LGB Live Steam Frank S - Ultimate G Scale Live Steam

In case any one is interested, I noticed earlier today a second hand one on the P&S web site:

http://www.pshobbiesandmodelshop.co.uk/lgb-aster-frank-s-2901-live-steam-locomotive-gauge-1-gscale-p-4825.html

Regards Rob
 
So now I had it running great, and sounding good, I could keep an eye on the water level through the huge sight glass, when it got low I could top it up with the pump, however I can't top it up when it is in steam, when I pump it blows the water out of the top of the safety valve, I get around this by stopping the engine, turning off the gas and then topping up the boiler while it is still roasting hot, the first pump sometimes has a little amount come out of the safety valve, but it stops after the first pump and fills up the boiler, once up to the recommended height in the safety glass, I just relight the gas burner and away we go, the loco is still holding enough heat and pressure to operate.

I have had over 45 minutes of running on one tank of gas! And one tender of water, And only stopped twice to top up the boiler. The loco can run for hours constantly without any problems, or singed eyebrows!

However there was still one big problem, and it was a massive one!

I run on sm32 and this is a G1 45mm loco, now you are probably reading this thinking you stupid **** why did you buy it!, well after the first steam up I did wonder myself, but now it was running great it was time to see if I could convert it to dual gauge sm32/45.

This was where I was advised by quite a few folk it couldn't be done and I was wasting my time!
Now comments like these normally fire me up to prove them all wrong, and indeed I did!

Here are some pics of the underside of the loco and tender, they both had metal plates that are attached at each end (the tender one is now missing)
These hold in the wheels, We removed the plate and all the drive wheels from the loco, the wheels were then removed from the axles and new hubs with grub screws were made, the wheels were machined to accept the new hubs, the G-scale wheel flanges were turned down slightly so they would fit on sm32 track without fouling the sleepers, the plate that secures the wheels/axle blocks into place was then slimmed down so it could fit between the back to back of the reset wheels at 32mm, the loco was fairly simple to do, but the wheels are of a poor quality and can be a pain to machine, the guy that did mine has done another since and doesn't really want to do anymore!





Now this brings me onto the tender, this is the part that is a bit of a pain in the ****
Agin the plate was removed, the two axles were then removed, you can now see the chassis frames, buffers and axle mounts are all in one casting, not good!

The solution was to remove the green tender body from the chassis and mill out the mounts that the axles locate into, once machined new axle blocks were made to hold the axles, again the wheels were machined and new adjustable hubs were made and secured with grub screws, the axle blocks are just a little bit slimmer than the wheel set when it is adjusted to 32mm, the axles themselves are just a little bit slimmer than the distance between the frames, this allows the wheels to be re-gauged at 32 or 45mm with a tiny amount of slop, the axle blocks were then secured under the milled out chassis and the tender body was refitted.

The loco runs great on both gauges, and gets a lot of appreciation around the 16mm circuit for being pretty much a one off, (the second frank s that was modified was only set at 32mm)










 
Thank you. That was an enlightening post and entertaining film.
 
Dtsteam said:
That's interesting - do tell more.

I made a Goodall type filler valve to fit in place of the boiler plug in the dome.

DSC00994_s.jpg


Best wishes,
Dave.
 
Stuart - Very interesting, some of the mods have been in other forums and magazine but you have a few unique ones.
 
funandtrains said:
I think a read somewhere that Aster had originally designed the loco to run much better but Lehmann forced them to compromise the design to comply with steam toy regulations and to keep costs down, I suspect that it was originally intended to have a water pump in the tender as with other Aster locos hence the large gas tank.

I don't know about that. As you can see from my video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX8jEe6BgaQ the loco runs very well, and this is virtually new out of the box. This is a piston valve loco like Accucraft. It has large bore cylinders - which aid with the slow running. Usually Aster models have small bore cylinders and these locos can bolt. The condensate catching tank in the smokebox is a great idea. It's a really super model, and with the top-up valve can be kept in steam for a long time.

Best wishes,
Dave.
 
I am so impressed with the mods and the video.
I wish I had these skills and knowledge, as I love my Frank

for those of us mere mortals
let me pass on a tip I learned:

to fire the loco without the gas spitting,
I place the loco on blocks, and only the front end of the tender on a block, ie tipped. This keeps liquid out of the gas line, a notorious hassle in fire up on these. The tank has the out port for gas just about level with the fill line, so, when level, you WILL get liquid gas in the line. Tipping it so that the end toward the cab is raised, works wonders.

Once lighted (which I do from the stack) and dealing gingerly with the sticky O ring fuel valve, the loco heats, and one can clear the cylinders without jerky initial start up. ONce the cylinders are hot, remove all blocks and the fuel line issue in no longer an issue.

Another thing which I routinely do, at home, is to heat up the electric teapot with distilled water, take the hot water via thermos to the loco, and fill with boiling hot water (here in mile high Colorado thats only about 200 degrees or so I believe)!

I will have this fill the spy glass to the top edge in stead of my usual 2/3rds (due to heat expansion of the water). I have found that on the sub zero days I run, this makes steam up so much easier and faster. A lot of that heat is taken up by the loco body one way or the other, and thus a 'helping hand' is nice, especially when my own hands are rather numb and would rather stay in my pockets.
 
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