Building the Regner Paul Tram Kit

Fred2179G said:
Nice description of your build. :)
I think those english instructions were written by me. (I found that scanning the german with the scanner set to 'german' meant the umlauts, etc., all came through in the resulting PDF. I could copy the text to google translate and get a quite a good result very quickly.)

The only thing to add is a flame/heat shield on the front over the spring. There's a slot at the bottom of the boiler front-plate, and the heat exiting that cooks the spring. Described here:
Regner
Photos of the heat shield in this thread:
Lighting a butane fired locomotive

The latter thread also points out that you can file the end of the chassis to allow the body to be lifted over it, using only the 2 bolts on the sides to hold it on.
Click to expand...
Thank you for those links, with lots of helpful suggestions.
I have been able to use my phone to a certain extent, to scan & translate the German text. So far, the flame has remained in the fire tube since fitting the air control ring on the burner. The answer seems to be with not over firing the burner so it seems a watchful eye is needed to glance down the chimney every now & again to make sure the flame is burning in the fire tube & not in the smoke box.
 
Bodywork added to chassis.

Some of the bodywork fittings I have left off to allow easy removal of the body for installing the R/C components. For now I shall operate the tram manually. The roof partly obstructs the pressure gauge dial, but as it needs removing to top up the water, it isn’t really an issue. (The assembly manual suggests mounting the pressure gauge in the side window for ease of reading.)

To conclude, a very enjoyable build & easy to put together kit of fantastic quality. Parts are beautifully machined & all the pre-drilled & threaded bolt holes all line up. Well done Regner I say ! :)

 
Centrifugal Governor said:
Bodywork added to chassis.

Some of the bodywork fittings I have left off to allow easy removal of the body for installing the R/C components. For now I shall operate the tram manually. The roof partly obstructs the pressure gauge dial, but as it needs removing to top up the water, it isn’t really an issue. (The assembly manual suggests mounting the pressure gauge in the side window for ease of reading.)

To conclude, a very enjoyable build & easy to put together kit of fantastic quality. Parts are beautifully machined & all the pre-drilled & threaded bolt holes all line up. Well done Regner I say ! :)

Click to expand...
That's a lovely loco, I have a couple of Regners and they both run well. Excellent engineering on them.
 
Centrifugal Governor said:
Could anyone recommend suitable passenger coaches which would sit well behind the Paul Tram ? :wait:
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Yes the LGB Barmer Coaches work perfectly, there are a couple at Tony Green’s shop just now at £175 the pair, he lists them somewhat erroneously as Mountain Railway Coaches but they always look superb behind a Steam Tram loco.
tonygreensteammodels.co.uk

LGB Coaches

Steam, RC and G Scale Railway Models
tonygreensteammodels.co.uk tonygreensteammodels.co.uk
 
Fred2179G said:
Nice description of your build. :)
I think those english instructions were written by me. (I found that scanning the german with the scanner set to 'german' meant the umlauts, etc., all came through in the resulting PDF. I could copy the text to google translate and get a quite a good result very quickly.)

The only thing to add is a flame/heat shield on the front over the spring. There's a slot at the bottom of the boiler front-plate, and the heat exiting that cooks the spring. Described here:
Regner
Photos of the heat shield in this thread:
Lighting a butane fired locomotive

The latter thread also points out that you can file the end of the chassis to allow the body to be lifted over it, using only the 2 bolts on the sides to hold it on.
Click to expand...
Sorry Fred, but there is no way I would have used your instructions. I am quite capable of reading German but although the pictures supplied by Regner are very good, the instructions (if you just translate them) leave a lot to be desired and can on occasions lead to you assembling parts in the wrong order. I have always built the models myself and written out my own English instructions as I build, ironing out any problems as I go. Regner also tend to be slow in changing the text when they upgrade the parts. For instance with the tram it has had several upgrades. That slot in the smokebox is no long there in later models, there are new Teflon bearings pushed into the chassis, so there are no large brass washers for all the axles (not to mention the new stainless steel burner). If you wanted R/C in the tram I have found it is easier to build in the R/C as you assemble the tram from a kit. So when customers ask for a RTR tram with R/C that is what I do. The tram is a very popular model and I have sold around 40 here in the UK (and I've exported several too) fourteen of them I have built with R/C.
 
I decided to fit the later smokebox door, after a few steamings & noticed discolouration around the slot in the door. Even with the gas turned down low, the heat was starting to affect the paint. So a call to Graham at GRL & the replacement door was here in a few weeks. Some partial disassembly was required to remove the boiler & slacken off the union nuts to the steam & exhaust pipes
 

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Centrifugal Governor said:
Comparison of the two parts with the discolouration
IMG_3495.jpeg
Click to expand...

So Graham's solution is closing the slot entirely? I suspect the heat on the back of the door will discolor it fairly quickly! You can't easily see it anyway, so why are you bothered?

I inserted a brass diverter in the slot to keep the heat away from the springs.

20210223_143130-slot-fix.jpg

Here's the inside view. Just a folded strip with the ends bent to make it stay:

20210223_143152-slot-fix.jpg

And this is the plate that diverts heat away from the springs. I made it, but a similar one is supplied by my US dealer, TTD.

20210223_145608_resized.jpg
 
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A worthy upgrade to anyone who owns one of the very early Paul tram’s, despite the fiddly steam pipe connections. Hopefully this will keep the cylinder springs from weakening.
No detrimental effect to the boiler, lighting up ok & flame popping back with air collar in place on the burner.
Live steam test ok, just bodywork to refit, then ready for another summers steaming in the garden.
 
Fred2179G said:
So Graham's solution is closing the slot entirely? I suspect the heat on the back of the
Click to expand...
No, the replacement part is from Regner, but was ordered via Graham.
I think Regner now fit (or supply with the kit) the closed door on all newer models, to alleviate the problem with the weakened cylinder springs.
My kit was one of the early ones from 2021, I just didn’t get round to assembling it until last year.
 
Fred2179G said:
So Graham's solution is closing the slot entirely? I suspect the heat on the back of the door will discolor it fairly quickly! You can't easily see it anyway, so why are you bothered?

I inserted a brass diverter in the slot to keep the heat away from the springs.

View attachment 352007

Here's the inside view. Just a folded strip with the ends bent to make it stay:

View attachment 352008

And this is the plate that diverts heat away from the springs. I made it, but a similar one is supplied by my US dealer, TTD.

View attachment 352009
Click to expand...
I had thought of fabricating an external heat shield, but decided to keep things neat, so the relatively minimal cost of the replacement part was the way to go.
 
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