Project It is just so Super (Sentinel).

[dozeydustman]

If I haven't said it yet, I'll say it now.

I'm in absolute awe at this project. When Mrs Dustman asked me what I was looking at I showed her the whole thread. Mrs Dustman is now in awe at this thread.

I like engineering, in particular exposed, or well done engineering. It's the only reason I like looking as steam locomotives and traction engines. A lot of the engineering in steam lorries is hidden, but I know it's good solid stuff underneath!

[dozeydustman]

I did try posting about 15 mins ago but it wouldn't go.

Absolute awe at this project. well done sir.

 

EDIT - it posted 5 times. Apologies. Have removed superfluous posts

[JimH]

That is a DG which is the model after the Super. The big “development” over the Super is that it has a gearbox with a running gear and a get you out the shit bottom gear. This may have been an improvement when you were shifting loads but now we only play with them now so yes you get a bottom gear but you also have a pair of large, straight cut spur gears howling away on the road which I absolutely hate. 

They look very similar but almost nothing is shared between them.

[mat_the_cat]

8 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

EDIT - it posted 5 times.

I think that's justified, given the epic work going on.

[JimH]

Best have another update.

Some bending rolls. These can only do 1/8th plate and they are a little old and worn but even rather old bending rolls sell for lots of money. As soon as they get big enough to earn their keep the prices get silly.

So, you take your rolls and you wrestle with a 3m sheet of 18 swg steel and you end up with this.

Which is the start of the boiler cladding. This is one of the more irritating jobs because it is very visible and easy to make a mess of. It is in two parts - one above the footplate and a smaller one below. Here is the beginnings of the top bit. The holes that are cut in it are just the pilot holes trying to locate the centre of each of the boiler fittings. The idea is to get theholes in the cladding as tight as possible to each fitting so the thing isn't littered with closing plates and other things you need to fit when you have made a not very good job of it. Under the cladding sits about an inch of ceramic fibre blanket. This is effective enough to keep the temperatures in the cab down to "unbearable".

These are the start of the brake arms. They will weld to the bosses on the brake shafts and a yoke is formed at the other end to take the brake rod and adjuster. Water jet cutting really is the business. When we did the last one we were having to flame cut all of this which was slower, more expensive and the things took a lot of finishing. The straight arm with a square cut out the end is the start of the grate lowering lever. This lets you stand back a bit when you drop the fire. A bit.

We've had  few pictures of these already but here is the rear drum again. This time everything is hammered up hard, the bearings are glued in and the wheel studs are on. 10 metres of drive chain has been ordered.

Fitted, glued and tighted. Modern adhesives are splendid things indeed.

Hallelujah! The front springs turned up for the fourth time and this time they were right! Wheel studs fitted and glued. It was about to get the axle final fitted when this was taken.

Don't worry, it's oak so it is plenty strong enough. When they converted to pneumatics you needed to put a big metal spacer between the front axle and the spring to get a bit more clearance under the footplate. This one is just temporary because it needs to be sitting on all fours with some weight on the rear springs to know where to set the front height. This means that everything sits level. Once the spacer thickness is set then the proper bolts for holding the axle on can be made.

Tightening the front hubs onto their tapers takes the biggest impact gun you have. In this case you need a 3" AF socket which we didn't have. Kennedy will sell you a new impact socket for the scarcely believable price of £27.00 including VAT and delivery. It is a very big socket. For scale those are  big spanners next to it. You'll also make out 3" stamped on the side. When this arrived it was possible to hammer the front axles up for the final time.

A while back I started on the water tank which didn't go very far. It then dawned that the water tank was going to become important soon so I thought I'd better have another go. Sadly this involves trying to form 14SWG sheet by hand which takes quite a lot of sweat. Here is one of the tank ends making progress. I folded the curves on the straight sections in the folder and then beat the living daylights out of 14 gauge sheet untill they started to look like the curved sections it needed. Then I gas welded them in. Sheet as thick as this is a pain to work but lovely to gas weld. The big hole is so you can get inside to clean them out or if you are making them, to put the rivets in.

