Hi all,
I have realised that many of you have had at least one scorched boiler (unless you own a White). Many of you say it was a false reading from the sight glass. Are there any other reasons. Both my Grandfather (Richard Hounslow) and Great Grandfather (Bob Dyke Snr) have scorched their boilers. My Great Grandfather on the 2002 Welsh tour and my Grandfather on the 2002 London to brighton, with a member of the Salvage squad on board! Please Reply. Old Timer.

The boiler sight glass being mounted too low on the boiler will get you in trouble while climbing a steep grade. Even with a safe water glass reading on a steep hill, the front tubes on the lower tube sheet can become uncovered and they will scorch. I did that on the Mt. Washington wagon road. I have since raised the location of my boiler sight glass and I have been fine ever since. A broken feed water line will also quickly catch you with a scorched boiler if you do not look at you water level often enough. Operating in the top half of your boiler is always safer than operating in the lower half. A plugged line to the water level sight glass should always be watched for too. When ever the sight glass is being viewed, the boiler sight glass water level should be able to be moved while accelerating or braking. A smaller boiler will run out of water faster than a larger boiler, so keep more of a vigilant eye on those smaller boilers.



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 03/29/09 12:40AM by SSsssteamer.

How high in the boiler should the normal running level be? Mine has a capacity of about 12.5 British gallons and the running level seems to be about 9 if I keep the sight gauge level close to the top. Is 75% of capacity about right? Despite running at this level I have noticed that the insulation surrounding the boiler has a sort of waterline mark which I assume is due to different temperature at the water/steam interface, or maybe the top layer of water which is half steam anyway, amd this is about halfway up the casing.

I have thought of moving my sight gauge up a bit but not got to it yet.

Mike

I blow the kidney gauge down at the beginning of each run, and check that the needle drops freely.
David

I have a blow down valve for the sight gauge within easy reach when driving so I can give it a quick squirt anytime I am unsure of the level.

Mike

On the Brooks the original water level it by a thermocouple pile driving a micrometer, this only works when the boiler is hot, I have a second system using a sight glass, the whistle valve connected to the top feed to the glass, if I want to check the water level is reading true, a quick pull on the whistle rope shoots the water out the top of the glass, you then watch for it to return to level, each time you use the whistle it cleans the system.

There is a danger with this, your whistle valve must be steam tight or you will get a false reading.

Jeff.

The inboard Klinger on my model B quite often showed quarter full while on the move,eventually found to be caused by a reflected shadow from the lip at the rear of the floorboard.Cure- a woodsaw and chisel.Disposed of- Tube spreader and old spectacles.

Mike, I have found with my 14 inch tall boiler, using a number 5 reflex boiler sight glass, that the middle of my boiler's sight glass is at the 2/3 full level of the boiler. In operation, I try to run at the half way point in the sight glass. It now works real well. When the middle of my sight glass was at the middle of my boiler, I got into trouble with low water too often. With my other boilers of 16" and 18" tall the 2/3 full boiler level for the center of the sight glass works very well also. Do not use a too tall of a sight glass. A friend installed a 12 inch tall sight glass in his 14" tall boiler. He proceeded to use all of the sight glass and he fried his boiler again and again. Shorter the sight glass, the safer you will be. The shorter sight glass will also hold a gasket longer than the taller sight glass. The lineal expansion from steam heat is tough on reflex glass gasket life.

Hi,
With the White's you can't scorch your boiler,but with the monotube,with some maybe all White's,you have to spin the engine over or with the early white's drive around a bit,and when you are on the road ,going up a hill sometimes you may have to stop to lack of heat,steam,well that what happened with my Great Uncle's( bob Dyke) White "Lucy" in Cornwall and his 1902 White "Bessie" at the Great Dorset steam fair. So is it better to,take longer to steam up, have a constant head of steam (most of the time!) and have that risk of scorching your boiler? Old Timer

I got caught out many years ago with a false gauge glass (Klinger) reading fairly elementary really but what happened was we were traversing a LONG hill in the Cotswolds and not making steam, the glass showed 1" in the bottom this was because the gauge glass was connected to what would have been the "normal" connections, one at the top of boiler and one about 6" lower, the bottom of the G.G was connected to the lower point and as a result of the hill climb the connecting pipe sloped up hill (horizontal when on the level) consequently the pipe filled with condensate and thereby showed 1" of water, but non in the boiler, the bottom of the G.G is now connected to the bottom of the boiler so this can not happen again , no trouble since.