stenella's table ...eh ...track ? - now finished.

stenella · stenella's table ...eh ...track ? - now finished.

A hearty welcome to my table/track - I'm glad to be part of this - it should be a lot of fun!

I have only 2 steam loco's, both models of Stephenson's Rocket. I can only reach one at the moment, the O.S. Live Steam 5' one, so we'll have to make do with that. That is not such a problem since th Hornby 3.5' one was featured extensively on last year's table.

So without further ado - here it is - under steam!

Oooo look, fire !

and finally with steam up to 5.5 atm and the safety valve lifting ...

Let's see what else we can come up with to make it do. Perhaps you would like to see a video ?

Swift Fox

I must say O.S do produce a lovely model of the Rocket, look forward to the video.

dampfmaschinenjoe 1967

It is in unusual livery but it really is a nice one and by the way it is the most affordable 5" loco OS made: ( - You see, I am tempted -

)

cheers Joe

Roly Williams

First time I've seen a Rocket in anything other than yellow. It looks quite smart.

... and yes, we'd love to see a video

tmuir

I didn't know OS made a rocket!
It's very nice and yes I would like to see the video

colin

Les

A very nice loco, and I would love to see a video.

Sandman

Jeez, that looks good.

I'd love to see a video as well.

Celsius 100

A magnificent locomotive.

Dave S

Brilliant engine and a very smart livery. The pipework and fittings look very neat and well done

Les

Is there a reason why it is red instead of yellow??

stenella

The weekend is still young - still plenty of time for a video!

To whet your appetite, listen to this song written and performed by John Standring. I tried to get permission from him to include it in my video, but didn't get an answer, unfortunately.

As to why it is red - just because I bought it second hand, and it was red. Paint is still too good to redo, and the longer I look at it, the more it starts to grow on me!

This has been posted here before, but here is its first test:

Roly Williams

You can see why they moved the cylinders down to a more horizontal position after the trials!

stenella

Ah yes ...there was a lot to learn about locomotive building back then. Rocket was nearly the first locomotive to have the cylinders not set vertically into the boiler shell, to keep them warm. This necessitated ridiculous linkage constructions for operating the valves, and made the problems with suspension even worse. However, since speeds were never higher than walking speed before Rocket, due to lack of steaming capacity, the problem was easily solved by simply not giving the driving wheels springs.
One of the requirements for Rainhill however, was that the locomotive should have springs - with that ridiculous dancing as a consequence due to the vertical component of force transmission to the driving wheels.

logoman

wow, that really is super cool.

stenella

Ok then - here we have a video of it running at the KMYCA track in the park.

I couldn't decide which parts to cut out, so the video is 16 mins long

However, I tried to keep it interesting by adding some commentary on how the loco works, and documenting various mishaps during the course of the run. In contrast with my previous video posted about the OS Rocket on its maiden run in the park, in this one camera viewpoints are a little more varied, which often allows you to actually see the track while the loco is running ...

Sit back, and enjoy my run and the autumn colours with me.

Remember to hum the song posted higher up in this thread softly to yourself as you are watching the video!

magpie38

superb table er track

Celsius 100

Enjoyed the video and appreciated having some of the finer points explained.

Dave S

Fantastic engine. The derailment made me jump, glad everything was ok

pauly

AHHHH FASTER ROCKET FASTER!!! THAT GIANT SHOE IS GAINING ON US!!!

Im loving it mate!

Have you ever consider giving her solid suspension (IE non working suspension) to get rid of that terrible waddle, its made so much worse by the hieght of the funnel

redryder

Super nice Rocket you have there.
Thanks for showing!

Gil

longbowman

Great video and a fine track to run on. That rocket needs some dampers!
Steve

stenella

As a final addition to my table, I thought I'd explain some of the finer technical points related to Rocket.

First off, we'll start with its dark side - literally.

This is where the gas burner lives. As you can see, the only practical way of gas-firing Rocket, is by pointing the burner tube forwards - since the firebox is so far to the back, the footplate is so short, and the rear axle is under there as well, there is no other way of doing it.

The burner itself was home-made (to exacting tolerances ...ahem) from copper pipe/plate and silver-soldered. Here it is, with the gas pipe threaded through the tender frame, so the unsightly orange gas pipe will exit at the back.

