Chiltern Steam Plant - PS8 Steam

I built the Chiltern Steam Boiler some months ago with a view to using it in another project.  However in late October 2018 I visited the model engineering exhibition in Leamington Spa, and Simon and the team from Chiltern were displaying their models.  I bought the beam engine there and then, and two days later bought the dual cylinder mill engine.  So now all three Chiltern models are together in a new steam plant.

This is also my first attempts at silver soldering the steam lines.  One or two disasters, but quite easy when you get the hang of it.  (I attended a very good lecture at the exhibition and that gave me confidence.)

The steam pipes are wrapper with string and will be painted shortly.  The effect is that of original steam engine pipes lagged with asbestos.  I think this works, but at the moment they look as if they have been mumified!

The 'control panel' is brass hexagon drilled and tapped to 1/4" x 40 tpi.  There is a displacement lubricator at the left hand side, two regulators - one for each engine, and a control valve to let me attach a compress air line.  This all works well, and I must finish painting it.

The live steam test went badly and I managed to lose the video!  The video alongside is the plant running on compressed air.

New video added alongside of the first real steam test.   The boiler is taking ages to get up to pressure and I suspect the safety valve is set too low.  However, we did finally get some pressure - enough to drive the beam engine and the mill engine.  One issue is the amount of condensation to get rid of in the engines and the piping.  Not sure what to do about this.  I also must route the exhausts as the mess is a bit much!

Still to do:

1. Re-Paint control valve assembly

2. Route exhausts from the engine to a condenser

3. Route condenser outlet to base of chimney