I have over 70 runs on at least five of my Regners, And never had a problem with any. They just seem to run better with more runs. Maybe they did not use distilled water. I have noticed that it takes about 25 to 30 runs each to be broken in. after that you should get twice the running time you did when it was new. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
I too have many hours of run time on two Regner locos, modified Willi and Konrad. I have not had a good experience with Lumberjack or Shay but it has nothing to do with boiler material and both situations are going to get better as I spend some time with the locos.
I see that Jay Kovac (US Distributor) just posted on MLS that Regner uses a different alloy of brass for their boilers. I considered starting a new thread for scientific information about the brass boiler situation. As a person trained in the scientific method I am tired of “I think”, “I seem to remember”, “someone’s Aunt Fanny told me”…type of “information” being posted. One poster said it is “just common sense and elementary knowledge of chemistry and material science” so I’d like to be enlightened with facts.
But right now Jane and I are going hiking in Paris Mountain State Park.
Have fun,
Tom
Hi Marty
I haven’t done a track test yet as its winter downunder, (even though it is 27C here today??weird.), days are short, so I dont get home until after dark and Im reluctant to have the first run when I cant see what is happening.
Ill test it on Saturday, your Friday, and let you know. As Ron says above, it may struggle, as it is not properly run in yet. I’ll give it a few runs on the relatively level track then attempt the grade up the mountain. (see page 1 of this thread for photo of the grade.)
The little Mamod TE1A tramway engine I built makes it up there with a heavy Bachmann flatcar in tow, so Im hoping the Lumberjack, with stock gears, will too.
Cheers
Rob
Well I got home a little earlier last night and decided to fire up the LumberJack (L J) and put it on the track for a test run. It went beautifully and easily managed the gentle grades, only pausing momentarily on some of the corners on the grades to get up more steam as I had the throttle right back. That was the only small disappointment during the test run… It’s crazy speed at full steam and full throttle.
I had to run it at low throttle because otherwise it ran like a scared rabbit, which made me nervous on the tight corners. I’ll also have to re-gauge the wheels as it didn’t handle the LGB points very well. No gauge was supplied so I did it by eye.
I do have the RC setup to fit yet so that should solve the issue of rabbit speed. I have also seen the German chaps posting on re-gearing his L J and that may be something to investigate later.
Marty… I ran it up the steep grade, which I guesstimate at ~5%, (I must measure it one day) and it hauled up there easily on low throttle. No wagons in tow on the test, but from the look of it I reckon it should easily haul 3-4 Bachmann flat deck cars up there. Depending on traction of course.
Im looking fwd to more testing this weekend, if I can get the gas jet unblocked properly. I did some more running-in after the track test and the jet became blocked. I tried blowing and sucking but only got it partially unblocked. Tips anyone? That hole is so minuscule I don’t think even a human hair will poke through it. 
Rob, Try putting the reversing lever to almost neutral. About a 1/4" to the right. then open the throttle just a little till you get it to run the way you want it. Keep adjusting the two together and that should make it run much better. It wont jackrabbit on you. Good luck.(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Unblocking jets - blow some gas through the gas can filler spout trough the pointed end of jet. If that don’t work try popping the jet in some solvent, like acetone or cellulose thinners to dissolve any blockage.
Tips, store gas bottles upside down and give a quick blow out before attaching to tank and filling up to get rid of any possible contaminents in can. Try a little bit of rolled up blotting paper placed inside the jet’s body to catch any stray debris. NEVER try to clear blockages with a pin or such like, the jet’s "broaching is very fine as you have noted. If you have uneven performance sometimes it’s down to poorly manufactured jets. That is all (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)Max
Hi Ron… Yes did that and it does slow her down, just lessens the power on the grades. RC will fix this. All part of live steaming I reckon
Hi Max
I eventually cleared it with all of your suggestions. I had a small piece of wire and just tickled the inside of the jet to dislodge any crud. I then blew with compressed air can and sucked as well
Good tip about blasting the gas can before filling the tank.
Now to get the wheels gauged correctly.
I have noticed today that the flanges on the wheels are quite shallow which causes the wheel to dip down on the plastic frog and then back up again once through the frog. Not much can be done about that apart from making new wheels.
