Steam engines, where do you start? They have been around certainly longer than me and longer than anyone in the readership! There have been steam engines and models of them since before Adam was a boy! But, back to my first question, where is one to start? I guess a good place would be the fire.

Now I only really intend to discuss what's available commercially in G scale so all those with comments about wood burners and such can go back to their 5" and larger models and leave us G scalers alone!

In common use these days are really only two fuel's, butane/propane mix and Meth's. There are commercial models available using coal and it's derivatives but I believe these are more for the specialists rather than general hobbyists. Butane/propane is used more and more these days and there are varying ideas about the ratio's of butane and propane but 20% propane and 80% butane seems to be the widely accepted standard to give good firing and easy lighting both in the Winter and Summer. Pure Butane is quite adequate although there may be problems lighting up in the cold, and pure propane is stored at a much higher pressure than butane, and thus personal safety is jeopardized.

Meth's on the other hand is cheaper, can be stored in a plastic bottle, can be purchased at your local Supermarket or Garage, but is more likely to set fire to your plastic/wooden sleepers or wooden cab if handled incorrectly. I don't consider myself to be an expert, but in 100 or so firings I have not been aware of any fires left behind so far with my little Meth's burner.

Well, what do you use this fire for, I guess this leads us onto Water, and then of course the Boiler.

My first choice in water would be distilled water, as it has the least impurities in it that would be left behind in your boiler once the water has been boiled off. There is talk of distilled water leaching the castings used in and around the cylinders, but as the manufacturers recommend distilled water, I'll go with them. Second choice for me is rain water, but I always run this through a filter (in fact I filter all water that I use in the Loco) to extract the bugs and their little packages. De-mineralized water (as used in Steam Irons) was thought to offset the leaching effect of distilled water, but the impurities in demineralised water leave rather a lot to be desired. At a pinch filtered tap water would be passable, more so here in Auckland because it is rain water, but if you live in an area that uses bore water, then this option is an absolute no no due to the high mineral content. A common source of distilled water is that obtained from the catchment tank of your dehumidifier, and putting this through a filter gives you about the best there is. Another emergency source of water is that ice that builds up in your freezer, simply melt it, filter the frozen peas out of it, and you are ready to go again.

With boilers there are two main typed used in our size, those being the pot boiler, and the flued boiler. A third variation is that used with gas fired engines, this is essentially a flued boiler but without the hassles of blowers and fans to keep the fire going. Boilers are pressure tested at the manufacturing stage usually to about twice working pressure and this working pressure is determined by a pressure relieve valve (safety valve) usually mounted atop the boiler. This is one item to show respect as not only can adjusting it be hazardous to your health, simply leaving any part of your anatomy above it can be extremely painful if (and when) it blows. My little loco can send a stream of super hot steam 2.5 meters in the air.

To back up a little, pot boilers have the fire licking around them and are relatively simple to manufacture, thus are often found on cheaper Loco's. Flued boilers are constructed in such a way that the fire actually passes through the tube (or tubes) and these tubes (flues) pass through the water, giving good heat transfer to the water, but decreasing the volume of water that the boiler can hold, and increasing the complexity (and cost) of the boiler. Another problem is that you need an external fan to draw the fire through these fire tubes until sufficient pressure has built up and the Loco's own blower can be opened. Of course gas burners, although essentially internally fired, don't need things like fans and blowers to keep the fire going as the pressure of the fuel has the desired effect.

Now valve gear is another whole story in itself, but basically (very basically) there are four popular systems in common use today. These are the Oscillator, Slip Eccentrics, rotary reversing (as used with piston valves), and simplified Walcherts. These are listed in the order of complexity (and cost) with Oscillators being the cheapest, (and some would say ugliest) and Walcherts being the most impressive, and nearly the industry standard for all good quality Loco's.

The simple oscillator, as it's name suggests, uses the action of the piston rod to oscillate the cylinder up and down and this action opens and closes inlet and exhaust ports on it's mating surface with the valve body. Although very non prototypical (of course there is always an exception), this action is cheap to produce, and when coupled to a reversing block, can be made quite controllable with reversing being available from R/C.

The Slip Eccentric's gear is not capable of being reversed remotely and needs a more hands on approach to reversing. Still, apart form this very obvious limitation a better looking loco with quite a pleasing action when operating. Also, when the prototype loco has no outside valve gear, this option is used very satisfactorily to replicate that appearance.