Originally the ends were pressed which wasn't really an option on our budget so we need to fabricate them. All welds are butts. Once the tank is assembled and rivetted it goes off for galvanising so I don't have the option of hiding things under filler and paint. These wleds aren't dressed out yet - there are still a few places where the whole job can turn to shit and it will need to be thrown away to start again. I didn't want to spend too long making one weld look just dandy only for it to look good in the scrap pile. One of the worst things about this job is knowing that when this one is done there is an identical one to make for the other end.

The small corners are harder to make than the large ones. Again, the weld hasn't been fettled yet so it looks more gash than I would like it to. Proper gas welders would also point out that my hands are probably better suited to being a shaker boy in a cocktail lounge. The end is held in place with 5/16" rivets put in at 1.25" centres. There are a lot of them. The curve looks flat in this picture. It isn't, I promise.

This is the start of the second small corner. Take a piece of steel and attack it with a ball pein hammer until it starts to stretch into something like the shape you want.

Two curves for the price of one. The thing is that when you watch the pros doing this they make it look easy because they are almost always working in something that is car body thickness. By the time things get this thick you need to hit it really hard. The blocking mallet in the photo doesn't really cut it.

What else? Here is the brake shoes being fitted up for the last time ready for the hub and drum to go on for the final time.

Oh yeah, this was the other important step forwards. Here is the front end sitting on its wheels for the first time. Those are the rear wheels that it is sitting on  - the front wheels have fewer holes in them. Another four tyres are on order so it will be on its rear wheels soon.

You can probably start to appreciate what a really bad design the front axle is on these things.

We needed to get wheels on the front so the props could be shifted out the way. This lets us start running copper pipes which join the hot and/or wet bits together. This is why the water tank became a bit more important - it won't be too long before we can put some heat on the boiler.

 

 

 

[JimH]

When we left the water tank one end was nearly finished. Here is the same end a little bit less unfinished. Amazingly the damn thing fitted without too much of a fight.

And after doing that we got a bot bored of hitting things so started on the internal baffles. The 8mm bar is temporary formwork. The seam is only tacked at this point.

One of the more depressing things about making more than one of a thing is that you know you are going to have to start all over again. Here's the second end about to be started.

The other bit that needed doing was that the tank end covers were set into the tank ends. Originally this was part of the pressing but that wasn't happening do it needed to be fabricated. We had some rings jet cut and then olled up some 1/8th flat bar which was gas welded together. This would then be welded into the tank end to make the thing look pressed. One nice thing about gas welding new, heavy plate is that it makes you feel like a gas welding god. Even a chimp could make a jod job of wleds like this.

Super neat. But then everything is easy if you are sitting at the bench. Try it lying on your back and things get a bit harder.

And here it is welded into the end of the tank with the cover bolted in.

Close up it doesn't look too bad. Yes I know the bolts are metric - we ran out of 1/2" whit stuff.

And not content with hitting things until my arms fell off I started dressing out one of the welds. Not there yet but heading in the right direction. I'm quite looking forward to rebuilding the 944 with 20gauge steel instead of this boiler plate.

And here is the second end making progress. This is the end you can see so I was hoping that the practice on the other end would mean this one was better. I changed the way I bashed the curves which reduced the number of welds which needed dressed.

Only one weld instead of two. Less welding, less dressing.

Enough with the bloody water tank. What else has been going on? Here is the sprocket carrier having the hex milled on it. The hex is needed to hold the sprocket while the driveshaft nuts are tightened.

The new chains arrived. We went for Dunlop ones in the end because they were cheaper. Here is the offside one being fitted for length.

And here is a close up of a big chain. It was nice to use new ones. On the last one we used second hand ones which were a pain in the arse to clean.

And here is the nearside one fitted up. Everything is fitted and tighted and glued and just waiting for the tyres to arrive.

And after a lurgey related delay here they are. All that is needed now is some blood, sweat and tears to fit them.

Which we did and so - drum roll - here it is sitting on all fours for the first time. It looks a lot smaller on its wheels mainly because it is now sitting about six inches lower than it was.

Here are the slightly righter front wheels. You don't notice the slightly later pattern wheels on the rear because they are turned inside out.

Now it is on all fours it is possible to route the pipes which send water oil and steam to the right places. Here is a few quids' worth of heavy wall copper pipe to be tweaked and teased into a pretty shape.

The steering box is getting fitted up finally so that can go in which will let us move it to a slight more convenient spot.

