Steam Spectacular

[Cappy]

One for Cappy here:- The engine in Dunfermline mentioned earlier.

I like the size of the pistons, big old mothers. There'd be some torque on that machine!

Aha - bit to do then Simon This is the current project at Llanfair not long after it arrived. Now that the running season is over we're in the process of re-draughting it with Lempor exhaust nozzles which should improve the efficiency quite a bit.

No.19 (nicknamed -Vlad) can also be seen in action climbing our 1 in 29 Golfa Bank here - excuse the music at the beginning, just thought I'd have a bit of fun with the editing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsUaIpEsQLU

 

[Drains]

Just watched the vid. That's a proper beast of a loco!

So what are Lempor exhaust nozzles when they're at home? (would I be right in assuming they're something to do with the steam exhausting out of the pistons into the blast pipe?)

 

[snowcat]

Romanian hey, bet thats an intresting built loco, how did she end up over here?

 

[Drains]

Snowy, broken the 1K!

 

[snowcat]

Snowy, broken the 1K!

wow, and i missed it myself, im now in the 1k club, what yer recon, 970 posts of crap, drivel and nonsence and maybe 30 on topic?

 

[Drains]

wow, and i missed it myself, im now in the 1k club, what yer recon, 970 posts of crap, drivel and nonsence and maybe 30 on topic?

Nah, that's Paul and Rats. You and me pal, there's quality posts.

 

[snowcat]

Nah, that's Paul and Rats. You and me pal, there's quality posts.

Oh I

 

[Welderpaul]

Nah, that's Paul and Rats. You and me pal, there's quality posts.

B0llocks - the pair of yerz.:full

 

[Drains]

B0llocks - the pair of yerz.:full

See? Told ya.

 

[snowcat]

B0llocks - the pair of yerz.:full

 

[Ratty]

B0llocks - the pair of yerz.:full

I'll second that

 

[Cappy]

For Snowy and Simon - well, and anyone else who's interested

Snowy - I'll start with how we finished up with the beast.

Last year we sold a 2-6-2 named "Orion" back to Finland, for many reasons it was not suited to our line. The loco had originally been on the Jokioesten Forest Railway in Finland and when the Finns decided not to scrap their steam heritage but turn it into a Museum they were quite interested in getting their No.5 back (they already had No.4). Negotiations were completed at our Gala last year and it went back to Finland at the end September. From what I know they are very pleased with it.

This left us short of an everyday workhorse locomotive. We still have two original 103 year old locomotives but would prefer to take a bit of care of them rather than use them every day.

Looking round for a rapid replacement for "Orion" we contacted an agent in Romania who was able to locate a suitable loco, there being nothing left in this country that was suitable, or could be overhauled in time - 2'-6" is not that common. So we got No.19. which at 760mm gauge is as far as makes no difference 2'-6" so it was just a simple matter of turning the wheel profiles to suit. The loco works stripped it to the last nut and bolt, repaired, tested and certified the boiler. Made new tanks, bunker and cab and a repaint, and arranged to ship it. I went with a few others to see it in May and it landed in the UK in early June. After a steam test for our insurance company's boiler inspector and approval from the Rail Inspectorate it entered service in July. It has had it's problems but we have got to grips with most of them and most are just niggles.

Okay - Simon, so Lempor exhausts. I could direct you to the appropriate website but unless you have many hours to spend figuring out all the maths and theory I'll do my best to put in terms that I understand I don't understand any of the mathematics at all but fortunately the railway knows a man who does

In the original form the exhaust steam is lead through the blast pie (which looks like an inverted 'Y') to the blast nozzle. In most cases this is a single nozzle which directs each seperate exhaust blast up the chimney, literally in a series of blasts.

The idea of the Lempor exhaust is to even it all out and create a steadier pull on the fire. Instead of the single nozzle there are four nozzles which converge and diverge within (I'll try and get a couple of photgraphs at the weekend) to accelerate the gases. These gases are directed into a mixing chamber and then to a diffuser and away to atmosphere. A further refinement is to replace the inverted 'Y' with two pipes that meet just before the nozzles. The effect of this is to help eject the steam from the cylinders by reducing the back pressure in the blast pipe.

If you really want to do yer head in look here

http://www.trainweb.org/tusp/lempor/lempor_theory.html

Good luck