USRA 2-10-2 light rebuilt

[Schraddel]

Remember this?


As you can see the crosshead guides were not exacty horizontal, facing upward on the rear ends.
Yes, thought light minded, harmless, some bending will do it to straighten it out.


So it looks like after demounting the boiler. The Koreans have in their despair filed oval bores to fit the valve gear assembly.


When i unscrewed the valve gear assembly there was an considerable tensison. And parts of the cylinder blocks fell off here micro soldering points have failed.
The crosshead guides were then aligned and squared. Only in this way the crossheads will move without jamming.
Then i searched for the cause of the tension. At least the valve rod of the southern valve gear was not in a correct shape for this model.
So when screwing the assy onto the main frame the valve rod were bent and created the tensions. Some bending of this rods so made a correcht shape and fit eliminated the tensions.



Here a look onto the revised connection between motor and gearbox. Gone is the rubber tube.
Instead there is an short shaft with two universal joints.
A torque arm was made and a joint enables the axle mount gearbox to follow the necessary sprung movements of the drivers.
The gearbox itself was demounted, cleaned an lubed up.

Then the running gear was reassembled, with temporarly weights ballasted and test running was done.


Next was the shell.
There were some incorrect plmbing. E.g. the exaust outlet of the steam cylinder of the air pump leads direct into the air reservoir


The lop-sided air pump was rightened and missing plumbing connections were made out of 0,8mm brass wire. And the steam exaust was correctly led into the smokebox.


The new air plumbing:
- pump air exaust -> cooling coil -> air reservoir 1 -> air reservoir 2 -> over the top of the boiler -> air reservoir 3 -> cab controls


Here i completed the the rods for the regulating valves of the injectors.
Some spots are still coverd with burned laquer, this will later be removed with the aid of an brass brush in a Dremel.



At least a further controlling photo.