Re: wheels falling in frog area: I only have one switch on my test layout. It had a small bit of foam in the frog area to “support” the wheel flange as it came through. I didn’t like that, so i modified the frog point so it was longer to reduce the distance to the next rail as it rolled through . One of the issues of having a loco w/ small wheels. On switches w/ plastic frogs, i wonder if they can be modified w/ epoxy, like JB weld? Video shows wheel falling in “hole”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm2FovJFUFg
And if you’re really adventurous, here’s a brief summary of my electronic “cruise control” setup for my LJ.
http://forums.mylargescale.com/18-live-steam/35210-regner-lumberjack-cruise-control.html
Marty
I have one of the factory Regner gauges if you want me to take a measurement of what it sets the wheels at(back to back spacing). None of the Regners I have dealt with have had issues on my line, which is 100% LGB track with 3 turnouts on the main line. They just trundle right thru the turnouts without issues in the straight position, but most of them like to pick the points. I have seen guys put a strip of brass on the guard rail to narrow the wheel gap to help with this. But then the factory LGB wheels can have issues. I know my Frank S will have no issues from past experience with this model. Right now I am installing the RC into Frankie as its 100+ degrees out with the heat index from the nearly 100% humidity localy right now. Its down right tropical out! Mike
Hi Marty and Mike
Yes my thought too about adding a strip to the guide rail or lengthening the frog point. I might do that once the wheel gauge is correct.
Mike thanks for the gauge measurement offer. Can you measure it in mm. I don’t have calipers with inches on it.
Shouldn’t the back to back wheel spacing be 39.5 mm?
I’m using 40mm, measured just inside the flanges, not down inside the wheels by the axle.
Here is NMRA standards. Go to page 3. Both imperial and metric specs listed.
http://www.nmra.org/sites/default/files/standards/sandrp/pdf/S-4.2%202015.01.19.pdf
Please copy and paste link into your browser.
Thanks David and Marty. I adjusted the gauge of the wheels and eventually got the LJ to pass through the LGB turnouts… well 95% of the time anyway. Some of the trouble actually lies with the old turnouts so Ill need to give them a service.
In the weekend I had the LumberJack hauling 2 Bachmann flat cars up the steep grade but it struggled with steam and traction. I worked out that it needed to sit at the bottom of the grade for a few minutes and build up a head of steam to ~2-3Bar and then attempt the climb. It had enough steam but understandably its wheels slipped a lot as the flat cars are quite heavy (8 metal wheels).
Im not overly worried about that though as climbing the mountain is a bit of a bonus and I didn’t really expect the LJ to service that spur at all, its mostly for the electric geared locos in the stable, 2T-Shay, Heisler and Climax.
Re: unblocking the gas jet.
While sitting watching the box tonight I had a thought about unblocking the gas jet… Multi strand telephone hookup cable. Each strand is micro thin and is soft copper so won’t damage the brass jet. I tried it and it works brilliantly. While the wire was in the jet I gave it a blast of canned air to blow the crud away. My jet is back to new.
Thx for the updates. LJ will only run better w/ more time.
Would love to see more videos going up the hill sometime.
I would avoid using the wire to clean the jet. You could do more damage to the jet that way. Just spraying the jet with butan will do the trick.
I started playing around with re gearing my Lumberjack to slow it down. I got a 15 and 35 tooth gear but I think the 15 tooth was the wrong style so I have to go back and check for the correct one. Even with the factory stock gear it runs well on my grades still not like my Otto and Konrad though.
Video of mine I did last year https://youtu.be/2Tw6fdDpHQs
Nice work Shawn. I love the Kittatinny layout and rolling stock… Well done. Its given me a few ideas for my AddleDoo Tramway.
Re the wire… what ever was stuck in my jet wasn’t moving with the butane trick or canned air. The soft copper wire didnt do any damage this time but point noted.
I have my LJ running nicely around my layout now and managing to navigate the turnouts. I had to build a small brass wheel guide/flangeway on one of the turnouts to guide the leading inside wheel so it didnt derail over the point. Ill take a photo this weekend if anyone is interested.
Glad to hear your LJ running nicely. The LJ is one of my favorites. If I had money I would probably get another one. We love photos.
Videos too, please.
Talking about Lumberjack running . . .
I just got this new “Otto” and my pal got a Lumberjack. His is geared about 1:2, and my Otto is about 1:8. The Otto runs very, very slow - though it isn’t run in yet I guess. His LJ seems to run about average speed - like the one in the video above. (He’d like my gearing as he likes logging trains and I’d like his, and I prefer a bit more speed. We’ll figure something out - maybe swapping gear trains.)
Anyway, my Accucraft “Dora” is geared 1:8 and runs almost as fast as his Lumberjack. How can that be ?