Couldn't help myself. More water tank. The second end got finished but before I did any more I wanted to do a trial fit. Didn't want to rivet it all up and find it was half an inch too wide. Here it is hanging from ratchet straps. When it is fitted properly it will hang from steel straps.

Some curves looking reasonably curvy. I'm quite pleased with this.

Tight fit at the front. When all you had was this tank you were permanently short of water. This one will have some extra tanks inside the body so this one is largely for show.

I won't go into this too much but here are some pictures of the numerous fiddly bits that have been made just for the mechanical lubricator. This is an engine driven pump that injects steam oil into the main steam supply to the engine which keeps the valves and pistons lubricated. If you haven't seen steam oil it is like treacle only thicker. It is taking a long time to rebuild this from what we managed to get hold of.

 

 And on the lighter side of the news we have managed to end up with two Coventry Climax Godiva light portable pumps. This one appeared some years ago and then another came when I bought the Goddess. This one had been lying around and the valves had hung up in the guides. I thought it would be good the for older offspring to start learning to take stuff to bits to sort the problem. What was fascinating (everything about Coventry Climax is fascinating - go and look them up) was the sheer quality of these FW engines. They are truly amazing things and built to a standard that would make you weep. They look like Imp engines but the Imp engine was a cheapened, productionised version of this little gem. You may notice that this has a duplex cam chain and the Imp didn't. A really, really lovely thing to work on.

 Anyone interested in taking it on? If so let me know. If not I've been pondering building a Lotus Eleven replica using this engine as a starting point.

[Mr Pastry]

1 hour ago, JimH said:

If not I've been pondering building a Lotus Eleven replica using this engine as a starting point.

If you haven't already done so, research it properly.  A lot of differences between the pump engine and the car engine.  Ask me how I know. 

[JimH]

Oh this is just blowing smoke.

Out of interest what are the main differences? I assumed the manifolds were very different and the flywheel and backplate would be a bit more starter motorey and it would have coil ignition instead of the magneto. What else?

[Mr Pastry]

13 hours ago, JimH said:

Out of interest what are the main differences?

I did this experimentally for a client years ago, using bits of someone else's unfinished conversion.  At that time there were no specific parts available to do it, and the Climax "experts" were not very forthcoming.  The right crowd and no crowding, no doubt.  The situation may be different now.  I may have some old info somewhere.. 

A lot of the external bits are different as you suggest, but will mostly bolt on.

The main problems were - Car engine has a steel crank rather than C.I, at least officially. which may or may not bother you, and different rear oil seal arrangement.   Flywheel, clutch, backplate and starter were the real headache, as there was no readily available ring gear to fit the fire pump flywheel.  It was a slippery slope from there.  Obvs. depends a bit on your choice of gearbox but it was tricky with the A series which we were using.

Edit:   I am going back 20 years with this and a quick Google search suggests that the flywheel/backplate, etc. parts are now available. Also check which pump you have, as some of them were based on the larger capacity FWB block and steel crank, hence more suitable and sought after for conversion.  

Edited September 24, 2020 by Mr Pastry

[JimH]

If some one had an interest in Coventry Climax and the things it got up to and the products it made are there any books they should be trying to track down?

[Mr Pastry]

40 minutes ago, JimH said:

If some one had an interest in Coventry Climax and the things it got up to and the products it made are there any books they should be trying to track down?

Climax in Coventry by Walter Hassan, really an autobiography but worth a look.  I think there is a book on the racing engines, but they did  a lot more than that.  Time somebody wrote a full history! 

[JimH]

Purchased. Together with the book on CC racing engines. CC has always fascinated me since seeing the photo of the flat sixteen in Setright's Some Unusual Engines.

[Mr Pastry]

Inevitable Invacar link....  Frank Tippen also designed diesel engines and airships.  A proper engineer, and an interesting man.

[Zelandeth]

2 minutes ago, Mr Pastry said:

Inevitable Invacar link......Frank Tippen also designed diesel engines and airships.  An interesting man.

Thank you for identifying an engine I worked on in a genset years ago!  I was standing on my head in the dark inside the body of the trailer and couldn't actually see any makers marks on it, but that looks identical visually and the date would fit.

A new fuel line and smacking the dynamo to free the brushes off got it up and running after several decades buried in a rhododendron bush.  Sounded lovely and didn't smoke at all...I assume it was successfully restored one day.

