Stick This in Your Pipe and Smoke It...
We'll it's time to start doing the piping for this thing. I installed the boiler for what I hope will be the last time (at least for a few years). I started in the smokebox and made the main steam pipes to the cylinders out of 1/2" copper tubing. What a pain in the ass. First I tried using compression fittings. That wouldn't work because I couldn't slip the tubing into the connector due to the tight fit, so I changed to a flare connection. This made it much easier to install the tubing. In order to get the tight bends in the 1/2" copper tubing, I filled it with sand before I bent it. After I made a half dozen or so, I finally made one that fit and didn't have any kinks. I also installed the blower line on the right side of the picture.
The next thing I needed to do was the piping for the cylinder cocks. I made the manifold below. This is the setup for the four cylinder cocks.
Here it is installed.
After the cylinder cocks were done, the back end was next. Since this is a big boiler, I wanted to be able to fill it with a garden hose. To do this, the left washout plug was replaced with a "T" and extended it below the cab floor. A cutoff valve was then installed along with a garden hose adapter (I plugged the end just in case). You can also see the propane quick disconnect just to the right of the garden hose connector.
This is what the back-head looks like without the cab floor.
Every connection to the tender has a quick disconnect. There are 7 of them. 2 water lines for the injectors, 1 water inlet for the axle pump, 1 return from the axle pump, 1 propane and 2 for the air brakes (1 from air comp and 1 to train brakes).
Next steps will be to install the cab floor with all the connections to the various controls.
