ETAT 030 by Aster

ol_hogger

ol_hogger

Registered
Hello everybody,

ever since I received Regner's tram loco PAUL I have been looking for another geared loco.

20241123_172502.jpg

When this beauty came up affordably I did not hesitate.

20241123_172734~2.jpg

From all I can tell she is all new: wicks all white, no traces of flames nor deposits inside the water gauge. Looking more closely, note that the center wheels are flanged - Any illustration or specification I have seen describe blind wheels in true toy train tradition.
This made me wonder how she would cope with my Märklin 1167 mm radius (just short of 3 ft.) I undid the grub screws of the big gear wheel and pushed her along only to discover that the siderods were binding at one point in the first place. Removal of crankpins individually exculpated the front axle, yet I could not eyeball whether the center or rather the rear axle were the cause.

20241123_172647~2.jpg

I decided to create a bit of leeway at the center wheels. Opening the rod bushing as well as reducing the crankpin shoulder seemed equally difficult to do in a precise manner. I settled on replacing the shouldered pins by simple threaded bolts I had on hand. I marred the thread were the shoulder would have been so they would tighten about half way in leaving the rod free to rotate. You can spot the washers for final adjustment. Tried again: curves were not the issue on hand. (That's why I bought a small engine after all.)

20241123_172623~2.jpg

The boiler offers three flanges of which only one is actually used for the safety valve. Convenient to install Regner's top-up valve. (Borrowed from PAUL)

20241123_172531~2.jpg

One number plate was missing. I added a name plate LISON after the heroine of (wrong: Balzac's) Zola's railway novel "La bête humaine" - pardon my french.

There were absent a few more bits from which I conclude that this model was not always passed on by dedicated railroaders.

Can't wait for the coming season to start ...
 
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Lovely looking engine, and you could be right, it looks clean enough not to have been fired. Is that a Slo-Mo attached to the front wheels?
 
Paul M said:
Lovely looking engine, and you could be right, it looks clean enough not to have been fired. Is that a Slo-Mo attached to the front wheels?
Click to expand...
ol_hogger said:
Hello everybody,

ever since I received Regner's tram loco PAUL I have been looking for another geared loco.

View attachment 335229

When this beauty came up affordably I did not hesitate.

View attachment 335230

From all I can tell she is all new: wicks all white, no traces of flames nor deposits inside the water gauge. Looking more closely, note that the center wheels are flanged - Any illustration or specification I have seen describe blind wheels in true toy train tradition.
This made me wonder how she would cope with my Märklin 1167 mm radius (just short of 3 ft.) I undid the grub screws of the big gear wheel and pushed her along only to discover that the siderods were binding at one point in the first place. Removal of crankpins individually exculpated the front axle, yet I could not eyeball whether the center or rather the rear axle were the cause.

View attachment 335231

I decided to create a bit of leeway at the center wheels. Opening the rod bushing as well as reducing the crankpin shoulder seemed equally difficult to do in a precise manner. I settled on replacing the shouldered pins by simple threaded bolts I had on hand. I marred the thread were the shoulder would have been so they would tighten about half way in leaving the rod free to rotate. You can spot the washers for final adjustment. Tried again: curves were not the issue on hand. (That's why I bought a small engine after all.)

View attachment 335232

The boiler offers three flanges of which only one is actually used for the safety valve. Convenient to install Regner's top-up valve. (Borrowed from PAUL)

View attachment 335234

One number plate was missing. I added a name plate LISON after the heroine of Balzac's railway novel "La bête humaine" - pardon my french.

There were absent a few more bits from which I conclude that this model was not always passed on by dedicated railroaders.

Can't wait for the coming season to start ...
Click to expand...

Does not look like a SloMo but an equivalent geared drive? There was a company in the Hull area that used to do live steam including some Irish ones that ran on 0 gauge track. This looks very like one of their products to me.

Be interesting to see how it runs. I would though caution if never run there could be some things to properly check before letting it loose on track, I did not notice a pressure gauge which would make it tricky to ensure the safety valve blows off as expected. So first I would steam up on blocks and see if the safety valve can blow off also see if the wheels rotate smoothly. With wheels moving does the safety valve stop blowing off? This could indicate things good with that.

Not sure in Germany there would be the equivalent of 16mm society that could boiler test for the loco for you but be well worth hunting to see.
 
Paul M said:
Lovely looking engine, and you could be right, it looks clean enough not to have been fired. Is that a Slo-Mo attached to the front wheels?
Click to expand...