[Mr Pastry]

1 minute ago, Zelandeth said:

Thank you for identifying an engine I worked on in a genset years ago! 

Oh good.  That's something achieved today. 

[LightBulbFun]

45 minutes ago, Mr Pastry said:

Inevitable Invacar link....  Frank Tippen also designed diesel engines and airships.  A proper engineer, and an interesting man.

was wondering when this would crop up  wanted to mention it myself but was worried id get shouted at again for invacar-ing another thread LOL

 

does anyone know if Coventry climax ever made invalid carriages directly? Im pretty sure they did not despite what you read online 

but I cant find much at all on the matter, (its mentioned online in a few places that Coventry climax made invalid carriages, but I cant find any such actual examples, and going by how it is mentioned in those oline places I suspect it all originates from 1 (incorrect?) source)

and I suspect that, that one one source might have got confused with Frank Tippen and Sons who made invalid carriages in Coventry, (and as per above, sold some engine designs to coventry climax and did other other industrial things)

 

but it would be interesting to know if anyone knows for sure

[Asimo]

I've ordered a copy of the Walter Hassan book as well.

Trying to think of a shite use for one of these: a Coventry Climax H30. (Apart from a retirement present / project)

An opposed piston 3 cylinder two-stroke Diesel of about 15kW, the auxiliary power unit from Chieftain Tank / Rapier anti-aircraft missile launcher.

 

[JimH]

I'm starting this update with a plea for information from anyone old enough or knows anyone old enough to know the United Co-Operative Baking Society Limited of Glasgow. They had a rather large bakery on the south side of Glasgow and their claim was that they baked half of Glasgow's bread. Given that ours was originally supplied to a Glasgow company (not quite but near enough) it tickled our fancy to use their livery since the UCBS had at least one Sentinel Super.  Here are a couple of pictures of their delivery vans of about the right era with a livery which is about the right era.

The design on the van body translates pretty much straight onto the van body of the Super. However, we need to get a bit imaginative about the way it would have been used across the front apron. The big problem is that does anyone have ideas about the colours that were used? Most local Co-ops used some shade of dark green but others were known to use blues and reds. If nothing comes up then we'll just go for a shade of Hunter Green and that will give us the flexibility to go either UCBS or Boots. I still prefer the Boots one but the cost is going to be a bit steep. The quote from the signwriter is quite nice car high. All help and assistance gratefully recieved.

Anyway, stepping back from finer details and looking at some more basic stuff we took a trip a couple of weeks ago and in exchange for some excess bits of ours we got some excess bits of someone else. First was the ash pan hook.

And the water pump control lever. This is connected to the bypass lever on the water pump with a wire rope running over small sheave blocks. Neither this nor the ash pan hook would be too difficult to make but it saves a few hours work and it is some more original bits.

We also got a dump valve pedal. The Super has a hand throttle which is lovely but when you are moving slowly you ofter need both hands on the steering wheel. The dump valve lets you crack the steam on then control the waggon on the pedal by dumping steam straight to the exhaust. This makes these things very easy to manoeuvre. (as an aside it does leave you wondering if there was a market for Sentinels to chase as a heavy haulage tractor rather than taking on diesels for general transport where they had zero chance of success).

The dump valve was also used as the primary braking system in the earlier waggons. Foot on the dump valve, pull the lever into reverse then control the reverse thrust on the pedal. On the Super you got a footbrake but reverse throust was still the main way to stop going forwards. We have working steam brakes so you only tend to use the reverse thrust approach on long hills so you don't cook your brakes.  

And we also got some CAV headlamps. These have been converted to use sealed beam H4s which isn't the best looking job. We'll use some modern headlamps in them but will make them look a lot prettier. However, everything else about them is just fine.

You can't really go back to the original lamps and reflectors with solenoid dips because they are just terrible. We drive on the road at night a lot so you need to see where you are going. I know you aren't moving fast but you really need to be able to spot the hills/gradients as soon as possible to keep moving along efficiently.

And finally we got another throttle valve which is almost the start of another project. Possible. It is seen here with a raw casting that we already had.

