Deep C

If its really important for the show to front light the show, when I did these small gigs I rigged a couple of profiles on a stand at the back of the venue next to the desk and ran them at a low level, just warm enough to kill any shadows and allow the audience to see the act but without blinding them. Adding some gel, straw/light amber, light pink helped make the source a little less obvious if the rest of the rig was using primary colours. Colin

Hi Right the Loco? prop? in question was tested at my local steam preservation line the GCR and I have talked to a couple of the volunteers who were present while the film crew worked through there snagging list. And although they were not allowed to close the the loco they are pretty certain that some of the external and internal pipe work was plumbed up for steam and smoke affects.May be worth a look. As for smoke machines maybe hire a couple first to test them out before buying them also may be worth using different fluids for different effects.If it is planned to be used multi times a day every day I would not do down the the CO2 route as on the Thomas show we used 1 cylinder per loco (4 locos) every show day (3 shows per day) and 1 fire extinguisher per loco per show. The cost soon mounts. Using DMX controlled fans would seem to be the better choice. Also are you adding any Audio FX to the experience as nothing replicates the sound of high pressure steam being released except the real thing, so a speaker mounted next to the cylinders with sound of high pressure steam being released along with a smoke effect would help to sell the effect. Also other sounds, carriage doors being slammed, station announcements (all in French) coal being shoveled into the fire box, will all help to sell the overall ambiance. Any way good luck and if you need any more help let me know I will also pay you a visit when its up and running Cheers Colin

having been involved in railway preservation for over 50 years lets get a few terms right, the valves mounted on top of the boiler are safety valves usually 2, these are set to release steam when the boiler reaches a certain pressure. the blow down valves or draincocks are mounted underneath the cylinders at the front of the loco and as already stated are used to blow condensed water out of the cylinders. there are also overflow pipes mounted usually below the cab these are part of the live steam injector system which is used to pump cold water in to the boiler. the blower is used to increase the air flow over the fire by pushing steam up the chimney which pulls hot air through the boiler tubes now when a steam loco is standing in a station it is extremely bad practice to allow the steam pressure to build so the safety valves lift, the fireman who is in charge of boiler management could be fined or docked wages for allowing this to happen. To control this, before entering the station the fireman would close the firebox dampers cutting off air to the fire and using the injectors to add cold water to the boiler, just before leaving the station he would open the dampers and use the the blower to increase airflow over the fire. so what has the above got to do with the original question probable very little but its nice to get the terminology right. I was chief mechanical engineer for the arena tour ot Thomas and friends big live tour which toured the UK between 2002-06 and also did a 3 month sit down in Tokyo this is the best footage I can find of the show online we replicated steam and smoke using smoke machines and CO2 the smoke machine was mounted just below the chimney and a CO2 line was placed in front of it pointing up the chimney the smoke machine was set to a slow trickle and the CO2 was synchronized to the wheels to give a blast each time the wheels revolved , there was an an override system which allowed the driver to trigger more smoke or CO2 as required. steam from the cylinders used just CO2, we found that large fire extinguishers worked best. The nozzle was removed and a pipe fitted which ran from the cab to the front of the loco with a Y split to send it to both sides. All the fitting where straight off the shelf from a plumbing suppliers the only complicated bit was the syncing the wheel revolutions and the smoke This was done using a timer and electronic valve system. Am I right in assuming the Loco in question is at Bassenthwaite station. Cheers Colin Green CME isle of Sodor Railway

the board may have been manufactured using a resistance soldering unit which may have damaged the copper pads on the pcb due to excessive heat or just badly used to fix the components to the board Cheers Colin

A word of warning for any clothing worn in an environment in which involves naked flame or hot work IE welding, drilling, grinding. Do not use fabric conditioner as the Fabric Softener builds up on the fibres and reduces the effectiveness of any flame retardant treatment to the point it can negate its effect. it is also known that fabric conditioners can make fabrics flammable. I work on a preserved steam railway and there have been a couple of incidents within the preservation industry of crew working on the footplate of steam Loco being burnt when there overalls have caught fire, further investigations have concluded that the garments had been washed in fabric conditioners. DO NOT use chlorine bleach or liquid non-chlorine bleach DO NOT use fabric softeners or starch, they mask FR performance Cheers Colin

Hi First off solder containing lead is still available to buy, but it can NOT be sold to the general public only to professionals (how a seller is meant to tell the difference is anybody's guess, here's my "I'm a professional ID Card") the main reason for restricting the sale of lead solder was the plumbing industry as it was used to join water pipes and the lead content could leach out into the domestic water supply. in the electronics industry lead solder is prefered as the joints are softer and do not fail as often due to thermal or physical shock, I believe several computer companies started re-using lead based solders in there PSU's due to problems with thermal shock on joints. I still use lead solder and have a variety of Irons including gas and battery powered ones and as long as the iron is hot enough and the area your soldering is clean few problems are encountered. for home use I have a small modeling spray booth I use for paint spraying and soldering which vents all the fumes outside,and out on the road I have a couple of those cheap battery powered fans fixed to spring clips that can be clipped the edge of the pc board or unit to blow the fumes away from me. As for irons if its really critical to know the temp of the iron tip buy a good digital thermometer and just point it at the tip, the display on your solder station will only tell you what it thinks the temp is due to power consumption but does not take into account the ambient temp around what you are working on, not so important in our industry but is a common practice in the aerospace industry. As for tips it always good practice to change regularly and clean the tip before and after every join made as flux can eat in to it causing microscopic holes to form in the tip which degrade it over time. And completely off topic the general public can not buy solder containing lead but can still buy over the counter, tin toy soldiers containing Lead. go figure! Cheers Colin

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but maybe others will find this useful one of my other passions in life is railway preservation and have helped preserve and restore several wooden bodied railway vehicles. and as the cost and availability of sheet timber in the sizes required is rather prohibitive, we tend to use plywood to replace life expired paneling. The problem with plywood is that if moisture gets in between the laminations, over time it will start to delaminate painting the edges with paint or varnish will help to reduce moisture ingress but as this only covers the surface any damage to the paint will allow moisture to get in. So to overcome this problem we use the following method. First mix a 50/50 solution of spirit based varnish and white spirit and soak the ends and sides of the plywood sheet keep doing this until the plywood will absorb no more, the white spirit will wick in between the laminations pulling the varnish in with it then leave for a couple of days to dry. then using a good quality yachting varnish repeat the treatment using a 25% varnish, 75% white spirit mix, once this has dried give it a couple of coats of 100% varnish, also it's a good idea to treat any knots on the sheet the same way. If you are going to paint over the varnish do remember to sand the varnish first to key it, you would be amazed how many people I have seen forget this step and wonder why there beautifully painted waggon starts to peel. one word of warning some very cheap plywoods use cheap glues to bond the laminations and the white spirit can break that bond causing the plywood to fall apart so try on an off cut first. and please don't ask me how I know that. this method was shown to me by a carriage restorer called Steve Middleton and a gallery of his work can be seen here https://www.statelytrains.com/index.html Cheers Colin

You credit the mass media with far too much power. In fact there really is no such thing as the mass media any more. For goodness sake the Mail only sells 1.1m a day these days at best only about 4m buy a daily paper at all. In most cases it's hardly worth running the presses. unfortunately the daily mail online has become the most visited newspaper website in the world, with over 189.5 million visitors per month, and 11.7 million visitors daily, so as a mass media outlet it has become very powerful and with the take from online advertising it can afford to run its presses even if they make a loss Cheers Colin