Grinding halt with regulator open & safety valve lifting.

[454]

http://youtu.be/BFGDzR9hpIw

A small clip by Tim of the repaired Brit 002 on 22nd steaming.



Dave
454

[DanDe]

Great clip of Britannia storming along with a sizeable freight load. Glad to see earlier issues with the Brit. sorted on the day. Shows the value of the GTG's and the collective wisdom ready to help out. Was unable to make the Ampthill GTG unfortunately.

Dan Deane.

[454]

Steam up No. 23

Oh! wow. Put it on the track. Oiled it up, filled it with water, gassed it up. Lit the fire. 7 minutes later the safety valves lifted. Connected 6 x LMS bogie coaches (not mine). Gently opened the regulator under R/C. The Britannia gently moved off the spot & accelerated at a gentle pace, so smooth. Lap after lap of Trevor's circuit it sedately cruised around. Did controlled station stops with RC to check water levels & adjust bypass. Everything worked 100% well.
Duration of steam up was 35 minutes, with gas to spare as a coal fired loco needed to take over the train as it was ready & blowing off. So disconnected Brit from train & gently sent it around the circuit light engine back to the disposal siding.

Just one run today. Pleasure to operate it & furthermore upon inspection no faults apparent.

One could say it was boring.
But after the saga of bad runs & defect control, I say boring is good. I rally like boring runs. Hope I can squeeze a few more out of it to lower the MTBF stat.



Dave
454

[454]

Here is a You tube clip of the 23rd steaming.

Note the start, no push, no prompting, it did it on demand. It seems to be behaving now.

http://youtu.be/2wqWyfcBBYo

Dave
454

[454]

Timperley today GTG rescheduled due to forecast stormy weather Sunday.
So here is a short Youtube clip of the 24th steaming at John T's.

http://youtu.be/amGXlm3aYIc

There were 3 visitors, 2 Prairies with a pair of B set coaches each.
Both performed well but have been rebuilt or modified in some way to improve performance.

The Brit performed immaculately. No push starts needed & precise station stops made.
Long duration steamings of near 40 mins duration each. Just oil, gas & tender water needed to re-steam.

Nothing seems to have dropped off after cursory inspection post run.



Dave
454

[454]

Here is a clip of the 25th steam-up of Brit002 at Timperley.

http://youtu.be/uAVLou3Ax1s

The running was smooth & everybody (all 4 of us ) had a "drive". 


Dave
454

[MikeWilliams]

Congratulations Dave on sorting out the teething problems.  Your clips are short, but anyone who says Gauge 3 steam is just chasing round and round at 100mph should be forced to watch yours - scale sspeed, steady running and under complete control.  Superb.

Mike

[454]

This is a clip of the 26th steam up at Timperley this afternoon.

http://youtu.be/tV3JTpk-pOs

The run was perfect, ran on one gas filling for over 40 minutes returned to steaming bay with pressure remaining 

This run had both fast running on the clear stretches of main line & sedate slow running through station approaching a permanent way check for safety on a particular short stretch of main line where the track supports were in need of winter maintenance prior to next GTG in 2014.

The 27th steam up went OK this time hauling 9 x LMS period 3 coaches & it looked magnificent  however, the pump was pumping water into the boiler continuously because I had forgotten to twiddle the bypass. Then the safety valves lifted & followed by heavy priming & another grinding to a halt 

Cannot blame it on the Brit. This time it was driver error 

So as the light was diminishing I decided to turn off the gas after 20 mins run & call it a day.

Dave
454

[454]

Hi all

Not quite driver error on 27th steaming it appears, although it did lose steam pressure. Last thing noticed was steam issuing from inside cab & lots of condensation around cab & tender top.
By this time pressure on gauge was zero.

Did an aborted 28th steaming attempt yesterday & steam issued freely from around the whistle valve boiler connection. Consultation with Kingscale indicates that an inferior standard washer that was fitted has failed.

Sadly this is a boiler out job in order to replace the washer. So it is to be returned for Mike P to do his magic.

