Highball Sim

Just for fun, let’s look at the engine from line drawing perspective this time.

I added the pilot (cow-catcher), smokebox braces, and the deck, so that the engine now look fairly complete. Lots of other details were added since the last update, too, such as the cylinder cocks and the associated linkage, which are of course “operable”.

Here’s the right side:

Just looking at it: there’s no mistake that it’s not the Lilly Belle, or any other 4-4-0s, it’s indeed the CK Holliday. It’s the overscaled cab, the balloon stack, the long pilot, and 1000 other details that help shape the whole engine.

The smokebox braces were interesting because they actually curve inward at the front. You can see this effect in the front view:

More details on the pilot’s construction to come…

I couldn’t find the manufacturer’s name of the mechanical lubricator used on the DRR, so I made a “typical” version of the device.

The mechanical lubricator is so called because it uses mechanical crank and cam to force the oil into the system needing lubrication, in this case, the two cylinders, containing the valves and pistons. The other type of lubricator is the hydrostatic, which uses the steam to carry the oil.

The twins on the Disneyland Railroad aren’t “supposed” to have mechanical lubricator. On the Holliday, one can see false oil cups mounted on top each cylinder. On both engines, the mechanical lubricator is mounted on the left (non-park) side of the engine. To even further hide this device, the lubrication tubes are hidden under the boiler jacket when possible, or otherwise tucked away into the shadow of the running board. In fact, they’re so well hidden that these tubes are quite difficult to trace from photographs–I had to use some imagination to route these tubes realistically.

Below are some of the parts of the lubricator, and how they fit on the engine:

The terminal end of the tubes at the steam chests will be hidden under the steam chest covers.

Each time the valve rod moves back or forth, that is, when the engine is in motion, the “Motion Link”, annotated above, moves a small crank on the interior side of the engine. Each time it cranks, a small amount of oil is ejected into the cylinders.

Here’s a video from YouTube demonstrating the action. The cover is open so you can see the cam working inside. Note also that the crank arm is driven by an eccentric instead of the valve stem.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQlsFHBYaI4&w=480&h=360]

The wooden engine’s cab is done. It’s detailed with panels, moldings, glass windows, and roof planking. The picture below is the cab in natural wood (and I think I prefer it this way to the red paint).

Above, note the operable sliding window on the rear side of the cab. Note also that the two small windows at the rear wall of the cab are without glass.

The interior picture shows the individual roof planking, and the front window hinges.

The original cab did not have the roof hatch that can be seen today.

The plumbing isn’t completely done, but it’s taken significant shape that I’m moving on to making something else meanwhile: the cab.

The cab is most likely constructed in red oak in frames and panels. The pieces fit together in tongue-and-groove fashion. I’ve recreated the fitting details and modeled each frame and panel separately.

Here’s a detail of the upper left corner:

Here’s the cab’s frame set on the engine temporarily to check the proportions:

Speaking of proportions, the Holliday’s cab is actually out of proportion to the engine’s 5/8 scale. The cab needs to be large to hold the crew, and subsequently it appears much bigger than the cabs you’d see on other 4-4-0s.

Here’s the cab frame in ash oak:

And here’s the frame with the panels fitted in:

The left side of the engine contain significantly more piping than the right!

Most of it is hidden under the left running board. The picture below shows the location and the function of each pipe.

The lighting can make the pipes hard to see, so below is the same shot without materials and lighting.

More controls have been added to the cab. The picture below is self explanatory.

The updates are coming slowly as the engine is now in a very tedious process: plumbing!

Meanwhile, let’s take a look at the engine’s air compressor.

The 9″ steam operated air compressor was manufactured by Westinghouse. It’s mounted on the left “non-park” side so at the park it can only be seen while the engine is at Main Street Station. The compressor takes steam from the steam manifold in the cab, and uses this steam to drive a piston, which compresses air in the cylinder at the bottom of the compressor. The compressed air is stored in two air tanks. The main air tank is at the rear of the pilot truck (immediately front of the running gear hardware). The second air tank is under the cab, rear of the driver.

The main air tank has several connections. It has: (1) the feed/supply pipe from the compressor; (2) the connection to the air brake control; (3) the safety valve; (4) the compressor bypass and valve; and (5), the pressure gauge piping. That’s quite a bit of connection piping for such a little tank.

The second tank is used as the equalizing reservoir.

Here’s an old diagram of the system, similar to what is installed on the engine. Steve informed me that the diagram shows an automatic type, while the engine uses a straight air type. As such, the engine and the model will not have the aux reservoir and the triple valve.

