# Roundhouse Sandy river #24......



## tacfoley (Jan 3, 2008)

advice needed, please. I've been offered an example of this loco from the mid to late '90s - supposed to be in first class condition, older r/c and fitted with a whistle.

The down-side is that the vendor wants a LOT of money, plus a kidney.

Any takes on this loco?

I know there area few around over your way, having seen a couple of videos, but any more vids of one in action would be welcome. 

TIA

tac
http://www.ovgrs.org/


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## Steve S. (Jan 2, 2008)

Hey terry. In our steam group here in Houston there are 6 Sandy Rivers. 4 regular and two coal fired. Mine was made from the era you are talking about. They are bullet proof. Oil it, fuel it, lite it and sit back and watch it run. No problems ever. The older ones are not sprung, have a little less detail, are shiny instead of dull black, and have the old style Roundhouse cylinders. On the older ones you can pump water from the tender to loco. The new ones come with a good all valve instead. I do not think that I have ever pumped water from tender anyway. No one in our group has ever had a problem with their Sandy River and they all get run a lot because they are so easy and fun to run. 


Did I say that we all like our Sandy Rivers a lot ?? !!!!!


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

Terry, This is a video i ddi at Zube park. I have two of the SRRL 24's and both run great. Recently added the Summerland chuffer and sounds great as well. Enjoy video.


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## k5pat (Jan 18, 2008)

Terry,
I have one from the 1997-8 vintage and agree with Steve's summary of the Sandy River. The saying "Runs like a Roundhouse" is true for the Sandy River.


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## SCSteamer (Jul 24, 2009)

Offer just the kidney - you have two of them, but no SRRL loco.  

SteveB


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

Terry
I do not know what you mean over there by a lot of money. I got one of mine for 2700.00 usd about three years ago. The other was a little more. Go for it and forgo any new Accucraft HE HE.


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## tacfoley (Jan 3, 2008)

OK, I get the picture. 

I'll let you know how it goes as I don't get to see it until we go to the 16mm show over at Stoneleigh on April 10. Right now I'm still a mite ambivalent about spending soooooooo much $$$ on a loco that might be around 12-14 years old. I can check the age at the show as Harri and the boys [and Chris] will all be there. It IS, after all, the 16mm Associations big day. 

Thanks again, guys. 

tac 
www.ovgrs.org


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By gibs035 on 31 Mar 2010 09:00 AM 
Terry
I do not know what you mean over there by a lot of money. I got one of mine for 2700.00 usd about three years ago. The other was a little more. Go for it and forgo any new Accucraft HE HE.
This is the video with the Summerland Chuffer


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## Jim Overland (Jan 3, 2008)

For some reason they do not hold their price, even though they are a great runner. You should hold out for a considerable discount


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

Jim
Maybe its because there are so many of them out there. At least I presume there are since they still make them. they only problem i have had with mine is the ---- water hose from the tender to the engine,
Regardless of what I use as far as tubing is concerned, when i pump water the small tubing just explodes. i bought some of the Mercedes tubing and it is too big for the connection. I tried putting the Roundhouse tubing inside the MB tubing and it still burst. So I just fill up the boiler and not worry about water in tender.


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## thumper (Jan 31, 2009)

Tac, you should be able to get one for about 2,000 BPS. A year ago, I sold a very good running early version on Ebay for $3,000. 

The only reason I sold it was that it is narrow gauge, and my US equipment is standard gauge [1:32], so none of my rolling stock matched.



TENDER TUBING: If you continually blow the tubing between the tender and loco, you may have a stuck check valve. Just a thought. I don't know how hard the check valve is to remove and check.

Regards,

Will


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## Jim Schulz (Aug 10, 2009)

I've owned both a gas and coal fired #24. I loved the look of the locomotive, quality of the Roundhouse product, the story of the SRRL railway, and the possibility of modeling the SRRL with available kits from Northeast Narrow Gauge products, but I could not get past the scale to gauge inaccuracy. My #24s were gauged for 45mm track, but 32mm was more accurate for the SRRL 2-foot gauge, and that's the charm of the SRRL. I believe some versions of the #24 are dual gauge?


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## Steve S. (Jan 2, 2008)

Everything has its Achilles heel. For the #24 it is that hose that goes to the tender. Everyone I know has had one or two pop. No big deal. On an engine with its size boiler I would rather use a good all valve anyway. It is true that for some odd reason they do not hold their value like you would think. Just offer half a kidney.


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## Larry Green (Jan 2, 2008)

TAC, 
Unless the asking price is drastically less than current, I would consider a new one. Mine was about $4000US three years ago delivered to the states. 
Besides the sprung drivers and other changes, it comes with a goodall valve instead of the tender pump. This leaves the tender dry if you care to install RC (I removed it in mine, just a personal choice). 
Even after a dive to the ground, mine runs flawlessly. Also, if you get one, add the Chuffer to enhance the exhaust. 

Larry


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## Rod Hayward (Jan 2, 2008)

I got offered one for 1150 GBP 3 years ago, did have the bullets, so let it go, shame.


