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:
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.
The boiler jacket is a thin shell (No. 20 sheet metal) that wraps around the boiler. There is a space between the boiler and the jacket for insulation.
Originally, the CK Holliday had a dark gray boiler jacket, so I tried to duplicate it here:
The brass bands are usually secured at the bottom by a screw or a bolt to tighten the band against the jacket. Except for where the bands terminate at the firebox. I’m not sure how they are secured in that case.
The engine underwent a lot of changes since 1955. One of them being the boiler jacket getting cut short. Instead of wrapping the boiler entirely, the jacket terminates somewhere under the running board. Here’s the jacket as seen at the Fullerton RR Day:
Another change is the running board. Originally the CK Holliday had tapered, split type. Today, for ease of fabrication, the board has been changed to a straight type. Compare between 1955 and today:
Of course, the model will have the original running board:
In getting ready for plumbing the engine, I’ve made the two Ashcroft gauges that are on the engine.
The main gauge is 6″ Ashcroft Type 1009, used to read boiler pressure. Attached to this is a smaller duplex gauge for the air brake, and it’s an Ashcroft Type 1038.
Both gauges were made to Ashcroft’s own dimensions and specs.
The boiler gauge is mounted in a custom W-shaped brass bracket looking typical of an 1880 engine.
The engine is now just about halfway done! This is now a good opportunity to look (in colors!) at the engine as it stands:
That’s what the real CK Holliday looked like at one time in 1955!
Not everything can be seen in the above pictures because many components and features are hidden inside the model. For example, below pictures are cutaway from the boiler showing the flues and steam pipes, and cutaway from the right cylinder showing the appropriate steam and exhaust cavities, and the valve slide (unfortunately I didn’t render them).
Since the last update I took the time to almost completely “rebuild” the existing model. More on that later.
Now the smokebox is added to the model with the T-pipe and distinctly curvy steam pipes inside. The exhaust nozzles are also added. And of course, the very distinguished balloon stack that is prominent of the CK Holliday.
The stack is made of No 10 gauge sheet metal in 6 segments. Is it a welded construction but it features faux rivets at the seams. And although it is diamond shaped, the actual exhaust stack is straight. The diamond/balloon outer shell is supposed to allow for attachment of sparks arrestor. But the CK Holliday (and all of DLR engines) being an oil (diesel) burner, it doesn’t actually have this device.