Although this is a set back, the last few runs have been absolutely super & it is unfortunate that this has spoiled the sequence of good performance. Trains of 2 dozen quite heavy freight vehicles or 9 x LMS Period 3's have been hauled superbly under full control from standing starts with smooth acceleration & realistic speeds. Station stops under control seem to be controllable with practice as there are no brakes & the momentum of a rolling train at speed does take a bit of judgement to precisely spot at the platform end.

As this was the last steaming up opportunity in 2013, there is a good natural break to get the snag sorted.

Total steamings to date are 28 inclusive of successes, failures & aborted.

The saga continues.........

Dave
454

[454]

Kingscale after sales service takes some beating. It gives confidence for the future to all potential purchasers of these super "value for money" scale models 

Here is the chronology:

1) Loco failed Sunday 24 Nov with a faulty whistle boiler washer. Lost pressure & an early hand push along to the steaming bay. 27th steaming.

2) Test steamed at home Tuesday 26th Nov on track 28th steaming (aborted). Evident whistle's boiler flange washer had failed as whistle valve could be wobbled sideways on the piping. Gas off, cool down & pack up in original cartons. Email to Kingscale followed up by a phone call. Return for repair advised.

3) Promise to pick up from Derby Sunday 1st Dec. Earliest convenience mutually.

4) Jon drove the model to Mike Pavie for repair early Monday 2nd Dec.
Mike has repaired the washer fault having replaced with a better standard component which entailed boiler removal from the loco. Mike also installed the preferred reverser mod as mine was an original standard which I modded with a split pin. He air tested it & sent Jon on his way back to Derby. Colossal mileage round trip, arrived back at Derby Monday evening & then Jon had to drive back to base.

Now that is what I call service 

Thanks to my heroes, Jon & Mike for their attention & service.

Cheers
Dave
454

P.S. Total number of individual steamings to date = 28. Total hours in steam 16 hours 30 minutes approx.

The saga to be continued 2014...........

[blagdon]

ZZzzzzzz..zz..z...

[John Candy]

Come on Ian, wake up!

I know it's not GWR but that's no reason to go into hibernation!

[MikeWilliams]

I think Ian means that the engine is becoming so reliable you can have a doze whilst its running!

This has been fascinating saga with lessons for all steam enthusiasts on what can go wrong.

Mike

[454]

Hello all,

This is a RTR loco, the first of a line of Gauge Three standard gauge large tender loco prototypes. I believe that the feedback I have given & will continue to give will contribute to makers to continue to raise the bar on quality & reliability with giving the potential owner of such a superb example of a model locomotive the confidence to jump in & purchase.
The Gauge One world seems to be blessed with a multitude of designs, we should be grateful that someone has taken the effort to commission these models in our Gauge Three.

Complacency & boredom has to be overcome when the boiler feed, lubrication & fire need to be attended to continuously. It is all took easy with these new models that they can be falsely treated like a battery RC model.
Reliability of models should be such that they can be released to the main line & run without recourse to treating the mainline as a steaming bay. We have all seen the expired ones on the main line, battery & steam alike, when the operator has incorrectly estimated the model's endurance capability.

Yes, on a cold wet winters day out in the garden 40 minutes steaming can seem like a longtime.
At 16 hours 30 minutes out on the track total steaming time, unless anyone can prove otherwise I believe & am claiming that my Brit is currently the "fleet leader" Production Kingscale Britannia loco. If you are out there & know differently I would like to hear from you.

Yes I have occasionally been a bit bored on a cold wet winter's afternoon when the loco seems to be behaving impeccably. This is a perverse emotion. Realistically we are all trying to have a good time, it's our hobby after all. However, tending to the boiler needs & fire tend to bring one back to consciousness when it is realised that the model needs constant attention from it's dozing operator.

I am unrepentant at using this forum as a running log but with webmaster's permission this saga will continue as such........

Dave
454

[John Candy]

with webmaster's permission this saga will continue as such......

You have my Blessing!!

John.