Regner Else

tac foley said:
Where DunnyRail and I live, the rainwater seems to be full either of the Sahara Desert, the Gobi Desert, or the Steppes. When it rains, the detritus left on your car could be gathered up and use to plant desert flowers.

many moons ago I bought a small - 4.5l - desktop distiller unit, as found in many small laboratories. Next time I use it, I'll post you what comes out of our Anglian Water ['love every drop'] pipes, left in the bottom of the tank....

You'll either laff, or be horrified.

I do ALL my locomotive water TWICE.
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Yes, I found in Huntingdon rain water always left a deep red residue.
 
Our water here ( 20 miles SE of Jon D) is rock hard, it will scale up a kettle to destruction in weeks, I wouldn't even use double or even triple filtered tap water anywhere near my steamers
 
I have just used distilled water from the local grocery store here in the states. Comes in gallon jugs very cheaply. Our tap water is hard here. But mixing a tad in for the brass boilers is no big deal. Just dont want to scale up the sight glass. If I plan to let one of the Regners, or my Mamod/Wilisco boilers sit for a long period, I drain as much water out as I can then leave the safety valve or drain plug out to let the boiler air dry. I really do wish Regner would go to a copper boiler. But I am sure they have their reasons for building them from brass still.
 
artfull dodger said:
I have just used distilled water from the local grocery store here in the states. Comes in gallon jugs very cheaply. Our tap water is hard here. But mixing a tad in for the brass boilers is no big deal. Just dont want to scale up the sight glass. If I plan to let one of the Regners, or my Mamod/Wilisco boilers sit for a long period, I drain as much water out as I can then leave the safety valve or drain plug out to let the boiler air dry. I really do wish Regner would go to a copper boiler. But I am sure they have their reasons for building them from brass still.
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They make them out of brass because brass is cheaper than copper, and also because it does the job. A brass boiler under test by the DIN inspectors a few years ago 'failed' at around 900 psi. The test gauge blew out... Mamod are also brass, and so is German Wilesco, and over in the US of A, Jennings, the oldest continuously-made model steam engines around in the USA, but not as old as Maerklin...still brass after well over 120 years.
 
Hello steam experts,

I have a question: why isn't there a kind of heat resistant sealing available/possible for boilers, like the stuff they use on top of coockwhere?

Greatings
Gerard
 
Gerard said:
Hello steam experts,

I have a question: why isn't there a kind of heat resistant sealing available/possible for boilers, like the stuff they use on top of coockwhere?

Greatings
Gerard
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Straight answer, Gerard, there is, those of us with small live steamers us it when building them. You don't mean Teflon, do you?
 
I do mean teflon, but may be that is too bad for environment?
Any way, the small boilers are one whole tank isn't it? while the real locs have a lot of pipes as "tank"? Or is there also a large boiler water tank in the 1:1 locs? Lots of questions i hope you don't mind:)
 
Brass just takes a bit more care in its use to ensure a long life span. And, yes I knew it was cheaper than a copper boiler. I have never had issues, even with very old brass boiler on my Mamod TE1a traction engine, which has had a hard life, but was an early version with the alcohol burner so I bought it and got it running again.

Yes, Teflon tape is a great sealant for pipe connections that are not a compression type fitting. You use it when building Aster, Regner and Roundhouse engine kits. You can also get this stuff in a liquid form as well but its messy and I have found the tape seals better as long as you wrap it the correct direction. Both gas and steam line fittings are wrapped on a Regner kit.
 
I guess the tape is for the screw connection between pipe and boiler, like the white tape used for water connections in the house.
I meant a sealing inside the boiler. The only way you get in the boiler i think is with a fluid material that settles on the inside wall of the boiler and hardens by the heat?
 
Boilers made of copper are, in most gauge 1 and bigger scales, built with multiple tubes inside them including at least one superheater tube. There is a substantial difference in the cost of a Gauge 1 scale boiler and the simple gas-fired boilers that many of us enjoy with our 16mm scale trains. If you look at a coal-fired model boiler, such as that made by the Dutch company, Riverdale, you'll see that just the conversion kit for a Roundhouse 0-4-0 costs more than the complete gas-fired loco.

This is mostly because of the complexity of building the boiler/firebox/ashpan.

