Regulator lever

[Garry ColesParticipant @garrycoles69390]

Hi, Moving on from my last post to do with the material for fabricating the regulator, I would like to know if the lever to control the regulator moves forward or backwards to open up for steam. The lever will be mounted for and aft in the cab. I just wondered if it matters or is it a laid down rule as to which way it goes.

Garry

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Aircraft throttles go forward, car accelerator goes down (ie away from you), so I would say forward to open.

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

It depends on the manufacturer.

On a Fowler traction engine the lever is pulled back but on my Ruston Proctor, it is pushed forward.

[Charles LamontParticipant @charleslamont71117]

On a loco, generally pull (or lift) to open. In an emergency the natural reaction is to slam it away from you. You can do that with an open palm. To pull you have to grip first.

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

As Charles has said, think instinct, if something is wrong push it away from you, so pull to open ? Noel.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Pull out regulators are a pain, the steam pressure on the rod area tends to open the regulator, so you have to have the gland tight which makes it insensitive. If that is really what you’ve got then pull out to open is conventional, as is clockwise to open on a rotating shaft left hand drive.

[doughewsonParticipant @doughewson]

Hi Gary, the regulator pulls back to open it.

Doug Hewson

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

One of those things they must have realised early on had to be all the same for all locomotives or could be a big problem. Traction engines perhaps got away with it because they were normally single dedicated driver rather than a big company with many drivers on the roster. However not surprised if you want to prove me wrong.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

It would help if we were told the engine.

I’ve never heard of the problem Duncan suggests, probably because on a conventional slide-valve regulator with directly-acting rod the area of the end of the control rod is very small. Most of the force is directed downwards, by the steam acting on the top of the valve to hold it against the port face.

On a locomotive the valve itself is not normally in line with the rod, but is operated by a crank on the rod. That does leave the rod end exposed to full boiler-pressure but the “thrust bearing” is the inner face of the gland bush, not the seal itself.

Some locomotive regulators are controlled by a crank set athwart the dome, worked by an external rod, and that gives no axial force by the steam on the control itself.

 

In any case it should be fairly clear to determine from the drawings which way the lever is operated.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

As originally delivered by Clarksons, River Mite on the R&ER had a pull out regulator which had exactly this problem. It was altered to be the same as the other locos, a box fitted to the backhead with a rotating spindle coming out the top, regulator handle on the outside, short lever on the inside to operate the push/pull rod to the regulator proper.

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

All of the rail locos (full size and miniature) that I have been on, pull the lever but Traction Engines have regulator levers that operate in either directions, depending on who made them.  Fowler, Burrell, Buffalo Pitts and Alchin pull the lever to open the valve.  Avelling & Porter and Ruston Proctor, push the lever.

“In an emergency the natural reaction is to slam it away from you”. I find it is the opposite and when driving my Ruston and I hit a bump in the road, the natural reaction if to grab onto something to steady yourself. (I sit with my feet on a foot rest and I can’t fall forward, only backwards).  

[Perko7Participant @perko7]

I have the throttle control on my petrol loco arranged as a ‘push’ to go faster, on the basis that if it was ‘pull’, then any sudden acceleration of the loco would result in the throttle being pulled even further open with consequent potential for the engine to run away. The steam loco I am building has a regulator that operates side-to-side in an arc, like the disc-in-tube regulators favoured by LBSC.

[Martin Johnson 1Participant @martinjohnson1]

Fowler, Burrell, Buffalo Pitts and Alchin pull the lever to open the valve.  Avelling & Porter and Ruston Proctor, push the lever.

An agricultural Burrell is push to open.  Road locos and Showman’s often had a double ended lever and it depends which end you hold as to what happens (very confusing).  As with all things Burrell, no two were the same.

Martin

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Presumably the trick with a double-ended lever on a traction-engine, is not to think “Push or Pull?”

Instead think rotation, as with an ordinary wheel-operated valve, or a domestic lever-arm tap. Ignore that the lever moves a rod back and forth along the engine.

Assuming of course, the normal clockwise to close, anticlockwise to open…..

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