Building the Regner Paul Tram Kit

C

Centrifugal Governor

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After having purchased the kit some time ago, I have finally found some time to start the assembly. I will upload a few pictures of my progress along the way. Instructions are in German, but there are plenty of detailed pictures supplied, so assembly should be straight forward.

The larger parts are nicely protected & wrapped in tissue paper

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Smaller components are supplied in little zip lock bags, numbered to the photos in the assembly instructions. A set of small tools are supplied with the kit, although the instructions say a 6mm spanner will also be required, as well as pliers & small screwdrivers, files etc..
Teflon tape is supplied for the pipe unions, as is a syringe to empty out the lubricator after steaming

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All the parts look very well made & the oscillating twin cylinder steam unit is supplied ready assembled

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Making a start with the chassis, firstly installing all the little grub screws into the threaded holes on the gear wheels, cranks & wheels. A handy track gauge is supplied with the kit.

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There are no flats on the end of the axles, so quartering the cranks is a matter of eyeballing, before locking the grub screws in position

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Countershaft installed in chassis, the gears are not aligned at this stage

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Then the pre-assembled twin oscillating unit is dropped into the chassis, along with the footplate & both secured in position with the mounting bolts

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Then the chassis is flipped back over to align the gears. Happy so far, everything seems to turn freely with no binding

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Good to see this build, as a Steam Tram nut I have long looked at this Regner beuty. But as I already have 4 live steam Trams one an earlier Regner do I need another? Hm…..but a kit would be a new experience for me in live steam.
 
dunnyrail said:
Good to see this build, as a Steam Tram nut I have long looked at this Regner beuty. But as I already have 4 live steam Trams one an earlier Regner do I need another? Hm…..but a kit would be a new experience for me in live steam.
Click to expand...
I have found when it comes to Regner locos, you can never have enough !
The kit version offers a cheaper purchase option & you have the satisfaction of building it yourself. I assembled my Heisler & Guinness tram loco from kits & they were both a pleasure to build.
 
Making a start on the boiler, by installing the steam regulator on the manifold. The super heater steam line requires bends forming at each end, after it is passed through the flame tube

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Installing the sight glass upper & lower fittings, care is taken to mount the upper fitting in the correct orientation, as a water top valve will be fitted in the top later on. Fittings are aligned on the X & Y axis, before installing the glass tube. Teflon tape & crushable copper washers are used on all the fitting threads. O ring seals are seated in the back nuts, before carefully tightening.

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The threads on the boiler fittings are very delicate, so great care was taken not to overtighten them.
I thought best to have steam leaks which can be addressed by nipping up the nuts, rather than over tightening & stripping the threads

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Centrifugal Governor said:
Making a start on the boiler, by installing the steam regulator on the manifold. The super heater steam line requires bends forming at each end, after it is passed through the flame tube

View attachment 346742

Installing the sight glass upper & lower fittings, care is taken to mount the upper fitting in the correct orientation, as a water top valve will be fitted in the top later on. Fittings are aligned on the X & Y axis, before installing the glass tube. Teflon tape & crushable copper washers are used on all the fitting threads. O ring seals are seated in the back nuts, before carefully tightening.

View attachment 346743

The threads on the boiler fittings are very delicate, so great care was taken not to overtighten them.
I thought best to have steam leaks which can be addressed by nipping up the nuts, rather than over tightening & stripping the threads

View attachment 346744
Click to expand...
Oh, how I'd love to build something like this!!
 
The super heated steam line is inserted through the flame tube & making sure the lubricator connection is facing to the right, the cylinder end of the pipe is bent upwards in an ‘S’ configuration, to join the lower union fitting pre installed in the cylinder block. The copper pipe was quite malleable & bent into shape easily using the fingers only. Not being fluent in German language & only going by the pictures in the assembly instructions, I made the mistake of bending the lubricator end of the pipe first - & then quickly realising it was impossible to bend the other end once it had been inserted through the flame tube, as the boiler needs to slide over the pipework once the cylinder connection has been made. So the lubricator end of the pipe was bent straight again & pipework re-bent in the correct order

Then the exhaust pipe is fitted to the top union nut on the cylinder block, after sliding the boiler & smokebox door along the pipe, whilst installing the gas burner simultaneously & securing the boiler with a bolt from beneath the footplate

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Installing the pressure gauge & siphon. Regner show in their illustrations to route the siphon across the top of the boiler, with the pressure gauge facing to the side of the tram. I didn’t particularly like the gauge appearing in one of the side windows & wanted to keep the gauge at the boiler back head. This would also allow the formation of a deeper dip in the syphon for the all important water to collect in the pipe, to protect the delicate workings of the pressure gauge from the hot steam. So the pressure gauge was mounted in the location of earlier Easyline locomotives. I do not intend to install the steam whistle, so there was plenty of room in this area to mount the syphon

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Lubricator was installed in the correct orientation before the final bend & connection to the steam regulator valve.

Gas tank & pipe were an easy install, again the gas pipe requiring bending with the fingers only. I did use a spice jar to bend the pipe around to try & keep things neat

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After preparing the chassis for an initial steam test, by filling the boiler, gas tank, lubricator & then applying a spot of oil on all axles, bearings, crank pins, gear wheels etc, I proceeded to hold a lit flame at the top of the chimney, while gently cracking open the gas valve. Well I could just not get the flame to ‘pop’. back to the burner - the flame wanted to stay in the firebox area & sounded very rough indeed.

An email sent to Graham Austin at Garden Railways asking for advice, returned a very helpful & informative reply, listing some tips & tricks to help alleviate the problem. So logically, I started with the easiest suggestion, which was to fit an air control ring to the air mixture hole in the burner, as my Paul kit did not come with one. Graham is the UK dealer for Regner & offers sales, service, parts & repair. He also includes his own English translation of the Regner assembly manual with every kit sold. See the website at Garden Railways Limited - gardenrailways.co.uk

The air control ring was taken from one of my other Regner’s & fitted to the burner on Paul. This made all the difference to the burner flame issue, which I was quite pleased about as it was a simple fix & saved removing the burner from the flame tube. With the air control ring fitted halfway over the air mixture hole, the flame popped back every time on lighting up & there was a noticeable improvement in the burner sound - not so rough sounding & certainly quieter.

As pressure started to increase in the boiler, a few leaks started to appear. Bottom sight glass fitting & gland nut, banjo bolt for pressure gauge syphon, union nut to cylinder block & also oil was leaking from the lubricator. These were easily sorted, by nipping up the nuts to stop the leaks. Once the chassis had cooled sufficiently, I repacked the lubricator gland nut with Teflon tape. Water, oil & gas were topped off & then a second initial steam test proved quite satisfactory.


 
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