Regner “Willi” review.

O.K. so the name of this loco could be seen by many as a bit of a joke, and a rather coarse one at that, but the loco itself is far from coarse or a joke.  Unfortunately the questionable humour continues if you attempt to fit the very strongly recommended optional water filler valve. The instructions for this are in German and Regner produce two versions, one with and one without a winkel (German for bracket). Willi needs the one without the winkel!

Right, that’s got that over and done with, down to more serious matters.

The appearance of the loco has a certain charm, personally I favoured the vertical boiler “Willi” over the conventional loco boilered “Konrad” which shares the same chassis and drive arrangement. Single cylinder locos are very unconventional and almost non-existent in the prototype. However, despite their unusual appearance, a fair few vertical boilered vertical cylinder locos were built by, amongst others, deWinton of Caernarfon, so I argued that if you’re going to be unconventional go the whole hog. The loco certainly looked the part when visiting the public layout at Rothley Station; the issue of scale didn’t seem to matter. Judging by the size of the driver, compared with the 1:24 figure also shown in the above photo, it would also look at home on a 7/8 “ to the foot scale layout.

My first impression was of a very solidly built, heavy and well engineered loco. Everything is bolted together, no pop rivets or self-tapping screws on this machine. Even the nameplates are (were) held on by tiny threaded machine screws.

Closer inspection confirmed my favourable first impression; I suspect the manufacturer has a fair bit of experience with model boat power units and that much of this loco is based on a marine unit. Many of the features that are standard on this machine are extra or unavailable on alternative budget locos. These include insulated wheels (adjustable for gauge), water gauge glass, displacement lubricator with oil feed rate adjustment, fine control regulator with separate reversing valve, pressure gauge, fairly high pressure boiler (3 Bar) and gas firing system. The only optional item of which I’m aware is a water fill valve. I can’t overstress the advisability of fitting one of these as, unlike other live steamers with which I’m familiar, the fuel tank is large enough to boil dry a full boiler and still have some fuel in reserve.  Should you be unlucky or careless enough to let the water level fall enough to risk damage to the boiler you need a means of injecting water quickly without waiting for the pressure to drop before unscrewing the rather hot filler plug, and possibly dropping it in your panic!

The loco in steam, note the exhaust issuing from the tall pipe on the right.

 In addition to the arguably oversized gas tank the other unusual features are the pressure gauge and steam exhaust. The pressure gauge, in addition to being calibrated in bar rather than P.S.I., is divided into two coloured sections, red and green. The odd, to my eyes, thing about this is that the needle starts in the red and moves into the green as working pressure is reached. There is still over half of the green sector to go when the safety valve lifts fully at the maximum pressure of 3 Bar (about 44 P.S.I.). The steam exhaust isn’t directed up the funnel but into a condensing tank with a separate exhaust pipe. Personally I find this preferable to condensate and steam oil spurting out of the chimney, especially when the loco is relatively cold. This facility permits checking that the steam oil is reaching the cylinder by judging the quantity of oil in the condensate. Also discharging the steam oil into the chimney of a vertical boiled machine may cause erratic operation of the burner due to drops of oil falling into the flame.

What’s in the box?

In addition to the loco itself you get a substantial back-to-back wheel gauge to suit 30,32 and 45mm track together with the appropriate Allen key, a bottle of steam oil, a gas filler nozzle with adaptor and spare tips, a water fill bottle and a packet of spare washers and O-rings. Of course there is also a set of well illustrated instructions, mine were in German, but I believe that the British supplier of Regner’s products, Martin’s Models

 ( http://www.gardenrailways.co.uk ) has translated them for the benefit of his customers. In addition there is also a heavy driver figure and a bottle of touch up paint complete with an integral paintbrush in the cap. The only extra you may feel the need to obtain (other than the water fill system already mentioned) is a set of spanners. Whilst the fastenings are, presumably, metric sizes, my trusty old B.A. spanners fit well enough. The drain plugs for the condensate tank and displacement lubricator have knurled heads, and therefore don’t need a spanner but the water filling facility on the boiler has a hexagon head plug, and may need a spanner to loosen. It shouldn’t be over tightened as it is sealed with an O-ring but a spanner lessens the risk of burned fingers on one of the hottest parts of the loco. Of course if you fit he water fill system you won’t need to touch this plug, but you will need the slightly smaller size of spanner to fit the water fill valve!