 

While we were south of the border we picked up some castings. Reflex gauge glasses are comedy expensive and as ugly as sin so we had our own one made. This should look a bit lighter and cost somewhat less. For those who don't know the way you tell that there is enough water in the boiler is with a pair of valves and a glass tube between them. This is at full boiler pressure and although there are a number of ways of protecting the glass and making sure that not too much stuff escapes if one fails we still don't like them at all. The reflex glass (which I think was developed by the Klinger company but am happy to be told otherwise) is a much, much thicker flat glass into which flutes are ground on the steam side. This lets the steam/water interface show up more clearly they are all but impossible to break. They are a much nicer thing to have next to your knee. These two bits will clamp the glass between them.

And we also got some bronze adjusters made for the brake rods. They are the four things with lugs. The big thing is the blow down valve for the boiler.

And to those who know their air cooled Dubs here is a Gene Berg sump extension pan. It is actually a sump extension pan for the S4. This will let us run the drain tube a little lower and keep the water level away from the oil pump intake. As standard they are far too close together and with this new casting it makes it less likely that you end up pumping water around your main bearings.

Here is the brake valve completely rebuilt and ready to go. Steam in, steam to brake cylinder and a vent. Steam brakes are way, way nicer to use than air brakes. They are delightfully controllable.

Gets a bit hot, mind. Which is why a bit of wood or leather is needed to insulate your boot. You might also notice that the pedal sits very high which is why you need...

Yet another big bit of plate to act as a footboard for the driver. This will sit under the driver's feet on pillars 2 or 3 " high so your feet are at the right height for the brake pedal. It is fitted to the curve of the boiler.

And here is the grate lowering lever and quadrant. The quadrant lets you drop the grate a little bit to rake out clinker or you disengage the lever from the quadrant and drop it completely to knock the fire out. Then you start crying because the entire waggon is covered in ash and it is going to take forever to clean. Ignore the wing. It was just sitting on the wheel out the way.

Steering box all fitted up and working as it should.

And after a ridiculous amount of work here is the mechanical lubricator completed and installed. This injects steam oil (stuff like treacle) into the steam supply and keeps the top end of the engine lubricated.

This is the start of the inner liner for the flue. This is designed with a venturi because I think someone in the Sentinel design office liked the word. You don't see this because there is an outer flue to hide everything and look pretty.

This is all well and good but what about the - groan - water tank? Well, it is getting there. This is the front plate rivetted up.

And this is the other end almost done. I think it looks reasonably convincing.

And the water strainer box. This takes the supply pipes to the water pump and the injector as well as having a valve and a strainer to keep the bigger fish out of the boiler. The modern valve at the bottom is so you can fill a bucket. It will be replaced with something more age appropriate as soon as we find one.

And that will do for now. Don't forget to ask Weegie Great Aunt Aggie about the bread vans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[somewhatfoolish]

Not UCBS, but green, glaswegian and a bakery wagon!

 

[somewhatfoolish]

Less edible but still glaswegian and castley; Castlebank Laundry

This sign gives a clue to the probably rather garish colour scheme.

[JimH]

As things get closer to getting finished there are a thousand and one jobs that need doing that you haen't given any thought to so the jumps get smaller. When we left it the water tank was sitting on the workshop floor being rivetted. That took slightly longer than planned because I had ballsed up measuring something and I'd made the twatting thing two inches too long. So it was only the work of a couple of days to remove the end, cut the wrapper to the right length and rivet the end back in again. *roll* I was quite pleased how the rivetting looks. Optical centre punches are ace.

After that you then need to spend a couple of days making the mounting straps. Nothing very complicated but it all takes time. Here is the tank in place being supported on its straps. The funny silver thing is the water lifter which uses steam to pull water into the tank from a handy stream or pond. This is just for show because we'll stick with using town water.

These are the straps. They were made from very heavy angle with the straps rivetted to them. I'm short of the woven canvas to pad the straps and let the tank move around as the chassis flexes. Note wooden packer which lets things move around a bit.

Moving forwards this is the brake valve in place with the footboard.This lifts the driver's feet up to the right height for the brake pedal. Yet another bit of 1/4" plate off the payload.

And related to that this is us trying to find the best position for the dump valve pedal. That is a centre punch acting as a temporary pushrod because it was there and just the right length. This is the pedal that dumps the steam straight up the chimney which is handy when you need both hands on the wheel or when you need to pull the engine into reverse to act as a brake. It is a very handy pedal indeed.