Piston valves operated by imitation valve gear on the loco are better looking still than Slip Eccentrics, but usually make use of a rotary reversing valve hidden between the frames to control not only the speed but also the direction of the loco. Also, piston valves tend to wear out whereas slide valves (normally used on models) tend to wear in just by their normal operation.

Finally we come to Walcherts, which earlier I said was becoming the Industry Standard for good quality commercially produced models (of Loco's with outside valve gear of course) in this scale.

Actually the gear used in most of the better models is simplified Walcherts, and it has not only a prototypical appearance, but a very pleasing one too. Reversing is effected in just the same way as on the prototype, and although there isn't always a Reversing lever in the cab, there will be it's equivalent, and this can be used not only to put the loco in forward or reverse gears, it can be used to adjust cut-off too. And along with the throttle you have an extremely responsive and controllable loco with a very pleasing and prototypical appearance.

Which brings us very nicely onto the area of control.

Control systems is an area very close to my heart, I considered that mixing Radio Control and Live Steam was a sort of unpleasant mixing of two different era's, but I soon learnt the error of my ways. After about 20 firings of my loco and chasing it around and around at home, and up and down JADE railway trying not to stand on Joe's models, I soon realized the great gains in pleasure to be had with Radio Control. Now I also have to admit that there is a certain Merlin loco in our group that runs like clockwork without R/C, and I admire it immensely, but my Loco was in no way going to run anywhere as reliably as that and the addition of R/C improved matters no end.

Anyway, that's about it for me on this subject, but I do look forward to any discussions that this little "Primer" may produce, and I also look forward to others perhaps correcting any errors or incorrect assumptions that I may have made.

Firstly, a little information about Number 5. She (definitely female) is internally fired and operates her valves by means of a slip eccentric system. This means that to set the valves for the other direction, you bring her to a halt, move the loco manually about half an axle revolution in the desired direction, then open the regulator again. Number 5 is fired with Meth's, and being fired internally needs a fan to induce a draft to pull the fire through the fire tubes until sufficient steam has been raised so that the Loco's own blower can be opened.

Now to the business of actually raising steam.

Firstly, before anything else, you need to walk around the loco with a spanner in one hand and an oiling can in the other. The spanner to check and tighten loose screws, and the oiling can to lubricate all moving parts in the chassis, connecting rods and valve gear. Normal 30/40 engine oil is more than adequate for this job.

Okay, the maintenance is complete and we can get serious about getting steam up. Firstly pour a measured 80ml of meths into the fuel tank, then a measured 160ml of distilled water goes into the boiler. Access for the boiler is under the brass steam dome. It pays to block up the little steam tube that is centered in this hole as otherwise you end up with water in your steam manifold. I use a tooth pick for this, and remove it before refitting the bung and steam dome.

Alright, after tightening the boiler bung down onto it's copper washer firmly and replacing the brass dome it's time to light her up! Place the fan into the chimney, apply 6 volts to it, light the three wicks of the burner and place the burner/fuel tank assembly back into the chassis carefully, fixing it there with the retaining pin. Once this maneuver is complete you should feel heat at the chimney. It pays to do this over a mirror the first few times so you can see the fire, at least until you have confidence in the procedure. If one of the wicks has gone out, you can sometimes get it to relight by turning the fan off momentarily and the resultant lack of draft may cause the lit wicks to flash back around the chassis sufficient to relight the wayward wick. Otherwise, its time to start again!

Great, now it's lit, there's fire racing through the fire tubes, there's water in the boiler getting hot, and it's time to sit back for 5 or 6 minutes. WRONG, this is Live Steam, there is always something to do! You now need to visit the lubricator, opening the top and bottom caps to drain off any water or emulsified oil. Once clear oil is coming out the bottom (of the lubricator,) close the bottom cap and top off the lubricator with Steam Oil. Once full, close the top cap too. As both these caps are fitted with rubber seals, finger tight is all they need. With the lubricator full, go for another walk around, checking for steam leaks, and cleaning off the excess oil you applied before. Oh, we'd better check that the regulator and blower valves are closed too or else we'll never get pressure up! The regulator is on the right hand side of the cab on number 5, closed being up, and the blower valve is located on the left and closed is down.

