Gypsy winch for "Christine"
Once the steam engine was finished, I started to design the winch for the engine as I planed to use the 5BI steam engine on my Forney to power some winches.
At first I set up a test winch with some old plastic toy gears and a gypsy head to test the power of the steam engine. The gear ratio is 4:1 and works well for the first tests. In lack of enough strength on the plastic gears, I could haul only small thinks like a bunch of screw drivers. The last gear has much more power, but slips on the axle so test with heavy load were not possible. Here's a small clip at YouTube.
Finally the test runs have been successful, so I started to design the winch arrangement on the Forney's front pilot. The steam engine is located on the fireman's side to keep the view for the engineer free. At first I planed to use only one gear reduction with 15 to 70 teeth (Ratio 4.66:1) but I got some troubles with my drum arrangement so I added a second pair of spur gears and switched the main power gear to the engineers side by using a blind shaft in the back ground. This second pair of gears has a ratio of 2:1 (15 to 30 teeth) so the over all ratio is 9.32:1. This should give some more power to the whole winch. With the gears finally determined, I cut some dummy gears from plywood and tested this arrangement before ordering the gears from my hobby shop.
The winch will be located in front of the smoke box door. The drive mechanism will be the same as on a donkey engine with levers and clutch between the drum and the main drive gear. The gypsy head on the left will be permanently powered.
Now it was time to start work on the steam locomotive. At first added another steam pipe from the back head manifold to the front of the steam locomotive and placed a valve to the end of the steam line. This valve will be used to turn on the winch steam engine and regulate the speed. To fit the steam engine to the rear of the pilot, I had to cut away some sections of the end beam to clear the room for the fly wheel and frame. I cut the foot casting of the steam engine to a new shape and use them again as engine support. This support was screwed to the pilot. The displacement lubricator was scratch build from copper pipe and brass. On the bottom, I set in a drain valve with drain pipe down to the tracks. Now it's possible to test the steam engine on boiler pressure (still compressed air, but the first steam test will follow soon => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcniVKOqo8c
With all steam pipes installed, I carried the locomotive out into the back yard and steamed her up for a steam test run. All is working fine and the winch steam engine runs great also on steam. The displacement lubricator was checked by holding a sheet of paper over the smoke stack. There was a fine cover of oily water on the paper, so the lubricator works too. At last, the oiler was half filled with water after the test run, so displacing works.
Finally the test run was successful. There was just the steam valve that was a little bit leaky. It was installed in the wrong direction and I sealed a joint so the whole valve should be okay now. I also got the gears today for the winch so I can start with the further construction soon. At last I posted another video at Youtube => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBUETb9FHRc
