Hello all,
I've been thinking over the past month or two about my coal fired engine, it went from a failed lady anne to a fowler and when I finally laid the tracks for llongford railway, fowler's tender constantly derailed on 3 curves of the railway where they were tight and where unintentional gradients have appeared, the connecting bar from the engine to the tender also lifted the front bogie of the tender which again derailed it. By this time, there is a frustrated driver and a failing fire and dodgy water and steam levels as it is not a fully running more than a few feet before stopping.
Alas, so close but so far as the engine runs brilliantly on the rolling road but I have no where to run it on an actual railway. I have been thinking about the wider picture as there is no point spending so long building the engine and then being unable to run it so I've had a change of plan. I have not wanted to return to attempt to have it as a lady Anne due to the difficulty with limited space in the water tanks and zero room for a balance pipe between the tanks so I've decided to trial a saddle tank and see how far I get. I'm not going to scrap the tender yet until I know he saddle tank idea is a goer but either way I need to do something as I want the engine to be able to run on my railway.
The pictures below are the rough beginnings of the saddle tank from a couple of hours in the workshop with initially cardboard and then off cuts of spare brass. Any thoughts and ideas are greatly welcome- the Mrs just thinks the engine is a forever changing entity that will never finish but let's hope third times a charm!!!
Regards
Daniel[attachmini=1]
I've been thinking over the past month or two about my coal fired engine, it went from a failed lady anne to a fowler and when I finally laid the tracks for llongford railway, fowler's tender constantly derailed on 3 curves of the railway where they were tight and where unintentional gradients have appeared, the connecting bar from the engine to the tender also lifted the front bogie of the tender which again derailed it. By this time, there is a frustrated driver and a failing fire and dodgy water and steam levels as it is not a fully running more than a few feet before stopping.
Alas, so close but so far as the engine runs brilliantly on the rolling road but I have no where to run it on an actual railway. I have been thinking about the wider picture as there is no point spending so long building the engine and then being unable to run it so I've had a change of plan. I have not wanted to return to attempt to have it as a lady Anne due to the difficulty with limited space in the water tanks and zero room for a balance pipe between the tanks so I've decided to trial a saddle tank and see how far I get. I'm not going to scrap the tender yet until I know he saddle tank idea is a goer but either way I need to do something as I want the engine to be able to run on my railway.
The pictures below are the rough beginnings of the saddle tank from a couple of hours in the workshop with initially cardboard and then off cuts of spare brass. Any thoughts and ideas are greatly welcome- the Mrs just thinks the engine is a forever changing entity that will never finish but let's hope third times a charm!!!
Regards
Daniel[attachmini=1]