In about 5 minutes (depending on ambient temperature) you can open the blower valve (about half way), and watching the flames (with the mirror remember) remove the fan and adjust the blower such that the fire is still being drawn through the fire tubes. This is when I believe the Loco really comes alive, keeping itself going without the need for external devices. Note, if when opening the blower valve there is no hissing sound, replace the fan and check that you still have three wicks alight. A further 3 minutes or so should see steam weeping from around the safety valve, and you should be about ready to go.

Time for number 5 to move under her own steam! Open the regulator about half way to let steam into the superheater and then into the cylinders. This unfortunately usually causes the steam to condense in the cylinders until they get up to working temperature, so you need to rock the loco back and forward to clear this condensate from the cylinders. Aright, action, time to pull out of the servicing area, back onto a train, then it's off round the mainline for 20 minutes or so!

During running you should find the loco very responsive to the regulator, but if she's sluggish, open the blower a bit more to increase steam generation (check for all three wicks burning if she's real sluggish). And vice-versa, if the safety actually pops (and boy you know when that happens) close the blower down a bit.

Nearing the end of the run you'll either find that number 5 suddenly stops with very little warning, or more often, she just gets more and more sluggish. These are typical symptoms of a live steamer in the first case running the boiler dry, and in the second instance, the fuel running low. In both cases, remove the pin that holds the fueltank/burner assembly in place and blow out what remains of the fire.

Great fun. Now you can start all over from the top, or if you've had enough for the day, open the boiler fill plug, drain the excess water, and wipe down the loco. It's also a good time to once again go for a walk around with that oiling can and spanner.

Most of all, enjoy the whole experience, don't rush things, and more importantly try not to get distracted, this is rather a different aspect to this garden railway hobby of ours than simply putting a loco on the tracks and applying a bit of voltage!

Great, we are now qualified Live Steamers with one firing under our belts. Time now to spread the word and "Keep on Steaming"

Available from Garden Railway Hobbies Gore. $11 per 4oz bottle.

Excellent value for money here. This is a bottle of smoke fluid that lasts forever, smokes very well, and is scented to boot. With my LGB Loco's there was no way to turn off the smoke unit, but there is a stern warning to not operate the loco without smoke fluid in it. Then they supply a measly little tube of the stuff that if you are lucky lasts about 3 fills and that's if you don't spill it after opening as there is no way to recap the container.

This 4oz wonder from Gore comes in a screw top bottle with a convenient dispenser built right in that allows you to dish the stuff out drip by drip. The product seems to me to produce a lot of smoke, certainly to my eyes in excess of what the LGB and Bachmann fluid does, but there is a draw back in that it does seem to run low a little quicker than these other brands.

I have tried this Magic Smoke in my Aristocraft smoke units also and as expected there was very little smoke from the Diesel's, but the little 0-4-0 switcher responded well, puffing up quite noticeably. My USA Trains NW-2 produces great quantities of smoke with this product, but of course it comes out white rather than typical 'diseasel' black, thus not really looking the part.

There is a rather strong odour with Magic Smoke and according to the bottle it is "Pine Scented", the smell may or may not be a problem to you but "Pine Scented", they have got to be joking!

All in all though, excellent value for money, and a real boon if you want to preserve the smoke units in your LGB Loco's. I am into my third bottle here at Squirrel Valley, and enjoy watching white smoke that smells like a Pine Forest after rain, coming from my Loco's stacks.

P.S. Best used out of doors!

This is a 1:29 scale model of a Pennsylvania 0-4-0 switcher. At least that's what the advertising says. I find that at best it is a poor representation of a slope back switcher to an undetermined scale. The tender is far from scale in length width or height, being nothing more than a representation. And the Loco itself is really just a toy with oversize wheels, and little else to offer for the scale modeler. Lucky for us that "G" is very General in scale/gauge relationships, and keeping this in mind, the Aristocraft 0-4-0 slope back switcher fits right in with the rest of what's on offer at the cheaper end of the "G scale" market.

I found the Loco to be a poor unreliable runner, with the best performance being just under 1/2 an hour before stuttering and complete failure. In each case this was found to be dirty wheels, and after a thorough cleaning the loco was on it's way again for another 1/2 hour. At first I thought that this was unique to my loco, but there are three others I know of that suffer from the same complaint. But to put this in perspective, whilst communicating with Aristocraft about this problem, they had just returned from an exhibition and had put over 40 hours on one with no problems. I also found it to burn out smoke units, and am on my third so far. Although, when operating, the smoke units do produce acceptable amounts of smoke, and it comes out in puffs, synchronised to the drivers. This little loco also has a built in sound system, although not much better than the Bachmann unit, it is better than none. Note, for the Sound and Smoke to work properly you need to use Aristocraft's TE PWC controller.

