A Little Whistle For The Gauge 1 Forney.

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Here are a couple little whistles that were made up today. One is for my Gauge 1 Forney, and the other is for my Friend Nico's. They are made to an LBSC design. Curly calls out 7/16" thin wall tube, but what I had in the stash was 15/32" tube. That will do just fine. It's a very simple design and it only took a few hours to make them. The tubing that goes to the whistle from the whistle valve is 3/32".

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Next I will be making some whistle valves. The critical part of a good whistle valve is the poppet. The taper on this piece determines how well you can "play" the whistle. You should be able to play the whistle like a cheap violin, really getting some good WOOooo WHOOoo action. The set up of the operating lever is important too. As this is a tiny engine, the lever will be set up inside the left hand cab window so you can reach in with your finger to operate the whistle. Too much fun!
Jack

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
I tested the little whistles on steam and they just whistled up a storm. They were so easy to make that I thought I would make a few more and fiddle with the length and throat width. Curly calls out .032" for the throat. This works, but it seems a bit wide to me. So I thought I would make one with a .025" throat, and then a .020" throat and try that. Curly says to file the throat but I use the rotary table. This is much faster, and has repeatability once I get the best recipe. One of the nice aspects of this design is that you make the throat disc with a finger tight press fit in the tube. That way you can try it out before you go and solder the darn thing in. Shove it in, try it, and if it doesnt do the trick pop it outa there and make another. I have also started on the whistle valves. Here is a snappy of the poppets and stems. When I make poppets, I never start with a large diameter and turn down the stem. The poppet we have here is 3/16" diameter. The stem is .093". I will rough out the poppet from 3/16" material, drill it, part it off, and then silver solder it onto precision .093" material. Then the .093" material is held in a collet, and a very light finish cut with a freshly sharpened cutter will be taken across the poppet face. It will still need to be lightly lapped in for a good seal in the valve body.

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Here is a look at the whistle valves. The diameter of these valves is 5/16". The pipe that goes to the whistles is .093". I have tried the whistles on steam with a length of this .093" tubing and they work just fine.

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And here is a small gaggle of whistles. Whistles can be difficult at times. I have made beautiful looking chime whistles that just didn't want to whistle. This design of Curly's seems to be very forgiving. Not fussy at all. Leave it to LBSC. Tomorrow I'll fire up the test boiler and have some fun.
Jack

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[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
I have been busy with other projects and haven't done much on the little Forney but here is a snappy of the whistle valve fitted up. This is the original position of the supply to the pressure gauge. A longer banjo bolt was made to hold both the pressure gage and whistle valve banjos as we have here. The operating lever for the whistle valve will be reached just inside the fire man's side cab window. I have cool pressure gauge that has been in the stash box for thirty years. It's a 100 PSI gauge and that's why it never got used, but thats just perfect for this little 60 PSI engine. I'll be finishing up this project this coming week to get ready for the LALS fall meet. See you there.
Jack

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[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
I have been experimenting with the little whistles and valves. Here is the original set up. A banjo fitting was used to supply the pressure gauge. with steam as we have below.

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I thought this would be a good place to pick up steam for the whistle. Here a longer banjo bolt has been made and the whistle valve has been fitted.

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Here you can see that the operating lever sticks out through the fireman's side window just a little.

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I wanted a whistle valve that allowed the whistle to be "played", getting some good WOOoo WOOoo action. The first try was pretty much a failure as the valve was basically an on or off valve. So new poppets were made with a shallower angle. Below we have at the top is the longer banjo bolt to hold both the pressure gauge, and whistle banjos. Below that is an un finished poppet. This is how I like to make a poppet. Rather than turning down a long slender shaft I just silver solder a large part on the shaft and then machine that. The third item from the top is the first poppet. This did not perform as desired and was basically an on or off valve. The bottom item is the successful poppet. This much shallower taper allows the whistle to be played like a cheap violin. You can really get some good WOOoooo WOOoooo action with this one. Too much fun

Now it's time to make some mounts for the whistle to fit under the running board.
See You In The Funny Pages...
Jack

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
The little Forney ran like a Swiss watch at the LALS Fall Meet. The whistle whistled, the cylinder cock linkage worked perfectly, and the new pressure gauge worked also. Here is a shot of the whistle mounted under the running board.

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The original cylinder cocks worked fine, but they required you to reach under the cylinders on both sides of the engine to open and close. A linkage was made up to operate as the full size Forney. Here we have Gullivers finger in the engineer's side front window, lifting the operating lever to open the cylinder cocks. This operating lever is stuck to the end of the hand rail that runs alongside the boiler to the front end.

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Here we have the smoke box end of the hand rail. This was originally modeled, but non functional on the locomotive. Now we have a functional lever and linkage that runs down to the cylinder cock shaft.

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Here the linkage is connected to the cylinder cock shaft. The motion travels through the shaft to the front of the cylinders.

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Here is the front of the shaft where another lever transmits the motion to the fireman's side.

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And finally the fireman's side shaft. So now you can open and close the cylinder cocks with a flick of the operating lever. You can slam the cylinder cocks closed, and also blow the whistle on the run. Too much fun.

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I have not figured out how to fire the little engine on the run though...It's enough of a fiddle to get the coal in that tiny fire door with the engine setting still. Still plenty of fun.
Jack

[xo18thfa]

Jack: Nice work. Thanks for putting this together. I didn't know you were into Gauge 1. We have a steamup every year in Lodi. You should come up, it's a great time. Next one is 9-13 Oct 2024.

[JBodenmann]

Hello My friends
Thanks for the head's up on the Lodi steam up. I would have been there this year but I didn't find out about it until it was over. But next year I plan on being there. David Dull said it's a lot of fun.
Jack

[xo18thfa]

Jack: Great! We have a website for online registration and other info. The registration thing will be up either late spring or early summer. In the meantime, check us out:

https://www.steam-events.org

Take care, Bob