One job that had been put off for ages was the chimney. This is a rather simple construction but like most simple things it is a nightmare to get right. Also if you get it wrong then it is rather obvious. There are two parts to the chimney - an inner flue and then an outer wrapper that tries manfully to keep the temperature in the cab down. There is then a brass cap to make things look pretty. Actually it will all be black when it is done. It is held in place with very little which makes setting it up very difficult. Here the inner liner hasn't been cut to length.

It looks not too bad from where I was standing. The current thinking is that because it is getting a very tall van body we'll make a head board to on top of the cab. That means you won't really see the top of the chimney at all.

One of the things I piss and moan about modern cars is the colossal blind spot caused by the windscreen pillars. As you can see there is nothing new in the world. Note the ability to lose most of a P38 in it. It also gets really hot. After you've been in there for more than a few hours your face starts to blister.

There isn't much to see for the effort but the feed heater now has its coil inside and is in place so the copper pipes can be routed to it. The exhaust is there so other pipes can be routed around it. You might also see a dinky little bronze valve screwed into the boiler. This is the valve to isolate the pressure gauge. The cladding has yet to be made for the feedheater. The funny fork thing is the start of the ashpan lever quadrant. This lets you raise and lower the ashpan to control the amount of air getting to the fire.

And this is the new gauge cocks. Originally these would have been bronze but we are not doolally keen on old boiler fittings particularly when you are stuck in a cab with them. Note the hideous red plastic handles. These will be thrown in the bin as we are having some bronze ones cast which are slightly more in keeping. The cocks are steel and will be painted black so they aren't too in your face. On top of all that ther gauge glass is a reflex one so there need be no need to bale out in a hurry when/if a glass fails.

We are just much happier with cast steel boiler fittings. Those handles really are very nasty. You would never guess these things weren't exactly cheap.

We did some machining for someone and they rewarded us with a very nice set of sidelights. These will be repurposed as indicators with some orange LED bulbs.

This pile of bits is to be turned into a brake lever for the rear axle. Normally these would be cast but that would be too expensive so they will be fabricated instead.

And once that pile has been welded and ground and stuff it will look like one that has just been finished.

Putting a bit of profile on the plasma cut bits makes it look a bit more like a casting. The rod from the balance bar on the brake cylinder will pass through  the eye in the bronze pin.

And something else a bit modern, the is a rose joint being used for the brake rods. I wanted to make sure that things weren't pulling slightly off and wearing pins or bushes out. Once this is in place and there is a boot on it then it won't be visible. The bronze things with lugs are the adhusters for the brake rods.

And finally here is the sump back on the S with its new deeper extension. This will run the water level in the sump lower and therefore further away from the oil pump pick up port. The small brass tap on the bottom is to make sure you have the right amount of water in the sump when you start. It is a bit weird having a hole which is open to atmosphere in the bottom of the sump. The whole lubrication system on this thing is a bit weird.

 

 

 

 

[PhilA]

It wouldn't have been hunter green.

Much more likely viridian or phthalo green, the former of which is your standard "bankers desk" color.

 

Phil

[JimH]

Without wanting to sound in any way argumentative, what is the basis for that assertion? @PhilA

I can find very little about the Cooperative societies on the subject of colour so I’d be interested if you had anything at all.

[PhilA]

1 hour ago, JimH said:

Without wanting to sound in any way argumentative, what is the basis for that assertion? @PhilA

I can find very little about the Cooperative societies on the subject of colour so I’d be interested if you had anything at all.

Only the age of the pigments. Hunter green is quite "new" compared to the other two. Viridian is an older color, from the turn of the century and is very stable in sunlight unlike Hunter, which has a mixture of compounds in, some of which break down and go chalky after extended exposure to UV.

Phthalo is slightly less stable than viridian and a much darker green, and was popular in the 40's.

You might find they were also using Oxford green or possibly dark Brunswick.

Again, based on the invention age of the pigments.

 

Phil

[JimH]

Smashing. I’ll go and find some colour chips.

[somewhatfoolish]

Any reason for using tube gauges rather than the crinkly gauges? These tend to fail in less exciting ways.

