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[pettyofficernick]

Greetings from Wirral.
Finally got all the elements of my steam plant together. Plumbed it all together with 1/8 pipe  and silver soldered fittings, fired her up and hey presto, It went like clappers, I assume things will slow down somewhat when a load is applied. I intend to try for a smaller footprint when it gets fitted into a boat, I'm considering a Krick Alexander launch kit, it will look slightly different to the box as the original uses a vertical boiler. Still to fit is the Forest Classics attenuator (ran out of pipe cones) and I will make up an oil separator from some 28mm pipe I acquired. Anyone any ideas on boiler feed pump, I have been looking around the net for a engine driven pump, but cant find a suitable one, I am thinking of trying a gauge 1 loco feed pump driven by the engine, any ideas would be most appreciated.

[HS93 (RIP)]

I would fit a small hand pump or one that fits on the top of a servo( look at some of Bernard's boats), I personly think the engine is a little small for a engine driven pump, if you toped up with a hand pump before release  I reckon with that boiler you would get a min of 40 min running, and it would take only a few min to bring it in and top it up , an engine driven pump is running all the time so zapping engine power.

my thoughts

peter

[Underpressure]

Nice set up.

Regarding the pump; it all depends how long you want to run for. With a small engine like the SVS and a 3 1/2" boiler, you should easily be looking at 1/2 hour plus on the water, longer if you don't belt about at full throttle 

Neil

[HS93 (RIP)]

, fired her up and hey presto, It went like clappers, I assume things will slow down somewhat when a load is applied.

you should be able to controle it by the same adjuster on the top of the engine that gives you reverse, it should give you a nice slow tickover to full speed in forward and reverse.

peter

[kiwimodeller]

Pettyofficer, did you purchase the engine new and if so from whom? The only place I have sen them is on the website of Tony Green Steam Models. Posted a question on an earlier post and was assured they were still trading but I am not able to get them to answer my emails so perhaps they do not want to do business with us "Bally Colonials" as my grandma used to say. It will be interestring to see how it goes in a boat. It will not be too hard to squash things up a bit to fit in to a smaller space. It is not too big a job to build deck and cabins on a commercially made fiberglass hull from someone like Kingston Mouldings or Models by Design so dont rule that out as an option. You get plans with the hull usually and the cabins are just simple boxes out of ply. I attached (I hope!) a picture of my Windermere style launch built on a 44" hull and using the plans for the Miranda cabins. Dont forget to keep posting photos of your progress. Cheers, Ian.

[Underpressure]

Ian, don't take it personally. I e-mailed them and got no reply either. I guess they just don't 'do e-mail'.

Neil

[pettyofficernick]

Try Phoning them, I have always got an answer number is:- TONY GREEN STEAM MODELS
19 STATION ROAD, THORPE ON THE HILL LINCOLN LN6 9BS UK
01522 681989 Very helpfull people.

[Aeronut4]

Nick - I would advise a note of caution on running times - it appears that you have the Maccsteam 3.5" boiler and a Forest Classics large gas tank.  With that setup, your boiler will run out of water before the gas supply is exhausted, unless you fit a feedpump of sufficient capacity. From what I've seen, many people adapt model loco feedpumps to be driven from the engine, which is easy enough if you have some engineering facilities.  If you want something simpler, then a Regner 'servo' pump will do the job - http://www.regner-dampftechnik.de/online_katalog/blaetterkatalog/pdf/save/bk_57.pdf

[pettyofficernick]

Thanks aeronut, I have thought of that. I do have a lathe and am thinking of an axle driven pump from Roundhouse Engineering just a case of making an eccentric with the correct throw and sorting a mounting bracket. alternative plan, an MFA geared motor should do the job of either driving an axle pump or an adapted hand pump. as a last resort, a partial fill of the gas tank and frequent returns to the bank for a refill via a hand pump. I have just fitted a Forest Classics attenuator valve, it works to! the reason for the large gas tank is because that was all he had in stock and I was itching to fire everything up. Maccsteam was out of gas tanks as well, and the ones supplied by a well known model boat supplier in Cornwall charges nearly double.Heres a couple of pictures of the attenuator valve in place. Next job is to make an oil seperator.