Ragleth runs

 

After the embarassment of leaving the blowdown valve bung at home, I thought Ragleth stll deserved to streatch its legs on the club track, so I dropped in there just before dusk last Thursday for a bit of a chuff. 

The good news is that the loco runs perfectly. If there is a problem, it's that she's too fast. I never went much above half regulator all evening for fear of launching the model off the baseboards. 

She chuffs well, and the cooler evening (and chuff pipe) resulted in some lovely steam coming out of the top. 

So, I need to assess my wooden wagon kit collection. We need half a dozen behind her to slow things down, and to look as nice as the Peckett with her three coaches. Good job there is a show coming up!

Can Ragleth save the day?

 

I really want to take two locos to the club steam day. The Peckett has a boiler certificate, and digging through a boxfile of correspondance (Including the hate mail I've recieved while editing mags. Yes really. It's pathetic.) I found another - for my Ragleth!

This loco has been sat in its wooden box since before the pandemic, so would it work? 

First, I checked the batteries. Unsuprisingly, they were dead, so for the moment I've replaced them with dry cells. I've not given up, just that charging, if it works, will take a while, and I'm impatient. 

While under there, the reciever is changed from a Planet to a RadioLink. Not essential, but I want to try the Planet in the steamboat. I think they are more reliable. There's also a long-term plan to put all the locos on Spectrum radios, but that requires me to find the receiver that came with SeaLion. 

Anyway, the good news is that all worked well, so it was outside to try some steam. 

Another result! I even gave it a little run up and down the garden railway. Not far, as the track needs ballasting and levelling, but enough to know it will move. And move fast, it could do with a bit of a load on the back...

Of course, getting the loco out again reminded me how much I like the proportions of this model. Perhaps more 7/8th than 16mm, it's a lovely chunky little machine, thay deserves a lot more attention and love. 

Update: Here's a handy hint. 

If you take the blowdown valve out while checking the loco over, don't leave it on the garden table, or when you get to the railway, your loco will be incontinent, and there will be no steaming, but plenty of embarasment.

Back in steam

One benefit of clamping those rails together is that my live steam Ragleth can finally have a run on my railway. In the nearly 2 years I've owned it, the model has been in steam less than 5 times because I simply haven't had anywhere to play. 

Anyway, all this can now change. Well, it could as soon as I changed the locomotive gauge anyway. 

 

If you can wield an Allen key (I always have to look up that spelling) then this is easy for an Accucraft loco. Undo the bolt, wiggle the wheel and move it so the hole lines up with the deep dimple on the axle. No need to use a back to back gauge. The wheels did take quite a wiggle, but I suspect that's down to them not being changed for years. 

On the track, I fueled it up with gas and boiled but cooled water. Then I lit the burner through the smokebox door and waited. 

Sometime later, I realised that the sound I heard was gas coming out, not the burner burning. Once you know, it's obvious, but as I say, it's a long while since I steamed anything. The sounds aren't that different anyway. 

Burner lit, steam pressure was raised and off we went. Ragleth will hurtle around when not hitched to a train, but proved with a bit of practice to be reasonably controllable, even for a novice. 

There is a definite gradient at the back of the circuit which could really do with some adjustment, but it kept me paying attention, even if it did make single-handed filming tricky. You need enough speed to get around, but that means the scenic bits are covered faster than I'd like. 

I also need to get control of the burner. Accucraft locos are notorious for having the paint burned off the smokebox door by newbies winding the fire up to full power. I found that the amount of gas required was tiny and turned it off a couple of times trying to reduce the flow. As I say, I'm still learning. 

Anyway, a happy hour chuffing around. Next time I'll add a train to the mix. 

Box for a big loco

While we are talking about boxes this week, here's another new one for my collection. It's a sturdy wooden container for my Ragleth from Loco Boxes.

Handmade from good quality plywood and nicely varnished to protect it from the various leaking fluids that find their way out of live steam models, it's a good, solid box with strong latches to keep the model inside and a carrying handle on top to make moving the model easy.

Price (yes, I did pay for this one) is £36. Not cheap, but worth it considering the value of the contents and if you don't have a gear to cut this wood as neatly, or the time to finish it this well, worth every penny. Nice people to deal with too - I spent a weekend on a stand next to them at TINGS a couple of years ago and we had a great time.

Loco boxes website.