[JimH]

Reflex glasses (the crinkly ones) are a bit more modern and weren't fitted to many engines from new so a lot of people don't like them because they aren't very original. The other major issue is that the visible section is much shorter than a glass tube fitted in the same situation. On top of that they are somewhat clumpy, expensive and can only be viewed in one direction (ish). However, you can attack them with a hammer and they still won't fail so that makes them alright in my book.

When we did the Sentinel boilers we mounted the gauge glass cocks further apart so the length of reflex glass is the same length as the glass tube.

[JimH]

Not much progress to see but I was in there with the camera in my hand so we'll have a short update.

A lot of this sort of thing has been going on.

We quite like bending stuff hot freehand rather than using formers. The pipe is packed with sand to stop it collapsing while pulling it. Trying to fit the pipes in can get a bit tricky at times so shapes can become rather flambouyant rather than a series of 90 degree turns. This is the throttle valve to engine steam pipe which is run in steel. Everything else is run in heavy wall copper pipe.

This is the feed heater piped up. Yes I know the feed line is on the piss - there is nothing below the footplate holding it in place. The loop to the boiler clack is rather tall to clear the clack valve handle. You never really see it from this angle so it doesn't look quite as bonkers as it does here.

Starting the work of piping up the water pump. The pipe running past the cylinders is the delivery to the boiler and you can just see the feed coming from the tank looping through a handy gap in the rear axle. Every pipe union you see has to be made. This takes quite a while.

Often theinjectors were either mounted directly onto the boiler which meant they sat screaming hot or tucked up in a gap just above the offside front wing which meant the olfy the driver could reach it. We've taken the approach of plumbing it in like an S type with it sitting under the footplate. We modified it further to use a remote water valve which makes it nicer to use. You can just see the valve bolted under the footplate. It's a bit too modern but you can really see it once it is painted black and they are very nice to use.

This is the water valve positioned out of the way but in a place where both driver and stoker can reach it. There are occassions where the engine is running slowly but steam consumption is too high for the water pump so the injector is nice to have. It was just a pain on the other one expecting the driver to drive and work the injector a the same time. We've made the ram on the water pump as large as possible on this one so hopefully those rare we need to use the injector on the road moments will be even rarer.

And here are the pipes at the water tank. One feed goes to the water pump and the second to the injector. Sometimes there was a filter box on either side of the water tank so the pump and injector had it's own filter box. The reason for this one one dip tube ran deeper than the other so you got warning that you were running out of water when your pump stopped working. You could then use the injector unitl you got more water. This tank is the reserve tank - there will be another 350 gallons or so above it - so we didn't feel the final reserve capacity was worth the effort of machining another filter box. Note also the fake water lifter with fake pipe wrapped in not fake asbestos string.

Some of the new valve handles to replace the horrible modern ones on the gauge frame (see above)

Second brake arm made and first fitted. There are some bits missing at the moment because they haven't been ordered yet. Nothing major - just a spring or two. The brake rod is too long at the moment.

And at the other end of the brake rod...

Now the brake arms, rods and balance bar is in place it was then possible to finish the handbrake. Sadlyat that point I realised that I'd barely started the bloody thing so most days off over Crimble were spend turning lumps of bar into rod ends and slotted links. Here are some of them in various states of finishedness. The slotted link allows the brakes to work independently of the handbrake.

This is the start of the piston rod end which lets the handbrake link articulate. This is the third piston rod end I have made because the design of this thing keeps changing. I suspect that this is the reason for employing designers and draughies rather than expecting machinists to make stuff up as they go along.

And a pair of bearing blocks for the handbrake cross shaft.

And that is about it. The big shed is very cold so the urge to work gets a bit dented at these temperatures. You tend to stay in the small shop doing jobs that involves standing as close to the stove as possible.

[Asimo]

Those bronze handles are lovely - are equally lovely leather gloves to be worn at all times or is the traditional piece of oily rag to be preferred?

[JimH]

Everything in the cab is stinking hot and it is full of very hot metal just waiting to burn you horribly. Even the bloody throttle valve handle is cast iron FFS (although cast hollow in an effort to keep the heat down). The boiler top is red hot, the chimney is hot. Even the boiler feed pipes are hot.

The point is that you don't get on these things without your sleeves rolled down and a pair of rigger's gloves on.