First, I gotta say that this was a real exciting day. If you go back to the first post in this thread (made in 2009) and page through the years, you can get a proper sense of the work, thought, effort and dedication of everyone who has contributed. At the head of that list is our CM Jason, whose fanatical obsession with detail and to get it right has been the 'pilot truck' for us all. For someone who saw this engine snoozing away in a shed in Connecticut 50 years ago, far from home, it will only be exceeded by the first turn of her drivers under her own power.
We were hoping to be able to measure the vacuum created by the exhaust and blower in the smokebox, but unfortunately the transducer wasn't sensitive enough to measure the vacuum we were able to achieve. Next time we should be able to get some measurements. The idea is to be able to adjust the components in the exhaust system to improve the draft and being able to actually measure the vacuum should make this much easier. A laptop allows the recording of the vacuum in real time while under way.
However, we may not need a lot of improvement on 9. Steam issued from the open whistle valve about 55 minutes after the fire was lit. So the boiler would appear to steam pretty well already. No. 10 might benefit from whatever we can learn, as that engine can be difficult to fire at times due to its small boiler.
Impressive was how well the steam-up went. The major issues were with the injectors. The N type Metropolitan on the fireman's side didn't seem to want to work, but after some tightening and experimentation we found out it worked really quite well. It is just very different than the dual tube types we are used to. The engineer's side is a dual tube but it was fussy and needs some attention.
I'm sure Jason will tell us more.