so than the basic effect of the atomizer is that the same burner outside the firebox does not make the thumpeta thumpeta sound. It's continuous. Also, if you open the fire door the sound is much damped.

A little bit sounds good on an engine and has no major ill effect. If it's very loud (like you hear in my video) it needs a little more airflow.

-M

[Ray Cadd]

Nice!!!

[SilverSanJuan]

Thanks for the explanation, Mike. Makes more sense now.

[FLtenwheeler]

Looks like that locomotive uses Chloe drive wheels. It is similar to a group of these that was built by some guys down in Florida back in the early 1990s. They built four locomotives as small 2-8-0s, using the Chloe wheels and I think Mercer 0-4-0 cylinders. I'm not sure about the cylinders, but I don't think that these had piston valves. I do believe that they had Walschaert's gear on them. There were three guys that would work together, each of them taking a part of the locomotive to build. They would build four locomotives. They each kept one and then they would sell the fourth one to pay for their materials. I believe that they did that a couple of times on locomotive projects.

I can't remember any of their names. I do remember one of the locomotives was painted a dark red color and had Homosassa Sugar Company on the side of the tender.

Seems like very similar projects. Very nice. I remember that the ones that I saw were good runners. I also remember them saying that they increased the stroke to 2 1/2" instead of the chloe's 2 1/4", and they used a really fat piston in the cylinders to take up the remainder. I think that they had about a 7" boiler on them.

I'm trying to remember this from probably 20 years ago. Fred V. will probably know who they are and whatever happened to those locomotives.

The 3 Consolidation’s where built by Henry Walters Jr., Julian Vansickle, and Charlie Zhay. I found the notebook and sketches when I was cleaning out Julian’s workshop along with a receipt for drivers from RR supply. I do not know if the wheels where for the Consolidation’s or the group of 4 Mikado’s that they and “?” built later. I would need to look at the number ordered.

Henry’s engine is now owned by his Grandson John Henry Dye.
Julian’s engine was sold to Lee Waylon and friends. I need to double check on this one.
Charlie’s engine was sold when it was finished but was destroyed in a house fire.

Just to clear the air. Both the Consolidation’s and Mikado’s where designed by Julian Vansickle using surviving logging locomotives as prototypes. They are not copies of any other models that are being sold.

Tim

[Harlock]

Thanks for the nice photo of the Florida engine. They look like nice models.

-Mike