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## topshed (Jan 20, 2008)

Hi Tac,

I bought a s/h SRRL 24 about 2 years ago, it too was the early version with r/c as described above and it cost about £1300. I dispensed with the tube and blanked off the brass boiler feed pipe and fitted a goodall valve, gave her a red cab roof and silver smokebox and she is great! no wear, no mechanical difficulties, even the old r/c set up is good! If you don't mind a shiny engine a bit light on detail, you can't do much better!

Must come and see you sometime.

Happy Easter,
Martin


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## tacfoley (Jan 3, 2008)

Martin - please see your PM 

Besp 

tac 
www.ovgrs.org


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## stevedenver (Jan 6, 2008)

i bought mine last year-rc and low low mileage for $1000-including a lovely hard case-not a nick to be seen, no wear that i could find--only one of the builders plates had separated from the smoke box-and it was easily re-attached with the appropriate epoxy (and this can happen to the new ones as well) 


miine has the older 'roof mounted' fuel tank and the tender water pump 


very satisfying- 

these are easy to run, lots of fun, and i like RC-i thinks its the best feature-despite thinking i would prefer hands on-there is nothing like being able to slow or stop if you deal with grades 

they are not sprung in the chassis as are the new ones-i think that depending on price-a sprung chassis would be a great feature-but its always relative value and price -my old version is just lovely as is 

they have some brittle white metal components in the trailing and leading trucks as well as the tender trucks-and if these break -roundhose may or may not be able to help-they helped me-but i understand i received the last bits in stock-the new versions i beleive are in brass and may be interchangeable to some extent 

i love mine-easy to light-easy to hear-easy to read the gauges 


  the tender pump is almost useless-tiny squirts-pump is prone to ball seal seizing in place-easily freed but a minor pain- you simply open up the tender and mess with the pump-the ball just sticks when they sit-no corroding or gunk or any apparent reason-once freed and you use the pump things stay fine 




  refueling is more a problem, as tank gets warm in cab-and must cool in order to be able to receive butane effectively- ( i understand that the tank must be cooler than the butane bottle in order for the most effective transfer to take place-also the intake nipple is not as tight a fit as say my LGB aster franks s -it seems to spit more butane in the course of delivery than the other, also a minor issue-just no open ignition source should be near

engine runs well an R1 due to blind center driver-if this is an issue 

engine easy to maintain-runs in good or foul weather-pleasing sound stock from the box-burner has definite jet engine whine/roar-which is determined in part by the venturi collar setting adjustment -unfortunately after much tinkering the louder -the better the performance - 

as with all things price and condition are everything- 
  this is perhaps my favorite simply due to outline and relative size-and reliability-it looks great


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## tacfoley (Jan 3, 2008)

Hmmm, it's a pretty hard one, guys. The loco that I have been offered is pretty old - an early version [some say 1995 build, others, mainly the vendor, says around 1998 or so] of the previous model, with no compensated tender trucks, no sprung loco wheels, no Goodall valve, no red roof or gray smokebox. 

To tell the truth it looks pretty used, too - the side rods are pretty much tarnished. 

I think I'll check it out by eyeball before I do any more committing - all I've done so far is to give a deposit. 

It seems to me though that you guys have been getting all the bargains there - the $4000 price is less than we pay for it over here, where it is made! 

And as for second-hand prices, well, I'm not even going to go there, except to say that you stole them! 

Thanks, all 

tac 
www.ovgrs.org


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## stevedenver (Jan 6, 2008)

tac old boy it is always hard for me to fully grasp the price differences between the UK and the US -and to see no reason to do an end run and order from abroad-unless import duties are the issue and equalizer 


in this economy, 4K for a live steam SRRL engine is a great deal of money-


id negotiate


-make what you believe to be a fair offer-and be willing to walk -or to re-vist the seller in a few months-because ill bet the engine will still be there at that price






the other thing ive learned -both with trains and my electric guitars-


is that patience and perseverance WILL usually allow you to pay the right price for what you want-it might take a year-but it will come your way if somehting isnt too rare


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## tacfoley (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks for the call, Steve, much appreciated!! 

AND heeded, too! 

Best 

tac 
www.ovgrs.org


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## TonyW (Jul 5, 2009)

The tender hose bursting problem is usually caused by one or both of two things:

Stuck ball in check/clack valve:
If the ball in the valve has become stuck to its seat it will prevent entry of water in to the boiler. The hydraulic pressure of the hand pump may not be sufficient to unstick the ball but it is sufficient to burst the hose as it is the next weakest link in the chain.

Leaking check/clack valve:
If the ball in the valve is not seating correctly then it will allow steam and hot water from the boiler to enter the hose. This will be of such a small quantity that it fails to pass through the hand pump so does not appear in the tender tank, but it is of sufficient quantity that it will soften the hose. The usual point of failure in this case is where the hose pushes on to the rigid pipework on the locomotive, with the pipe forcing its way through the side of the softened hose.

Replacing the brass ball in the check valve with a neoprene ball may resolve both problems.


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

Thank you. I will check it out and see if that is my problem. I went ahead and ordered Good-all valves for the engine just in case.


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## Steve S. (Jan 2, 2008)

My Sandy River has a leaky tender so I have never pumped much water from it to engine anyway. If it had an axle pump I would try (harder) to find leak. Since it doesn't, pumping from bottle through goodall valve on boiler seems easier and faster for me.


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## erneal4961 (Feb 23, 2010)

Damn! Now I want one!! HAHAHA


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