Injector Water Valve Operating Levers

Lengthened water valve levers on a Feldbahn steam locomotiveThe injector water valves on the Feldbahn (and maybe later Stafford's) have been moved about an inch towards the boiler compared with those on my early Stafford 'Gentoo'.  This may not sound like a lot but it meant that when operating the water valves your fingers were closer to the very hot firebox, and I thought that there was a risk of junior drivers inadvertently burning themselves.  Since the water valves could not be moved backwards I removed the original (rather plasticky) looking levers and fitted much longer ones.

The water valve spindle is square and I hate trying to cut square holes through anything so I chose to drill the new bosses to just fit over the corners of the square spindles.  An M5 bolt through the top of the boss holds it onto the spindle while an M6 grub screw in the side stops the boss rotating on the square spindle.  The lever is 1/4" diameter stainless steel threaded M6 to screw into the boss, and the tapped hole in the boss is deliberately angled so that the lever angles up away from the footplate to make it easier to use.

A quick and simple modification to keep your fingers cooler, and to several Pinewood members better looking than the original levers.