Accucraft 3-cylinder Shay safety valve fail......................

All sorted, thanks - old pal Dave Mees has made me an adaptor and provided me with a replacement safety valve...

I'll show you what happens between now and fitting it when I make the 'fix-it' video later on.

Thanks for watching. :)
 
Hmmmm. I've just found a UK supplier for a WeeBee safety valve and suitable adaptor, only to find that there is no mention of the fact that the prices don't include VAT until I get to the checkout. Is this usual?
Prices on our shelves and online don't include sales tax; it's added at the register.
Yes, a bit of a pain, but it prevents the b-st-rds from hiding their exactions as they used to.
 
All sorted, thanks - old pal Dave Mees has made me an adaptor and provided me with a replacement safety valve...

I'll show you what happens between now and fitting it when I make the 'fix-it' video later on.

Thanks for watching. :)
Tac, now you've extracted the faulty valve is there any indication of the reason for failure?
 
Tac, now you've extracted the faulty valve is there any indication of the reason for failure?
Neil, I guess it was just plain ol' worn out, a bit like me. As there was no way of getting to it, it wasn't possible to do the little drop of oil on the stem trick that any exposed safety valve design can undergo. Fourteen years of good running is not to be sniffed at, especially as it would be in almost constant steam on any given open day. I'm not complaining, really. I'll just pass on the words of Dave Mees, who knows a thing or two about this kind of live steaming. He reckons that the two faces of the dome - the top and the flange, were likely never actually painted, as the front sand dome and flanges are. So over time the two brass surfaces 'welded' together in a dezincification process and would likely never have been separable.
 
Prices on our shelves and online don't include sales tax; it's added at the register.
Yes, a bit of a pain, but it prevents the b-st-rds from hiding their exactions as they used to.

I could never figure out why, in the days of gouge and screw, a can of soda in Quebec cost 15c more than it did in Ontario.
 
I now have to admit to something that I had to do to fix this darn thing. Well-respected Accucraft repairist over here, my dear old pal David Mees, and I have been considering what to do. He was of the opinion that the steam escaping from the safety valve, both hot and wet, had successfully dezincified the two facing components which may, in fact, NOT have been given the coat of paint clearly visible in the post above.

They were, in fact, nothing less than immovably welded together.

It was therefore necessary to carefully apply a fine-tooth Junior hacksaw to the dome and completely remove the top - only in that way was I able to gain access to the safety valve. It was then necessary to use an Eezy-0ut to remove the valve - again, it was frozen in place. It took a while..... Meanwhile I'd dug out my old Unimat SL and used it to flatten off the surface of the piece I had removed - fine machinists need to look away now -
Hand Finger Thumb Bullet Household hardware


Here you can see the way I've used a piece of slotted brass tube as a 'keeper collar' - just tight enough to keep it in place.

Having been supplied with a new safety valve and adaptor by Dave, I replaced it prior to resetting it to the recommended pressure - as yet to be determined.

I'm grateful to you all for the often useful handy helpful tints and hips I've read here, and felt and shared the frustrations, too.

It all could have been so much easier, that is to say, a literally five-minute job, if the dome had come off in the first instance, but.....................................

Thanks again.
 
Well, I can breathe again. Chemical welding would explain why you couldn't remove the dome. Your "keeper collar" sounds like a good way to prevent the problem in the future. Is this difficulty in removing parts common for live steam locomotives?
 
Well, I can breathe again. Chemical welding would explain why you couldn't remove the dome. Your "keeper collar" sounds like a good way to prevent the problem in the future. Is this difficulty in removing parts common for live steam locomotives?

Not really, I guess that I took it for granted that if it had been necessary to have done this before it would have been as easy as the removal of the front dome was - a matter of ten seconds easy twisting...sigh.
 
Well, I can breathe again. Chemical welding would explain why you couldn't remove the dome. Your "keeper collar" sounds like a good way to prevent the problem in the future. Is this difficulty in removing parts common for live steam locomotives?
I don't think so, they're not usually as easy to dismantle than electric or battery locos obviously, but I don't think I know of anything like this happening.
 
Well, I can breathe again. Chemical welding would explain why you couldn't remove the dome. Your "keeper collar" sounds like a good way to prevent the problem in the future. Is this difficulty in removing parts common for live steam locomotives?
As said elsewhere very unlikely and unlucky for this to happen to Tac. I did have a Steamcraft Mountaineer 2-6-2 as on the Ffestiniog many moons ago. After a long time not out of use it would not budge at all when steamed up. Was sold on as non working to a collector of such things. When he finally got it to bits it appeared that the Ally Piston rod had reacted with the Brass Cylinder liner and thus was completely seized up. This is a very rare occurrence and live steam manufacturers these days would likely not make such errors of material use.
 
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