Hi Daniel,
For a first run out on the tracks, that is incredibly impressive and certainly tells the tale of a quality build!
Yes, my dad was a good craft, during WW2 he severed in the Fleet Air Arm as an engineering officer specialising in engines and air frames and for a short time he was attached to the US Air Force
Not wanting for power that one, as it seems to pull mightily showing little effort in so doing!!!
Yes it has far more power than its adhesion like a lot of small steam locomotives. You might not know that Simplex was designed by Martin Evans a prolific model designer and editor of the Model Engineering magazine for many years.
Simplex as its name suggest was fairly simple free-lance design which was very well balanced so had good traction many being built and was later followed by a Super Simplex. It had a few design features that contributed to its fine performance: it used the quite high boiler pressure of 120 PSI, it had a double act axle pump for water supply to the boiler which didn't hammer like the single acting versions did though a lot more work to make this also contributed to its smooth running. Probably the biggest contribution to its success was the use of a radiant super heater. As you might know most 5" gauge model locomotives have four super heat flues with fairly close fitting super heat tubes in them, these usually get clogged with ash to the extent that they aren't really doing much. The single radiant super heat flue is very much larger and has a single stainless steel super heat tube that goes right into the fire box. There are many advantages: the flue is rarely blocked and easier to clean, even if the flue gets blocked the super heat tube is above the fire so works nearly as well, having only a single flue albeit a large one many more smaller fire tubes can be used giving more heating area, and there is far less plumbing in the smoke box and if the super heater burns out it is a lot easier to remove.
Attached photographs as Simplex is now still waiting collection by our son.
Take care Tony.
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