Nope, its the single-cylinder steam engine, geared 4-1, that drives the front axle directly. This is cribbed from Marc Horowitz' fascinating series - 'Sidestreet Bannerworks' - and still worth a read -

Aster Hobbies of Yokohama, Japam, produced models of all three versions of the engine (one British and two French). They were mechanically identical and differed only in paint and external details. The blue GER version is the one that seems to show up most often.

These are interesting locomotives. They were intended to be low-cost engines and, when new in 1980, sold for around $600 in kit form. The design is based on John van Reimsdijk’s work with single-cylindered pot boilers. There is one, single-acting cylinder between the frames geared 4:1 to the front axle. The boiler is fitted with a water glass and safety valve, but no pressure gauge, throttle, or anything else. Reversing is accomplished by a lever in the cab that actuates, through a linkage, a rotary reversing valve built into the steam motor at the front of the engine. A small displacement lubricator (sans drain) resides just to the left of the smokebox.

This locomotive is full of quirks, which, I suppose, is part of the reason I like it. The shielding around the pot boiler extends into the cab and there are some spaces that actually let heat into the cab, which gets blistering hot—hot enough to melt the soft solder that at one time held the little handle onto the reversing lever. The alcohol burner, which can be quickly dropped by removing a pin, employs a box-section feed tube. This increases the fuel capacity, but also tends to diffuse heat into the storage tank. The result is that the stored alcohol heats up and vaporizes at the filler and overflow tubes, which often catch fire. This problem was mitigated somewhat by extending the filler tube up and away from the fire.

A steam line exits the bottom of the boiler, passes through the fire (which supplies a little superheat to the line), and then to the steam motor. As supplied, the connection between the steam motor and the steam line was a silicone tube. On one of the first runs, this tube burst with a resounding POP and the engine came to an abrupt halt. Once the offending silicone was replaced with a proper copper line (after unsuccessful experiments with other plastics) this particular problem was solved.

Then there were the zinc-alloy wheels. Nothing wrong there except that they seemed to expand at a more rapid rate than the axles when hot. Thus, they would loosen and slip on the axles, causing the rods to get crossed (another abrupt halt). So, all the wheels had to be pinned to the axles to prevent this unfortunate occurrence.
Once this litany of faults had been remedied, the locomotive turned into a good, reliable runner, even though control remained difficult at best. It would pull half a dozen four-wheel cars at prototypical speed for the better part of half an hour, with the occasional top up of fuel.
 
Thanks for all comments.

Yes, I am in the process of checking her carefully before I put a match to the burner.

There will be an adapter (everything is metric hereabouts and potentially compatible to Aster products, yet there are two common diameters) so that I can connect a pressure gauge and do a cold water boiler test as well as temporarily install a safety of known properties.

I stand corrected as to French Literature: It was pointed out that the novel was by Emile Zola.

Happy steaming
Klaus
 
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Heeding the warning I adjusted the safety valve with a little help from my bicycle pump.

20241126_114524.jpg

It had been tightened all the way in. Now it is set to lift at 2.5 bar or 35 lbs. in old money, which is Aster's boiler rating.

It is of the tradional type: a ball held to its seat by a spring loaded plunger. It is good practice while steaming up to lift the plunger (by using a pair of needle-nose plyers) so as to make sure the valve is not binding.

To adjust tension, turn the threaded insert. The vertical slots will allow steam to escape once the ball is lifting.

20241126_114728.jpg

There may have been concerns whether this will release steam at a proper rate against ongoing heating - Later Asters received slightly wider valves and two of them!

I am not overly alarmed since besides the obvious safety valve there are several elements present to allow pressure release:

The rotary direction-cum-speed valve is held by a spring as is the cylinder of the steam motor. In addition to two pieces of silicone tubing at the front end - which, as reported, may burst on occasion.

Yet, it will only be wise and responsible to check the safety regularily in day to day operation as it will be the only indicator that the loco is ready to go. And for the record: it is my opinion that factory set valves are preferable.

Steam safely!
Klaus
 
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Not so good news from LISON. She flunked her boiler test.

20241130_161418.jpg

Smokebox removed for access to the silicon steam line.

20241130_161455.jpg

Clamping by using clothes pegs so that the boiler is separated and no water will escape towards the steam motor.

20241130_162700.jpg

Might as well take out the boiler. It was filled with cold water to the brim and next pressure gauge and top-up valve were installed. Ready for the pump bottle.

20241130_162918.jpg

There you have it: The backhead is leaking at the seam!

20241130_163505.jpg

Note that there is no solder visible (right underrneath the water glass which itself seems alright. Never mind the stray droplets, though.)

This wants to be redone. It is an unjacketed pot boiler. The paint will most likely suffer in the process. To the other hand, we can be sure the water has not crept through the insulation from some distant puncture: The leak is where it shows.

