Building the Burrell Road loco

Hi,

I am a new member to this forum. I have the 4 inch scale Burrell Road loco from steam traction world which i have had since 2017 however haven't got around to building it until now. I have some queries to ask and would love some recommendations and things to watch out for when building the engine. we have got all the kits and at the minute a lot of painting is happening. i am almost ready to fit the smokebox, horn-plates, tender cladding and Bellytank to the boiler. is there anything major that i must watch out for when doing this?

1. I have read the instructions on the water pump and bu the looks of it it is quite a fiddly process to fit the eccentric and drive for the water pump. i was just wandering if it would be better if i fitted the water pump before the crankshaft, con-rods and eccentrics get fitted. Is there anything stopping me from doing this or is it a sensible idea?

Hi Thunderbolt,

welcome to the forum and look forward to hours of fun building your engine.

As for questions and queries, just fire away. At the same time do as I did and still do almost daily: have a look at the build of others, like Lynn,  Steve Trail,  Tim Watson and a lot of others, who have reported on their build. Also Will at STW will help you on any issues you might have.

Suggestions: Follow the instructions as they will be of much help. What I would suggest from my own experience, invest in a quality set of taps and dies and clean out each and every thread while still on the work bench, especially the parts that have been painted.

As for the other tools, Lynn has posted a long list of tools she suggests for the build, but I am sure, you‘ve seen that already.

I did not follow my own advice and forgot to check and clean the 3/8“ pipe thread at the boiler to connect the injector and steam head. I only noticed a not so perfect thread after installing and adjusting the hornplates. At this moment the tap I had was too long so I had to modify  it to be able to clean the threads.  

In hindsight I should have test assembled some parts before painting (namely the axle housing/horn plate combo) just to know they fit.

Re Water pump installed first, I think to remember it  should be possible to install the pump first but then again the eccentric for the water pump must be fitted to the pump drive shaft first anyways so it will be the two nuts for the eccentic  clamps resp clamp to push rod  only. But be aware, on my machine I had to readjust the eccentric for LP several  times  to make sure the clamps do not hit each other or the pump eccentric.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Elwood

Hi Thunderbolt and welcome.

Yes ask questions we do not bite or down talk. Everyone has a different skill level and we are all beginners at some point.

If you have all the kits. Yes the water pump would be easier to fit without the crank in the way but not impossible. I originally did mine with crank in.
The instructions are fairly well matured now so if it does not make sense then re-read and get another cup of tea.

The most important think. Relax and enjoy the build. You will have a wonderful engine at the end of it.

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply. It is me and my dad building the engine and yes to keep him going i must keep the tea supply high.
Thanks for the useful information and i cant wait to ask more questions when queries arise

Thunderbolt

enjoy your build and have fun . The one bit of advice I would give is test fit everything before painting

Steam Engine Update,

Smoke box fitted along with perch plate, pivot and front axle.

Can’t upload photos due to it not working.

Horn plates are going on next

That’s looking very nice - I am building an SCC and expecting my boiler to arrive in May. Can you please tell me the paint that you have used on the boiler ? Thanks very much and good luck with the rest of your build !!

As already suggested test fit before painting. To stop paint getting into the threads I put a bolt in each one left it there while I painted saved a lot of thread cleaning afterwards.
If using Craftmaster paints leave plenty of time after the undercoat before applying the enamel. Or as I found the undercoat mixes with the enamel and you get a mat finish !

elwood-59 wrote:Hi Thunderbolt,

welcome to the forum and look forward to hours of fun building your engine.

As for questions and queries, just fire away. At the same time do as I did and still do almost daily: have a look at the build of others, like Lynn,  Steve Trail,  Tim Watson and a lot of others, who have reported on their build. Also Will at STW will help you on any issues you might have.

Suggestions: Follow the instructions as they will be of much help. What I would suggest from my own experience, invest in a quality set of taps and dies and clean out each and every thread while still on the work bench, especially the parts that have been painted.

As for the other tools, Lynn has posted a long list of tools she suggests for the build, but I am sure, you‘ve seen that already.

