Building Stage 3

Stage three probably has the least work in it to do that any of the other stages. Basically stage three comprises the boiler, saddle, ashpan and chimney, and as the boiler is supplied complete, and the saddle and ashpan are cut and welded up the work involved is little more than drilling a few holes and putting it all together. Well, so it seemed, but nothing is quite as simple as it first seems, and there were a few little wrinkles in this stage.

Ashpan and Grate

The first thing to do is to fit the grate to the firebox. It comes slightly oversize and you have to saw the firebars to make it fit inside the firebox. These are stainless steel, but cut easily with a new hacksaw blade, as recommended in the instructions. The grate, as supplied, was a bit trapezoidal in planform, so the opportunity was taken to square it up at the same time. Once cut to proper size and shape it fitted nicely.

The next step is to fit the grate support bars in the ashpan. There are two, the front on is a steel rod, threaded at each end for the fixing nuts. The rear on is formed from flat mild steel and bent in a flat U shape and fixed with nuts and bolts in such a way that it can hinge down. Care has to be take that these supports are positioned properly to hold the grate up in the firebox. I also set the front bar so that the grate's front cross-member rested on it. I figured that it would keep it a little further away from the fire and would not interfere with airflow.

This is a picture of the grate resting on the supports. The reason for the rear support being hinged is so that the grate and fire can be dropped. You can see here how the grate drops at the back when the rear support is hinged down.

Steampipe

After the ashpan is finished the steam pipe is installed. This should be simple job, and it is, except that I had installed the four-way union the wrong way round. In the picture of the steam pipe in place you can see the blast pipe has a joggle in it moving it forward. That should be the other way around and bring the pipe nearer the back of the engine. The only way to correct it was to remove one cylinder! Oh well, that will teach me to go too fast and not look at the drawings carefully.

This second view of the steam pipe shows how it is fitted in a cutout in the front stretcher and goes under the weighshaft.

Mounting the Saddle and Boiler

The saddle is fabricated from mild steel sheet and is supplied welded up and with the holes pre-drilled for the boiler smokebox end. It has to be fitted between the frames and cutouts have to be sawed and filed to clear the steam pipes. Once that has been done it is placed between the frames and the boiler rested on it. The boiler firebox fits between the frames at the back of the engine, and is supported by two copper lugs brazed to the firebox sides. The saddle position is then adjusted to ensure the boiler is level, and the front of the saddle is flush with the front of the boiler barrel. Once the position is correct I marked the saddle through the holes in the frames. The boiler was lifted off and the saddle removed and drilled. Then the saddle was bolted to the frames, as seen here. You can also see that I have corrected the blast pipe position at this point.

Once again the boiler is placed on the frames (you get used to this, I must have put it on and lifted it off aver a dozen times!) and the positions of the holes in the smokebox the take the saddle bolts are marked. This is tricky as the angle of the saddle and the cylinders get in the way. I used the right angled end of a scriber from a surface gauge to scribe around the holes. Then I removed the boiler and center-punched in the middle of the scribed circles. These were then drilled out as shown. The big hole is for the blast pipe.

As I mentioned, the firebox end of the boiler has two lugs that sit on the frames, while the lower part of the firebox fits between the frames. The boiler is held down by two sheet metal brackets that allow the lugs to slide along the frames when the boiler expands as it gets hot. These lugs stuck out a bit too much and prevented the brackets lying flush against the frame sides. So I marked the lugs with a felt pen and sawed the excess 1/8" off. Don't let anyone tell you copper is a soft metal. They were tough to cut! But the work was worth it and you can see how the brackets fit and hold the back of the boiler down.

The bracket on the right side of the engine shares the same bolts as the reverser stand. So the reverser stand and spacer bracket have to be removed to fit it. But once in place it makes a neat installation.

The next step is to install the ashpan between the frames. So after fitting the boiler you have to remove it (again), place the ashpan between the frames, put the boiler back and position the ashpan up against the bottom of the firebox. While holding it there with one hand, or wedging it somehow, you then mark through the holes in the frames for the mounting screws. Then lift off the boiler, take out the ashpan and drill the mounting holes. Then the ashpan is fitted permanently in place by two bolts. There is a nut placed between the frame and the ashpan and another inside the ashpan to fix it in place. By adjusting these nuts you center the ashpan between the frames. The you put the boiler back to see that it all fits properly. Well mine didn't! The problem was something done way back in stage 1. The bracket that hold the trailing arm for the rear truck is bolted to the firebox stretcher. If you recall from stage one there are no instructions as to where exactly the bolts should be placed, and as it happened I had put them a little too high , and they were fouling the front of the ashpan. So I had to remove the trailing truck and re-drill the bracket and drill new holes in the stretcher. After fitting the truck back up with the new bolt positions the ashpan went in perfectly and you can see it in position between the frames.

Al that is left to do on stage three is to bolt on the chimney and attach the smokebox and firebox doors. The chimney is placed on the smokebox section of the boiler and lined up with the its hole. I then clamped it in place while I drilled the four bolt holes in the smokebox barrel. You can see the rag I placed over the blast pipe to prevent chips from getting down it.

The smokebox front and door is supplied assembled and is a push fit in to the front of the boiler barrel. It is secured by a small set screw. I drilled a small hole in the smokebox ring so that the screw went in until flush with the barrel.

The firebox door has a hinge bracket that screws to the backhead of the boiler. This needed some re-bending to get the door to close flush with the firehole ring. This the firedoor open, and her it is closed. In these views you can see the ashpan under the firebox.

The final picture below shows Pearl at this point. It is now really beginning to look like a steam locomotive.

Go to Starting Stage 4