There have been reports of Fulgurex/Aster replacing faulty boilers of this model when new.

As new as she may be and with the defects detected so far never able to run from the start, alas, no one ever tried to. I doubt a warranty claim would be honoured this late ...

Lucky steaming

Klaus
 

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ol_hogger said:
Not so good news from LISON. She flunked her boiler test.

View attachment 335476

Smokebox removed for access to the silicon steam line.

View attachment 335477

Clamping by using clothes pegs so that the boiler is separated and no water will escape towards the steam motor.

View attachment 335478

Might as well take out the boiler. It was filled with cold water to the brim and next pressure gauge and top-up valve were installed. Ready for the pump bottle.

View attachment 335479

There you have it: The backhead is leaking at the seam!

View attachment 335481

Note that there is no solder visible (right underrneath the water glass which itself seems alright. Never mind the stray droplets, though.)

This wants to be redone. It is a unjacketed pot boiler. The paint will most likely suffer in the process. To the other hand, we can be sure the water has not crept through the insulation from some distant puncture: The leak is where it shows.

There have been reports of Fulgurex/Aster replacing faulty boilers of this model when new.

As new as she may be and with the defects detected so far never able to run from the start, alas, no one ever tried to. I doubt a warranty claim would be honoured this late ...

Lucky steaming

Klaus
Click to expand...
Looks like it may have been stored for many years with some water in. Is it silver or soft soldered?
 
Thank you all for your encouraging optimism!

This will be my chance to get the precision torch I've always wanted.

I'll cover the boiler barrel with a wet rag so as to protect the paint from heat. (The edge I will be working on is tucked inside the cab anyway)

20241130_163505.jpg

As you are looking at this picture it is the upper crescent of the backface that wants a silver (solder) lining.

Gone shopping

Klaus
 
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Hopefully without seeming to be teaching your grandmother to suck eggs, I assume you will be removing the site glass, before soldering.
 
Good point. If the glass tube allows itself to be pulled ...

(I am not keen on that. I suspect it was set with Aster's sealing cement: a gray, by now brittle mass I found in the boiler fittings' threads, too. Where it can easily be replaced by teflon tape. The glass will, however, require some packing which in absence of tightening nuts will have to be done poking in the tape around the glass - dentist's way.)

... if not, that's why I said precision torch.
 
ol_hogger said:
Good point. If the glass tube allows itself to be pulled ...

(I am not keen on that. I suspect it was set with Aster's sealing cement: a gray, by now brittle mass I found in the boiler fittings' threads, too. Where it can easily be replaced by teflon tape. The glass will, however, require some packing which in absence of tightening nuts will have to be done poking in the tape around the glass - dentist's way.)

... if not, that's why I said precision torch.
Click to expand...
Is that not a nut to the right that will allow removal?
 
A small remark about the middle drive wheel drive bar connection:
The picture shows a complete fill with rings, resulting in a rather close fit between the wheel and the bar.
Shouldn't there be less rings for more space in order to get the loco through a narrow bend?ScreenHunter_1659 Dec. 02 09.25.jpg
 
Gerard said:
A small remark about the middle drive wheel drive bar connection:
The picture shows a complete fill with rings, resulting in a rather close fit between the wheel and the bar.
Shouldn't there be less rings for more space in order to get the loco through a narrow bend?View attachment 335542
Click to expand...
Yep. May have to remove a few, if neccessary. As of now, it is similar to the slack at front and rear axles
 
Is the boiler made from copper or brass? Hard to tell from the pictures. The odd thing is that gauge glass, which looks to have been soft-soldered in place, but the backhead itself looks to be silver-soldered. Again, hard to tell from the pictures. Whatever is going on, that would be a tricky repair for the best of boilersmiths.
 
Rhos Helyg Loco Works said:
Is the boiler made from copper or brass? Hard to tell from the pictures. The odd thing is that gauge glass, which looks to have been soft-soldered in place, but the backhead itself looks to be silver-soldered. Again, hard to tell from the pictures. Whatever is going on, that would be a tricky repair for the best of boilersmiths.
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Looks like copper to me. I was doubtful about the water gauge leads, too. But they're tight for the moment. Soft soldering for pot boilers is not unheard of under the assumption that enough water will remain to restrict temperature. I would not recommend it, though.

My plan is - by using a small but hot flame proceeding slowly - to flood with silver solder the gutter edge of what I shall call the upper crescent where there is no apparent trace of solder yet. I hope some strips of wet rags will suffice to protect the neighbourhood.

What do you think?
 
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