HUNSLET QUARRY ENGINE BUILD

[John_S]

The boiler arrived today and looks fantastic. Marty is a real craftsman. The smokebox fits perfect and now I'll fit the throttle and dry pipe. I'm getting excited!!

Is that a Carroll Shelby boiler?! I bet it's got at least 800HP!

Hah!

[Fred_V]

Yes it is and I thought he was dead.

[Fred_V]

I did a safety valve test today on steam and it worked just great. The reset pressure was a bit lower than I want but I think I can fix that. The buzzing that happened on air was all gone and it popped open and shut just great. Nice to see progress.
https://youtu.be/xDZ3FVCHyms

[Benjamin Maggi]

Fred,
Any thoughts as to building some cars to pull behind it?

[Fred_V]

Hey Ben. Yes, 2 of them are already built. When I bought the Sweet William I also got wheel and axle box casting for 3 cars (wrong scale for Iris). The Hunslet parts included another set of wheels (for the tender) so I now have enough to build a total of 4 cars. The last photo shows a really nice consist that has given me some ideas for the last 2 cars to build.

[Benjamin Maggi]

Fred,
I posted that picture too on Chaski in a different thread so perhaps we have discussed this before. I love the variety of cars that the Ffestiniog Railway used. Sadly, my favorite Talyllyn Railway had only a couple of types of freight cars and they were mostly slate wagons.

[Fred_V]

I mounted the boiler and have most of the throttle bits on the backhead. I'll use an angle ball valve as it is too simple to not use it. 3/8" pipe from the valve out the front flue sheet.

[Fred_V]

The ash pan was a 2 day job but it's finished now and fits fine. The plans called for the rear of it to support the grates so that you could pull the support pin and drop the pan and grates.

I decided to weld 2 grate support bars in the boiler and let the ash pan be a separate unit. It looked like it would be a major pain to have to install the grates through the small, sooty fire hole with my size hands. If I need to drop the fire I'll just stuff a rag in the stack as I've done in the past. That kills the fire in seconds.

Dumping ashes should be easy from the rear damper door. I may come back and drill air holes around the top of the pan.

[marshall5]

Great progress Fred. I think you were right to go with the 3/8" steam pipe. I fitted a 1/2" right angle ball valve with 1/2" pipe and it was too much - you ran with the throttle only just 'cracked' and maybe it was this that eroded the PTFE ball valve seal over time. On the other hand maybe the valve wasn't 'steam rated' although I was told it was when I bought it. Until I can get a decent right angle valve I modded the valve body to take a screw down type valve which works surprisingly well.
Re your ashpan/grate I must admit I like to be able to dump the fire in an emergency (but never had to yet!). On my Hunslet the grate sits on a ledge around the top of the pan so when you pull the pin (I see you've drilled for it) the whole lot drops - provided you've remembered to disconnect the damper lever! I don't think you'll need any extra air holes - the boiler is such a good steamer that I run with the damper closed most of the time.
Really enjoying your build diary.
Cheers,
Ray.

[Fred_V]

Thanks Ray. It was your post on the angle ball valve on sevenandaquarter forum that got me going in that direction. I think the 3/8" may be a bit large too but it is easy to replace.

I have found a long list of errors in the drawings which has been annoying. I assume the drawings were revised over time; mine are original with very few revisions.
Fred V

[Benjamin Maggi]

There used to be a website run by the (recently deceased) Alan Stepney that listed all known errors with commercial designs. Have you checked there to see if there are others you haven't run into yet?

[Fred_V]

There used to be a website run by the (recently deceased) Alan Stepney that listed all known errors with commercial designs. Have you checked there to see if there are others you haven't run into yet?

Thanks Ben, I'll look for that. I posted on the Model Engineer forum and got replies that there were no errors!