What About The Bee

Hi JJ You can get better results You can also learn more about your meter Only do it if you want to Bee

Yes Deem. It is copyrighted as you can see in the upper righthand corner. I would have just posted the image myself, but was concerned about a copyright violation. So I just posted the link to it. Bee

http://www.nwrail.org.uk/nw1506c.htm 11th image down. Image of snifting valve behind chimney on real article Bee

Deem, the best way to ask a moderator a question is to "report" your own post. Tap the three dots. Select "report" Type your direct message to the moderators. 🙂 Bee

Hi JJ, This is the next step. Here is what Alex was asking. He wanted to know what your controller does in the little blue circle, when the VDC is small. Your testing shows when motion starts. Notice your numbers are all above 1.5 VDC? The locomotive starts moving when the VDC is high enough. But the video also shows the lowest VDC your controller can make. It is around 0.3 VDC. The reading does not go 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 on the meter. It goes 0.0, 0.3, without showing 0.1 or 0.2. This is the dead zone. You should do the test again. Set your vertical slide bar to 5 instead of 20. This means no more than 5 VDC. NEVER GO ABOVE 5 VDC. Slowly, really slowly turn up the controller. What is the smallest VDC you can get? Stop before you reach 5 VDC or you can ruin your meter!! Bee

I will wave 👋 to it, as it goes by, Fred. Who doesn't love a world tour!? Bee

You got it JJ!

In your video, you said that you were not sure what the numbers VDC meant. I made this diagram up to help you to see the meaning. Study it and see if it helps Bee

Nice work Deem! Bee

I've often wondered if pre-orders are fulfilled in the order taken by Hornby. I placed my order for R40438 nearly immediately upon announcement. I believe the proper word would be 'pounced'. So if I had a lower order number than LT&SR_NSE, would my order be filled first? Bee

Shipper takes possession in Paddock Wood, UK Package took a side trip to Koeln, Germany Arrived in USA, delivered to my home. Total time of journey? 17 hours, 21 minutes, ignoring the 5 hour time difference. Add that in, still a respectable 22 hours 21 minutes Bee

This update will focus on one particular component, the steam cylinder for Twin Sisters. It is a prominent feature, and the driving mechanism of any steam locomotive. 1828 was a good year for Robert Stephenson and Co Ltd. Robert had returned from South America and there was new demand from the LMR. There was an order for their 11th locomotive, the Lancashire Witch. The locomotive was delivered in June of 1828, to the LMR, who turned it over to the Bolton and Leigh. There exists a color image of Lancashire Witch, dated 1828. You may observe the image on page 3 of this download, Friends of the Stockton and Darlington Railway https://www.sdr1825.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Pride-of-Newcastle-R-State.pdf The 1828 illustration has been reduced to a line drawing, reproduced everywhere. The cylinder has a distinct design. Locomotive #12 was delivered to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, in the USA, in October of 1828. It was called "Pride of Newcastle" by the company, renamed "America" by the D&HC, although there is some dispute regards the name. This image appears in the Engineer and Railroad Journal, Vol LXVII, No 1, dated 1893. The safety valve housing on the back of the boiler is a clear anachronism. The nameplate is a fanciful addition. While I cannot vouch for the authoritative nature of a non-period drawing, the steam cylinder is definite, as you will soon see. Lastly, we have the Twin Sisters, Robert Stephenson and Co Ltd # 13 Started 1 December, per a letter by Robert Stephenson. Delivered in July of 1829, per the LMR Board of Directors. 8 months, start to finish. The drawing of the steam cylinder is by Robert Stephenson and Co, so I think we can trust this. So what of the steam cylinders? These three cylinders for the three sequential locomotives are compared in one image. I think you will agree that they look to be the same cylinder. Two bands divide the length into 3 parts. There is a stepped down diameter around the piston rod and packing. There is a protruding plate on the back. The casting for this cylinder would be quite complicated, with internal steam injection ports and exhaust ports. Expensive to design, expensive to make. We are looking at a relatively small time frame of sequential locomotives. It makes sense that the cylinder would be the same for all three locomotives. But here is the absolute cherry. In Warren's book, there is a picture of an artifact held by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. This is the cylinder from Pride of Newcastle / America. This is the actual part, not a replica. Notice how this compares to the drawings. I would call it a match. There are details in that image not present in the drawings. Example: the slide valve internal to the steam chest. Example: the nut to press the packing around the piston rod. Example: how the piston mounts to the plate. Those flanges are simply not shown in the Stephenson drawings, yet the mounting arrangement is used generally for a long series of locomotives, to include Rocket (Robert Stephenson and Co Ltd #19) and the Rocket-Class locomotives on the LMR, all the way to Northumbrian LMR7. The critical detail offered by the photograph is the location of steam admission port to the steam chest. This permits the path of the plumbing from the vertical reservoir to the steam chest to be logically construed. Look again at the Lancashire Witch line drawing to see the steam piped to the steam chest. Shaw Shaw may not have captured every detail. It's a sketch, not a photograph. Twin Sisters wasn't even the focus of the image. Yet the sketch appears to show a pipe leading from the vertical reservoir to the steam chest. This could be a leg for a support bracket for the crosshead guide bars, but where are the other three legs? The steam admission port is just behind the flange, moreover, the pipe would be mounted to the plate. It would be mostly hidden, given the perspective of the drawing. With such exquisite detail available, it is installed in CAD for OO Twin Sisters. Perhaps not in every feature, it is tiny after all. I will eventually touch it up to more closely resemble the real thing. Bee