seeking info about tender-mounted smoke unit for AF 312 loco

I just found a useful reference page for AF locos. It shows that 312 locos might have smoke units in either boiler or tender.

 

http://www.rfgco.com/steamspecs.pdf

Ace,  there is a large Flyer parts house up in New England somewhere that has all this stuff. I'm sorry I can't remember the name but Google  it and you should come up with several choices. The tender smokers are terrific and worth saving!

That would be Doug Peck at Portlines Hobbies. here is a link to his SIT repair page:

 

http://www.portlines.com/portlinesclinic35.htm

The bellows units were troublesome because they often leaked or got stiff. You can buy the material to rebuild them, you'll also need some Goo Glue to assist in the effort. Years ago Gilbert offered a conversion kit that allowed users to convert that unit to Piston and eliminate the troublesome cloth bellows. These kits were very rare and hard to find, but are being reproduced today, and are well worth the expenditure. The swap is relatively easy to do and the kit comes with instructions. As for the element, those are commonly found gummed or hardened up or burnt out completely. Smoker rebuild kits are available from the same vendors you buy the piston conversion kits from. These too come with details instructions. Port Lines has these parts available.

 

Gandy

The bellows are really easy to replace as long as you get the nice fabric material (available from Doug Peck). Doug suggests super glue or rubber cement, but I used contact cement and the fix was quick and easy. Just clean the fiber pieces and put a coat of contact cement around each one. Put a strip of contact cement along both edges of the bellows material and wait until all the cement is just dry to the touch. Then, just stick one edge of the fiber pieces onto the bellows material. Put both pieces directly across from each other right at the midpoint of the material. Then, just wrap the material the rest of the way around both fiber pieces (a third hand to help make sure the pieces stay parallel helps). Finally, cement the overlapping pieces of the material together. This took longer to type than it does to perform.

 

I did get one of the cylinder kits from RFGCO. If you have the smoke chamber with just a hole you have to cut a notch to install the cylinder. Unfortunately, the unit I got did not work for me. Once assembled, the piston hit the bottom of the cylinder. Perhaps this was an early unit or was improperly machined. I took it apart and just used a repaired bellows. Your mileage may vary.

Thanks everyone, this is all useful information !

Many Thanks again for the info and the link to "PORT LINES HOBBY SUPPLIES ". 

 

We own the following domain names, ANY ONE of which should bring you to our website:

www.portlines.com

www.flyertrainparts.com

www.amflyerparts.com

 

My non-internet train repair friend Ed has serviced the 312 loco, which needed general cleaning and E-unit repair. The train owner wants it back for Christmas operation (without the smoke for now) and meanwhile we are considering options to repair the smoke-in-tender unit. At the least, it needs the bellows material replaced, and smoke element and wick replaced.

 

I see that Port Lines offers an option to convert bellows units to cylinder type. Can anyone tell us specifically about, how well does a bellows unit function if we repair it, and is the conversion a good option? I'm clueless about references to single-chamber and double-chamber smoke cylinders.

 

Craig, I would be interested to hear your comments about the performance of the bellows unit. Does it do a good job of puffing smoke? I don't see where it has flapper valves and I don't understand how it would work effectively to push smoke through a tube up to the front of the loco.

The conversion is the way to go if you are going to operate the loco. It runs much better, and smokes much better because the air flow is better and more consistent.

The bellows unit had a single chamber and very very late boiler smokers were single chamber. All other in boiler smokers in S size were double chamber. The single chambers allowed the wick to be stuffed into a chamber and the lid with the element mounted on top. The double chamber had the wick passed through to a lower chamber, and the element stayed in the top chamber.

If the owner just wants it to be original for the collection, then go with the bellows replacement. I would pass on the tool @ $15.

Gandy