Another Kingette!

I think friend Tony must be aiming to have his own fleet of Kingettes! He purchased this chassis recently from another member of the 2½" Association who had decided he would not get around to finishing it. All that it needs is the valves and the reverser to complete an air running chassis.

It's an interesting aquisition as the valve gear has been built more or less to the 'words and music' but with a few alterations to get it to fit.

The chassis is very stiff despite several dosings of WD40 and oil but this may be down to the piston packing being very tight. At some point I will dismantle it, clean it up, and then reassemble it. This will give me the opportunity to measure the valve components and compare them with the original drawings as it's difficult to do this in situ. One thing that is immediately apparent is that the weigh shaft has been moved further back and also lowered. This may get around the problem of the ends of the lifting arms hitting the bottom of the boiler barrel.

27/04/10

I grabbed a few minutes the other day and quickly removed the cylinders and valve gear for inspection. The stiffness seems to be caused by one of the inside crossheads being very tight in the slide bars which are being pinched together by the motion bracket. At first glance everything looks well made although there are a few holes that have been drilled and then moved (probably to get things to fit) and the frames don't have the cut outs in the rear or at the front. All in all, the chassis should be a good start for whoever gets to finish it and will require much less work than Kingette number one!

 

This chassis has now passed on to another member of the 2½" gauge Association who hopefully will complete it in due course.

 

 

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