This started out as the vertical boiler being bought from PPS for a Railcar project by the previous owner. The boiler was made by Cheddar Valley Steam. It has 4 bushes on the top (adjustable safety valve, water top up valve, blanking plug & steam outlet). The sight glass fitting has a neat drain valve on the bottom. I had to supply one 'O' ring for the sight glass tube, and a fibre washer for one of the sight glass mountings. The fibre washers for the top fittings were very dry so these have been soaked in oil a couple of times to get them to swell out & seal better. One of the changes Roy Wood made was the use of a banjo bolt fitting for the steam outlet rather than the previous PPS screw-in fitting.
When the Railcar project was cancelled the previous owner bought the remaining parts from RWM Steam to complete this as a De Winton, and subsequently I purchased it to finish this project. It is a unique "one-off" with the equal low height cab side panels
The chassis side frames are inverted elongated 'T' pieces where the oscillating cylinders are mounted on the vertical portion. It has the RWM upgraded cylinders which are mounted with brass spacer blocks for 45mm (see below for gauge changing), and the RWM upgraded reverser valve. Interestingly this uses the same style of block as MSS do (with a slight misalignment of the steam holes on the side as well) but a properly machined rotary valve. I had to open out the steam holes in the chassis side frames, and open out the corresponding holes in the paper gaskets used to mount the reverser valve, spacer blocks & cylinders. The screw used to mount the rotary valve of the reverser is somewhat loose so does not always rotate when you move the reverser so this will either need the use of a tightening bolt or some thread lock. The chassis side frames are mounted using 5 spacers, with the 2 uppermost being screwed to the main chassis by hex head 6BA bolts from above.
The main chassis is 'U' shaped and comparing several photos of these De Winton's it looks like some of the 'U' bends were reversed. There are 2 holes just forward of the boiler to mount the lubricator on one side, and the oil separator tank or optional Summerlands Chuffer condenser/resonator (as this one has fitted). Most of the De Winton's I've seen have the lubricator recessed towards the boiler and the oil separator on the edge of the chassis, but some like this one have those holes reversed. So my lubricator is mounted on the edge of the chassis which requires its pipework re-bent so the globe valve regulator is not sticking out too much. I'll complete this after the boiler has been painted, clad & mounted properly.
There have been two styles of lubricators used by RWM. One is a shorter version of the Roundhouse style lubricator with the protruding drain plug, but the other style as fitted here has a more convenient drain plug fitted to the mounting stud. I've not managed to run this on 45m track yet so limited to running on blocks (the coupling rods are not compatible with my John Prescott rolling road), plus a couple of goes over some carpet tiles, but it does not seem to use much 460 steam oil. So I've been using 220 steam oil instead during the running in which is clearly being used & lubricating.
So the other changes that Roy Wood has introduced is fitting the globe valve regulator prior to the lubricator (PPS did it the other way round which caused problems with oil being sucked back into the boiler by the vacuum when it cools down after use), plus fitting 2 large steel weights to the chassis to improve traction plus to help lower the C of G (the boiler is too tall for 16mm scale).
So on the RWM Steam website it says "De Winton is available in either 32mm or 45mm gauge but is not alterable between the two" but is that strictly correct? Although it is not as easy as changing gauge on a Mamod SL/MSS locomotive, because the chassis side frames are spaced for 32mm wheels (the 45mm wheels fitted here use the same push fit bearing & spacers as Mamod SL/MSS's use) and the cylinders are 32mm ones which are fitted with brass spacers for 45mm, then you can change gauge but there would be a lot of dismantling involved.
The gas tank that came with this project is leaking but I'm hoping I can get it soldered up (there appears to be a lack of solder where the gas pipe screw fitting has been mounted in the turret, so I'm using another gas tank for now). The boiler also needs 2 mounting holes drilled out and the corresponding mounting blocks tapped. I'm impressed with how easily it runs and it is very well controlled on blocks. But as I do not have a decent pair of 32mm push fit bearing wheelsets at present (one axle still on the rebuild 'To Do' list) I'll probably run it in 45mm initially.
Chris Cairns
