4” Road Loco ‘Rachel’

Fitted the belly tank, looks like a proper Burrell now.

Pushed the engine outside again for more pictures, this time with the belly tank on. I can almost smell the smoke

That is looking very impressive indeed !!

I appreciate the kind words, apologies for taking so long to reply.

While it might not look it it’s been a busy couple of weeks. Finished assembling and painting the ashpan, it’s currently on the engine. Lapped the crankshaft in the bearings and also installed, it turns by hand and should wear in over time. Fitted the brakes and will be painting those parts along with the roller brackets in the next couple of days. Painted the cylinder block recently, really looking forward to throwing my back out putting it on the engine...alright it’s not that heavy but it’s a workout .  Test fitted the water gauge but took it back off to avoid breaking the glass as the build progresses. That’s about it for now, hopefully next update I’ll have the cylinder block on and the connecting rods attached.

Hope everyone is doing well, done a few things to the engine this past month. Painted the cylinder block and installed it on the boiler, left the studs a bit long for a while until I knew the block wasn’t gonna be taken off. Assembled and tested the water pump, it works quite well and doesn’t leak so I can call that a success. Next was the valves, the LH side was giving me all sorts of trouble but with some guidance from Will it’s been sorted.

Once the valves were installed the pistons were next along with packing the glands. The fun part was to follow...fitting the weighshaft bracket. It probably too the better part of the day along with several lengthy breaks but it’s fitted and the valves with the alignment tool fit, at least to the best of my abilities. Its a bit tight but nothing too excessive, should be alright when the expansion links are installed and it’s been steamed a few times.

That’s about it for this time, I’ll leave the last few of the most recent photos of the engine. The slidebars, crossheads and connecting rods are only on temporarily. Looks like I’ll have to add some shims to the crankshaft. I’ll have to get around to fitting And painting the cladding before adding the rest of the running gear.

Getting a little ahead of myself, fitting the running gear before the cladding...still waiting on the replacement to arrive before I can start fitting and painting the cladding. In the meantime it seems like a good idea to make adjustments to the running gear now instead of putting it off till later. Once the cladding is painted everything should go together fairly smoothly, at least in a perfect world!

Good news, the cladding has arrived safe and sound and has been placed on the engine. Did some trimming to get a good fit and still have a little more to do but it’s nearly ready for paint. Also test fitted the gears on the crankshaft and on the 2nd shaft as well as assemble the final drive/differential a few weeks ago.

The cladding has been painted...well mostly, Everything except the lining and clear coat has been done. I’ve been giving the paint a few days between coats to dry plus I’ve had a few problems with the gloss black and took a few attempts to get it right. Gonna give it a long time to cure before moving on to the next step, so everything is inside in the basement to be protected from the colder temps of the garage. I’m sure a normal person would’ve painted the green then follow up with the black stripe, this way seemed easier to mask off and paint with an HVLP spray gun.

Finished the lining on the cladding, took a little over a day to complete.

It’s been almost a month, what have I accomplished...well not very much. One of the pieces of cladding didn’t turn out very well and I have no idea what caused it, so that took time to fix. In fact I had to strip the paint off and restart just to make sure it was done right. Today was the big day, putting all the cladding back on and doing so by myself. It can be done but it would be so much easier with some help or at least an extra pair of hands. Job done, and put one of the rear wheels on for show. Gonna wrestle the belly tank back on and call it a day. Thinking tomorrow will be putting the motion back on and doing the steering.

Update with the belly tank, I can almost smell the coal and oil already

Motion is back on the engine and everything moves like it’s supposed to. Almost thinking it’ll be a shame to run the engine and get the paintwork all oily

Nice work

Midwest Steam wrote: Almost thinking it’ll be a shame to run the engine and get the paintwork all oily

Nah a bit of patina on it will only improve it

LiveSteam wrote:Nice work  

Midwest Steam wrote: Almost thinking it’ll be a shame to run the engine and get the paintwork all oily

Nah a bit of patina on it will only improve it

No way! Gonna put it in a glass case like Snow White! Wouldn’t be a proper Road Loco if it wasn’t a little oily and dirty.

