Up one level Neidrauer Live Steam Locomotives Photo Albums » Building a Live Steam Locomotive - the Mikado Project » Section 16 - Cab Accessories
Section 16 - Cab Accessories
Cab Accessories. Should be called the plumbing section! 2014 - We make a steam vacuum ejector for the train brakes, lubricator for the brake stand. May 2012 - Minimum required plumbing completed for first fire-up. The manifold, main steam valves, accessories and controls all need to be plumbed in this section. The reverse stand is finished (Aug 2011), Johnson bar. Plumbing completed for: Manifold; Blower; Main Steam Gage; Water Glass, Aux Air Manifold. Injectors are next.

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IMG_4220 9-Apr-2012 The check valve is soldered into the engineer's side injector line IMG_4221 9-Apr-2012 We start into the axle pump bypass valve installation. I've purchased a 90 degree ball valve to fit into the crowded under-cab space. The inlet is on the bottom, outlet on the right. Bill has machined, turned and threaded a block of brass to use as a combination mounting bracket and union. IMG_4222 9-Apr-2012 We've turned down the hex flats on a flare nipple plug (male thread) and later that evening silver solder it into the brass block (above it). IMG_4223 20-Apr-2012 The water bypass valve mounting block has been mounted on the left cab support bracket, and a test piece of pipe flared and put on the protruding flare nipple. This pipe will be the water return connection from the engine to the tender. And I've started running the axle pump water lines under the engine, going forward. IMG_4224 20-Apr-2012 Things are coming together, plumbing-wise. Installed is the M-F-F tee to the boiler fill piping; the axle pump water bypass valve installed in the bulkhead fitting on the left cab support bracket (partly obscured under the Aux Air manifold), the Atomizer steam line coming down from the cab to the atomizer control valve, the fuel oil valve and the water glass blowdown drain pipe (extended past the cab floor). IMG_4225 20-Apr-2012 The backhead is looking busier with all this plumbing installed! I wonder if anything leaks? IMG_4227 20-Apr-2012 I end the day working on the water connections from the tender to the engine, silver soldering the pipe to the injector union fittings. IMG_4231 20-Apr-2012 There's no good way, at least as far as I could see, of getting through/around the trailing truck frame connection point. No room above since the burner lines are there, so below it goes, and then around the brake rigging. I hope they are not too vulnerable to damage when the engine goes on the ground. IMG_4235 23-Apr-2012 Doing our best to accurately lay out the valve extension holes in the cab floor. Using a known reference point, the edge of the cab floor, we do our best to measure the X and Y positions of each valve. IMG_4236 23-Apr-2012 Doing our best to accurately lay out the valve extension holes in the cab floor. We've clamped a small angle plate to the floor to keep the combination square true when measuring below the floor and transferring the mark above. IMG_4238 23-Apr-2012 Doing our best to accurately lay out the valve extension holes in the cab floor. Scribing the Y coordinate on the floor. We repeat this for all three valves and in the X (left-right) direction. IMG_4239 23-Apr-2012 The cab floor with location marks, ready for drilling. We next take the floor to the mill and using a stop rod in the vise so we can more accurately re-clamp, drill a small hole the size of the valve extension at each location. Reinstalling the cab floor, we look down the holes at the valve stems below and check our work. Making notes if the holes need to be nudged a bit in any direction, we return the floor to the vise and drill the larger holes for the valve stem support brackets. IMG_4242 24-Apr-2012 I continue to work on connecting up the temporary tender. A drawbar is made up from the scrap box, and plumbing lines are completed. IMG_4302 7-May-2012 Freshly turned stainless steel handle extensions. The print calls for us to move the original handwheels from the valves to the top of the extensions, but we can't believe we can put the tiny square hole into the stock to install on the valvestem. We elect to think about it some more while working on other things. IMG_4325 14-May-2012 One valve extension we CAN put a 1/4 IMG_4327 14-May-2012 Using a square collet holder, I've