< Drain System etc. >
Drain valve set of the loco is OS product. The set requires soft soldering
in its valve levers. I adopted silver soldering instead of soft soldering.
To do this, you have to separate valve spindles from the bodies. Then the
valve spindles and lever pins are silver soldered onto the arm plates.
The spindles are sealed by tiny O-rings. I had broken some of them by mistake and got new ones from OS. They are expensive heat-resistant fluoride.
I made many kinds of parts for the drain system from steel flat bars or round rods.
When the reach rod is pulled, the top and bottom shafts rotate and the drain valve arms are push forward, then the drain valves open.
Another end of the reach rod is supported on the side of the reverser stand. Note a stopper screw close to the end of the rod. The screw head limits the travel of the reach rod.
Here I found out a design error. If the front axle boxes were at their lowest position, the axle pump strap would interfere with the drain bottom shaft. To avoid this, I cut a part of the pump strap.
The lubricator outlet is connected to the steam chests with copper tubes. The intermediate check valve is also an OS product.
In order to bend copper tubes neatly, I prepared a jig that has a channel of square section. The square is circumscribed to the copper tube diameter. For convenience, you could prepare some of the jigs in various size fitted to various diameter tubes.
Some steel angles supporting running boards are bolted onto both frames and buffer beams. The angles on the frames are bolted through the holes for the leaf spring shaft guides. Also a hand pump support angle is mounted. (Not in the photo)
The angles should be trued up before use. This time I trued them up in the lathe with four-jaws.
The running boards are laser-cut steel plates of 1.5mm thickness. The valances are made of brass angles.
The valances are fixed by screws from underneath so as to eliminate projection from the running board surface. The screws are cut in desired length in advance. I prepared a jig for that. The screws are set to the jig, cut and filed flush with the jig's back face.
Front deck was designed to be able to open with its hinges. It will be open when pouring oil into the lubricator.
