Almost a year after I received the first kit, and with the help of friend Paul and his home track we set about lighting the fire for the first time. As pressure rose, we discovered various leaks, notably from the gauge glass where I had not tightened the nuts enough, around the regulator packing nut where I had not put enough graphite yarn in, and the blower valve which persisted in leaking steam around the packing nut.
Having attended to the leaks as best we could, the first job was to watch the pressure gauge closely so that we could set the safety valve to lift at 90psi. That done, it was time to open the draincocks, put it into forward gear and open the regulator to see if it would move. After a few tentative movements back and forth to clear condensate, she seemed ready to go. Coupled up the driving trolley and I was carefully away on my first trip.
What a great feeling! To realise that I had built this from several boxes of bits and it actually ran as it should. Nice even exhaust beat, plenty of steam, nice smooth controllable power, axle pump providing plenty of water. All in all a credit to Geelig the designer and to Andy for making the bits! As you can guess I was feeling very pleased indeed.
Paul and I took it in turns driving for about an hour or so, taking photos as we went. Below is a selection to give you an idea of how she ran.
Now here is a warning for you. When we had finished running, we dropped the fire, opened the boiler drain down and went for a cuppa (as you do). When we came back to put the engine in the car, it seemed a bit stiff but we thought nothing of it at the time. By the time I got home it had seized solid and the wheels would not turn at all.
Subsequently, after talking with Andy, I discovered that the pistons had indeed seized in the cylinders through rust. Apparently I should have pumped oil through the snifter valves into the cylinders while they were still warm, worked the engine back and forth with the draincocks open until oil came out, then closed the draincocks. This is especially important with a new engine as it is still very tight generally.
After pumping some oil in and with some robust pushing and shoving, the wheels began to go round again. Hopefully there won't be any lasting damage but a lesson well learnt! Don't make the same mistake that I did!
November 9th
Took the engine to our club on Sunday and it ran well until we found it was using hardly any oil! Investigation revealed that the operating arc on the oil pump is quite narrow and falls between 4 and 6 o'clock. After disconnecting the pump lever from the crosshead, we could get oil from the pump if we used a wide arc lever movement, but in its usual operating arc there didn't seem to be anything coming out. Suddenly realised that that was the most likely cause of the seizure after the first run! Played around with the pump adjustment until we ended up with the distance from the backnut to the end of the threaded pump body at about 13mm and it now pumps lots of oil. See under August 4th in Kit 6 for further details of how to set up the oil pump.
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