Modellers have been building model boilers since the 1890s - don't you think that if there was a better way of building a small boiler than using either brazing or high-temperature silver soldering they would have found out by now?

BTW - Teflon is horrendously dangerous to the environment, and when it DOES burn - and at the sort of temperatures encountered with a gas-fired model it WILL happen sooner or later - the fumes are highly toxic.
 
Thanks Tac Foley, you teached me a lesson !
My suggestions are a bit naive indeed, but my learning curve in here is steep thanks to guys like you!
I will do now first some research on internet to fin expalnation of all the expert terms you used in your answer like: gauge 1 , superheater tube, round house 0-4-0, brazing.
Thanks for all the information!
Gerard
 
Gerard,
Don't be upset.
A complicated subject, fire, water, oil and keeping it all contained safely.

Difficult to understand. Even more-so, in a different language.

Welcome to the Forum!
(and apologies for the the bad jokes) we want to smile with you, and not at you.

PhilP.
 
Philp,
No problem here. Now i know i am driving a 0-4-0 Citroen car :)
I'm not yet sure about brazing, in Holland we talk about "solderen" and "hard solderen".
Is brazing the same as hard soldering?
I remember hard soldering of well difined shaped WIDIA hard metal parts on real cutting teeth we used in our scale 1:1 dredging cutting tests in rock.
There they used the hard soldering with the use of a special steel wire net inside the solder layer.
The system worked well for several tests in the lab but not in de rough practice on the job.

Gerard
 
Gerard said:
Philp,
No problem here. Now i know i am driving a 0-4-0 Citroen car :)
I'm not yet sure about brazing, in Holland we talk about "solderen" and "hard solderen".
Is brazing the same as hard soldering?
I remember hard soldering of well difined shaped WIDIA hard metal parts on real cutting teeth we used in our scale 1:1 dredging cutting tests in rock.
There they used the hard soldering with the use of a special steel wire net inside the solder layer.
The system worked well for several tests in the lab but not in de rough practice on the job.

Gerard
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My understanding is as follows. I'll be happy to be corrected by anyone who knows what they are talking about.

Low temperature soldering is used, with appropriate solder and flux, to join metals such as "whitemetal" , often used in kits, that have a low melting point. Run of the mill soldering is often used to join copper components and wires in electrical and electronic applications. For higher temperatures silver solder may be used. For even higher temperatures brazing rod, basically brass, may be used to join metals. For still higher temperatures and or strength, welding is used often effectively melting the parent metals together.

Mention of lab tests reminds me of one occasion when I was consulted regarding suitability of adhesive in a specific application. I arranged for the workman who would do the job to prepare two sample pieces to what he considered to be an adequate standard and then glue them together following the adhesive's instructions. He would then deliver them to the laboratory. I heard nothing for a while so I asked if the lab. had performed the test. They found it funny that the workman stumbled on the doormat on the way in and dropped the sample on the floor where it fell apart!
 
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Gerard said:
Thanks Tac Foley, you teached me a lesson !
My suggestions are a bit naive indeed, but my learning curve in here is steep thanks to guys like you!
I will do now first some research on internet to fin expalnation of all the expert terms you used in your answer like: gauge 1 , superheater tube, round house 0-4-0, brazing.
Thanks for all the information!
Gerard
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Roundhouse Engineering is probably THE most famous and respected maker of live-steam ready to run AND kits of 16mm scale steam locomotives in UK. Over in The Netherlands is a company called Riverdale - Riverdale Locomotives

Give them a call and talk to them in your own language to learn about model steam locomotives the EASY way! So much of the terminology does not translate from english into Dutch, or the other way, like German, where a lot of words have two or more meanings that have no connection to each other. Or talk to Bram Hengeveld - the main Accucraft/Aster dealer in The Netherlands. You can find him at - http://www.exclusivemodels.nl and Business website http://www.jandmmodels.com

Gauge 1 is the name given to a very popular scale of model railways running on 45mm gauge track. The two scales in use are very slightly different for historical reasons - 1/32nd scale and, slightly more popular, 10mm to the foot - VERY confusing for a beginner. They are usually models of standard gauge railway equipment like you find on your national rail service, NS.

I could try this post in Afrikaans, but you'd probably be insulted. :)
 
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