There are a number of modifications I have done on this loco and together they have given me a most reliable Loco, even more reliable than my LGB Mogul. The main part of this modification involved stripping the Loco down and having the wheel treads profile modified (giving more taper) and then chromed. I also had the tender wheels chromed and arranged for the tender wheels to assist in the power pickup by installing a MU cable between the loco and Tender. This not only aids the loco in traversing large radius points (turnouts) without problems, but the hard chrome surface seems to resist the accumulation of dirt, especially when compared to the soft blackened finish that Aristocraft supply the Loco with.

Another modification I did was whilst it was stripped down getting it's wheels chromed I installed an on/off switch to the motor leads, so now I can park it on live track whilst I run another loco. Further modifications were simply external. It is surprising just what a quick weathering can do for the realism of this model. The toy heritage is quickly disguised. There is not a lot that can be done about the oversize drivers, but a good dose of weathering makes these also more acceptable.

With this work complete I now have a reliable runner with an acceptable appearance, and for a very reasonable price to boot.

What follows is intended to be a discussion on the four types of roadbed that I have used in the construction of the two incarnations of Squirrel Valley Railway to date. There are of course many other arrangements for supporting the track work, in fact I suspect that every Garden Railroader has his own pet approach to this problem, but what follows is simply a sharing of the knowledge gained from my own personal experience.

Firstly, these four types of roadbed need to be divided into two groups, the first group I will discuss is what I have done where the track is laid at ground level, either natural or built up. The second group will detail the two methods I have used when building track above ground level.

Righto then, the first approach I tried as a ground level roadbed was at Albany back in the summer of '96-'97. Not only was the track laid at ground level but also the surrounding area was relatively flat. After determining both the intended path of the track, and using a "water level" to establish the finished height of the track I then dug a ditch the entire length of the intended ground level part of my line. This ditch was 150mm deep and 150mm wide. The bottom of this ditch was lined with a porous weedmat and then filled with GAP7. This GAP7 is a scoria based product (usually obtainable from Mitre 10) that is the result of what you would get if you poured a mixture of all sizes of scoria through a mesh with 7mm gaps (holes). So you end up with scoria all the way from dust and up to 7mm. This ditch filled with scoria is leveled and tamped, and leveled and tamped, until you can walk on it. The track is then laid on this tamped scoria and more scoria is added up to sleeper height then the whole lot is watered in with a watering can to help settle it all. This gives a very prototypical appearance, excellent drainage, and allows the track to be removed at a later date with minimal damage. As an indication of the strength of this approach, I used to wheel the wheelbarrow down the right of way when doing weeding round the garden railway area. A disadvantage to this approach is the occasional leveling needed from time to time, but of course this is just part of the fun.

The second method I have used as roadbed at ground level uses a somewhat different approach as I had different problems to overcome. I was building the roadbed on a hillside that was predominantly rock, and was just too steep for the scoria method mentioned above. This time after chiseling, cutting, drilling and blasting a rough ledge in the rock I once again marked the intended track path, set levels with whatever I could in the soft rock (mostly I drove 100mm nails in). I then mixed very course sand 6 to 1 with Portland cement and applied this dry to the hillside as a roadbed. The track was then laid carefully on this dry sand/cement mixture, some more was poured over the top and the whole lot was groomed into shape with an old paintbrush being careful to keep the ballast away from the inside rail faces. Once I had it all just how I wanted it I carefully used that watering can to wet it all down. After a couple of quick passes with the watering can the whole thing started to get a little stiff so that I could pour even more water over the entire affair. When it's all set up you have very porous ballast that although set can be easily broken away if you decide to remove the track at a later date. Note the old ploy of adding a small amount of dishwashing liquid to the water worked a treat here.

Okay, onto the second group then. The two methods that follow are more often used to support a running track more so than a fully sceniced and integrated Garden Railway. Although in saying that I have always under-planted the raised trackwork and in time I guess with careful pruning one could give the impression of a nice embankment.