I did not follow my own advice and forgot to check and clean the 3/8“ pipe thread at the boiler to connect the injector and steam head. I only noticed a not so perfect thread after installing and adjusting the hornplates. At this moment the tap I had was too long so I had to modify  it to be able to clean the threads.  

In hindsight I should have test assembled some parts before painting (namely the axle housing/horn plate combo) just to know they fit.

Re Water pump installed first, I think to remember it  should be possible to install the pump first but then again the eccentric for the water pump must be fitted to the pump drive shaft first anyways so it will be the two nuts for the eccentic  clamps resp clamp to push rod  only. But be aware, on my machine I had to readjust the eccentric for LP several  times  to make sure the clamps do not hit each other or the pump eccentric.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Elwood

Hi Elwood, do you have a link to the tool list that Lynn made?

Fritz

Hi Fritz,

there have been several posts on that, the main one(s) being:

https://traction.forumotion.com/t1366-tools-for-the-job

and

https://traction.forumotion.com/t1434-tools-explained

hope this helps.

Cheers

Elwood

Hi All Merry Christmas to all out there
I now have 13 kits and the next kit is the boiler I am thinking that I would like to fit the hornplates, tender to the boiler before i fit the any of the tender fittings. Would it be a better option to fit the cylinder to the boiler before fitting of the cylinder components ? Also would it be better to fit the bearing housings once I have the tender and hornplates fitted to the boiler.
I am at the moment in the process of painting the tender and hornplates. I am also going to give the cylinder a coat of black heat resistance paint.
Any help from the more experienced builders would be greatly appreciated (which is probably everybody out there).
Many Thanks

merry christmas again
A slight problem I have I have built the left hand rear wheel and it is ready for paint, I did not realise until this stage that the wheel hub had not been drilled and tapped to take the oil feeder, how can this be drilled and tapped at this stage. Any ideas !

Hi Geoff,

Ref: missing oil hole: My only guess would be a hand held drill with a 90deg angle head. Anybody else?

Ref Horn plates mounting. When building Pied Piper, after fitting the smokebox while the boiler still was upright, I then set it on a small dolly so I could move it around in a workshop aka garage, It was just wide enough to allow to fit the hornplates, as it was resting on the fire ring of the fire box. Next I fitted one hornplate, followed by the second and axle shaft tubes, the two spectacle plates and finally the second hornplate.
From memory I think to remember others to preasseble the hornplates with the tubes (bolts still loose) and lowered that onto the boiler.
The cylinder I fitted at a (much) later state, firstly I arranged the correct setting of the crankshaft resp. bearings. It also was preassembled before fitting i.e. the reac cylinder cover etc. were mounted
The tender I fitted way later, I already had a „rolling chassis“ before I offered it up to the engine. As long as the diff and the RH gear set is not yet fitted there is plenty of room to get to all the bolts.

Hope this helps

Elwood

PS Merry Christmas to all…

could anybody tell me what gap their should be when the pistons rings are placed in the cylinder mine on the low and high pressure are more or less touching. Also the 8 studs in the steam port area holding on the front cover are not like studs I have used before they have a band of something around them about a third of a way on the stud not sure how this works, any ideas appreciated.

Hi Geoff,

the 8 engineering studs go into the HP and LP bore where the steam ports are, as you stated correctly. The „shorter“ threaded part go into the block and will eventually bottom out on the „band“ you‘ve mentioned. Don‘t worry that‘s how they are supposed to work. The other fasteners are grub screws i.e. thread along the whole length of the screw, that‘s the difference.

Cheers

Elwood.

thanks for that Elwood
any idea on what clearance there should be on the piston rings they seem tight to me with no gap or possibly .5mm nothing really

As for the gap, sorry cannot remember what the gap was on Pied Piper - I installed the pistons in 2018 and did not record the gap nor took a picture of them.

Elwood

Hi Geoff

Geoff wrote:thanks for that Elwood
any idea on what clearance there should be on the piston rings they seem tight to me with no gap or possibly .5mm nothing really

4 thousandths of an inch per inch diameter of bore.

.5mm is 19.7 thousandths of an inch so is plenty.
hope that helps.
Simon C

thanks Simon that helps I think we are getting there now