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STEAM PRESSURE REGULATOR VALVE - GARDEN SOLENOID VALVE Steam Pressure Regulator Valve
Great Central Railway Loughborough 30th December 2007 The footplate of Southern Railway King Arthur Class 4-6-0 30777 Sir Lamiel in Loughborough station prior to departing on the 12.30 to Leicester North. Apparently these engines had originally been right-hand drive but were converted to the left. However the regulator was not switched over & so the driver has to shove it away from him to open which is the opposite of the normal convention. This is bad news for the fireman who ends up crossing arms with the driver when he is opening the firehole door because the lever is on the left! In addition that lubricator is normally in front of the driver not the fireman. Another idiosyncracy is the injector steam valve (large wheel top right) which turns to the right to open instead of the left. It is an exhaust steam injector and the top valve of the three brass ones on the left has to be turned half a turn to the left too (not sure why yet!). Why the other two valves are roped together also beats me at this time. The square firehole door is unusual - the red ratchet lever on the left is used to open & close it - and the deflector is incorporated into the door itself. I just noticed that what I assume to be the cylinder steam chest pressure gauge still has 50psi on it so looks like the regulator may be blowing through. The left-hand gauge glass shows the boiler to be pretty full - note that the diagonals are sloping to the right behind the gauge due to refraction through the water filled tube. The two outer brass oil lubricating boxes are marked as shown on the notes & the centre one is not marked at all. Why the trailing axle needs four feeds beats me unless they are just stamped wrongly Great Central Railway Loughborough Leicestershire 31st August 2011
Great Northern Railway N2 0-6-2T 1744 waiting at the platform in Loughborough before the 13.00 departure. With 12 minutes to go the pressure is on 150psi with just over half a glass of water. I will soon build the fire and put the injector on. In fact I see from the water valve that the fireman's side injector is already on. This engine will steam on a candle! Thanks to Ray & Mick after firing the first two to Leicester I got to drive the third trip at 15.00 - my first time on 1744. You can't see it here but the reverser winds the "wrong" way, out to go forward and in to go backwards. The horizontal regulator is a bit wierd too pulling forward to open & it was tricky to get the setting right. It seemed to be either open or closed which probably explains why we were consistently ahead of time! Similar posts: resilient seated gate valves powers mixing valves float valve pond function of expansion valve valve body testing air metering valve safety valves and relief valves |