Tulyar

As mentioned in the DPS post, a date, very soon, is going to be arranged where the ceremonial start is going to take place.
Will advise once it comes into public domain.

 

Not just Deltics, all and any diesel engines 'enjoy' a taste of Ether (East Start) but I always used it as a last resort, when the buggas wouldn't fire and the batteries were on their last legs

 

There's an American called Matt on YT who owns a channel called "Diesel Creek" - he refers to it as "The Ether Bunny". But certainly, you see lots of people on YT - too many, perhaps? - who reach for the solvent spray as a first resort rather than a last resort.

I have to say I've never had cause to use the stuff, ever. I also wonder what chemical nasties lurk within brake and clutch cleaner.

 

You can also induce Ether lock.

 

Well, we've got ourselves into a right tizzy about this bloody stuff,, I am sure most people who know about such things saw that Guy was joking about a large can of it, the engine would self destruct.
They'll start, I've got a shilling on it.

 

Indeed, which to me sounds like A Very Bad Thing indeed. Having recently seen a video where the engine on a Range Rover SVR was utterly destroyed by hydro-locking...

 

Apropos Easy Start: years ago I was on a canal boat where the procedure to start the diesel engine in the morning was for one person to crank it over until they were knackered, then for a second person to turn it over while the first squirted the Easy Start in.

 

Did you make use of the excess fuel device on the pump? Set that, then crank it with vigour and drop the de-compression lever.

 

I like the bit where Mr Eightpot says "crank it with vigour" I was never fit enough to crank say a Gardner 'with vigour'. If I did manage to get it turning I was more concerned with keeping my thumbs out of the way. Get one to kick back and it's a broken thumb........easy.
Off topic, sorry. Back in the day, winter time, batteries knackered, Guy Arab double decker with an ancient Gardner 6LW,.........and a starting handle, no 'with vigour' available, just 3 men and a sturdy rope.
Happy days

Oh, it started, eventually.

 

Stop waving your money about ....no winter

Don't tell me.... your domestic staff has tried it... you've always said "she'll sup owt'"

 

Wasn't that engine used in some small shunting engines? For some reason, the designation seems familiar.

 

We used to have an old Lister hand Cranker running a pump on the farm. Brilliant engine once you got the hang of starting it, but make sure you take the hand crank with you once she gets going - It could get exciting if you didn’t! A trap for young players!

It would chug away for days, very economical. I’ve no idea how old it was, but it met with a sad end - the farm mechanic serviced it, forgot to do up a fuel clamp, and diesel dripped onto the exhaust manifold and it, as well as the shed it was in, burnt to the ground.

I’m not sure what this “easy start” stuff is you blokes are going on about, but we have something in a spray can called “start ya bastard”

 

One of her more bizzare mutterings.........during covid, when hand sanitizing was the done thing, the hand sanitizer usually had an alcohol content indicated on the bottle, "can you drink it"? "Best not try that my love".

 

That's the stuff...............and it works.

Back to Tulyar, (can I start a livery debate?) right, I will. I think the two tone green livery is perfect for the Deltics (and the Brush Type 4, the 47's) BUT I think they need the SMALL yellow end panel.

 

Gardner 6LW's were in common use in the 40's & early 50's in all sorts of things, including locos. They were rated at 107HP (nominal 100hp). Hunslet and Hudswell used hundreds of them and their 4 cylinder version in mines locos. I've seen them in lifeboats, as well as buses and standby generators. Eventusally superseded by the L3 series engines. Like all Gardners, they tend to go on forever if looked after.

 

They can get away without a yellow panel on the mainline, but they need to install a high intensity light, with the location in either the gap between the 2 windows, or as the 52 has just done, in the headcode blind area.

This was discussed online this weekend on FB.

 

From Youtube. Most of the narrow boats seem to have 2 and 3 cylinder industrial engines of the type made by Lister and Petter. There are a few about with the smaller 2 and 3 cylinder Gardner LW and same capacity earlier L2 series which might be regarded as overkill.

 

The 6LWs were 8.4 litre and I suspect mostly used in narrow gauge loco. The L3 series is a much bigger range of engines - 6L3 & 18 litre, and 8L3 & 24 litre - normally used for standard gauge locos, rated at 153 and 204 bhp respectively at only 1200 rpm. In marine use and some other applications they were normally de-rated. The 6L3 that I put in WD849 at Quainton came out of a loco that had been sent to the Middle-East and was de-rated to 142 bhp. As it works ok at that, things were left as they were.

 

No. Absolutely not! I refer you to Mr. Carr's post. Two-tone green and a high-intensity headlight, please. ISTR some of the earliest production Deltics did in fact have a high-intensity light that was later removed?

 

In reply to a couple of posts above, I have been, amongst other things, an aerosol chemist for over 50 years,so feel somewhat qualified to comment on the subject.
Engine/Easy Start was based on DiEthyl Ether and a low boiling point aliphatic hydrocarbon blend (fast white spirit) propelled by Butane/Propane (LPG) blend. We stopped filling them over ten years ago because of the non-availability of the Ether. Whilst Ether has a very low boiling point it also has a very low spontaneous combustion point, even lower when you compress its vapour. This makes it ideal as an easy start for internal combustion engines, both petrol and diesel. The main negative has already been alluded to, if used too much and all cylinders get filled with the vapour, all cylinders can 'start' together, all sending the pistons down together. Next is a almighty bang as the crankshaft breaks.
Clutch and brake cleaner aerosols were traditionally based on a blend of a chlorinated and alcohol solvents, 1,1,1-TriChloroEthane and IsoPropanol, propelled by LPG. This blend had a tremendously good degreasing power and rapid drying, leaving little or no residue. However, reclassification after toxicology work saw the the chlorinated solvent become a carcinogen and restricted in use, commercially almost unobtainable these days. The current products are based on a fast drying white spirit (known as SBP2 in the trade) and Isopropanol, some fillers/formulators add a small amount of Acetone to improve the cutting power. Toxicologically the current formulations have good/high TLV's (threshold limit values) and shouldn't hide any 'nasties'.
Commercial formulary lesson over .