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!
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.
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!"
