Garden Railway Forum

Does anyone make a modification to be able to fit a top-up valve to a 1990s Roundhouse Jack or Elsa?

Try ebay. I'm pretty sure there was a trader there who would produce a goodall valve for any thread you require.

Steve, I've had a Goodall filler valve made up and fitted them on 2 of my locos (although not my RH Jack, yet): a mid 1980's spirit-fired RH Lady Anne and a mid 1990's Geoffbilt Forney. Both locos have the "earlier" RH boiler with the spare boiler bush (plugged), which was originally intended for fitting a blowdown valve, I think.

The gent who made up the valve fitting for me is Jim Sanders of Wee Bee Loco Parts of Indianapolis, Indiana, USA (weebeelocopartsATcomcastDOTnet). Jim makes standard Goodall valves, pop safety valves, gas fillers, etc., all of excellent quality.

I described what I need to him and he machined it up. Here is a photo of the extended Goodall valve Jim made, installed on my Lady Anne.



You can see it extending out from the boiler bush below the throttle then taking a 90 degree bend to the pump bottle fitting. You'll see that fitting has a notched end to accept Jim's turn-and-twist locking pump bottle fitting. I have turned the Goodall valve fitting about 45 degrees to enable filling through the cab door since my Lady Anne's roof is not hinged.

It works well for me. PM or post if you have any more questions.

-Greg

How different is the back of your boiler to here?

http://www.roundhouse-eng.com/pdf/hbk3.pdf

If you have a similar boiler blanking plug at the top you can get a goodall valve to screw in there.

mikewakefielduk@btinterne:109509 wrote:If you have a similar boiler blanking plug at the top you can get a goodall valve to screw in there.

The blanking plug is replaced by the safety valve on a Jack.

The 1990s version of Jack is filled by removing the safety valve. There is nowhere to put a normal Goodall valve as there is no suitable bush in the boiler to take it.

However, there should be a water level plug on the boiler backhead, as used in Greg's post above. Brandbright used to make a right-angled water filler that fitted in to the bush used by the level plug, but following their "we're closing" announcement they are no longer shown on their web site. It might be worth contacting them though to see if they still have one.

TonyW:109511 wrote:

mikewakefielduk@btinterne:109509 wrote:If you have a similar boiler blanking plug at the top you can get a goodall valve to screw in there.

The blanking plug is replaced by the safety valve on a Jack.

The 1990s version of Jack is filled by removing the safety valve. There is nowhere to put a normal Goodall valve as there is no suitable bush in the boiler to take it.

However, there should be a water level plug on the boiler backhead, as used in Greg's post above. Brandbright used to make a right-angled water filler that fitted in to the bush used by the level plug, but following their "we're closing" announcement they are no longer shown on their web site. It might be worth contacting them though to see if they still have one.

Tony, thanks for the suggestion, do you think this Cheddar type from Cleavedon Steam would work?:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150402089597? ... EBIDX%3AIT

funandtrains:109514 wrote:Tony, thanks for the suggestion, do you think this Cheddar type from Cleavedon Steam would work?:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150402089597? ... EBIDX%3AIT

I don't think so as the thread size 1/4 x 32 is wrong, needs to be 1/4 x 40. You could always ask them to make you one...?

I doubt whether the Cheddar one could be adapted to fit.

Have you asked Roundhouse? They may have some suggestions.

TonyW:109515 wrote:

funandtrains:109514 wrote:Tony, thanks for the suggestion, do you think this Cheddar type from Cleavedon Steam would work?:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150402089597? ... EBIDX%3AIT

I don't think so as the thread size 1/4 x 32 is wrong, needs to be 1/4 x 40. You could always ask them to make you one...?

It should not be hard to make an adapter if not.

ask david mees?