Prototypical looking hydrostatic lubricator?

This forum is dedicated to the Live Steam Hobbyist Community.

Moderators: cbrew, Harold_V

crackerjackhoghead
Posts: 156
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:29 am

Prototypical looking hydrostatic lubricator?

Post by crackerjackhoghead »

Just wondering if anybody makes (or has made) a prototypical looking hydrostatic lubricator, functioning or not?
mjahn
Posts: 405
Joined: Tue May 18, 2010 1:38 am
Contact:

Re: Prototypical looking hydrostatic lubricator?

Post by mjahn »

Mattaniah Jahn

Matt Corps. Railsystems,
operating on the Manatee Central RR
http://www.flickr.com/photos/62441046@N06/sets/
User avatar
LVRR2095
Posts: 1688
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2007 6:50 pm
Location: Maine, USA

Re: Prototypical looking hydrostatic lubricator?

Post by LVRR2095 »

mjahn wrote:Will any of these work?

http://www.americanmodeleng.com/id18.html
I think he is not talking about a simple displacement lubricator....but rather something like a Detroit Hydrostatic lubricator.

Keith
Attachments
Detroit "Bull's Eye" lubricator
Detroit "Bull's Eye" lubricator
Andy R
Posts: 441
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2007 2:18 pm
Location: So. Calif.

Re: Prototypical looking hydrostatic lubricator?

Post by Andy R »

Like this Nathan perhaps:
Image
crackerjackhoghead
Posts: 156
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:29 am

Re: Prototypical looking hydrostatic lubricator?

Post by crackerjackhoghead »

Yes, I meant one that looked like the Nathan or Detroit.
mjahn
Posts: 405
Joined: Tue May 18, 2010 1:38 am
Contact:

Re: Prototypical looking hydrostatic lubricator?

Post by mjahn »

Ah
Mattaniah Jahn

Matt Corps. Railsystems,
operating on the Manatee Central RR
http://www.flickr.com/photos/62441046@N06/sets/
User avatar
SZuiderveen
Posts: 530
Joined: Sun Jan 05, 2003 12:03 am
Location: Baltimore

Re: Prototypical looking hydrostatic lubricator?

Post by SZuiderveen »

A pretty good looking Detroit lubricator is described in an article by Basil Palmer of South Africa in the Model Engineer 18-October, 1991, page 438.

Steve
Rwilliams
Posts: 1048
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2005 2:45 pm
Location: Central California

Re: Prototypical looking hydrostatic lubricator?

Post by Rwilliams »

The quest for a decent looking hydrostatic lubricator, working or dummy, has been almost like looking for a long lost treasure. Such works of art are seldom seen and only on the very finest examples of model building. l The thought of such has crossed my mind more than once and I am guilty of taking measurements and photos years ago in an initial effort to produce said item. Needless to say, it is still a product of wishful thinking. My inspiration was a beautiful 1.5 scale model of Rayonier #70 constructed by Dave Skagen. His lubricator appeared to be a working model based on the numerous lube lines and covering of heavy steam cylinder oil. I believe the sighting was back in 1990 at the IBLS meet in Los Angeles. During the meet in question, I never saw the locomotive steamed. This was long before the days of digital photography and the few prints of that adventure are located somewhere deep in the geological strata of unsorted color prints. Sorry, no photos at this time.

At one time I had run the idea of a dummy hydrostatic lubricator in 1.5 scale past the mind of Curtis Ferrington but do not remember if any drawings were generated at that time. With the advent of RP detail parts manufacturing, perhaps it is time to again visit this much neglected detail as there is still a void for the long sought detail working or dummy.

How about it Curtis, do you remember the hydrostatic lubricator distraction event?

Robert
User avatar
SZuiderveen
Posts: 530
Joined: Sun Jan 05, 2003 12:03 am
Location: Baltimore

Re: Prototypical looking hydrostatic lubricator?

Post by SZuiderveen »

SZuiderveen wrote:A pretty good looking Detroit lubricator is described in an article by Basil Palmer of South Africa in the Model Engineer 18-October, 1991, page 438.

Steve
Ok, I am home now and have the article out. As I suspected, Basils' lubricator uses a low mounted hydrostatic tank, with the "feed" sneaking back up into the body as one of the "drain" pipes. The "Detroit" body contains all of the valves, sights, and feeds. This is not a detailed construction article, but enough information that you could build one, particularly with one of the available cross sections of the prototype from one of the Loco Cycs.

Steve
Last edited by SZuiderveen on Thu Sep 29, 2011 9:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Fred_V
Posts: 4370
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2003 3:26 pm

Re: Prototypical looking hydrostatic lubricator?

Post by Fred_V »

Ulin sells castings for one of those but i think it's in 2.5" scale. a buddy with a K-27 took the 2 casting halves and soldered them together and actually made it work as a displacement luber for his steam pump.
Fred V
Pensacola, Fl.
ba4990
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 8:50 am

Re: Prototypical looking hydrostatic lubricator?

Post by ba4990 »

Don't know if this will help you. I made a non-functioning Nathan Triple Site Feed lubricator. It really wasn't too bad. I was able to take a photo of one on the Leviathan:
LEVIATHAN LUBRICATOR 1.JPG
I found drawings of it in a 1906 book, "International Library of Technology; Locomotive Boilers, Boiler Attachments", downloaded from Google books. While these drawings were not in a specific scale they did look proportional. Therefore, with a known dimension from the photo, I was able to scale the drawings and produce the part reasonably to scale. It's not perfect, I'm not a great machinist, but it was close enough for 1/4 inch scale.
28 LUBRICATOR.JPG
Hope you find this useful.

Cheers,

Bill Allen
Stuart, IA
wbarbe
Posts: 299
Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2003 12:03 pm

Re: Prototypical looking hydrostatic lubricator?

Post by wbarbe »

I recently saw a lubricator like this for sale on DLS. Naturally it sold immediately. Is anyone out there considering making something like this in 1.5 scale?
I think they would be very popular
Post Reply