And here’s the air compressor model. It’s been modified since this rendering.

The top cylinder is the steam cylinder. It has a half-cylinder protecting jacket (much like the boiler jacket but without a lagging–only air space). The manufacturer build plate is mounted on the jacket.

The bottom cylinder is the air cylinder, where the piston compresses the atmospheric air. The cone is air filter for the compressor intake.

Two different condensation drain lines are shown coming from the steam cylinder and supply.

This update focuses on the Penberthy appliances: the injector and the boiler sight glass (sometimes shorthanded as “waterglass”).

The injector is a fairly important part of the locomotive. It allows the crew to add water to the boiler. Now, since the water in the boiler is pressurized (125 psi, or 8.5 atm gage), and the water in the tender is at a cool 1 atm, it requires work to put 1 atm water from the tender to the 8.5 atm boiler. In the 1800’s, the crew used to have a hand pump, and that gets tiresome quickly. The period that the CK Holliday represents had a crosshead driven pump, but that only works when the crosshead is in motion–that is, when the engine is moving.

So, the injector was invented to literally inject the water into the pressurized boiler. It works by combining steam and water in a chamber, and shoots this water/steam mixture out of its outlet. This is a very simplified explanation, and of course there is a lot going on inside this “mixing” chamber.

Here’s how the injector is laid out on the CK Holliday.

The above is the right-hand injector (engineer’s side). There are two injectors, one on each side (not shown). Generally, only the fireman operates the injector (left side), so the plumbing you see above will mostly go unused!

The water supply comes from the tender. It’s plumbed under the running board and up into the injector. The boiler feed water pipe also runs similarly under the running board, which goes to a check valve so that the boiler’s internal pressure does not release its water out the feed pipe. The injector overcomes the boiler’s internal pressure by about 50 psi. Update: Steve D at Burnsland corrected me. The overcoming pressure from the injector is actually about 8 psi.

The water sight glass, also by Penberthy, is a simple device that allows the crew to visually monitor the boiler’s water level. Its plumbing is made to simply allow the water in the boiler to rise up the waterglass. Reading the glass takes some experience, as the water will not necessarily read to its true level while the engine is in motion.

Plumbing is quite a tedious process!

The backhead is being fitted with valves, gauges, pipes, and levers.

The two gauges are Ashcroft boiler pressure gauge and duplex air brake gauge. The “U” shaped pipes to the left and right will feed the steam to the left and right injectors. The top three red valve wheels will feed the blower, air pump, and atomizer respectively. And the large red wheel just below and behind the air brake gauge is the main header valve.

All the steam appliances will be supplied from the steam manifold behind the boiler gauge. It’s the large, short cylindrical pipe in the picture above.

On the back of the boiler, the red valve with four spokes is part of the water glass piping. To its right is the throttle. The oval hole below that is a boiler washout. The two diagonal red valves are the dual cocks, and finally the vertical bar is the reversing bar.

The throttle is locked in place by a quadrant with teeth. It operates much like the reversing bar, using a latch-spring type mechanism. Its operation is quite interesting as the quadrant moves with the throttle when operated. I’ll post a video of this up later.

And now, just some overall shots of the progress:

The CK Holliday uses several different types of valves. I’ve made the first two types to use on the model:

The main header valve is a 2″ model. It’s mounted on top of the boiler and allows steam to be supplied to the appliances in the cab.

The dual-cocks are 0.5in type. Note the funnel at the bottom that allow steam or water to exit.

Both valves were made per Lukenheimer’s specs. However, these valves get replaced time to time, so the type that you’ll see in person or in pictures will differ slightly. I am modeling the valves as they would typically appear.

The Fullerton RR day last weekend was a lot of fun, and I even learned a thing or two!

DLR did not bring out an engine to show this year, but they had the Lilly Belle the coach and the display boiler–the same boiler that is kept in the roundhouse as a learning tool:

Now it has been painted to make identifying parts of the boiler easier. Here are some pictures from Saturday:

I felt triumphal in finding that almost everything I modeled is correct to the real counterpart. There were some parts that needed changing, mainly:

• Change flues from 2″ OD to 1″ OD
• Change the t-pipe from welded to bolted connection
• Change number of stay bolts across the boiler
• Add tube sheet bracing above the firebox

And I finally have access to the ashpan.

My updated model is below:

The ashpan has a narrow grate at the bottom to allow embers to be cleared out and air to flow in. There’s also a 12″ access panel bolted to the bottom.

The sand dome base, made of cast iron, is attached to the boiler below. It’s held in position by 2 1″ bolts welded to the boiler.