These are comparison shots with the coal grate that Rocket is delivered with, and that is as of yet unused.

The similarity in shape is clear. There is only one issue - the coal grate is kept in place by a bar going through the bottom of the firebox and the ash pan. You can't very well make holes in a gas chamber, because that will lead to accidents. Hence my gas burner is suspended with copper wire over the frame members, and under the burner pipe. This was meant as a temporary solution, but it works so well I am tempted to keep it. The gas jet and ceramic came from PM research.

To the other end of the unsightly orange pipe is the regulator valve, bought at an American outfit that specializes in spud gun construction and sale.

It is originally for MAPP gas, but fits these small Coleman propane tanks.

Butane won't work, as the gas demand is so high that the tank cools down too much and stops providing sufficient pressure. I can run about 150m on butane, then it's game over.

Now, Rocket easily stands up on its nose for maintenance...

... and if you tilt it over further and remove the chimney crown, you can even rotate the driving wheels, e.g. for cleaning, or easily setting valves.

Let me explain how the valve motion is constructed -

On the driving wheel axle, there is an assembly of a number of parts. The locomotive is here in forward.

You see from left to right a black collar, the left eccentric strap between two thin black plates, the yoke, the right eccentric, then a gap with just axle, and then another of these black collars.
Everything is free to rotate around the axle, except the two outside black collars, which have a pin or dog on them, pointing inwards.

The thin black "cheek plates" around each eccentric strap contain a hole in which the dog fits.

The yoke is operated by a system of levers and shifts the entire middle bit (the two eccentrics) left and right. This picture is taken in "neutral", the middle position of the pedal.

You can see the dog on the left collar pointing to the back of the loco (up), and the one on the right pointing up towards the boiler (well, that means you can't really see it). In this position, the driving axle and collars can rotate, without the eccentrics moving at all.

WIth the pedal down, the yoke (which is spring loaded) exerts a steady pressure to the right as the driving axle and collar rotate, until the hole in the right eccentric lines up with the dog, and then the whole eccentric assembly shifts further right, engaging with the right dog, and now being unable to further move with respect to the driving axle, fixing the valve timing to the position of the driving wheels for running in reverse.

Now how are the eccentrics linked to the valves ? This is the back of them. You can see the right eccentric operates the centre brass tube, and the left eccentric the larger brass tube sitting around that.

This takes the movement outside of the frame ... here ...

where the smaller tube is connected to the lever on the outside, with the rods going diagonally to the right on the picture taking the motion up to the little handles on the backhead ... here

In the prototype, there are again concentric tubes, the rod and lever on the left operating the left valve, and the one on the right the right valve - but here the rod going to the D-valves is simply split and bushed in the large black piece of metal between the two little handles.

And that concludes our little tour of Rocket and my STWWW table - I hope you enjoyed, and happy steaming!

Cris

PS - I really should've made that video a bit shorter - no-one's taking the time to watch it

stenella

As to the springing/damping problem : it's not an issue, it's a feature

I could give it a solid suspension or much stiffer springs , but as it starts lifting the wheel threads off the track already as it is when running it hard, I am afraid that doing that would lead to derailments - and that is not an OK thing on an elevated track, as I am sure you understand. There are some ground tracks relatively near which I could experiment on for a bit, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.

kevininasia

Well that was 16 minutes well spent!

That red rocket looks better and better every time I see it. And it seems to be quite a lively little locomotive. Open the steam valve and it accelerates up to a frightening speed really quickly!

magpie38

excellent pics

bessytractor

looking good! Excellent chuff to it, you should fit a fire grate and try it on coal, looks like it would go superbly.

Don't much like the idea of stopping it by putting it in reverse, a braked driving truck would be a better proposition, looks like its really fighting itself in some bits.

stenella

stenella

That seems to be about it for this year's STWWW - thanks everyone for the nice comments, and see you next year

Cris

Douglas

Well, I'll be damned...!

That was a mighty fine presentation - ins and outs of Rocket, her fuel, her maintenance, videoo of her working hard - magnificent mate

Love the colour too - I always thought the yellow and black was a bit strange even though historic - I think I prefer your red!