Having seen a number of members' Ruby locos at the Pa. Live Steamers' track, I had told myself that I didn't need another "starter" engine, especially a "look alike" of what was already running. But then the December issue of Garden Railways arrived, and I saw the St. Aubin advertisement listing the Ruby for $339.89. Where else could I get a loco to experiment with for that price? This afternoon it was warm enough here to set up the Black and Decker Work Mate outside and clamp on my adjustable wooden jig for blocking up locos for break-in. Overall, I was quite well pleased with the Ruby's performance on this first day under steam, albeit on blocks. My Ruby is number 937. Some have reported steam oil being packed with their Ruby. No. 937 was not packed with steam oil, but I had plenty on hand for use with my other locos. No. 937 did arrive with two (2) safety valves; I hope that the person who gets the one with two filler plugs will recognize that he or she has two filler plugs and no safety valve ;-). In the sunlight I noticed one blemish, looked like a paint bubble that had broken after the paint dried, near the top of the boiler just in front of the cab. I bought the pressure gauge but decided to run the loco as delivered before adding the gauge. The only anomaly that I noticed in preparing to fire Ruby for the first time was in filling the butane reservoir. I had a couple 2.5 oz canisters of Ronson butane left in my steaming kit and decided to finish them off for the season. When I pressed the first one on the filler valve, the liquid butane started spraying like the tank was full. I tried the second--same result, and so I stopped as soon as it didn't seem to be filling. Next I went to a 6 oz canister of MSR IsoButane and screwed on the filler adapter and went to fill the Ruby, and, again, immediately the liquid butane was spraying as if the tank were full. I suspected that the filler valve was not letting in the gas and so went for my gas filler valve wrench. As I backed the filler valve out of the Ruby's gas reservoir I could hear the butane escaping. The gas had, indeed, gone into the tank, but why I got so much escaping liquid spray is a mystery. Even the little gas tank on my Mamod takes a little time to fill and does not spray liquid butane for a couple minutes. But the Ruby did it immediately. The same thing happened on the next two fills--the liquid butane was spraying heavily all the time it was filling, and it was just a guess when the tank was full. All of my other locos are butane fired, and I am familiar with the mist that occurs while filling, but with the Ruby it sprayed as the other locos do when the butane reservoirs are full. Anyway, I did not take the filler valve all of the way out of the Ruby and just turned it back down into place. Perhaps I should have replaced the stock one with one of the spare filler valves that I have on hand. I did not bother with doing any timing for minutes until the safety started to leak (rather than pop off) or for length of the runs. With two safety valves, one started to wisp steam before the other, and, without the pressure valve, I suspect that the one was wisping at a lower-than-preferred pressure. I also noted an annoying whistle while waiting for the safety to lift, but I was able to eliminate the whistle by reducing the flow of gas to the burner. Once the first safety started to wisp, I opened the regulator and move the Johnson bar forward and backward allowing the Ruby to clear the cylinders on her (its?) own. A little back and forth on the Johnson bar and Ruby was running. I opened the regulator full and adjusted speed with the Johnson bar, running at various speeds and in different directions. The safety, however, continued to wisp throughout the run. On my other locomotives I cut back the gas as soon as a safety lifts, and by running cooler am able to keep the safety closed. However, with Ruby no matter how much I cut back on the gas, the safety would not close. On all three runs, the safety started to wisp before I could get the loco to clear the cylinders on her (its) own, and the safety stayed open for the duration of the run--and I even opened the front of the smoke box so that I could see that I was cutting back the flame as far as I could without it going out. I've already ordered a filler plug from Accucraft, and when it arrives I'll set aside the safety that is wisping first. I must say that for the first day of running I was very pleased with the degree of control of speed with the Johnson bar so that Ruby did run as slowly as could be expected on this first day of break-in, both in forward and reverse. And Ruby, like two of my other locos, seemed more responsive (able to start easier and run more slowly without stalling) running in reverse than forward. I did notice in wiping Ruby down after the run that the smoke stack had come loose and would easily turn in the smokebox--something that I have never before experienced, and, no, I do not lift my locos by the stack. Kudos to Accurate--and I'm hoping for a warm day tomorrow! Now on one of these long winter evenings I'll have to get to work on Vance's cab kit that I bought at a meet a couple of weeks ago. Bob Blackson PLS, G1MRA