Okay then, onto the first method I tried for building a raised roadbed. First and foremost I was on an economy drive, dollars being a little short after having just purchased a new home. Once again the proposed track path was marked out and levels were set using the "waterlevel". Every 1200mm (maximum, less on curves) of the intended route I set a 100 x 75mm fence post in the ground cut to length such that the top was at track height. These posts were set about 300mm in the ground with concrete! This layout was here to stay! I then nailed 75 x 50mm fence rails to the sides of the top end of these posts, both sides, and spanning between the posts. Note that in each case the timber used is tanalised, and the nails are those sold for fencing. Above this open framework I sat my oversize sleepers that I had cut from fence palings. These sleepers were about 20mm square and 150mm long for single track and 300mm long for double track. The rails were then spiked to these sleepers with bronze boat building tacks that are ribbed to resist being pulled out. Initially this method of supporting the track looked okay, the trains ran well enough on it but, (and this is a big but), the fence railings weren't "kiln dried", and so warped in just a matter of months, giving a roller coaster ride for the trains. Not a good look for a model railway.

Finally then, on to my final method of supporting the raised roadbed. Once again all those initial steps were taken with marking out and setting levels, and I used 100 x 75mm fence posts as uprights as they seemed a good bet. This time I have used 150mm x 25mm fence palings as the roadbed and I have them spanning about 1100mm maximum, much closer in the curves. The palings we got were a very healthy 25mm thick, actually more like 28mm, and mostly knot free. Also the timber yard had them on sale so once again the almighty dollar reigns supreme. So far (two months) there is no sign of the warping that I experienced with the 75 x 50mm fence rails but we are continuing to keep our fingers crossed.

Well that about wraps it up from me, I have mumbled on about the four methods that I have used to support my track's but of course there are many more. Both Warren and Ron have detailed their ideas in previous issues of the Gazette, but if you have a solid (or perhaps cheap) method, please let me know, in fact, let us all know.

Onboard battery equipped "G" scale trains often use Gel Cells as a power source, and I was asked recently just what is a real easy way to charge them.

Now, there is a question, the best, safest, easiest and cheapest way (I

thought you would like that) is to charge your Gel Cell at a "constant

current 10 hour rate". Okay, how do you do this, easy!

The Gel cell is of a certain voltage and a/hr (amp/hour) rating. You need

this info to start with.

Say for example the a/hr rate is 7, and then the 10-hour rate is 1/10th of this,

that being 0.7 amp's. So, that was easy, we need to theoretically charge the

battery for 10 hours at 0.7 amps. Okay, that was easy too but we still have

to actually do it! Oh, that was theory too, in actuality you will need to

charge at the 10 hour rate for about 14 hours due to losses in the battery,

but anything up to 40 hours won't hurt the battery at this 10 hour rate.

Next, how do you do this "constant current" charging. That's easy and cheap

too! What we need is a DC voltage supply of greater volts than the battery,

and we also need a special equation called "Ohm's Law".

You need to know what voltage the battery is (easy, read the label on it),

you also need to know what voltage the DC power supply is that you are

using. Easy too, measure it with a DC multi-meter. Next, we have to install

a device that converts the power supply's voltage to match the battery, and

also such that the current stays around the magic 10 hour rate. A resister

will do fine.

Okay, lets work an example, say we have a 6V and 7a/hr gel cell, and a

power pack giving 12 volts DC. Then using Ohm's law we can work out exactly

what we need. Alright, onto the magic, Ohm's law states that the value of a

resister in ohm's equals the voltage drop required (in volts) divided by the

current drawn (in Amps). HUH?? R=E/I. Thus in this example your resister

equals the voltage drop of 6V divided by 0.7 amp. And that's a resister of

8.5 ohms. And we're in luck, they make 8.2 ohm resistors as one of the

standard sizes, and this would be close enough. BUT wait, there's more, as

this resister is actually doing something, (dropping 6 volts at .7 amps) it

will need to be powerful enough to do this job. Okay, our friend Ohm's law

comes into effect again, in a different guise this time. Power (in watts)

equals Voltage times Current, therefore Power = 6v times 0.7a. Which is 4.2

watts. So, I'd buy a 5 watt one to make sure.

Now, what do you do with it? Stick one end of it to the positive terminal

of your power pack and take the other end of it to your gel cell positive

terminal. Then connect the negative terminal of your gel cell to the

negative end of your power pack and you're charging!

Simple.

This takes way longer to write than do. Enjoy.