machined four flats on the 1/4 IMG_4328 14-May-2012 The valve extension installed for a trial fit onto the factory lever handle (which has been bent over into a u-shape). IMG_4329 14-May-2012 Drilling the underside of the cab floor to anchor the water valve handle extension bushing. You can also see the SS nuts holding the fuel and atomizer valve extension bodies to the cab on the left. IMG_4331 14-May-2012 The finished water bypass valve handle extension. IMG_4332 14-May-2012 Using a stop rod to relocate the part each time, and a collet holder, we machine a four sided flat into the extension rods. The machining sequence is: set the mill depth, machine one flat, un-chuck the collet holder from the vise, turn 90 degrees, re-chuck against the vise stop and machine the next flat. Do not adjust the depth of cut until you have completed all four sides and re-measured the end. IMG_4333 14-May-2012 We decide to use two already square broached handles from SuperScale, leaving the original valve handles on the valve stems. IMG_4334 18-May-2012 A little more lathe work and with the help of a 5-40 die, I've put threads on the end of the extension rod to tightly hold the handle to the stem. IMG_4335 18-May-2012 A little bit of heat and some silver solder joins the stem to the disk with one of the nicer looking soldering jobs I've done in a while. IMG_4338 18-May-2012 We've decided the valve stem extension should have pins that stick down and engage the webbing of the original valve handles. The oil valve has an odd number of web spokes, so three 3/32 IMG_4339 18-May-2012 I've centered the extension in the mill and determined that the pin spacing should be 0.180 over from center. IMG_4341 18-May-2012 All three 3/32 IMG_4342 19-May-2012 I didn't want the atomizer handwheel to be the same size as the fuel handwheel, even though they are both identical. So I install the handwheel onto the stem, and with a sharp tool, turn the outer portion of the handle off. IMG_4343 19-May-2012 The modified atomizer handwheel. A bit of handwork with a small file to take the sharp edges off gives a distinctive handle gloved hands can easily grasp. IMG_4344 19-May-2012 The installed control valves. IMG_4345 19-May-2012 View below the cab floor of the installed valve extensions, showing the engagement of the pins into the original valve handles. IMG_4346 20-May-2012 I need to put a flat on the upper part of the shaft to give the setscrew in the handle room to bite without raising a burr on the shaft. Previously I had chucked the up the shaft by eye and milled a small flat, which not surprisingly poorly aligned the handle. Taking the time to align the slot truely vertical and milling the flat gave the desired results. IMG_4347 20-May-2012 A better way of aligning the slot truely vertical. IMG_4349 21-May-2012 By the time I got the camera out, Bill had finished turning six stainless steel plugs for the overfire tubes. We will find out if some, all or none of these plugs will be needed only when we fire the engine up and learn what its needs will be. IMG_4367 4-Jun-2012 With the freight elevator out out of service, we can't get the engine out of the basement for first fire up. We turn our attention back to the cab and start installing the brake stand. It's a railroad supply stand, purchased finished from another Mid-South builder. Using the template provided, we spend a few minutes positioning the stand in the cab, trying to account for the where firedoor is when open, position in the cab opening, access to the valves above and plumbing routing below the deck! Basically an educated guess. IMG_4368 4-Jun-2012 Using the center hole from the template as a reference, we take measurements to locate the brake stand from known edges for accurate machining. IMG_4369 4-Jun-2012 Measuring to the centerline of the brake stand from the cab edge. IMG_4370 4-Jun-2012 We find that the firedoor, which hinges on the right, will almost hit the brake stand, so we move the centerline to the right a bit more. Although the prints do not give and exact location of the brake stand, our position is pretty close to measurements from the cab controls page. IMG_4371 4-Jun-2012 I find myself not enthused about disconnecting all the plumbing to remove the cab floor to drill the brake stand holes and convince Bill to match drill them. A couple of deep jaw welding pliers are used to hold the plate down. We also measure