# Accucraft Ruby tender?



## blakesteam1 (Jan 2, 2012)

Its me Blake again, i want to build a tender for my ruby, but i need some help. first can i add a water tank to the tender? at first I wanted to build a 4-wheel tender, but now i want an 8-wheel tender. my plan was to scratch build a frame from wood, but use a tender top from a battery cheapie train like Scientific or Echo. I am still deciding i what trucks to use, i am thinking either Hartland arch-bar trucks or or lgb trucks. Anybody have some advice?


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

In terms of tender design, being a narrow gauge prototype, you could probably find an example of any type of tender you could imagine to build. Look around for some designs or photos and try to find one you like.

In terms of a water tank, that would be a little more work. If you are looking to get water from the tender into the locomotive you are going to need a few things:

#1 Some way to pump the water. There are two ways to accomplish this, a tender water pump, or an axle pump. Both can be found from the accuraft store, but you would need to install each yourself.
#2 Some way to get the water into the boiler. I don't know what type of boiler fittings you have on your Ruby. If you have a spare hole in the back head of your boiler, you could use that - if not you would need to modify your boiler.

#3 Some way to check your water level so you don't run low or put to much in. For this you would need either a water glass (more fittings on your boiler) or a low level indicator (can't remember who makes these, but they use an LED to let you know the water is low)

Hope this helped a little.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By ChaoticRambo on 21 Jan 2012 10:45 AM 
In terms of tender design, being a narrow gauge prototype, you could probably find an example of any type of tender you could imagine to build. Look around for some designs or photos and try to find one you like.

In terms of a water tank, that would be a little more work. If you are looking to get water from the tender into the locomotive you are going to need a few things:

#1 Some way to pump the water. There are two ways to accomplish this, a tender water pump, or an axle pump. Both can be found from the accuraft store, but you would need to install each yourself.
#2 Some way to get the water into the boiler. I don't know what type of boiler fittings you have on your Ruby. If you have a spare hole in the back head of your boiler, you could use that - if not you would need to modify your boiler.

#3 Some way to check your water level so you don't run low or put to much in. For this you would need either a water glass (more fittings on your boiler) or a low level indicator (can't remember who makes these, but they use an LED to let you know the water is low)

Hope this helped a little. 



Blake,

As far as i know, the Ruby doesn't have a blank fitting on the backhead that will take a check valve to allow the pump to push water in to the boiler. And all those components described above are going to cost money.

The Ruby is an entry-level loco and doesn't have a very big boiler or a lot of sophistication. The usual advice, if you want to get fancy, is to upgrade to the next 'grade' of loco from Accucraft. The Mogul or 4-4-0 already have a tender and a water glass, for example.

Most people add water to the boiler from a hand (squirt) bottle, instead of pumping it from the tender. A Goodall valve and squirt bottle will set you back a few $$, but no where near as much as a water pump, check valve, etc. Check out the items in the Accucraft e-Store under live steam parts.


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

There's no reason (beyond aesthetics) that you couldn't modify a Goodall valve filler cap to to have a water line running back to a handpump in the tender instead of a hole in which to insert the tube from a water bottle. I haven't taken the water injector fitting off my Accucraft mikado, but it's not an external check valve, at least. I can't think of a reason it couldn't be a simple Goodall-type injector, so if it is, that'd be a very similar set-up to what you'd be looking at. The question is, how do you disguise the water line as it runs along the top of the boiler from the sand dome back to the cab? You could, I suppose, swap the Goodall fitting and safety, but unless you swap the domes too, you're then looking at steam escaping from your sand dome--not terribly prototypical. 

Having said that, I'd go with the simplicity of the water bottle approach. I tried hand pumps in my two Roundhouse locos, and finally yanked them in favor water bottles. For starters, I had trouble with the check valves never seating properly (despite my attempts to remedy the issue), so I had issues with blowing out my water lines as pressure built up. Second, the water capacity of the tenders wasn't all that great, either, especially when the tender also had to hold the R/C electronics. (That, and there was the risk of water sloshing on said electronics.) So yeah--I could top off the boiler with water, but every two or three times I did that, I had to refill the tender. The Rubies are smaller locos, and would have proportionally smaller tenders, so your water capacity would be even less. (In fairness, the boilers are smaller, too.) 

As for being able to tell what your water level is without a water level indicator, I've found it not too hard to gauge based on the loco's performance. It takes a couple times around the barn to get that feel, but you do get a sense of it after a while. (Just remember to run the locos often enough to where you don't forget...) 

For the tender, use whatever you want. I used some surplus LGB Austrian passenger truck frames for one of my Ruby tenders, since I wanted something with a somewhat distinctive look. There's no reason a "regular" LGB, Bachmann, etc. archbar truck wouldn't be perfectly prototypical. I'd imagine if you want the tender to hold water, that you're going to have to scratchbuild the tank. Most toy tenders consist of a base and an empty shell over top of it. That ain't izzaktly water-tight. You could build a tank of sorts inside of that. I may even be tempted--if you were to truly want to go that route--to maybe use something along the lines of an R/C plane fuel tank, and put the pump external to that. You'd have to modify the pump to draw water through a tube rather than through the bottom of the pump, but--again--if you're modifying the Goodall valve to accept a pipe, this would be a very similar task. With the "fuel tank," you wouldn't have to worry quite so much about spillage since it's plugged, and you could probably use the entire tender--shell and frame--of the cheapie donor. 

Later, 

K


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Accucraft makes a small tender that comes with the Mimi (a Ruby variant) 

Accucraft Mimi/Ruby tender 

Accucraft Mimi/Ruby tender 2 

IMO a tender that size (small) looks perfect for the Ruby..
(im not saying you should buy the Accucraft one specifically..but if you want to build one, I would build something along those lines)



Scot


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## Chris Scott (Jan 2, 2008)

Things to do with the Accucraft Ruby - photos and drawings

Scroll down to Tender Drawing. You will need an Autocad drawing display utility. Google for one.


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## blakesteam1 (Jan 2, 2012)

its been awhile, anyway I built the tender using a scientific tender and replaced the original 2 wheel trucks with new bright trucks, but that's temporary. does anybody here know if trucks that are the same size as the new brights trucks available? also I decided to forget about the water tank because it would be too difficult and since my railroad isn't that big. i did take photos but im not sure how to upload them.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

i did take photos but im not sure how to upload them 
See the new FAQs on how to show pictures if you are not a 1st class member. You need to store them on picasaweb or flickr or similar online photos ervice first.


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## blakesteam1 (Jan 2, 2012)

I decided to forget about adding a water tank, I was going to order a Goodall valve and water bottle anyway.


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