2650 progress March 2012
- John Ashworth
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2650 progress March 2012
Photos and captions by Nathan Berelowitz, weekend of 3rd-4th March 2012
- Attachments
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- A nice way to see the workings of the smokebox. Here is the blast pipe cap and the four Goodfellow Tips which break up the blast and create some back pressure.
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- The base of the Table Plate, which supports some of the Spark Arrestors and assist with the drafting of the exhaust steam in the smokebox, can be seen and in the "hole" lies the blast pipe cap showing the Goodfellow Tips. Still to be fitted will be a conical spark arrestor to close the gap between the blast pipe cap and the table plate deflector. Finally the spark arrestors will be fitted and the smokebox is complete
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- Sealed up with a silicon, the valves in the regulator header can be seen. The reason for the silicon is that the boiler is undergoing its hydraulic pressure testing.
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- The complete regulator set of valves including the smaller Pilot valve on the right with covers, ready for closure. The pilot valve opens first when the regulator is opened and then steam will be admitted in a sequence to the other valves.
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- The fibre gasket must first be smeared with an oily graphite mixture prior to the regulator valves covers being replaced.
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- The gasket is put in position.
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- The regulator valve cover plus it's spring.
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- Carefully placing the cover in position
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- Correct nuts in the correct place and the cover will seat and tighten up better.
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- Spikkels puts the final torque on the nuts and the covers are on. Next step is to fill the boiler with water and start the pressure pump.
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- The set up for the boiler hydraulic testing. There is an air operated pump situated in the water-filled drum. A pipe leads from the pump up to a controlled valve on top of the boiler where a washout plug is situated. The water will be pumped into the already-filled boiler, to bring the pressure up to the required mark on the pressure guage.
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- Spikkels looks at the pressure on the gauge. The hydraulic testing is always way over the normal working pressure of the locomotive, for safety testing reasons. The pressure must hold for at least 30 minutes, to satisfy the boiler inspector, before she will be passed for service.
- capital Park class 19D progress. March 4th2012 025.jpg (54.2 KiB) Viewed 1772 times
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- Posts: 124
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Re: 2650 progress March 2012
1.25 times normal working pressure for hydraulic testing gives an uneasy feeling seeing the pressure gauge needle pointing all the way over to the driver's side!
- John Ashworth
- Site Admin
- Posts: 23606
- Joined: 24 Jan 2007, 14:38
- Location: Nairobi, Kenya
- Contact:
Re: 2650 progress March 2012
I remember once firing a 15CA on a heavy double-headed train with either the safety valves or the pressure gauge not set properly, with the needle hovering a few points above the normal maximum pressure (albeit not as high as 1.25 times) and the safety valves remaining firmly closed. The driver told me just to keep on firing and not to worry, so I did... at least, I kept on firing but I also kept on worrying!