from the edge of the cab floor to the corners of the plate to make sure the plate is square to the cab sides. IMG_4372 4-Jun-2012 With two holes drilled in the floor using the match plate, we put dowel pins in the openings to keep the plate from shifting anymore for the rest of the holes. Although the welding pliers have a tight grip, their actual clamping force is weak compared to the side force the drill point puts on the match plate while drilling, the plate has shifted slightly when we drilled the dowel holes. With the clamps and pins in place the plate will not move around anymore. IMG_4373 4-Jun-2012 The brake stand has been drilled and is ready for plumbing installation. IMG_4374 4-Jun-2012 The brake stand plumbing block below the cab floor. The plumbing block is very neat and self-contained, containing all the passages, valving and fittings to control the engine and train brakes. This is not the RailRoad Supply design for the plumbing. It is up to Bill and I to figure out how to plumb the connections while still allowing the cab floor to be removable (the plumbing block is bolted to the floor). IMG_4463 6-Aug-2012 Fitting the water separator to the brake cylinder. IMG_4465 13-Aug-2012 The home-made steam/water separator all soldered up. The top pipe is steam to the brake cylinder, middle pipe into the side of the separator is steam in, and on the bottom is an automatic water drain, made from a modified Zerk fitting. We just shorten the spring inside the zerk to let the tiny 3/32 IMG_4467 Side view showing the fabricated steam/water separator for the brake cylinder. IMG_4469 13-Aug-2012 Bill spent the evening making up more 1/4 IMG_4474 20-Aug-2012 I've finished bending and running the engine brake line from the brake valve all the way forward to the brake steam/water separator. IMG_4825 The brake valve chest assembly was taken apart to find out why it was laking steam. We found the valve stems (square on end) were not actually round, but oval. Shows the danger of using CNC and circle interpolating a shaft -- CNC does not produce a truely round shaft. I replace the old stiff O-ring and hope it will conform to the oval shaft and stop the leaking. October 2013 update: the valve assembly started out okay, but after several hours of use, started leaking again. It also started leaking between the two halves of the assembly. IMAG0354 24-Apr-2014 New LED lighting is installed in the cab for night running. It's all temporary, held with plastic ties. IMG_5576 9-Jun-2014 The brake valve locked up again, so I add a hydrostatic lubricator to the steam supply line. IMG_5577 14-June-2014 We found the vacuum ejector someone else had built (top right) would only pull 12 IMG_5579 14-Jun-2014 Those tapered cones sure are small. IMG_5581 16-June-2014 This ejector sure is a small package. And we're not sure we have all the dimensions correct. After silver soldering the pieces together, we test it on air and it only pulls 5 inches of vacuum. This is a big disappointment, the other unit pulled 12 inches. But we worked so hard on this one we decide to install it anyway and have to wait until the next run day to test it under steam. Come next run day we put the vacuum gauge on it and put steam through it -- 21 inches of vacuum!! Success! IMG_6091 8-Sept-2014 Cab lighting, try #3 (#1 was a flashlight, no good. #2 was individual LED lights which looked good was were easily damaged) This is a flexible strip of 9 lights with three LEDs per light, 12vdc input. I make a metal bracket to hold them so they can be bolted to the inside cab roof. New Water Glass 18-Sept-2018 We fabricate a new waterglass using 'redline' borasilica glass and brass. We were having too much trouble in sunlight seeing the water level in the beautiful waterglass originally installed. New Water Glass 18-Sept-2018 The new fabricated water glass installed on the boiler. 20190224_222229401_iOS 2019-02-24 - Fitting new lights and electrical wiring in the cab. On the left a tube style LED bank of six red lights illuminates the cab, on the top right in red primer a white light in a tube is directed at the water glass. 20190419_015757098_iOS 2019-04-18 - New cab electrical junction box installed and wired up. After many years of 'temporary' lights and loose wires, all wiring is now in conduit tubing, all lights are LED and all connections are under covers.
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