Coal anyone??

If anyone is thinking about getting WDS from Andy Holmes then I can tell you it is a very easy transaction. Phoned him last Thursday requesting a delivery for today as I am off and within 10 minutes all sorted. Turned up today, off loaded and ready to go in 10 minutes £307 delivered for 40 bags, thats £7.67 a bag!!!! Good for the log cabin burner too!! Should last me for at least two years!!!

That's ok if you have space for a pallet. Or to store 40 bags of coal at once.
Oh btw. £170 delivery charge.

Thats the problem with being so far "up there". I have to say I was well impressed that the price included delivery and had visions of him trucking all the way down here in his lorry but then when he said it was a pallet I realised that they would just send it via a standard haulage firm which is just what they did!!

Completely agree with you Kev, I had an additional bonus that the price I was offered was £290 because the website was not up to date and they stuck to the £290 price. Coal was delivered, off loaded on the drive and then was take off the pallet and taken around the back and stored in a neat pile all 40 bags, could not believe it .

Oh wait the last bit was done by Brian M as I was stuck on the M6 and I arrived home as Brian was moving the pallet around the back for sticks honest the traffic was heavy at that time of night.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Flasback wrote:Oh wait the last bit was done by Brian M as I was stuck on the M6 and I arrived home as Brian was moving the pallet around the back for sticks

So you even get free lighting up wood with a ton!!! Have you guys had a fire in them engines yet?

Brian (still alive)

Hello Brian,

No not yet both are finished and waiting for the next kit. Phil (who is is building a 6" foden) is making some pressure blanking plates for hydraulic testing as we were told that STW does not supply them. Brian is moving house therefore we won't be able to steam until he has done so. It will now be in two weeks or so (we started the build together so we said we will steam together for the 1st time). We were going to steam just after the Leigh Arms but I had a problem with my LP piston and with the timing rods (Brian also had the same problem with his timing rods) which meant we had to get them stripped down to get the rods machined plus I had to take my LP piston out.

Are you going to the NME (The Northern Modelling Exhibition) in March (2nd and 3rd) we have been asked to take the engines so we are seeing if we can get a spot. Model engineers from all over the country go, it would be a good exhibition for STW to have a stand at (link attached)

www.meridienneexhibitions.co.uk

How is your RL coming along?

Sorry Kev I have high jacked your thread

Dwain

PS Kev enjoy your event this weekend, we go down to Portsmonth most years to stop with Friends if they ask us or not (this year we spent £120 on Southsea fair tokens in 1 day at £20 for 50 tokens as the bands were no longer available. The problem is that the kids did not go on hardly any riders we spent all day (the grown ups) as kids, we even went on the outward bound climbing frame next to the hoover craft station and to top the day off we had a doughnut and ice cream eating competition (never purchased a carrier bag of hot doughnuts before and this was done prior to another cycle of going on the fair rides) sad thing was not a single drop of beer was taken during or before this activity being undertaken.

Make sure you get some good pictures of your R/L next to HMS Victory and a video of the event look forward to seeing that.

Sorry Kev, I just have to reply to Dwain

Well I hope Brian's move has been a lot smoother than ours. I certainly look forward to pictures of both engines together in steam.

What issue have you had with timing rods? Do you mean the valve spindles? I have just put my reach rod on and the HP valve gear and find that the end of the HP valve rod is hitting the end of the valve chest which stops the die block from reaching the end of the expansion link slot by a good 10mm at least. This means that I will have to try and take something off the lengh of the rod while still having enough material left to put the nut and lock nut on once the slide valve is in it''s optimum position.

I went to the Manchester exhibition last year and it wasn't bad for a first attempt. Not so many trade stands covering the other hobbies represented. We especially like the big radio controlled trucks but nothing for sale - probably a good job. I saw James Tilbury there too, he was with his dad operating the Urmston society's portable track with their Polly loco. I will go again next year to see how it evolves.

If your taking your engines do you want a road loco for comparrison, it will make me get my finger out and try to get Blackbeard finished? I could then park mine in the middle - a rose between two thorns

Sorry Kev... what was your thread subject again

We had two problems with the valve spindles one was the one you mentioned, as the spindle has no load on it you can use two half nuts. The other problem was the thread at the other end is about 1/2 - 1 thread too long. When you set the timing up cold it looks okay but you can see some of the thread showing on the end closes to the stephenson links as you look at the cylinder block. This will not be a problem at first but after steaming a few times the nuts can move on the spindle which will alter your timing and may make your engine not run as smooth as you would like. Steve Daykin set the timings of the engines up for us, he has been playing with engines since god was a lad and a bit of a perfectionist (which is only good from a learning point of view, as if he says is okay you know it is, he is also a boiler inspector which helps). He noticed the thread showing and advised the thread be machined off and the nut be faced off to ensure the valve block stays butt onto the nut/shaft during running, plus this has happened to him.

I will let you know about the NME, sounds a good idea, we are talking about taking 6 engines and steaming 3 outside.

Going back to the thread subject, if you order dry welsh coal which what we have, we have been advised to add a bit of house coal in the mix when you first light as it catches quicker

Kev, great idea about the coal, now we moved house I am not short of coal space, need to make a coal bunker!!!!

Dwain

So we do not hijack this thread anymore it might be worth putting a new post on the DCC thread about the valve spindle problem, particularly if you can geet a photo or two of what you did, or a sketch. I am right at the point of doing the valve gear and it seems like we have had similar issues and I do not recall anything about this previously even though others are already running there engines. It seems strange that no one else had to do this.

Back to the thread topic: did you just order Welsh Steam Coal as used on full size engines or did Andy recommend a specifc grade better suited to miniatures with smaller fires? As you may have noticed the Welsh Steam Coal is quite dusty and as a result can kill a fire quite quickly, especially if you are just sitting there doing nothing - maybe with a beer on the roof , it is much better suited to a hot fire from working hard with a good draught thoough the fire, probably why Andy recommend the house coal. Even on full sized engines the dust is a pain, at Dorset I noticed Nigel on Ex-Mayor was sifting the coal taking clean lumps without the dust to put in the tender.

cheers

Brian

Coal: it is the smaller of the two grades available, I haven't noticed any issue with the fire dying yet but will keep an eye on it.

Valves: This might be the reason I had such an issue with the diasasterous road run in September when I couldnt understand what was happening and eventually discovered the timing had moved by miles on both sides. Since then it has been fine and we have had some long road runs and I have checked it in steam and hot to make sure its good, its not that difficult to check just make sure the cylinders is at full forward or reverse and check that the valve is just starting to open. The engines runs so very smoothly now so I dont think I have any problems now. I remember having to take the ends off the rods to stop then fouling the steam chest but really need to see a picture of whats being discussed to be sure of wether I have any things to tweak.