Well the Foden has been steamed with a real fire in its tummy. The initial steaming was not a 100% success but it was not anticipated to be as there were likely to be leaks and the performance of the fire and steam raising were totally unknown.

The fire was lit with paraffin soaked wood with an electric blower on the chimney. It lit easily and it was soon plied with paraffin soaked coal and then ordinary coal .... my that fire box is large .... it takes quite a bit of coal and my small Welsh coal was not really large enough in size. However after about 20 minutes there was 50 psi on the gauge and the first steam leaks made themselves evident. Nothing serious other than I could not make out where a couple of them were coming from as the steam was emanating from under the cylinder block canopy.

Prior to lighting the fire I had checked the injector water flow and found it inadequate in my view and put the problem down to too fine a gauge gauze in the water filter. Still the boiler was full over the gauge glass and the mechanical pump still had to be checked, but that needed steam to drive the engine.

The electric blower was taken off the chimney and the steam blower opened and the fire dulled quickly. The steam blower was opened much more and was working quite hard to keep the fire going. I suspect the blower pipe may be too small in size to get an adequate volume of steam through at this lower pressure. Another thing to check on later.

The engine was put in full gear and it tried to start without help. A gentle push on the flywheel and it was away ... and very sweet it ran too. The throttle was open full and the engine really sang without any hint of a problem.

The mechanical pump was tried and found that the bypass valve leaked and so did the try cock. It was uncertain if water was getting into the boiler. Then the steam pressure began to fall an I realised that there was no water in the gauge ....... mild panic. The fire was dropped pretty quickly which in itself was a good test to see that it could be done. I guess running the engine at full throttle on 50 psi soon uses up steam and water. Mental not not to do it again!

So everything was shut down and cleaned up and work is underway to do a few things like: Fit a hand pump as a back up. This has now been done. Check the lubricator as there seemed little evidence of oil in the chimney after a short run. Find the offending steam leaks which means another steaming without the canopy in place.

So watch this space for episode two ........

Episode two .........well three really as the second steaming was not a success as there were problems with the fire. Previously I had thought the blower was the problem but it turned out to be the coal. I was using "pea" size and this was clogging up the grate. On the third try I was using "beans" and this proved to be fine, but my loco blower was not man enough to get the fire really going before the blower could be used and auxiliary draught (vacuum cleaner in reverse) was used. Once there was 30 psi or so available the blower worked fine and when the pressure was up to full working pressure the blower could be used to good effect in controlling the fire.

The next issue is water usage which I find is quite high and is not helped by the angled gauge glass which only gives a small change in level before the water disappears out of the bottom of the glass or is over the top and you have no idea on both where the level actually is. The mechanical pump running off the crank does not seem to keep up with usage and work with the hand pump is quite high but there may be more to learn on this aspect of driving the engine.

The engine has now been driven in low gear for the first time and it has plenty of pulling power. However it is not a drivers engine as sitting in the back prevents all of the inside from being seen and it really needs a removable roof section or the driving position has to be changed. More thought needed on this aspect for a solution.

The engine is still not 100% leak proof after the leak fixes and irritating small "sizzler" leaks exist around the cylinder block to boiler. They are not of concern for running but prevent a nice clean engine! They may well seal themselves after a few runs .... we shall see.

The type of safety valve used is not the easiest to get operating reliably and consistently at the right pressure. So far I have a range of about 90/100 to 120/130 psi with only fractional adjustment of the spring nut.

So a few minor things to sort out now before the next trial run ........ keep watching..