Ruby draincock.

[nimbus]

Hi all, my first message , and it`s a question. I have just bought an Accucraft Ruby, and want to fit a drain cock to the lubricator. Where can I get (buy) a draincock from? and do they have to be screwed on or soldiered on?

Thats all, not much, no doubt there will be many more questions as the mods progress.
nimbus.

 

[dunnyrail]

You may need to replace the lubricator completely to do this. Best option if you do not fancy that mod to your brand new pride of line, it would be to use a syringe to remove all the gunge from the lubricator. Make sure that you have a spare syringe for this operation and always use it as such. You would not want to accidentally introduce oil residue to your boiler when filling with water.
JonD

 

[nimbus]

You may need to replace the lubricator completely to do this. Best option if you do not fancy that mod to your brand new pride of line, it would be to use a syringe to remove all the gunge from the lubricator. Make sure that you have a spare syringe for this operation and always use it as such. You would not want to accidentally introduce oil residue to your boiler when filling with water.
JonD

I may seem a bit vague, but if I decide to renew the lubricator, where can i get one from, complete with drain cock. incidentally if I need a drain cock, where can i get one from? I still don`t know!
nimbus

 

[dunnyrail]

Right, the Draincock is normally at the bottom of the lubricator to drain any excess water/oil after a run. You can get replacement ones from varying suppliers. Roundhouse would be a good choice but there will be others.
http://www.mainsteam.co.uk/lubricators.htm
http://www.roundhouse-eng.com/
The Roundhouse site is a schematic of how it looks. Now to replace your existing Lubricator to have one with a Draincock, you may need to silver solder a new one in place or at least make sure that the sizes if the current one is a skrew fit are the same. Lots of Googling to come I am afraid.

The attached picture is a gross enlargement of my Roundhouse jack. The brass item in the Left cab opening is the lubricator, you should be able to see the Drain Screw (which acts as a draincock) at the bottom of said lubricator.

Hope that all this helps, but if is your first locomotive I would not get too enthusiastic about a draincock till you are more confident in your abilities to pull it apart. Would suggest a few cosmetic alterations first. TTag Gorton's Live Steam Workshop from Atlantic Puiblishers (of Garden rail fame) would be a good book to get you going.

JonD

 

[johnsaintjim]

The lubricators are all diferent and I would like to think they are tuned for specific locos and oil usages. Some locos certainly oil more than others. Therefore it may not be ideal to change the lubricator on an Accucraft loco to a Roundhouse one. There will be people on here who may well be able to give more info on this.

 

[Charles M]

Accucraft and Roundhouse use differents weights of steam oil and the two are not compatible. Also the fittings for the two lubricators are not the same thread measurements. Only way this could be done would be to see if Accucraft can get a lubricator from one of the new Accucraft Forneys. They drain through the bottom and might be made to work as the Forney is just a bigger Ruby. Would still require some serious work to fit this to the Ruby however. Not worth the expense and trouble in my opinion and I have a Mimi with the same kind of lubricator as the Ruby.

Have just been on Accucraft's website page, the lubricator with the drain is not yet in stock.

Part number is
AP-21611 ADJUSTABLE HYDROSTATIC LUBRICATOR [SIZE=+0][/SIZE]
The price in dollars is $ 80.00 when it becomes available. This mounts through the floor and has the drain valve fitting on it.

Charles M

 

[dunnyrail]

Hi Again Nimbus,
I think that you can see that my original suggestion of Draining Your Lubricator with a Syringe is probably the best option. Finally as I was playing trains in the Snow today, I took some pictures of varying Draincocks so that you can see what they are all about in close up:-
Pic 1 The Lubricator Draincock (A WSkrewl) on my Roundhouse Jack.
Pic 2 The Lubricator Draincock (A Pin) on my Peter Angus Surabeya Steam Tram.
Pic 3 The Sight Glass Draincock (A Wheel) on my Peter Angus Surabeya Steam Tram.

Hope that you find this of interest and that you can happily get on with your Ruby now.
JonD

 

[johnsaintjim]

I too would certainly stay with the syringe and spend the effort on other more fruitful mods. However, I have been thinking (listen to the whirring). If you really want to fit a drain, the hollow bolt is certainly available as a spare from Roundhouse. You would then need a piece of tube which could be tapped to the matching thread size (they might even sell you this bit if you ask them nicely). You could then drill the lubricator body at the bottom and silver solder the tube in. This would give you a drain like Roundhouse fit (as in Jon's first piccie above), which is very functional and easy to use - better than the burnt finger method preferred by Accucraft IMHO.

 

[nimbus]

Hi, many thanks to you all for your help and advice. Certainly for the time being I will be using the syringe method. maybe when I get more used to running live steam locos, I will consider a more advanced method. I am used to LGB MTS locos, so this is a giant step for me.
Be glad when the snow goes.
If and when i get any mods done I will post some photos.

Nimbus.

 

[dunnyrail]

Good decision, have you considered running your Ruby in the Snow. look at some of my Video's, some with my Live Steam Jack clearing the Snow. Great fun. Just search for Dunnyrail on You Tube.
JonD

 

[minimans]

Why not modify the one you have fitted? it's just a threaded hole in the base with a screw as a plug? just solder on a threaded nipple and Bob's your Uncle.....................

 

[dunnyrail]

This is in part a good option, now I know that Soldering is supposed to be OK on the Low Heat section of the oil line. You are just dealing with Steam at just under boiler pressure. However good practice on Steam Locomotives suggest that you should always Silver Solder on area's that are used to keep the locomotive going. If you botch this and it does not work, your pride and joy is out of action.With possibly the need to get an after sale fixer to sort it out if you are not competent yourself (at possibly a large cost).

From the way Nimus taks, he is new to live steam and I were him I would take things very carefully to start with.
JonD