How does it perform?

In short, faultlessly from the word go!

The gearing and fine control regulator mean that there is little noticeable speed difference on gradients and definitely no tendency to run away downhill. The official published weight of 2.28 Kg. gives the loco a fair bit of traction and it has more than enough power as it will slip rather than stall if the load is excessive. The prototypes were never used for heavy work and this loco can certainly manage sensible length trains.

Preparation is very straightforward. It’s better to oil round whilst the engine is cold as a drop of oil is required on the gears under the footplate, it’s also easy to oil the axle bearings and connecting rods with the loco upside down. I also like to ease the cylinder from the valve face and put a drop of oil down the resulting gap as well as a drop on the piston rod before turning the loco right way up. The other gears, flywheel shaft bearings and big end can be oiled when the loco is the right way up. The displacement lubricator is filled from the top with the steam oil provided, it is best to do this with the lubricator drain plug removed and replace the top before replacing the drain plug. The lubricator needle valve needs to be opened between one half and two turns, experience will help decide the optimum setting. Filling the gas tank seems a little strange at first as, with my example at least, it is almost silent and there is no spillage of liquid and gas when the tank is full. I tend to give it about 20 seconds to fill but I suspect it is full before this and the time will depend of the pressure remaining in the can which will vary with amount used and temperature. All that remains to do is fill the boiler, I like to start with about three quarters of a glass and then top up to a full boiler when working pressure is reached.  Open the regulator, set the reversing valve, spin the flywheel a few revs and away she goes!

Modifications.

Top view showing the water fill valve half way between the gas valve and regulator.

As this loco is a very well equipped model of a simple style of prototype there is very little room for improvement. The optional water fill valve is highly recommended for the reasoned mentioned earlier. I chose to fit mine close to the steam and gas regulators as shown in the photo above, but it could be fitted almost anywhere on the footplate. The boiler connection is more clearly seen in the first photograph on this review. It fits onto the boss provided near the base of the boiler well below the pressure gauge connection.

A friend drilled out the plastic tips supplied for the gas filler in order to make them a push fit onto the existing nozzle for my other gas fired live steamer. This allows me to use the same type of gas canister for both locos by merely fitting or removing the Regner tip.

The photographs in the instructions, on Regner’s website

( http://www.regner-dampftechnik.de ) and on the box all show the loco fitted with LGB loop couplings with the mounting shank modified to suit. The loco is actually supplied with large metal centre buffers suitable for link and pin coupling. I decided to fit LGB loops, a simple job made easier by the fact that I already had a 3mm nut spinner with which to remove and replace the buffer beams complete with the relevant attached parts of the bodywork. Due to a small miscalculation I fitted them 2mm lower than standard, a happy accident which helps minimise unintentional uncoupling.

The nameplates provided aren’t really suitable for anyone with an understanding of English slang, but they easily unbolt to permit replacement.

I may also take Tag Gorton’s advice in his review published in Garden Rail magazine and apply heat shrink tubing to the regulator and reversing valve handles.

                    Hauling a mixed rake of six empty LGB feldbahn wagons.

          And a dozen loaded Aristo shorty gondolas     (Photo Trevor Goodman)

Conclusion

In conclusion if you’re considering a live steamer and would like good build quality, reasonable power, reliable working and controllable performance at a budget price this machine should be on your short list. If you fancy something rather unusual it should be at the top of your list.

Neil Robinson 2006.