The Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum

pauly · Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 10:47 pm Post subject:

that fred model looks more like him than that statue of him they have just unveiled.

is there a website that I can get them off

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'no
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Les · Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 10:55 pm Post subject:

pauly · Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 11:06 pm Post subject:

thanks havent seen this site in a while

_________________
knowledge is power

is something lost if you know where it is
'no
'oh then its not lost, its in the lake
:david from Heartbeat

Titan · Full member Joined: 19 Jul 2006 Posts: 698 Location: Derby

Well what a fantastic weekend!

It did unfortunately start off badly. The Range Rover disgraced itself by being difficult to start, and when it did would only run on about four cylinders (out of eight). I was hoping that it might be cured by a new distributor cap and rotor arm, but unfortunately coupled with some other symptoms I was forced to accept that it was most likely a blown head gasket, so it was going nowhere.

So it was down to the wifes Daewoo to tow the caravan down to Merstham. Hows this for a bit of free advertising!!

I eventually arrived about 3 hours later than intended. So instead of having a leisurly evening to set up, it was set up the caravan and straight to bed. Fortunately I awoke reasonably early, so I had enough time to set the layout up without too much of a rush, and here it is just before the gates opened.

As most of the first days activity has been well documented, I will move on to the second!
Now amongst some of the problems experienced on the first day was poor performance of Titans burner. As I did not have to set up the layout this morning it meant I could devote some time to sorting it out. The main issue appears to be the poor glass fibre wick that I was using. Whenever the burner starts getting a little low, there is insuficient flow of meths to keep the wicks cool so the ends start to melt. This eventually impares the performance to the point where the wicks won’t even light, let alone burn well. So the wicks were carefully retrimed removing the melted bits. There was an immediate improvement in performance, and Titan ran impeccably for about an hour or so, but then the burner was giving trouble again. I had no choice but to take it all apart and tend to the wicks again. This was where a battery loco comes in useful – I could not fix Titan and run William at the same time!
So eventually the wicks were sorted again and Titan was back in action – with a vengence! This time I was going to make sure that the meths did not get low enough to melt the wicks, so Titan was stopped before any signs of a loss of performance – probably around every fifteen laps or so I was not counting!
With this regime it just kept on running and running and running!
Titan was run virtuously continuously for the rest of the day, only being taken out of service every 90 minutes or so just to be given a little check over to make sure that all was well, and to refil the lubricator. Now technically I could refil the lubricator whilst in steam, but I prefered to steam up William and have that running around for a short while so that I could at least blow the burner out to make things a bit more manageable. Since Titans ‘Pit stops’ were now being planned ahead rather than waiting for performance to fade, I could actually get things pretty well correographed – I would have William complete with train and saftey valve lifting, and with some deft point switching would have Titan running straight on to the pit road whilst William stormed out of the loop.

And for your entertainment a couple of videos:

Freight train, Freight train Runnin' so fast...

And who came along today?
None other than Phil Gravett! Had a nice little chat with him, mostly really catching up on what we have been doing over the last 12 years or so when we had last met!

Has anyone else managed to get through over half a litre of meths in one loco in one afternoon?

The Faller Loco did not get much of a look in that afternoon!

Mind you Titan did eventually sucumb at about quarter to five, when one of the crankpins unscrewed itself, but hey after around six hours of running I was not too bothererd – a bit of loctite will have it sorted no problem!

And then it was time to pack away…

Plenty of evidence that Titans lubricator was working well!

All in all a great weekend, and possibly a few new forum members to boot!
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johnreid · Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 11:57 pm Post subject:

I wish I could attend such an event, thanks for sharing it with us who could not attend.
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Les · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 6:13 am Post subject:

Very good videos and thanks for showing us.

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Minor1PJG · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 7:19 am Post subject:

I'm really sorry to have missed it

Looks like one for the 2009 diary

Thanks for the reports everyone

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Chuff chuff!!

Sandman · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 9:03 am Post subject:

Excellent report.

Wish I could have been there.
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Ouch! Where's the burn cream

Did someone mention Bowman?

James · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 9:03 pm Post subject:

Brilliant!! You're making a bloody good use of that sign meyart!

Thanks!

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CCairns · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 10:18 am Post subject:

Well at least the padded envelope with the sharp items that I posted to myself from the Airport on Saturday has arrived.

But you pay for a 1st Class service, due to be picked up from Airport on Sunday's collection, and it takes 3 days to arrive. Good old Royal Mail!
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