That’s the steering done, took most of the day to get everything lined up and working as it should. Once the bushings on the steering were run it a bit and was able to add the steering chains. Once on I had to test it out by turning the wheels left and right a couple (dozen) times. Unfortunately I’m out of kits for the time being, there’s plenty of small things to do but there won’t be any big updates until around springtime. I’m absolutely delighted with how much progress was made this year, I’m also glad that most of the more challenging bits are safely on the engine.

Hi

Looking very nice indeed. Just a thought through experience. Are the eyes on the chain adjusters welded closed. Reason being, the eyes will over time start to spread open. Especially if you are on rough ground.

lynnr wrote:Hi

Looking very nice indeed. Just a thought through experience. Are the eyes on the chain adjusters welded closed. Reason being, the eyes will over time start to spread open. Especially if you are on rough ground.

Had a look at all the eyes and they are all welded shut from the factory. I could imagine how terrifying it must be to have an engine go out of control.

Been there done that! only takes one good pothole and the link opens up, that's why they are all welded now. If you want to do much road work think about fitting a spring in the chain. You need about 8mm of play and that makes the steering a dream when trundling along at anything over 10mph. Without it you can get a 'wobble on' which can be scary and requires immediate loss of speed!

Your engine is looking great and I appreciate all the excellent photos that you post - it’s a good reference for people who are in the middle of building - thanks !

Steve Traill wrote:Been there done that!  only takes one good pothole and the link opens up, that's why they are all welded now.  If you want to do much road work think about fitting a spring in the chain.  You need about 8mm of play and that makes the steering a dream when trundling along at anything over 10mph.  Without it you can get a 'wobble on' which can be scary and requires immediate loss of speed!

Brilliant tip about the springs, can’t be very fun loosing control at any speed!

milford59 wrote:Your engine is looking great and I appreciate all the excellent photos that you post - it’s a good reference for people who are in the middle of building - thanks !

Thanks! When I was looking into getting an engine my go to was the forum to see the builds take place, even during the build I’ve turned to the builds as reference. Glad I could give back to the community

A couple weeks ago I decided I wanted better photos of the engine on its wheels out in daylight. Still a lot of work left before it’s ready to steam but getting much closer. It looks better in the sun than it does under a bunch of LED lights in the garage

Time for a little festive post, so to everyone I’ll say Merry Christmas and hope for a better New Year.

Hello everyone,

After an extended absence I have returned, unfortunately with winter fast approaching there won’t be a lot of progress being made. There will be a few things I can do but things like painting will have to wait for warmer weather. Today I was able to, mostly, fit the gear change mechanism. There’s some more fettling required but it’s a good start.

Hello STW owners, builders and enthusiasts.

I’ll start this post by apologizing for an extended absence. Life has been quite challenging over the last couple of years, we can all agree with that. Between working as well as beginning other hobbies and studies my motivation to work on the engine was very little. Finally getting things settled down and beginning to do some more work on the engine, only smaller jobs but it all adds up in the end. Not sure how much I’ll be able to finish before I stop for winter, work commitments have taken priority unfortunately and free time has been spent resting up. Enough with the complaining, on with the update.

The gear selectors and gear guard has been fitted and the gears are operating as intended. It has taken several months to get to that point but only because I didn’t work on it as often or as long  as I’d like. The reversing lever was also fitted with the reach rod (not pictured) and adjusted so it doesn’t contact the cladding and mess up the paintwork!  Done the differential and winch, took some time to get a good fit with the drum to rotate freely and some adjustments for the locking mechanism. I’m satisfied with the end result and it’s ready for paint after a test fit on the axle. Some other small things done is the governor, the lubricator and the whistle. After I finished the lubricator it didn’t want to operate very well, the ram kept getting stuck. The solution was to put some oil in the lubricator and let it soak for 20 minutes and it started working just fine.