Building Fred

[shred]

Great! It runs!



Of course now progress will slow down dramatically as you spend an inordinate amount of time playing with the thing...

 

[joe d]

Yea! Congrats to Fred. Congrats to Arnold too :big: :big:

Looking good, sounding good, and I can see your grin up here in North America!

Cheers, Joe

 

[Deanofid]

Woo-hoo! Way to go, Arnold!

I'll just bet you were wearing your engineer's cap and bib overalls.
: )
I probably would have..

Dean

 

[ozzie46]

Yeah Arnold. Way to go. Thm: Thm: Thm: Thm:

Ron

 

[4156df]

Way to go, Arnold. That's got to be a thrill!
Dennis

 

[rake60]

Congratulations Arnold! Thm:

Rick

 

[RobWilson]

Hi Arnold

:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: nice one mate Thm:

Regards Rob

 

[SBWHART]

Way to go Arnold Great Job

:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:



Have fun

Stew

 

[firebird]

Well done Arnold. :bow: :bow: :bow:

If you you could bottle the feeling you get when your engine first runs you could make a fortune selling it

Rich

 

[bearcar1]

BRAVO!!!! Arnold, that is making me grin. Man, I have to tell you I am very impressed with how you are able to 'get around' potential obstacles like making your own track system. I'm not sure I would have thought of that. :-\ Well done indeed. Fred seems to be willing to do your bidding but seems a tad shy. What a great thread this one is, I truly enjoy reading about and seeing your experiences. Thank you :bow: Marvelous build. More to come, and I know it will be just as enjoyable to see the next chapter unfold. HOORAH for FRED!!!

BC1
Jim

 

[dsquire]

Arnold

Congratulations. I can just about feel that great big grin over here that you must have had on your face as it made the first circuit of the track. th_wav

Cheers

Don

 

[arnoldb]

THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH for the overwhelming response and enthusiasm! ;D - Baie Dankie ! :bow:
There's a lot of special thanks to be said as well; I'll wait with that till the build is finished.

I didn't do much today; made a new safety valve, as the first one was leaking, fixed a leak on the regulator shaft, stripped the engine and cleaned it to make sure there are no "bits" in there from running so far, and fixed a leak that appeared where the burner feed pipe went into the reservoir. I also temporarily fit the fly-cranks and coupling rods. At some future point, I'll have to re-make the bottom cylinder heads; I've been running the engine without packing nuts on the rods, and when I tried to make some nuts, I discovered I left too tight a tolerance for the nuts; their sides collapse or undercut when making...

The bottle I used for the fill-up water must have had some kind of a residue in it that caused foaming; I thoroughly cleaned it, and on some more trial runs had less problems with water going to the engine.

Fred's running a lot better now, but the burner appears inadequate; it still runs out of steam after a lap of the "track" - or even free-running on top of the vise like I've shown it on air. I'll play around with different wick settings to see if I can't get it to maintain steam pressure while running - a gas burner is definitely on the cards.

I'd like to have Fred finished by next Sunday, so this week I have to fit in quite a bit of plate work and cosmetics: the reverser stand and coupling, buffers, foot plate, dummy water tank, coal bunker and a complete paint-job overhaul, clean-up and detailing. Still lots to do!

Another short clip of Fred running the circuit; not much different from yesterday's, but a bit less sputtering and with the coupling rods in place:
[youtube=425,350]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yNfRXj0TDDo&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yNfRXj0TDDo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]

Once again, thank you everyone for your positive responses!
Regards, Arnold

 

[CrewCab]

Just brilliant Arnold 8)

CC

 

[NickG]

Brilliant stuff Arnold. It's running really well there :bow: ;D

 

[ariz]

Arnold I miss the forum for a couple of day and what I found then?

a Fred running on steam!!!

wowww, that is really amazing, fantastic
congrats Arnold, you did a great job there, and the thread is very interesting too, well documented etc. :bow:

 

[Paolo]

Great!!!! :big:

 

[eskimobob]

Excellent work 8)

 

[cfellows]

Great job, Arnold. Congratulations on your POM nomination.

Chuck

 

[wm460]

Well done.

 

[charlesfitton]

...All that ( and beautiful,too ) in 3 months!

It's gonna be a hard act to follow!