Garden Railway Forum

If you read the Silly Bidding thread you will know I paid a reasonable sum on eBay for a Fulgurex 0-4-0 of continental/Japanese outline.

Does any body know this loco type?

Does anybody have operating instructions?

Now named Beatrice (My wife's grandmother) she has two single acting cylinders which with a strange return crank on one crank pin drive both axles through quartered connecting rods.

As offered she had one coupling rod disconnected with obvious signs the wheels were out of quarter.

First job of quartering the back wheels went well.
The fuel is methylated spirit (denatured alcohol) with a clever vapourising burner. This took a bit of fiddling with but now seems OK, probably needs more attention.

First attempts at steaming was not a success until I realised that with a fire-tube boiler it probably needed a fan for draft. A bit more fiddling and purchases of a small CPU fan from Jaycar I though why not try the fan I used for my 5"gauge loco. It sat of top of the funnel although damaging the paint and worked and soon had steam up.

Attempts to run on blocks were not a total success as the steam was soon depleted once I took the fan off.

I tacked the problem much as I would for a larger loco.
I knew the fire was OK so the problem has to be the drafting.

More exploration had the front off the smoke box to find a wonderful blast pipe and petticoat. They were great but didn't line up. I made an alignment tool, brass rod with 3mm hole drilled in the end. The rod was set down the funnel and slipped over the blast pipe. Loosening the holding nut on the reversing block and bending the pipe gave satisfactory alignment ( The water jets straight up the funnel).

After making this adjustment I found steam escaping from behind on cylinder. The trunion pin was becoming unscrewed and was fouling the gland nut of the blast pipe. tightening and filing short the pin cured this malady.

At last it ran and stayed in steam. A few rounds of some LBG R1 track proved that last night.

Today the big test, Club Public Day.

Ian

Beatrice had to wait till the end of the afternoon for a run.
Beautiful weather saw one of our largest crowds so I assisted a fellow in the gate house since I am regrettably more experienced at it than many. Well into the afternoon I left my mate in the gatehouse and another fellow beckoned me to take over driving his 5" Gresley 2-8-0 while he got his back straightened out. A few laps of that and another fellow reminded me that I was allocated to drive the club electric/diesel loco that afternoon so a few laps with that. At the close of public rides I got time to go to the garden gauge set up just as others were leaving.

Beatrice now had her chance.
A few problems with too much water in the boiler and needing more fuel before I had full steam.

Finally with the safety valve hissing (not jetting water) I set Beatrice in forward "gear" and opened the regulator. A few well aimed jets of water up the funnel showed the blast pipe was pointing in the right direction. A bit more fan to make sure the safety was hissing and then a tentative push.

Beatrice tucked up her skirt and away she went. The circuit is about 30 metres and she just would not stop. I wound in the regulator just to slow her down but she kept making steam and running on.
by now the public were departing but were not missing the enjoyment of seeing a diminutive red 0-4-0 with wobbly cylinders doing her stuff; many happy comments.
By now I was wanting to get home but having been granted her freedom Beatrice was not going to stop, it was Her day. Every lap I waited for her to emerge from the tunnel, every time she did. Finally I suspected she was slowing down so I stopped her as she went past. Timing was perfect, the fire was about to go out.

The end of a successful day.

These are actually an early Aster model so being in Australia it would be best to contact Argyle Locomotive works being the official agent and they should be able to supply spares, advice and make repairs if required.
They are in several Aster catalogues which also have generic running instructions at the rear.
I think they are also one of the models test run and reviewed on Marc Horowitz's Sidestreet Banner Works website.

It´s an Aster 1976 0-4-0T "Old Faithful", at my guess.

http://www.southernsteamtrains.com/old%20faithful.htm

Gentle persons.

Thank you for the response, very helpful articles and advice.
Beatrice certainly is an "Old Faithful".

Kevin O'Connor's article gives some food for thought.

Some mods I would like to make are
A Goodall valve under the steam dome.
A way of getting more fuel into the tank once steam is raised.
A port for getting steam to the exhaust line when the direction lever is in "mid gear" to act as a blower.

Long may she steam, she is a most attractive loco.

Thanks again
Ian

My pleasure. Good luck with the "optimisation"!